Sunday newspaper round-up: Vistry, Heathrow, Labour, water bills, far-right rally, Ebola.


Vistry's financial troubles intensified as subcontractors were told to halt work on new developments to conserve cash, while more than £130m of off‑balance‑sheet investments have been red‑flagged, according to The Times. The housebuilder - which trades as Bovis, Linden and Countryside - is facing a sharply falling share price and mounting pressure from hedge funds, with short positions hitting a record 12.5% of shares on loan after the stock shed a fifth of its value last week.

Source: Sharecast

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have thrown their support behind a shorter, phased third‑runway proposal at Heathrow that would avoid moving the M25 and deliver expansion sooner, The Times reported. The plan, led by hotelier and landowner Surinder Arora under the "Heathrow West" banner, could see Heathrow lose control of its own expansion but is billed as the most realistic route to meeting a 2035 operational target.

Labour figures Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting would both pursue a mandate to rejoin the EU if they became party leader, according to The Telegraph. Streeting used a weekend speech to call Brexit a "catastrophic mistake" and argued that Britain's future "lies with Europe", while allies of Burnham told the paper he still supports rejoining "in due course".

Homes with bigger gardens, pools or hot tubs could face higher water bills under new climate‑focused pricing trials, The Telegraph reported. Affinity Water is preparing a "block pricing" experiment for up to 14,000 households in the South East, using smart meters to set personalised consumption targets. The scheme expands on a smaller 2023–25 trial aimed at encouraging water‑saving.

Far‑right activist Tommy Robinson urged supporters to prepare for a "battle of Britain" at a London rally that drew around 60,000 people, according to The Guardian. Organisers claimed millions attended, though police put the figure far lower. The event, Robinson’s second large march in as many years, saw Islamophobic and ethnonationalist material distributed to crowds.

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a "public health emergency of international concern", though it said the situation does not meet pandemic criteria, The Guardian reported. As of Saturday, authorities had recorded 80 suspected deaths, eight confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases across several health zones in Ituri province. Africa CDC warned of “active community transmission” as screening and tracing efforts intensify.

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