More than 2m households have missed a bill payment every month this year as people struggle to keep their heads above water in a “relentless cost of living crisis”, according to new research from consumer group Which?. In June an estimated 2.1m households missed or defaulted on at least one mortgage, rent, loan, credit card or bill, according to the consumer champion’s monthly insight tracker. This figure has been above 2 million every month so far this year, it said. – Guardian
Next to the container terminal at Portsmouth International Port, just a few hundred metres from the water’s edge, stands a new hi-tech border control post. Built over the past 18 months at a cost of £25m, a cost shared by the taxpayer and the port’s owner, Portsmouth city council, the high-specification facility should be in its inaugural week of use, handling post-Brexit checks on imports of animal, plant and forestry products arriving from the EU. – Guardian
The Bank of England has raised the spectre of a sharp rise in interest rates after deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe said that households could withstand borrowing costs as high as 5pc without defaulting on their debts. A combination of more fixed rate mortgage borrowers, lending caps imposed by the Bank in 2014 and taxpayer support during the cost of living crisis mean that families could cope with rates far higher than the 3pc peak forecast by markets in coming months, Sir Jon said. – Telegraph
The team behind Britain’s most-used Covid booster vaccine is being sued by a German pharmaceutical firm which has accused it of stealing the technology behind the jab. CureVac has filed a lawsuit against BioNTech in Germany, saying it is seeking “fair compensation” for infringement of its intellectual property rights related to the mRNA technology used in the vaccine. – Telegraph
Marks & Spencer Group suffered a sizeable investor revolt yesterday against the pay package last year for Steve Rowe, its outgoing chief executive. Almost 30 per cent of shareholders who voted at the annual meeting were against approving the retailer’s remuneration report, uneasy about a £1.6 million bonus that doubled Rowe’s salary at a time when there are still question marks over the company’s recovery and dividend. – The Times
