"It presented accounts that misrepresented the reality of the business and increased its dividends come what may." That was the damning result of a government report into the collapsed construction giant Carillion in 2018.

The amount of public sector work awarded to private firms has been a running political sore for governments across many EU states for years. Now one of the most laissez-faire countries on the issue is showing signs of a tougher new approach to corporate standards among contractors. 

The UK's new Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says he is seeking legal action to block the former bosses of Carillion from holding senior boardroom positions at publicly listed firms again. The collapse of Carillion in January 2018, at an estimated cost of $200 million for British taxpayers, was described by the Official Receiver as "the largest ever trading liquidation in the UK." Could this be a sign of more to come in the more stringent post-Brexit business environment?

Incoming U.S. President Joe Biden is poised to unveil his new $1.5 trillion economic stimulus package for the COVID-19 hit economy, just as the new jobless figures show another spike in the number of people left out of work by the ongoing pandemic. 

COVID-19 seems to have had little impact on food retailers, with the UK's largest Tesco announcing record sales figures in the last quarter of 2020, as Britons splashed out edible treats to see them through the restrictions. 

While Tesco is warning that Brexit conditions looks set to cause disruption to supplies to Northern Ireland for some time to come, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier has warned Westminster that the problems being experienced in Belfast and elsewhere are part of a new normal to which the independent UK must acclimatise.

There's a warning from wildlife experts on the dangers that careless disposal of single-use masks and gloves are having, on marline life in particular. Watch our film for more.

And finally, which European city has seen the biggest housing cost inflation in the last decade? Ruinous Rome? Pricey Paris? Prepare for the former Eastern Bloc to surprise you once again!

Read on for all the day's business news in full.

Louise Greenwood,

Digital correspondent

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The UK government is acting to bar the former bosses of construction giant Carillion from holding future senior boardroom positions at publicly listed firms. Carillion fell into administration three years ago with debts of $2.05 billion and the loss of thousands of jobs in one of Britain's biggest ever corporate failures. The firm had contracts for more than 400 public sector works and its chair Phillip Green was also an adviser on corporate responsibility to then prime minister David Cameron. Two subsequent government reports into the collapse of Carillion found the firm was culturally driven by "a relentless dash for cash, rising debt... and exploitation of suppliers". The new Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has launched legal proceedings "in the public interest" to prevent eight former directors from taking senior management roles for periods of up to 15 years. In recent decades large areas of public services in the UK have been outsourced to private firms, in areas including the maintenance of schools, hospitals, prisons, mental health facilities, military bases, security services and also critical infrastructure such as air-traffic control. In the last two years, two other major UK government outsourcing firms Interserve and G4S have experienced business failure.

The latest jobless figures from the U.S. show that applications for state unemployment benefits surged last week to their highest point since March. Initial jobless claims rose by 181,000 to 965,000 in the week ending January 9 according to new data from the Labor Department, while on an unadjusted basis, the figure rose to 1.15 million. Analysts says claims were likely lifted by reapplications for supplementary $300 benefits mad as part of the COVID-19 response which are due to run until March 14.

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to unveil a $1.5 trillion package of economic stimulus measures later on Thursday, with additional financial resources aimed at low-income communities. The deal, which will begin after Biden's inauguration next week, is hoped to speed up vaccine distribution, help reopen schools and local government and avoid further layoffs of public sector workers.

The UK's biggest retailer Tesco says sales reached record levels over the Christmas period. Like for like sales jumped by 8.1 percent in the six weeks to January 9. Online sales were up 80 percent over the third quarter and festive period overall, equating to an extra $1.36 billion spent by shoppers. Tesco has described an "unprecedented demand for online groceries" in the run up to the UK's third national  lockdown, with sales of luxury and vegan foods in particular booming. The results follow similar strong performance from rivals Lidl, Sainsbury and Morrisons. Tesco, which says it will continue to give priority to vulnerable customers and key workers over the coming weeks, added that incremental costs from staff absences due to coronavirus-related illness have weighed on performance.

Aside from today's results Tesco has also warned of continued disruption to its stores in Northern Ireland after the Brexit handover date on January 1. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has remained in the single market for goods, leading to increased paperwork for deliveries from the mainland. Tesco boss Ken Murphy says there has been "limited disruption" to imports of fruit and ready meals but stressed that the store was working closely with governments in Westminster and Dublin to "smooth the flow" of goods.

The EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has warned however that the new regulatory frictions hampering the UK's trade with the rest of Europe will continue as an inevitable consequence of Brexit. Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Barnier stated that Britain may risk losing its tariff-free and quota-free trading rights with the bloc if regulatory standards diverge below permitted levels. 

Elsewhere in European food retail, the proposed $19.6 billion takeover offer for France's Carrefour by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard has run into trouble, with French finance minister Bruno Le Maire claiming the deal would endanger the country's "food sovereignty." The Quebec-based company, best known for its Circle K convenience stores and petrol stations, has proposed a "friendly combination" with Carrefour, with a bid of $24 per share valuing Carrefour above its current market capitalization. Analysts had warned that the deal was likely to be opposed by the French government, and say its success may now be determined by its three largest shareholders: LVMH founder Bernard Arnault, Brazilian billionaire Abilio Diniz and France's Moulins family, who own department store group Galeries Lafayette, all of whom exercise double voting rights.

Europe's biggest economy shrank by 5 percent last year, as COVID-19 related lockdowns took their toll. The figures from Germany's Federal Statistical Office show the country managed to avoid a double-dip recession due to a rebound in manufacturing in the final quarter with exports rising 2.2 percent in November, although the budget deficit ran to 4.8 percent of GDP last year, the biggest since 1995. Economists stress that Germany has fared better overall than France and Italy, both posting declines of about 9 percent and the UK where GDP is expected to have shrunk more than 10 percent.

The new boss of French car giant Renault will shortly unveil a turnaround plan aimed at returning the firm to profitability. Luca de Meo has previously warned that cost cuts of up to $2.4 billion may be needed, along with job losses of up to 14,600 staff and a trimming of Renault's product line and factory footprint. The firm, once a stalwart of French industry, made a record first-half loss of $8.8 billion last year, reporting its first negative annual result in a decade.

Troubled airline carrier Norwegian Air is axing 1,100 jobs at the UK's second airport Gatwick as it makes further cuts to long-haul services. Norwegian is the fourth-biggest low-cost carrier in Europe after undergoing a rapid expansion in 2009, launching discount flights from Oslo to New York and Bangkok for as little as $135. After announcing half-year losses of $600 million in August and with its entire fleet of Boeing 737 Dreamliner planes grounded, the firm says it plans to move forward with a "simplified business structure" aimed at safeguarding remaining jobs.

Meanwhile Delta Air Lines says it hopes 2021 will be "the year of recovery" after cutting operating revenue by 64 percent and announcing its first annual loss in 11 years. Chief Executive Ed Bastian told Reuters news agency that the carrier was hanging its hopes on "a meaningful improvement" in the summer holiday period, as the U.S. vaccine rollout gets under way.

Fashion retailer Primark says it has no plans to go online despite warning that the UK lockdown could cost it more than $1.3 billion in lost sales. At the moment, 305 of Primark's 389 global stores are closed – including all its UK outlets. The firm insists the cost of setting up an online operation would outweigh the benefits. The brand's sales fell 30 percent to $2.7 bn in the 16 weeks to January 2.

The CEO of the social media app Parler says it is possible the service will never go back online after being blocked by most major internet service providers last week. Asked when the platform could reappear, John Matze said "It could be never... we don't know yet" but added that Parler was in talks with more than one cloud computing service about a possible return to operations. Parler, which describes itself a "pro free speech" outlet with more than 12 million users, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon's cloud computing division after having its services terminated following last week's violence in Washington DC. Parler denies it has acted as a platform for organizers of the siege on Capitol Hill, and called Amazon's termination of its services "catastrophic."

Meanwhile home-sharing service AirBnB and its subsidiary HotelTonight are canceling all reservations in Washington DC during President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next Wednesday. In a statement the Silicon Valley firm said it was acting "in response to various local, state and federal officials asking people not to travel to Washington." Several of the biggest U.S. tech firms have been acting to curtail the activities of far-right groups on their platforms after last week's violence and amid FBI warnings of further acts of civil disobedience in the run-up to the handover of power from the Trump administration.

WATCH: The billions of single-use face masks littering our streets and oceans can seriously harm and even kill animals, which confuse them for food or shelter and may end up fatally entangled in them. Environmentalists warn against the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 waste to wildlife and encourage a greater use of reusable cloth masks to reduce the threat to our ecosystems.

Demand for home food delivery services has been soaring in lockdown. Just Eat says consumers across Europe ordered 57 percent more takeaways in the last three months of the year, while in its home market of the UK, orders were up 400 percent on the year. CGTN Europe asked international food and restaurant consultant Peter Backman whether home delivery is a passing feature of lockdown, or here to stay.

The 400 percent actually relates to an emerging part of the just the UK offer, and that's what they call "delivery" – most of their business is in the marketplace, capturing the order and then passing it on to the restaurant. This new business, it's been around for a bit now, is where Just Eat actually do the delivery. And that's been growing massively for a couple of reasons. One is the launch of their new service called Scooba, and secondly, they've landed McDonald's and Greggs as customers in the last few months.

This growth has come at a cost and it's really put a squeeze on profit margins because of a big investment drive. How long can Just Eat keep this up?

Just Eat have been profitable at the operational reporting level for quite a few years, which is not true of all the other companies in this space. That's partly because they are very much focused or have been focused on the marketplace model. The delivery model is inherently less profitable, but it's where there's growth.

The firm is moving away from that gig economy model and says now it's going to give its drivers full-time jobs. Is this going to be a turnaround for the sector?

It's the Scooba model, which was developed for a number of European markets, Germany and the Netherlands, and it's been operational there for two or three years. They launched it in the UK in the last quarter. It's been in the pipeline for quite some time. 

Is there room for more, or are other big players going to gobble up the whole market?

Well, the big players already do that. Deliveroo, which operates a purely delivery model and Just Eat, which is moving into that space – between them, they've got well over 90 percent of the market, the rest is taken up with a number of smaller specialist suppliers. And the way that the global delivery market is moving is towards consolidation. So in the States, for example, Uber Eats have snapped up Postmates and Just Eat/Takeaway have acquired GrubHub – that deal will come to fruition later this year. So there is consolidation. Whether the UK market can continue to supply three major players remains to be seen.

And finally, few house-hunters in the EU need to be reminded about just how much prices and rents have risen across the bloc's major cities in recent years. The latest figures however show that rather than London, Paris or Rome, the biggest housing inflation was in Estonia, the country that has put itself at the vanguard of the continent's new digital economy. After years of runaway price rises, lenders say housing costs in Tallin – along with Riga, the capital of neighboring Latvia – are starting to flatten off.