THE FUSE

The Times says the chancellor's Budget on Wednesday will bring in a property tax for homes worth more than £2m. The surcharge, amounting to an average of £4,500, will reportedly be collected through council tax bills and is expected to hit 100,000 homes. The paper suggests Rachel Reeves had planned to target more properties, but has pared back the tax by raising the threshold at which it starts.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Reeves is planning a "£15bn welfare giveaway". It says the chancellor will end the two-child benefits cap in its entirety and increase benefits payments in total by about 4%. Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride tells the paper that the changes are being funded by "the very people struggling" because of higher taxes: "hard working families".

The i Newspaper reports that Reeves plans to "target universities" with a "tax on international student fees to fund grants for poorer British students as part of her cost-of-living drive". The Department for Education tells the paper the move would allow the reintroduction of maintenance grants to help more British students from poorer backgrounds.

The Daily Express suggests analysis has shown that pensioners could be £800 a year worse off if the chancellor extends a freeze on the income tax threshold in her Budget. She is expected to keep the tax-free allowance as it is until 2030. According to the paper, House of Commons Library research suggests the freeze would cost pensioners £7bn a year for two years.

According to the Guardian, the BBC is planning to create a post of deputy director general to help Tim Davie's successor. The move is one of the reported measures being prepared as the fallout continues from the row over editorial standards. The BBC has not commented on the report.

And the Daily Mail, Times, Telegraph and Guardian all feature pictures of Lord Cameron, who is pushing for increased prostate cancer screening after his own diagnosis and treatment. In his Times interview, he acknowledges there are respectable arguments against a screening programme, but says it is a really good moment to have another look at one.