Wednesday newspaper round-up: UK car industry, retailers, Travelodge
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 03 Jun 2020
(Sharecast News) - The UK automotive industry has been in confidential talks with the government over a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme or "market stimulus package" that it insists should encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars on an equal footing with cleaner vehicles. The plans under consideration by industry and government would take £2,500 off the price of a car and put a further 600,000 new vehicles on the road. - Guardian
British retailers struggling during the coronavirus pandemic have cut their prices by the most in a month since 2006, according to industry figures revealing the scale of the economic fallout. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen said shop prices fell by 2.4% in May following a decline of 1.7% in April as people continued to stay away from the high street during lockdown. - Guardian
Travelodge will launch a radical overhaul of its business on Wednesday in a bid to force landlords to swallow rent cuts of more than £140m. The beleaguered hotel firm is hiring accountant Deloitte to oversee a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with creditors, marking the latest twist in an acrimonious battle between Travelodge's hedge fund shareholders and the owners of its hotel sites. - Telegraph
Urgent action is needed to save firms from the post-Covid debt mountain that will awaits them when taxpayer support comes to an end, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has warned. Debt doled out to small companies during the crisis should be treated like student loans are, the IoD said, with repayments only taken when businesses have started turning a profit and stretched over a period of time based on earnings. - Telegraph
Households repaid a record £7.4 billion of unsecured debt in April as business borrowing remained near record highs, according to official data that revealed the dramatically different experiences of individuals and companies during lockdown. Consumers paid off £5 billion of credit card debt and £2.4 billion of personal loans over the month, a rate of repayment never seen before, Bank of England figures showed. - The Times
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