The BBC are reporting that Wages are continuing to rise at their highest level for nearly a decade, the latest official Office for National Statistics figures show.
Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, went up by 3.3% in the three months to October, the biggest rise since November 2008.
Average weekly wages are £495, £25,740 a year, the highest since 2011, once adjusted for inflation.
The number of people in work rose by 79,000 to 32.48 million, a record high. That is the highest figure since records began in 1971.
Unemployment increased by 20,000 to 1.38 million, although the total is still lower than a year ago. The number of unemployed men increased by 27,000, while the number of unemployed women fell by 8,000. The reason both employment and unemployment have increased is a result of the UK’s rising population and more people joining the labour force, such as students and older people.
Hundreds of new properties have been built using weak mortar that does not meet recommended industry standards, the Victoria Derbyshire show has found. There are reports of homes with the fault on at least 13 estates in the UK.
The full extent of the industry-wide problem is hard to measure as some homeowners have been asked to sign gagging orders to claim compensation. The industry says mortar performance is a complex issue and can be affected by a number of factors.
The BBC‘s The Victoria Derbyshire Programme has heard about new build properties in at least 13 estates from Scotland to Sussex, built by different companies, with what appears to be a similar problem.
Faced with what could be an expensive repair bill, many homeowners have been told by their own solicitors not to go public until the issue is resolved. In some cases, customers have ultimately had their houses bought back by either the homebuilder or the NHBC.
cO2 has 25 million customers, but also provides services for the Sky, Tesco, Giffgaff and Lycamobile networks which have another seven million users. Many users took to Twitter to complain about the difficulties, which were first reported at about 05:30.
O2 is the second-largest mobile network in the country, behind EE.
Voice calls are unaffected by the problem.
The outage is having knock-on effects for other services that rely on the O2 network, including Transport for London’s electronic timetable service at bus stops, which has stopped working.
Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe is hoping to extend his grip on the North Sea by buying oil and gas fields from US giant ConocoPhillips. Mr Ratcliffe’s company Ineos and ConocoPhillips have both confirmed that they are in exclusive talks.
Among the assets up for grabs is Conoco’s 6.5% stake in the Clair field, west of Shetland. The field potentially has 7 billion barrels of oil in place, according to BP’s chief executive Bob Dudley.
BP recently bought a 16.5% stake in the Clair field from ConocoPhillips, giving the UK oil giant a total holding of 45.1%.
Reports suggest that the assets ConocoPhillips is selling could be worth as much as $3bn (£2.3bn). They do not include the company’s oil terminal in Teesside or its commercial trading group based in London.
The North Sea is still a relatively new area for Mr Ratcliffe and Ineos.
The billionaire, whose £21bn fortune makes him the UK’s richest man according to the Sunday Times rich list, has traditionally invested in speciality chemicals businesses.
Ineos owns the Grangemouth oil refinery site in Scotland which manufactures a range of petrochemicals that are used in a wide range of products including bottles, food packaging and in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Ineos first acquired a number of North Sea gas fields in 2015 before it buying up the oil and gas business owned by Denmark’s Dong Energy for £1bn two years later.
The Sunday Times reported that Ineos had put down a deposit in exchange for three months of exclusive talks with ConocoPhillips.
The BBC are reporting that Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has been arrested over claims of financial misconduct, the carmaker has said. Mr Ghosn, a towering figure in the car industry, will be sacked from the Japanese firm after a board meeting on Thursday, its chief executive said. He has been accused of “significant acts of misconduct”, including under-reporting his pay package and personal use of company assets.
Nissan said it was unable to give further details on the offences.
Japanese prosecutors have yet to comment on Mr Ghosn’s arrest.
Nissan is the world’s sixth-largest carmaker and its site in Sunderland is the UK’s biggest car plant.
“I feel despair, indignation and resentment.” said Nissan chief executive Hiroto Saikawa at a news conference. As the details are disclosed I believe that people will feel the same way as I feel today,” he added.
Mr Saikawa said Nissan would now try to “stabilise the situation, and normalise day-to-day operations” for staff and business partners.
It said it had been conducting an internal investigation for several months, prompted by a whistleblower.
According to Japanese media reports, which have not been confirmed, he under-reported an amount totalling 5bn yen ($44m; £34m) over a five-year period from 2011.
Mr Saikawa said he believed the misconduct “went on for a long period”.
Retail sales fell by a worse-than-expected 0.5% in October, after a mild autumn hit sales of winter clothes. Sales at household goods stores fell 3% following a particularly strong August and September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
For the three months to October, retail sales rose 0.4% – a considerable slowdown from the 2.3% increase recorded for the three months to July.
Analysts said October’s fall suggested shoppers were cutting back spending. Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics said the drop was the “first real sign that consumers are tightening their purse strings due to uncertainty about Brexit”.
Non-food sales fell 1.3%, with a 1% decline in clothing sales, which he said could not be blamed on the weather.
“Consumers’ confidence already has weakened in recent months due to concerns about the economic outlook and we doubt households are feeling any surer that a no-deal Brexit will be avoided after this week’s political turbulence,” Mr Tombs said.
Half-year profits at Royal Mail have tumbled after the company failed to cut costs as quickly as hoped. Pre-tax profit more than halved to £33m for the six months to 23 September despite a 1% rise in revenues to just over £4.9bn. Revenue from its GLS European parcel operations was up 9%, offsetting a 1% fall in the UK parcels and letters.
Chief executive Rico Back said Royal Mail had put a “range of actions” in place to improve performance. “There will be a greater emphasis on how we connect customers, companies and countries through our domestic and international businesses. There will be a clearer focus on financial performance and management accountability,” he said.
Growth in online shopping helped drive a 6% rise in revenues for the UK parcels business, but total revenue from letters was down 7%. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down 27% to £183m.
Royal Mail warned on profits at the start of October in an unscheduled update after revealing that cost savings would be just £100m this year rather than the £230m forecast, sending shares down almost a fifth.
The company reiterated its commitment to the £100m target for the 2018-19 financial year and Mr Back said the management team was “focused on pulling all the short and medium-term levers at our disposal to improve our performance”.
It said it would update investors on its strategy in March next year.
“This is a great company with great brands. We have, by far, the best delivery network in the UK: our ability to deliver most of our letters and parcels together is a major asset,” said Mr Back, who took over from Moya Green as chief executive earlier this year.