Monday newspaper round-up: Pubs, country houses, Severn Trent

(Sharecast News) - The boss of the pub chain Greene King has called for changes to business rates to remedy "unfairness" that he said added to financial pressures on the struggling pubs industry. Nick Mackenzie, Greene King's chief executive, said the business rates system of property taxes should be changed to a tax on profits. - Guardian

Sales of expensive UK country houses rose in June, signalling a possible recovery in demand as buyers are tempted out by lower prices after an extended slump. The estate agency Knight Frank said the number of exchanges of contract for sales of country houses - defined as a rural home worth more than �750,000 - was up 7% in June compared with last year as the number of properties for sale rose while prices fell. - Guardian

Brussels has backed down at the eleventh hour from plans to impose �21bn (�18bn) retaliatory tariffs on the US after Donald Trump threatened to punish the bloc with 30pc levies. The EU's tariffs on US steel and aluminium exports were due to come into effect after midnight on July 14, but Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said these will now be put on hold until early August. - Telegraph

The boss of Severn Trent took home a pay package of �3.3m in salary and bonuses last year despite overseeing a jump in sewage spills and customer complaints. Liv Garfield was awarded a basic salary of �830,000, plus a further �2.3m in bonuses and benefits. Her annual bonus of �830,000 was a 42pc increase on the previous year. - Telegraph

The former boss of the Financial Ombudsman Service was sacked after a row with the organisation's board and a resulting "mutual collapse in confidence", MPs have claimed. The Treasury select committee said it had concluded that Abby Thomas, former chief ombudsman and chief executive, was dismissed from the dispute resolution service as a result of "fundamental disagreements with the board on strategy, management and operations". - The Times