Monday newspaper round-up: High street banks, right-to-buy scheme, John Lewis

(Sharecast News) - High street banks across the UK have lost the equivalent of £100bn in savings as more customers turned from traditional lenders towards online banks and building societies, figures show. Experts at KPMG said rival banks - including new challenger banks, specialist lenders and building societies - had lured customers away from incumbent banking groups with higher savings rates. The traditional banks' market share in deposits dropped from 84% in 2019 to 80% in 2024, it added. - Guardian Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy scheme has cost UK taxpayers almost £200bn, according to a report into the policy's contribution to Britain's housing crisis. In its report into the sale of millions of council homes to their tenants at steep discounts since 1980, the Common Wealth thinktank said the policy had fuelled vast shortages in social housing and turbocharged inequality. - Guardian

One in 10 graduates have already changed their career plans over fears that artificial intelligence (AI) will upend their job prospects. University leavers seeking a career in industries such as graphic design, coding, film and art are particularly concerned about the impact of AI on their prospects, fearing the rapidly developing technology will render their jobs obsolete. - Telegraph

John Lewis may slash the number of affordable flats at its new rental home scheme in Reading if the project faces hold-ups, local councillors have been told. Advisers for John Lewis Partnership warned that any planning delays and further demands on funding provided to local services risked making the scheme unviable. - Telegraph

The chancellor's decision to exempt wealthy private equity executives from a tax increase if they leave the country this year has created "real problems" by damaging tax revenues and encouraging business leaders to quit the UK, an expert has warned. Fresh scrutiny of Rachel Reeves's U-turn on a manifesto pledge to eradicate a tax "loophole" used by private equity came as it emerged that industry executives received a tax break worth nearly £700 million in the most recent year for which official figures are available. - The Times