Tuesday newspaper round-up: Wealth tax, Paramount, UK pension funds

(Sharecast News) - Andy Burnham has announced a fresh tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from 1 October, a move that will funded from cancelling the Digital ID programme. The prime minister said in a statement: "Westminster has not been working for people for too long, with families struggling with the cost of living. That needs to change. I said I wanted to give people breathing space, and that's what I'm announcing on my second day as prime minister." - Guardian

A wealth tax on the UK's super-rich households could raise �10bn a year, according to academics who urged Andy Burnham to include the measure in his plans to "make tax fairer" and pay for better public services. The sum could be raised through a 2% minimum charge on households with more than �100m in wealth and would affect fewer than 1,000 of the richest UK households, according to the study by Gabriel Zucman, a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, and Ben Tippet, a lecturer in economics and wealth inequality at King's College London. - Guardian

A US court has ordered Paramount to pause its $110bn (�82bn) takeover of Warner Bros after a dozen states launched a legal effort to block the deal. A California judge has issued a temporary restraining order that will halt the transaction for 14 days owing to concerns about the effect on Hollywood. - Telegraph

UK pension funds are the most exposed in Europe to risky shadow banking activities, a new report warns. Fund managers who underwrite British retirement schemes have twice as much money tied up in the sector than their European counterparts, according to S&P Global. Legal & General (L&G), Standard Life and Just Group, for example, have more than 10pc of their funds invested in illiquid private credit versus 5pc for funds in Europe, the report said. - Telegraph

Vertical Aerospace, the UK-based developer of flying taxis, has committed to creating more than 1,000 British jobs by manufacturing its six-seater electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft in this country following the announcement of further government funding. In one of the first funding commitments of the new government of Andy Burnham, a further �10 million of financial support has been pledged, taking total taxpayer investment in the Vertical programme to �48 million. - The Times