(Sharecast News) – London’s population is set to decline for the first time in more than 30 years, driven by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and people reassessing where they live during the crisis, according to a report. The accountancy firm PwC said the number of people living in the capital could fall by more than 300,000 this year, from a record level of about 9 million in 2020, to as low as 8.7 million. This would end decades of growth with the first annual drop since 1988. – Guardian
Thousands of British Gas engineers and call centre workers will down tools from Thursday as part of a national five-day strike in response to the energy giant’s “fire and rehire” plans. The GMB trade union called the strike after 89% of its 9,000 British Gas members voted in favour of industrial action following the breakdown of talks with executives at Britain’s biggest energy supplier last year. – Guardian
Workers will flock back to offices and power an economic recovery once the Covid pandemic is over, Boris Johnson said in an upbeat call with 250 business leaders as he sought to paint a picture of a brighter future. The Prime Minister said that fears the city centre is doomed are misguided and that firms will not change their business models to permanently rely on video calls and remote working. – Telegraph
A tribunal report has laid bare how Deloitte and two of its former audit partners succumbed to pressure to help Autonomy meet market expectations. Autonomy, founded by Mike Lynch, was the sole FTSE 100 audit client of Deloitte’s Cambridge office in 2009, when the software company’s revenue figures began to be bolstered by substantial sales of pure hardware. However, the hardware sales were not disclosed in the 2009 and 2010 financial statements. – The Times
