Sunday newspaper round-up: British economy, Stamp duty, Euro 2024

(Sharecast News) - Football fans have delivered a £3.1bn boost to the British economy over the past four weeks with £405m expected to be spent at pubs and restaurants for Sunday night's final alone. Over 17m Britons are expected to tune in from their local pub, bar or restaurant and splash out a combined £70.5m and another £280.1m at retailers. Tesco, for one, was anticipating sales of more than 1.0m pizzas and 180,000 packs of burgers between Friday and Sunday. - Sunday Telegraph

The government should bin stamp duty in order to give share trading and the wider economy a shot in the arm. Indeed, for Matt Beesley, the head of Jupiter Asset Management, there is an "urgent" need to encourage stock market investment. Beesley believes that such a move would provide a boost to the City "for years to come". An investor purchasing shares in a UK-listed firm must shell out 0.5% in stamp duty, as opposed to nothing when it is a foreign firm. - The Financial Mail on Sunday

Retailers have witnessed "huge" sales of no or low-alcohol drinks over the past few days in the run up to Sunday night's viewing parties of the Euro 2024 final. Waitrose had reported a one third jump in sales of alcohol-free beer this year and demand picked up further during the tournament as Britons looked to keep their drinking in check midweek. Hospitality research outfit KAM recently reported that 5.2m fewer adults drank alcohol on a weekly basis in 2023 when compared with 2021. - Guardian

Berkeley De Veer has disclosed a black hole in its accounts and is now attempting to postpone repayment on £68m of taxpayer funds that it used to fix Grenfell Tower-style cladding. In 2021, Berkeley, which was 50% owned by former Persimmon chief Jeff Fairburn, acquired Avant Homes by means of a leveraged buyout together with Wall Street investor Elliot. - The Sunday Times