Friday newspaper round-up: Big Six, UK deflation, Heathrow plans...
Energy firms will boost their profits by £37 per household in 2015 due to the decrease in gas prices, new data has revealed in a further push for the Big Six to slash bills. The Telegraph wrote that despite recent price cuts, pre-tax profits for 2015 could so far rise almost 50% to £114 per household from £77 in 2014.
Analysts fear that Britain could fall into deflation after government borrowing costs hit their lowest level on Thursday, reported The Times. The paper wrote that yields on benchmark ten-year gilts fell below 1.4% after the Bank of England governor said inflation would become negative for some time.
Heathrow is one step closer to building a third runway since business group EEF supported the bid, wrote City A.M.
Digital money will be the most popular payment method by March 2015, overtaking banknotes and coins, according to The Times. New research suggests that there will be 400m fewer cash transactions in 2015 than 2014.
An independent cinema operator called The Light has taken on big business, raising £5.2m to purchase a nine-screen multiplex in Cambridge from the UK’s largest cinema chain Cineworld, The Telegraph reported.
House prices are dropping in one third of the UK as home buyers await the upcoming election results, according to The Telegraph. The threat of mansion tax as put the high-end market on hold, while the market as a whole has lowed down since Christmas.
In the last 20 years railways journeys have doubled in Britain, with a record high of 1.3bn in 2014. More than half of these journeys involve passengers commuting within or to central London, The Times wrote.
Former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has attacked local councils for collecting old poll tax. He said they had no common sense and should abolish all historical poll tax debts, according to The Times.
The Guardian reported on Friday that the Foreign Office has summoned Moscow’s ambassador to London regarding two Russian bombers who flew over the Channel recently. The paper noted that these flights posed a danger to civilian flights.