(Sharecast News) – The coronavirus pandemic pushed UK car sales in 2020 down to the lowest level since 1992, the biggest annual slump since the second world war despite surging sales of electric cars, according to industry data. Sales fell by 29% during the year to about 1.63m, preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. – Guardian
Bosses of top British companies will have made more money by teatime on Wednesday than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to an independent analysis of the vast gap in pay between chief executives and everyone else. The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are paid a median average of £3.6m a year, which works out at 115 times the £31,461 collected by full-time UK workers on average, according to research by the High Pay Centre thinktank. – Guardian
Britain is on course to borrow a record £450bn this year after Boris Johnson plunged the country back into a national lockdown, economists have warned. The latest Covid shutdown looks set to shatter the Office for Budget Responsibility’s £394bn borrowing forecast for the current financial year, made just six weeks ago. It will raise fresh fears that future generations will be saddled with a massive burden of state debt. – Telegraph
Paperchase is on the brink of becoming the first high street victim of Covid-19 this year as England’s third lockdown in less than 12 months threatens a fresh wave of business failures. About 1,500 jobs are at risk at the stationery and greetings card retailer after it filed notice to appoint administrators from PWC. – The Times
Business groups have warned that Rishi Sunak’s latest support package will not be enough to help millions of businesses and self-employed people to survive the latest lockdown. Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive one-off grants worth a combined £4 billion to help them through the latest stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the chancellor has been told that the help will be insufficient to prevent swathes of people from losing their livelihoods. – The Times
