Tuesday newspaper round-up: London, Co-op Funeralcare, William Hill
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 29 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - A prolonged battle against Covid-19 would swallow up a large chunk of the government's planned increase in public spending and force the chancellor into an unenviable choice between fresh austerity, higher taxes or more borrowing, a leading thinktank has warned. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that even if only a quarter of the extra £70bn allocated by Rishi Sunak to fight the pandemic had to be repeated in future years, the Treasury would either have to find more money than set aside in this year's budget or announce cuts. - Guardian
Sadiq Khan has warned that the capital faces a bleak future of crumbling infrastructure and a return to the "bad old days" of unreliable tube and bus services unless the government steps in with almost £5bn of funding. The London mayor said that without further central government support, investment would stall and infrastructure would collapse, affecting the whole of the UK's economic recovery. - Guardian
Staff at Britain's biggest funeral provider, Co-op Funeralcare, are using "tricks" to increase the profits it makes from families bereaved in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, The Telegraph can disclose. Branches in south London received emails from their boss encouraging them to steer clients toward more expensive funerals and to restrict more affordable options to unpopular times of day to make them less attractive. - Telegraph
The runners and riders for William Hill's shops were starting to line up yesterday after Caesars Entertainment made clear that it would only be keeping the British group's US operations. Betfred, the bookmaker owned by the Done family, is believed to be interested in acquiring William Hill's 1,400 shops to boost its estate of 1,500, while two parties, one a private equity firm, are thought to have indicated an interest in its entire non-US business. Fred Done, 77, the Betfred boss, has spent the past two years building up a 6.1 per cent stake in William Hill at depressed levels. "Even if he doesn't get his hands on William Hill's shops, he is sitting on a handsome profit from his investment in the shares. Typical Fred," one former colleague said. - The Times
Côte Restaurants became the latest casual dining chain to undergo a restructuring after being acquired by new investors via a pre-pack administration. The group of almost 98 French brasseries will suffer the closure of three outlets operating under its other brands - Limeyard and Jackson & Rye - with the loss of 56 jobs, but the Côte brand remains intact. The sale of the Côte Restaurants business to Partners Group, a private markets investment manager, secures the future of 94 restaurants and 3,148 jobs. - The Times
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