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Wednesday newspaper round-up: Shell, Berkeley, Deutsche Bank

Wed 20 May 2026 07:10 | A A A

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(Sharecast News) - The cost of the government's 38bn nuclear plant in Suffolk is subject to "significant uncertainty" and may outweigh the benefits for UK households until at least 2064, according to the government's spending watchdog. The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that although the potential benefits of the Sizewell C nuclear plant are considerable, they remain uncertain. The risks, however, are "immediate, substantial and borne by the public". - Guardian

Stamp duty should be scrapped and replaced with a new property wealth tax to fix London's housing crisis, a leading thinktank has proposed. A report on the capital's property market suggests an annual tax to replace the levy paid when buying a property and council tax would encourage downsizing and raise funds for social housing. It would also help renters to save a house deposit. - Guardian

The boss of Shell has urged Labour to ramp up drilling in the North Sea, claiming it would deliver a much-needed boost to Britain's struggling economy. Wael Sawan called for Ed Miliband to approve two key North Sea oil and gas fields, arguing such schemes would "create jobs that create taxes to pay for the many things that [a country] requires". - Telegraph

Rachel Reeves is pressuring supermarkets to cap food prices in an attempt to limit inflation unleashed by the Iran war. The Chancellor has asked grocers to cap how much they charge shoppers for staple items such as bread, eggs and milk, in return for relaxing red tape. The proposal has angered many across the retail sector, who described it as a "desperate" attempt to tackle the cost of living crisis and marked a return to the "failed policies of the 1970s". - Telegraph

London's biggest housebuilder has claimed that developers "can no longer invest" in the capital after an application to build almost 900 homes in southeast London was rejected for a second time. The warning came after Southwark council's planning committee said Berkeley Group's bid to replace the Aylesham Centre in Peckham with hundreds of new homes had been dismissed by the planning inspector. - The Times

The London arm of Deutsche Bank has been fined 165,000 by a UK Treasury watchdog for processing payments to a Russian streaming platform. Deutsche Bank London Branch (DBLB) processed two payments to Okko on behalf of an unnamed customer. Okko is one of Russia's largest on-demand video streaming platforms. - The Times

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