Wednesday newspaper round-up: Spring Statement, Abramovich, P&O Ferries

(Sharecast News) - Rishi Sunak will promise "security" to cash-strapped families as he announces a fresh package of measures to tackle the cost of living crisis on Wednesday, but will continue to underline the importance of fixing the public finances. The chancellor has been under intense pressure to take action to help households with the rocketing cost of fuel and other essentials. The financial expert Martin Lewis told MPs on Tuesday that many households are facing a "fiscal punch in the face" when the energy price cap rises next month. - Guardian US authorities appear closer to adding Roman Abramovich to their list of sanctioned hyper-rich Russians, after reports surfaced of a complex transaction of funds through a US hedge fund that was linked to the UK- and European-sanctioned owner of Chelsea football club. Abramovich, reputedly the one-time steward on Boris Yeltsin's plane, and tapped by the then up-and-coming Vladimir Putin to manage Russian state-owned energy assets, was reported by the New York Times on Monday to be behind a $20m transfer from a shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands to an investment vehicle in the Cayman Islands controlled by a US hedge fund. - Guardian

P&O Ferries has insisted it did not break the law by sacking nearly 800 seafarers without prior consultation. In a letter to Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, P&O's chief executive denied claims that it ordered taser-trained security guards to remove workers from their posts. - Telegraph

The housebuilding industry has written to Michael Gove after the housing secretary described leading developers as a "cartel" and criticised their approach to protecting the environment. Speaking to the Conservative Environment Network recently, Gove said he is "not particularly popular with developers" at the moment given that he is pushing them to spend billions fixing the nation's dangerous cladding. - The Times

A top official at the Bank of England has cautioned that the "jury is still out" on the number of City of London banking jobs that may ultimately be lost to the European Union following Brexit. Sam Woods, a deputy governor who leads the Bank's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) arm, told the House of Lords European affairs committee yesterday that the movement of bankers to the Continent had been "manageable" but had not been a "non-event". - The Times