UK car production slumped to its lowest level since 1984 last year amid the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and Nissan overtook Jaguar Land Rover as the biggest British manufacturer. The output of British car factories dropped by 29% compared with the year before – to about 921,000. It was the first time annual production had fallen below 1m since 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis. – Guardian
The three largest shareholders in GameStop, the video game retailer at the center of a frenzied dual between Wall Street and small investors, have made more than $2bn from the company’s astronomic recent share rise. Stock in the company continued its vertiginous rise on Wednesday, hitting a fresh 52-week high of $354.83, making the 13% stake held by Ryan Cohen, 34, GameStop’s largest single shareholder, worth more than $1.3bn. – Guardian
Tesla is celebrating its first ever year-long run of profitability despite chaotic factory closures resulting from the Covid-19 regulations in a turbulent year. The electric carmaker made $721m in 2020, with $270m generated in the last three months of the year thanks to “substantial growth” in deliveries. It fell just shy of its ambitious target of shipping 500,000 cars in 2020, but said it expected to see annual 50pc growth in deliveries each year and was on track to exceed that in 2021, Tesla announced on Wednesday. – Telegraph
The government has been criticised for the “piecemeal” nature of its disclosure of hundreds of thousands of recipients of emergency state support. Revenue & Customs this week published the names of about 750,000 employers to have accessed the £46.4 billion wage furlough scheme in what it said was “part of our commitment to transparency and to deter fraudulent claims”. – The Times
The number of empty shops and offices in Britain increased at the fastest pace in decades at the end of last year, an influential survey has found. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ quarterly survey found that the retail sector experienced its sharpest increase in vacancy levels in the three months to the end of December since the survey began 30 years ago. Availability of office space recorded its strongest rate of increase since the global financial crisis. – The Times
