Thursday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, smart meters, Selfridges

(Sharecast News) - The next government will be forced to hit voters with post-election tax rises and delay net zero investment unless it is prepared to rip up Treasury rules for managing the state finances, a leading thinktank has said. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) called for a radical overhaul of the self-imposed constraints imposed on government borrowing and debt as it warned that persistently weak growth and lower inflation would make hitting the rules more difficult. - Guardian The boss of British Gas has called for households to face mandatory smart meter installations weeks after government figures showed that almost 4m meters are not working. Chris O'Shea, the chief executive of the British Gas owner Centrica, told a committee of MPs that smart meters should be installed in all homes through a "street by street" programme, in order to cut the costs of creating a smart grid. - Guardian

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has called for the ban on all petrol car sales to be delayed beyond 2035, as the British industrial tycoon warns that demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has "dried up". The billionaire behind petrochemicals giant Ineos is lobbying the UK government to relax net zero laws so that low-emission vehicles can be sold even after the planned cut-off point, as an "interim" step towards cleaner technologies. - Telegraph

A drugs company developing cannabis-based medicines backed by the tobacco group Imperial Brands is to delist from the London stock market, blaming turbulent UK markets for exerting "continuous, irrational and regressive pressure" on its share price. Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT), a clinical stage biopharma company developing prescription medicines for the pain market, said the "turbulence" in the UK public markets has had a "punitive effect on sentiment in biopharma as a sector, and on quoted biopharma businesses in particular". - The Times

New job losses at Selfridges have been blamed on the end of VAT-free shopping for tourists and a slowdown in luxury spending. In a memo to staff Andrew Keith, chief executive of the luxury department store group, said the latest round of redundancies was due to the scrapping of tax-free purchases for international visitors. - The Times