Friday newspaper round-up: Post Office, Rosebank, Carpetright

12th Jul 2024 07:10

(Sharecast News) - Labour will miss its target of delivering 1.5m new homes this parliament without an emergency cash injection into the affordable housing sector, providers have warned. Housing associations and councils have written to deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, saying her promise to deliver "the biggest boost to affordable housing in a generation" will be impossible unless there are urgent interventions to fix the financial pressures providers face. - Guardian

The chief executive of the Post Office has temporarily stepped back from running the company as he prepares for the final stage of the Horizon scandal inquiry. In an email to staff on Thursday, Nick Read said he was standing down for seven weeks to prepare for the "critical" seventh phase of the Post Office IT Horizon Inquiry, which is expected to begin in September. He will be temporarily replaced by Owen Woodley, who is deputy chief executive at the taxpayer-owned business, from July 15. - Telegraph

Pension funds are failing British savers by refusing to back high-growth businesses, the boss of the British microchip company Graphcore has said. The start-up has become the latest high-tech firm to sell to an overseas buyer. Nigel Toon, its chief executive, said that pension funds "tend to focus on cost rather than growth" and that this is a problem for the long-term value of people's retirement savings. - Telegraph

Shares in a £50 million cash shell company attempting to replicate the success of the factory turnaround group Melrose Industries surged on their first day of trading as investors scrambled for a piece of the action. Investors pushed the share price of Rosebank Industries from the 250p at which cornerstone investors took part in a placing earlier in the week to 480p, a first-day climb of 92 per cent. - The Times

Carpetright has put itself up for sale in a move which could lead to hundreds of store closures and job losses. The floorings retailer, which trades from about 300 stores and has more than 3,000 employees, has appointed PwC to launch a formal sale process as it struggles amid a slowdown in demand and increased competition. - The Times