Wednesday newspaper round-up: Trump, heat pumps, sickness benefits
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 19 Feb 2025
(Sharecast News) - Donald Trump stood firm against warnings that his threatened trade war risks derailing the US economy, claiming his administration could hit foreign cars with tariffs of around 25% within weeks. Semiconductor chips and drugs are set to face higher duties, Trump told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. - Guardian
Heat pump sales fell 23% in Europe last year, industry data shows, reverting to the level they were at before the war in Ukraine and slowing the shift away from gas-burning boilers. Demand for clean heating devices fell by about half in Belgium and Germany, and by 39% in France, according to data for 13 countries that cover 85% of the European heat pump market. - Guardian
Millions of pounds of taxpayer cash is being ploughed into a company that makes wooden drinking bottles as part of Labour's push towards net zero. Britain's National Wealth Fund, which is fully owned by the Treasury, on Wednesday announced a £43.5m investment into Cambridgeshire-based start-up Pulpex, which makes recyclable water bottles out of wood pulp. The investment will help finance Pulpex's plan to build its first ever manufacturing plant, near Glasgow, which is expected to produce 50m wooden bottles each year and create 35 jobs in Scotland. - Telegraph
Two million people have been claiming sickness benefits for at least five years without any requirement to look for work, official figures show. Data published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that in January more than 900,000 people had been claiming Universal Credit (UC) with no work conditions for five years or more. - Telegraph
Barely one in ten potential first-time buyers could afford to get on the property ladder without relying on their family for financial help, research suggests. Only 11.5 per cent of all those trying to buy their first home can do so in their local area under their own means, according to Skipton Group, the owner of Connells Group, the estate agency. - The Times
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