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Friday newspaper round-up: Tesco, homes, Brexit, internet tax
One of the City's most influential shareholder advisory groups has told investors in Booker Group to vote against a proposed £3.7 billion sale of the cash-and-carry business to Tesco. With just two weeks before a shareholder vote on the takeover, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said that the recent uplift in Booker's share price meant that Tesco "appears to be getting the better deal under the current terms". - The Times
More than 423,000 new homes in Britain have been granted planning permission but are still waiting to be built - despite the country suffering a chronic housing shortage. Councils are approving nine in every 10 planning applications, but sites are being left empty as developers fail to build quickly enough, and councils are unable to step in. - Telegraph
A major business group has put forward a bespoke Brexit solution which it believes will protect manufacturers from customs chaos but also allow the UK to strike independent trade deals. The Institute of Directors, a trade body with a membership of 30,000 business leaders, has proposed a customs arrangement that would allow for easy trade in industrial products and some processed foods. - Telegraph
Britain could raise new taxes on Amazon, Facebook and Apple to give every citizen under the age of 55 as much as £10,000 in a form of universal basic income (UBI), according to a study, helping to counter the growing risk of job losses from automation and artificial intelligence. The Royal Society of Arts is proposing that the government develop fresh taxes on tech firms, introduce wealth taxes, or borrow money from the financial markets to create a Norwegian-style sovereign wealth fund to pay for UBI. - Guardian
Donald Trump is a strong supporter of a national tax on internet sales, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said, throwing significant weight behind calls to overhaul legislation on the issue. Speaking to the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr Mnuchin said the US president "does feel strongly" about introducing an online sales tax. - Telegraph
The Government's infrastructure tsar has slammed its bungling of the Crossrail 2 project and warned that Britain's "historic weakness" in strategic infrastructure planning risks scuppering its post-Brexit growth. The first report from the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) branded progress on South East England's mega rail project "hugely disappointing" and also heaped criticism on the pace of progress for the Northern Powerhouse Rail and Heathrow expansion projects. - Telegraph
The chances of a young adult on a middle income owning a home have more than halved in the past two decades. New research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows how an explosion in house prices above income growth has increasingly robbed the younger generation of the ability to buy their own home. - Guardian
The top City firms Slaughter and May, Lazard and Morgan Stanley have been dragged into the parliamentary investigation into the collapse of Carillion and asked what fees they extracted from the business before its failure. The joint parliamentary inquiry has written to the firms in the wake of a claim by Carillion's chairman, Philip Green, that they were involved "intimately" with the business in the last 12 to 18 months before its implosion. - The Times
Atari has become the latest company to pivot to cryptocurrency, launching a digital coin in a bid to revive the gaming pioneer's fortunes. Atari, the creator of some of the most iconic video games consoles of the 1970s and 80s, is to launch "Atari Token", its own cryptocurrency. - Telegraph
Shampoo, oven cleaner, deodorant and other household products are as significant a source of the most dangerous form of air pollution as cars, research has found. Scientists studying air pollution in Los Angeles found that up to half of particles known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) came from domestic products, which also include paint, pesticides, bleach and perfumes. - The Times
Burberry has struck a global partnership with Farfetch, the online luxury fashion platform, to help it access younger consumers. The British fashion house said that all its products, from trench coats to accessories, would be available online in 150 countries. Burberry, which was started in 1856, said that the deal would expand its distribution globally. - The Times
More than 100 BBC presenters are facing tax bills that could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds after a former star lost her case against HMRC. Christa Ackroyd earned more than the Prime Minister as co-host of the regional Look North programme on BBC One. She was paid as a freelancer through a personal services company at the BBC's request, but HMRC ruled that she should have paid the same level of tax as a BBC employee. - Guardian
Uber is seeking to take control of bus, bike and underground train networks as part of its goal to become the dominant source of urban transport. Commuters could travel seamlessly between locations using all forms of public and private transport if Uber expanded its technology, according to Dara Khosrowshahi, the taxi-hailing company's chief executive. - The Times
Google has made a move to bulk up its cloud business, by agreeing to buy Internet of Things software provider Xively. The internet search company is paying $50m (£35m) for Xively, currently a division of Boston-based web conferencing company LogMeIn. - Telegraph
Kanye West has "amicably resolved" his $10 million lawsuit with Lloyd's of London over cancelled tour dates. The tour had 21 dates left in November 2016 when the rap star pulled out of the remaining shows after falling ill. Lloyd's alleged that West had used marijuana and refused to pay out, citing a clause in the contract about alcohol and drug use. - The Times
American children who like a slice of processed cheese on their McDonald's hamburger are in for a shock - the fast food giant is removing the cheeseburger from its Happy Meal menu. The company announced the move yesterday as part of a wider goal to cut calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar from the Happy Meal, which it launched in 1979. Chocolate milk is also off the menu from June this year. - The Times