Monday newspaper round-up: John Lewis, UK steel industry, Newcleo

(Sharecast News) - Plans by loss-making retailer John Lewis to end more than seven decades as a 100% employee-owned business have drawn criticism from an MP and supporters of its mutual ownership model. Sharon White, who chairs the company behind the eponymous department store chain and Waitrose, believes the business could raise up to £2bn in new investment by diluting its mutual model, according to reports. - Guardian The government's failure to support the ailing UK steel industry in last week's budget has put thousands of jobs at risk, the prime minister has been told. In a letter to Rishi Sunak, shared with the Guardian, the trade union Unite said it was "disappointed" that the government had not announced plans to tackle the "serious threats facing the sector". - Guardian

Morrisons is cutting its prices for the third time in three months as it steps up efforts to lure shoppers back from Aldi. The supermarket said it was slashing prices on another 490 products, including fresh meat, baby essentials and freezer items. The latest round of reductions follows rounds of price cuts last month and in January. - Telegraph

Britain has little hope of hosting a successful orbital rocket mission this year, space officials have admitted, after the failure of Virgin Orbit's "Start Me Up" satellite launch in January. Staff at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have privately told members of the space industry that there is unlikely to be another mission in 2023, according to two sources. - Telegraph

A British-based nuclear company backed by Italy's Agnelli family plans to raise nearly £900 million to advance a plan to build a fleet of small nuclear reactors in Britain. Newcleo, based in London, has an ambitious scheme to build one plant a year in the UK up to 2050 and eventually generate 4 gigawatts of electricity, more than will be produced by the large new nuclear plant being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset by EDF. - The Times

The number of problems affecting Twitter has more than doubled under Elon Musk's ownership, according to data from an organisation that monitors internet performance. ThousandEyes noted that since the takeover the site had been slower than usual and content did not load. The figures suggest that financial cuts and large-scale layoffs inflicted on the platform in the past few months are taking their toll on the company's operations. - The Times