PRESS DIGEST- British Business - Jan 11

Jan 11 - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

- Heathrow has handed its owners 2.1 billion pounds ($3.05 billion) in dividends over the past four years but paid only 24 miliion pounds corporation tax in almost a decade. The revelation will stoke the controversy over how large companies are able to pay minimal tax bills. Facebook Inc, Google , Apple Inc and other multinationals have been accused of avoiding hundreds of millions of pounds in United Kingdom tax. (http://thetim.es/1mP8DNe)

- J Sainsbury Plc faces an uphill struggle to take over Argos and Homebase after several shareholders demanded more than 1.6 billion pounds for the high street empire. ( http://thetim.es/1mP8SYH)

The Guardian

- Britain's biggest supermarkets will reveal a slide in Christmas sales this week, underlining the pressure placed on the industry by changing shopping habits and the growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl. (http://bit.ly/1mP92zo)

The Telegraph

- The world's biggest producer of wind turbines, Vestas Wind Systems, has accused Britain of obstructing use of new technology that can slash costs, preventing the wind industry from offering one of the cheapest forms of energy without subsidies. (http://bit.ly/1mP98qJ)

Sky News

- Train drivers on the London Underground look set to strike in a long-running dispute over pay and plans for an all-night Tube service. The union which represents them, ASLEF, has told Sky News it expects to call for three days of action after a meeting on Monday. (http://bit.ly/1mPaemm)

($1 = 0.6887 pounds) (Compiled by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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