The Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry: Government officials expressed serious doubts about Paula Vennells’ suitability as Post Office CEO and considered sacking her in 2014, five years before she resigned, internal government documents shown to the inquiry revealed yesterday. “Advice from the recent annual review suggested that the POL [Post Office Ltd] team give careful consideration to the continued suitability of Paula Vennells as CEO,” read one document, dated February 2014. It appeared to be from the Post Office’s risk and assurance committee, and was sent to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the sole shareholder in the state-owned company, and the Shareholder Executive, which was made up of senior industry people and managed the Government’s relationship with the Post Office. The document, reported by The Guardian, continued: “There is a general consensus that Paula is no longer the right person to lead POL but justification is anecdotal”. In a section entitled “Why is Paula’s position under review?”, one of the reasons given was that “she has been unable to work with personalities that provide robust challenge to her”. Options outlined included keeping Vennells on but giving her “time to deliver her plans, and government time to prepare for her replacement should she fail to deliver on the plan”. The note also cautioned it would be “more difficult” to remove Vennells due to the impending general election, which took place in 2015. “Ministers would be conscious of the political implications,” it said. The then-commercial chief, Martin George, and then-strategy director, Sue Barton, were cited as Vennells’ potential successors. Lead counsel for the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked Alice Perkins, who chaired the Post Office at the time, if Vennells preferred having “yes-men and yes-women” around her? Perkins denied this, but acknowledged that she began to have reservations about Vennells’ leadership in 2014 that were shared by other board members.

The rental market: There are still 15 people on average chasing every home for rent, up from an average of six people before covid lockdowns, Zoopla says. Rental prices for new lets also increased by 6.6% in the year to April, but this is the slowest annual rise the property portal has seen in two-and-a-half years. The average new rent is now rising by £80 a month compared with a year earlier, Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla claimed, adding that Zoopla data suggests the average monthly rent for a new let in the UK was £1,226 in April. Zoopla covers about 80% of the rental sector.

Tracker mortgages are now cheaper than fixed-rate deals in anticipation of the first Bank Rate cut, the Telegraph reports. Today marked the first time since November that the average two-year tracker dipped below the two-year fix, according to analysts Moneyfacts. It now stands at 5.94%, while the two-year fix, the most popular option chosen by mortgage-holders, has edged up to 5.95%.

First time buyer mortgages: The Labour Party says that if it wins the General Election it will make permanent The Morage Guarantee Scheme introduced by the Conservatives in 2021 to help first-time buyers get low-deposit mortgages. The scheme encourages lenders to increase the availability of 95% Loan-to-value mortgages by giving them the option to purchase a Government guarantee that compensates them for a portion of their losses in the event of foreclosure. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claims extending the scheme will help more than 80,000 young people get on to the housing ladder over the next five years and "turn the dream of owning a home into a reality," so young people are not "locked out of homeownership" by “becoming renters for life". The party says it will revamp the scheme, calling it "Freedom to Buy". Labour also said yesterday it will "reintroduce housing targets", fast-track planning permissions on brownfield land and prioritise "grey belt" building in government, claiming these strategies could boost building by 1.5m homes.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch will next week meet Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech tycoon who is hoping to become the first foreign owner of Royal Mail in its 500-year history, Sky News has learnt. Kretinsky’s investment company, EP Group, has struck a £3.6bn deal with the board of Royal Mail parent company International Distribution Services (IDS). Neither The Government nor The Labour Party has objected to the takeover, which will, however, be subject to a review under the National Security and Investment Act.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been cleared of multiple counts of fraud over the multibillion-dollar sale of his former FTSE 100 software company Autonomy. Lynch was acquitted by a San Francisco jury yesterday after a near twelve week trial in which it had been alleged that he was at the centre of a “multi-year, multi-layered fraud” at Autonomy that ‘tricked’ Hewlett Packard (HP) into paying billions more for the firm than it was worth in 2011. HP claimed serious accounting improprieties had overvalued the firm, but Lynch, who is said to have made $800m from the deal, insisted HP destroyed value by mismanaging the company, and that he was a scapegoat for problems at Autonomy that arose after it was taken over. Lynch spent five years fighting extradition to the US to face the charges, and on arrival in San Francisco last year, was confined to house arrest and monitored by round-the-clock guards he had to pay for. He had a tracker attached to his leg. The charges would have carried a potential prison sentence of up to 25 years. Lynch was seen wiping tears from his eyes after the verdict and later issued a statement saying: "I am elated with today's verdict. I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field”.

Amazon is facing a huge class action lawsuit brought by British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA). Law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher has filed a £1bn claim to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on behalf of BIRA’s 35,000 members, alleging the online retail giant has illegally misused data and manipulated its Buy Box, the button on a product page that customers click to make a purchase, such as ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Buy Now’. According to a statement, the claim alleges that between October 2015 and now, Amazon used data belonging to UK retailers on its marketplace to benefit its own commercial operation and its overall revenues and profit, use the retailers were unaware of. This claim is being funded by London-listed Litigation Capital Management. Commenting on the case, BIRA’s Chief Executive Andrew Goodacre said: “The filing of the claim today is the first step towards retailers obtaining compensation for what Amazon has done. I am confident that the CAT will authorise the claim to go forward, and I look forward to the opportunity to present the case on behalf of UK retailers.” “This is a watershed moment for UK retailers, but especially for small independent retailers in this country,” he added.

The UK construction sector grew at its fastest pace in two years in May, according to the closely-watched S&P Global purchasing managers' index for the sector. It rose to 54.7 from 53.0 in April, coming in above the 50.0 mark that separates contraction from expansion for the third month in a row. Analysts were expecting a decline to 52.5. The sharpest increase in activity was seen in the commercial segment, where the rate of growth accelerated to a two-year high. Civil engineering activity rose at a "solid, but slightly softer pace", however expansion in activity on residential projects was only marginal.

C&C Group CEO Patrick McMahon is stepping down after the discovery of accounting errors made in the last three years when he was CFO. The FTSE 250 drinks firm, which makes brands such as Magners cider and Tennents beer, said corrections to the accounts would result in an aggregate underlying operating profit adjustment charge of £5m. Chair of the board Ralph Findlay has been appointed Group CEO with immediate effect "to ensure continuity of executive leadership" and is expected to remain in post as for between 12 and 18 months. C&C released unaudited results for the year to February 29^th revealing a loss before tax of £111m compared with a profit of £52m a year earlier. C&C said it would release more detail within the group audited accounts which is expected to be issued before the end of June 2024.

BT’s former CEO Philip Jansen has been awarded a £3.7m pay and bonus package for the same year he announced plans to cut 55,000 jobs by 2030, BT’s latest annual report reveals. The sum includes a £2.6m bonus for hitting targets linked to profit and cashflow, and took Jansen’s total earnings over five years at the company to £16.8m. He joined BT in 2019 after floating his payments processing firm Worldpay, from which he reportedly making £50m, but BT’s share price also halved during his tenure. He left the top job at BT in January this year but remains employed as an adviser until the end of this month. Jansen, who was nicknamed “Food Bank Phil” after the company set up a “community pantry” for call centre staff struggling to make ends meet.

Julia Hoggett, who heads up the London Stock Exchange, says she wants to put a live markets screen on the front of its HQ in London’s Paternoster Square to create “razzamatazz” and “celebrate the successes” around the equity market in a more public way. “We’re campaigning to find a mechanism to put a screen on the outside of the building,” Hoggett told the Quoted Companies Alliance’s annual conference yesterday morning, but added: “The simple reality is it’s not straightforward to do that in the City of London at all.” A City of London Corporation spokesperson, told City AM: “We can confirm that City Planning Officers are in pre-application discussions with the London Stock Exchange regarding a refurbishment and extension scheme for the site.”

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