Thursday newspaper round-up: Covid-19 lockdowns, G4S, Gardaworld, Rolls-Royce, Neil Woodford, TSB

(Sharecast News) - Coronavirus could be contained in pockets of the country because Britain is not yet seeing the same national outbreak it did in spring, the chief medical officer for England has said. Chris Whitty said that the second wave was looking more localised than the first and illness and deaths could end up "very highly concentrated" in some areas. - The Times
A transatlantic war of words has broken out after Canadian security firm Gardaworld formally turned hostile in its £3bn takeover bid for G4S. The company ratcheted up the pressure on the board of G4S, led by City grandee John Connolly, by lodging a firm offer for the FTSE 250 company. - Telegraph

Rolls-Royce was under intense pressure to nail down its equity capital-raising last night amid growing shareholder concern that the board has failed to move quickly enough and has opened itself up to short-sellers. Shares in the aero-engine maker have been falling for days and dropped by another 7 per cent to a 17-year low of 130p yesterday. - The Times

Britain's rapid recovery from its Covid-19 slump is being put at risk by undue pessimism and a "Chicken Licken" fear that the sky is about to fall in, the chief economist of the Bank of England has said. Andy Haldane, one of the nine members of Threadneedle Street's monetary policy committee, used the example of the children's story character to warn of a self-fulfilling prophecy in which excessive gloom led to weaker growth. - Guardian

More than a third of UK employers plan to make staff redundant over the next three months, according to research warning of a cascade of job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. With a month to go until the end of the government furlough scheme on 31 October, 37% of more than 2,000 managers polled by YouGov said they were likely to make staff redundant by the end of the year. - Guardian

Savers who backed Neil Woodford's toxic Equity Income Fund have been warned they face another year's wait to get the rest of their money back, as administrators revealed that fees linked to a fire sale of assets have hit £16m. - Telegraph

Tens of thousands of patients could die because the NHS suspended such a large proportion of normal care to focus on tackling Covid-19, MPs have warned. Illnesses that went undetected or untreated included cancer and heart disease, the Commons health and social care committee says in a hard-hitting report. - Guardian

TSB is to cut one seventh of its workforce and close a third of its branches in a drastic move to adjust to changing customer behaviour and the headwinds created by the pandemic. The bank said it was shedding 969 jobs and shutting 164 branches, with Debbie Crosbie, chief executive, announcing it was necessary to accelerate a three-year cost cutting plan first announced in November. - The Times