Hundreds of British Gas engineers will lose their jobs by midday on Wednesday after refusing to sign up to tougher employment terms imposed by the company’s controversial “fire and rehire” scheme. On 1 April Britain’s biggest energy supplier handed dismissal notices to close to 1,000 of its engineers, who install and repair boilers and heating systems for the company’snine million service customers. – Guardian
Celebration was in the air as England welcomed the return of outdoor drinking and dining on Monday, but the easing of lockdown was also met with concerns about a lack of social distancing, and a wider sense of nervousness within the hospitality sector as businesses tried to operate at significantly lower capacity and with some confusion over the rules. As people braved the inclement weather to enjoy their first night out in months, images circulated on social media showing packed streets and “very little” social distancing in Soho in London. – Guardian
A billionaire investor known as the “Czech sphinx” has launched a raid on Sainsbury’s – sparking speculation that Britain’s second-biggest supermarket could be targeted in a deal to take it private. Daniel Kretinsky’s firm Vesa Equity Investments has increased its stake in the grocer to almost 10pc by buying shares worth more than £300m from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. – Telegraph
A star stock picker has cemented his status as one of the highest-paid investors after it emerged that Terry Smith stood to earn as much as £125 million from his Fundsmith asset management business last year. The accounts for Fundsmith show that its boss took home £29.7 million of the £48.5 million in profits earned by the partnership in the 12 months to the end of March 2020. This was almost double the £16.2 million profit share he received a year earlier. – The Times
The financial watchdog will undertake a thorough post-Brexit review of Britain’s capital markets to help attract more foreign company listings, one of its senior regulators has said. The comments by Clare Cole, the Financial Conduct Authority’s director of market oversight, were reinforced by Nausicaa Delfas, head of the its international division, who said that Britain could use its freedom from European Union rules to regulate markets flexibly. – The Times
