Tuesday newspaper round-up: ARM, Trident, North Sea strike, Ofwat

19th Jul 2016 07:01

(ShareCast News) - One of the country's best-known entrepreneurs has raised fears that Britain's largest technology company will be milked for its cash after it is sold to SoftBank, of Japan, for £24.3 billion. Hermann Hauser, founder of Acorn Computers, the parent of Arm Holdings, has declared that "Arm's loss of independence is a loss to the UK" and dismissed the argument that the sale was necessary for Arm to fulfil its potential. - The TimesBritain has voted to renew its nuclear deterrent after a heated debate in the Commons in which new prime minister Theresa May firmly set out the case for Trident, while the motion was passed by 472 votes to 117. The vote was not on full approval for the new submarines as the government has opted to approve the investment in stages in an effort to control costs. - Financial TimesThe North Sea oil industry is heading for its first strike action in a generation after 400 rig workers agreed to down tools during a 24-hour stoppage next week. Members of the Unite and RMT unions working for Wood Group, the engineering contractor, on eight Shell oil and gas platforms in the North Sea are angry over pay cuts of up to 30 per cent and changes to allowances. - The TimesHouseholds may be able to bundle their water bills with their energy charges or broadband costs in a new world of water competition, the regulator Ofwat has said. Water competition will be introduced for non-domestic customers from next spring, allowing companies with sites around the country to use one supplier nationwide or enabling big industrial users or large institutions such as government departments or local councils to shop around for the cheapest provider. - The TimesGreek investigators have raided the home of a former local boss of UBS as part of a widening investigation into suspected tax evasion. The July 4 raid on Christos Sclavounis' Athens residence is the latest attempt by cash-strapped European nations to pierce the secrecy of Swiss banks in the hope of boosting depleted coffers. Police took away computers, documents and disks, according to people with knowledge of the raid. - Financial TimesOnly 16% of workers in the UK would be comfortable building a website, compared with 39% in Brazil and 37% in India, according to a report, which warns that Britain's digital skills lag behind other countries'. A report into digital education, skills and confidence, commissioned by Ashok Vaswani, the chief executive of Barclays UK, found that Britain, one of the most active online consumer markets in the world, is being outpaced when it comes to being able to create new digital technologies. - GuardianGas prices have surged close to their highest level in a year as traders react to the shutdown of Britain's biggest gas storage facility in the North Sea. Rough, a depleted gasfield about 30km off the coast of East Yorkshire, holds about 75 per cent of the UK's total gas storage capacity. - The TimesRolls-Royce's troubled marine unit has delivered a rare piece of good news, landing a £25m deal to design a new generation of environmentally friendly cruise ships. The two vessels for Norwegian operator Hurtigruten will be capable of sailing in the polar regions, and as well as the innovative design, Rolls will also supply equipment to the ships. - TelegraphBroadband builder Hyperoptic has won a £21m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) just days after another UK start-up complained that Brexit had caused its deal with the lender to fall through. The EIB, which is backed by the EU's member states and lends to businesses in the 28-member bloc, has issued an eight-year loan despite the UK's decision to exit the EU which will be complete within two years of formally starting the exit process. - TelegraphSociété Générale has pushed for the postponement of a trial involving claims that its staff paid nearly $60 million in bribes to Libyan officials to win business from the country's sovereign wealth fund during the Gaddafi era. Lawyers for the French bank have asked for a delay to a courtroom showdown with the Libyan Investment Authority over $2.1 billion of disputed trades that the fund says were sold to it despite bankers knowing they were unsuitable investments. - The TimesTwelve hotel groups have expressed an interest in running Admiralty Arch - known as the gateway to Buckingham Palace - which is being turned into a 100-bedroom hotel with a private members' club. The Grade 1 listed monument on The Mall was built in 1910 and was the residence of the first sea lord. It was then occupied by the Cabinet Office until 2011 when it was deemed too expensive to renovate. - The TimesPlunging levels of homeownership and an increased reliance on state benefits to top up salaries have meant that Britain's middle-income families increasingly look like the poor households of the past, according to one of the UK's leading thinktanks. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that the old link between worklessness and child poverty had been broken, with record levels of employment leading to a drop in the number of poor children living in homes where no adult works. However, the study found that by 2014-15, two-thirds of children classified as living below the poverty line had at least one parent who was working. - Guardian