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Tuesday newspaper round-up: Bookies, cyber-attacks, builders' warning, Barclays
Big bookmakers are weighing up the possibility of legal action against the government after suggestions that ministers have decided to cut the maximum stakes on betting machines from £100 to £2. The reports spooked investors, who had been forecasting a cut in the maximum stake to £20. - The Times
The head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre has warned that a major cyber-attack on the UK is a matter of "when, not if", raising the prospect of devastating disruption to British elections and critical infrastructure. Ciaran Martin said the UK had been fortunate to avoid a so-called category one (C1) attack, broadly defined as an attack that might cripple infrastructure such as energy supplies and the financial services sector. - Guardian
Britain is one of only three housing markets in the developed world in which house prices are not likely to rise this year, one of the world's biggest credit ratings agencies has claimed. Fitch Ratings, which produces an annual outlook on the housing market for 22 countries, said that average house prices in the UK would be flat in 2018 because of stretched affordability, low income growth and financial services jobs being relocated to the rest of Europe. - The Times
The nation is running out of brickies, chippies and sparkies just as it embarks on the biggest housebuilding push in a generation and the construction of HS2, the Hinkley Point nuclear power and expansion at Heathrow. According to the Federation of Master Builders, the skills shortage - the failure to find the number of people qualified and needed to work in the industry - is at a record high. - The Times
The government has been accused of leaving businesses "in the dark" after it admitted that a long-expected paper on the future of financial services after Brexit may never be published. Senior figures in the City said that they had been promised a detailed position paper last autumn that would set out Britain's priorities for the financial services sector, which accounts for more than 1.1 million jobs nationwide. - The Times
Jaguar Land Rover is cutting production at its Halewood plant as economic uncertainty and concern over the future of diesel hit Britain's biggest car maker. The company's Merseyside facility, which builds the Range Rover Discovery Sport and smaller Evoque models will reduce the rate at which it turns out the cars. - Telegraph
Barclays has attracted stinging criticism over plans to give responsibility for its giant staff pension fund to its "riskier" investment banking division. Frank Field MP, who chairs the influential Work and Pensions parliamentary committee, has written to the chief of the Pensions Regulator over concerns that 280,000 savers' pensions have been put under threat by the move. - Telegraph
A little-known telecoms investor's shares jumped 130pc on Monday morning after it became the latest company to take advantage of the cryptocurrency craze and add the word "blockchain" to its name. Stapleton Capital, which listed last year and has not announced a single investment to date, said it had changed its name to Blockchain Worldwide and would explore the blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin. - Telegraph
New subscribers drawn in by shows including Stranger Things, Bright and The Crown helped push the valuation of Netflix past $100bn on Monday for the first time. Releasing its latest quarterly figures the video streaming service announced it had added 8.33 million subscribers in the three months to the end of December. - Guardian
Nine out of 10 business leaders in Britain are upbeat about the growth prospects for their companies over the coming year despite uncertainty about the impact of Brexit, the consultancy firm PwC has reported. In its annual survey of chief executives to mark the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, PwC found that optimism about the health of the global economy was boosting confidence. - Guardian
The UK energy system will be able to cope with the extra demand caused by the uptake of millions of electric cars, provided drivers shift their charging to off-peak times, according to new research. The number of battery-powered cars on Britain's roads will grow from around 120,000 today to 10m by 2035 and pass the 17m mark five years later, predicted Aurora Energy Research. - Guardian
A major new trade body representing the UK's £130bn hospitality sector is being proposed in a bid to get the sector's voice better heard by Government. The British Hospitality Association (BHA) and Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) will put their proposed merger to a vote next month and if the pair's respective members agree it will create a new body called UKHospitality. - Telegraph