Tube Strike: Shoppers Face Boxing Day Delays

London Underground drivers have gone on strike on Boxing Day for the third consecutive year, causing major disruptions to Christmas bargain-hunters and visitors to the capital.

The train drivers' union Aslef stopped work today for the first of three strikes as part of a long-running dispute about Bank Holiday pay.

Two further walk-outs are scheduled for the last two Fridays in January.

With up to 7.1 million shoppers expected to hit the Boxing Day sales, Transport for London (TfL) said it is was doing everything possible to help shoppers get into and around London.

Services are operating today on most London Underground lines, however TfL is warning passengers of major disruptions and only limited services on all lines.

The Waterloo & City line is closed today, while other lines are operating reduced services.

The Piccadilly line is expected to be closed through the city centre, and the Victoria line is scheduled to run only between Seven Sisters and Victoria at a reduced frequency.

Extra buses will be laid on for those travelling to the West End, as well as the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford and White City.

London Overground services are not in operation today and the Congestion Charge has been suspended.

Some rail services are operating on Southern and South Eastern trains into London Victoria and London St Pancras International, as well as on the Gatwick Express and Stansted Express.

Aslef argues it is not to blame for today's industrial action, saying management has "sat on its hands and offered nothing constructive to resolve this dispute".

Over 90% of Aslef members voted in favour of launching the action for a third consecutive year.

But TfL has condemned Aslef for what it argues is a "completely unnecessary disruption to Londoners on Boxing Day".

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "Train drivers are paid a salary that reflects some Bank Holiday working, but the Aslef leadership is demanding to be paid twice for the same work and has rejected our attempts to resolve the matter.

"The scandalous actions of the Aslef leadership are an attempt to hold Londoners to ransom, and demonstrate a wholesale disregard for our customers - making life harder for shoppers, sports fans, retail workers and businesses amongst others at an important time.

"They also show a disregard for the thousands of transport staff who will be working hard to help people get around the capital."

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UK Economic Growth Less Than Expected

Britain's growth figure for the third quarter has been revised to 0.9% by the Office for National Statistics.

That is down from their previous estimate of 1%.

Britain's dominant services sector posted meagre growth in October, adding to the challenge for the economy as a whole to expand in the last three months of 2012.

Third quarter GDP growth was the strongest since the third quarter of 2007, but much of that reflected a one-off boost from the London Olympics and a rebound from the second quarter when an extra public holiday dented output. 

Britain suffered its second recession since the financial crisis between late 2011 and mid-2012, and overall has recovered much more slowly since 2009 than most other big economies.

It also emerged that borrowing unexpectedly increased last month, putting more pressure on Chancellor George Osborne's plan to bring down the budget deficit.

Public sector net borrowing, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, was £17.5bn in November, up £1.2bn on the same month last year.

Economists had predicted borrowing would fall slightly to around £16bn.

Public sector borrowing for the year to date is £92.7bn, excluding a one-off £28bn boost from the transfer of the Royal Mail pension fund into Treasury ownership, which is 9.9% higher than the same period last year.

The latest figures will put more pressure on Chancellor George Osborne

James Knightley, analyst at ING Bank, said the borrowing figures highlighted the weak state of the UK economy and the fact that austerity measures were failing to generate the improvement in Government finances that were hoped for.

He said: "All in all, the UK appears to be ending 2012 not in particularly great shape, and as such we suspect the Bank of England has more work to do with further policy stimulus likely in early 2013, especially if the worst fears over the US fiscal cliff materialise."

The ONS said the latest figures do not take into account the transfer of assets from the Bank of England's money printing programme into the Treasury, and the auction of bandwidth for 4G mobile broadband services, which is expected to boost the finances.

In the Chancellor's Autumn Statement earlier this month, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said it expected borrowing to be £108bn in 2012/13, compared to £119.9bn in the March estimate.

The news will put further pressure on Britain's gold-plated AAA status.

All of the three main ratings agencies have now put the UK on negative watch.

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said: "Although a number of temporary factors flattered the OBR's new forecast for borrowing this year, the underlying picture is that the weak economy is preventing the deficit from falling."

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Banks Face Break-Up Over Risky Trading

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business and Economics Correspondent

British banks face break-up if they fail to follow new rules protecting high street operations from riskier trading.

The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has published a report assessing Government-backed legislation that will require lenders to protect customers' banking deposits from potential losses.

While the report suggests ring-fencing will help address the damage done to culture and standards in banking, it may not be enough to stop banks taking advantage of the rules.

Commission chairman Andrew Tyrie MP said: "The legislation needs to set out a reserve power for separation - the regulator needs to know he can use it.

"Over time, the ring-fence will be tested and challenged by the banks. Politicians, too, could succumb to lobbying from banks and others, adding to pressure to put holes in the ring-fence."

MPs are looking at ways to exert pressure on lenders that fail to comply.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls told Sky News: "I think people are really frustrated, families, businesses, that banking reform is taking so long.

"In the meantime, our economy has not been growing, small business lending is falling. We've got to get on with it and we've got to get it right.

"The commission says the proposals on the table so far from George Osborne don't go far enough, they've been watered down, and they also are going to look at the wider issues of standards and culture in the way our banks operate."

Next year, the commission will take further evidence on whether full separation of proprietary trading operations at banks is necessary.

The Government launched an inquiry into banking standards in the wake of revelations that the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) had been manipulated by traders.

Barclays and Swiss bank UBS have been fined by authorities for manipulating Libor.

The rate is a reference point for vast ranges of financial contracts around the world worth around £184trn.

Mr Tyrie said: "The latest revelations of collusion, corruption and market-rigging beggar belief.

"It is the clearest illustration yet that a great deal more needs to be done to restore standards in banking."

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BT Slapped With £95m Refund Bill

BT has been told it must repay almost £95m to corporate customers following a row over high speed data provision.

The regulator Ofcom ruled the company had overcharged for Ethernet services and must hand back £94.8m to communication providers BSkyB - the owner of Sky News - Talk Talk, Virgin Media, Verizon UK and Cable & Wireless.

Ethernet services are mainly used by businesses and provide dedicated broadband capacity between different locations.

Ofcom said it received the first complaint in 2010 that the charges levied by BT were "not cost orientated".

It had continued to receive related claims ahead of today's decision, the regulator stated.

BT, which said in November that its second quarter revenues had been hit by a triple whammy of recession, regulation and rain, has two months to decide if it will appeal the decision.

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BAE Systems Strikes £2.5bn Deal With Oman

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

A deal worth £2.5bn has been completed between British defence manufacturer BAE Systems and Oman.

It will see BAE provide the Gulf state with 12 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft and eight Hawk training jets.

As well as supplying aircraft, BAE Systems will provide in-service support to the Royal Air Force of Oman's (RAFO) operational tasks.

Work to start building the aircraft will begin in 2014, with the first jets due for delivery in 2017.

But the markets did not seem too enthusiastic about the announcement, as the BAE share price was down 2% during the early hours of trading.

More importantly for the company's future financial health is the Salam deal for 72 Typhoon jets with Saudi Arabia, worth £4.5bn.

Earlier this week, BAE warned that its 2012 earnings would suffer if no agreement was reached on this deal by February 21.

Last month, Prime Minister David Cameron visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on a trade mission to promote BAE and persuade the states to buy British-made defence equipment.

PM David Cameron visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE last month

It is unusual for a British prime minister to promote defence companies so openly but the Government is seeking to build closer ties with friendly Middle Eastern states in the face of what it sees as a growing threat in the region from countries like Iran.

The move also demonstrates an attempt to forge links outside of the traditional Nato countries.

The deal is not only important for BAE Systems but also for the companies that form the supply chain, many of which are based in the UK.

The deal will support BAE's assertion that it still has a strong business with a positive future after the proposed merger with EADS collapsed in October.

Cuts to defence budgets globally have resulted in a tougher and more competitive market, and BAE had hoped a merger with a company that specialises in civil aviation would lessen any effect of budget cuts.

Guy Griffiths, group managing director for BAE Systems' International business, said: "Receiving this contract is an honour and is excellent news for both BAE Systems and the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium.

"We look forward to working in partnership with Oman's Ministry of Defence, and the Royal Air Force of Oman, to ensure this is a highly successful programme that maximises the potential of both Hawk and Typhoon."

Oman becomes the seventh country in the world, and the second in the Middle East, to operate the Typhoon, joining the air forces of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Saudi Arabia.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "This is obviously a very good day for BAE Systems, its suppliers and the broader Eurofighter supply chain.

"We, and our partners in the Eurofighter consortium are pursuing a number of opportunities at present and I hope that the decision by Oman to join the Typhoon family is followed by more of its friends and neighbours."

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House Prices Predicted To Edge Down In 2013

House prices across the country will fall by 1% during 2013 as the London market shows signs of cooling, property analysts have said.

Prices fell 0.1% month-on-month in December, marking the sixth month in a row that this has happened, and average prices ended the year 0.3% lower than a year ago, Hometrack said.

It predicts that a reluctance by struggling families to take on more debt will continue to act as a drag on the housing market next year and prices will be more volatile with continued low sales.

Hometrack's monthly figures for December show prices were flat in London and East Anglia, fell 0.1% in the Midlands, the South and Yorkshire and Humberside, dropped 0.2% in the North West and Wales and by 0.3% in the North East.

One in five postcodes in England and Wales recorded price increases over the past year but prices have fallen across two-thirds of the country.

London has had strong demand from wealthy overseas buyers and consistently outperforms other regions, seeing prices rise in seven out of 10 postcodes this year. Property prices are now 10% higher than at the peak of the market in 2007.

But price growth in London, vital to keeping average prices up in the rest of the country, is predicted to slow over next year, with a 2% annual increase pencilled in.

Central London price growth looks set to slow, following the introduction of a 7% stamp duty rate placed on homes worth over £2m in March.

The Office for National Statistics recently indicated that house price increases in London could be slowing. The rate of year-on-year price growth in the city dropped from 5.2% in September to 3.4% by October.

The study regularly asks estate agents across England and Wales about achievable selling prices.

But Hometrack's predictions jar with some other recent surveys, including one from Rightmove which said increased competition among mortgage lenders and a continued shortage of homes to choose from will help to push asking prices up by 2% across England and Wales next year.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has said it expects the housing market to "feel more stable and positive" next year, with much of the boost coming from a multibillion-pound Government scheme which has already helped to increase mortgage availability.

But the council has also said demand for mortgages could be held back by the weakness of the economy and much will hinge on the continued resilience of UK employment.

Halifax has said house prices are likely to be flat next year, with any growth likely to be strongest in London and the South East.

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Belgian Chocolate: Is Its Reputation Melting?

By Robert Nisbet, Europe Correspondent

Belgium's reputation as the world's chocolate capital could be melting as emerging markets develop a sweet tooth and the recession continues to bite.

The region became the base for the industry shortly after the Spanish explorer Cortes returned from Mexico with cocoa pods in the 17th century.

Three hundred chocolate companies are based in Belgium, which have a combined turnover of nearly £2bn every year.

While the commodities analyst Mintel suggests the global market for chocolate has held steady in 2012 at roughly £52bn, the market in Western Europe shrank by 5%.

More worryingly for many of the Belgian craftsman, who buy their chocolate already ground and cooked before adding their own ingredients, processing has shifted away from factories in neighbouring Germany and the Netherlands.

Statistics from the European Cocoa Association show that processing in Europe fell by 17% over the summer.

It is not just the recession, the economic model is changing: demand for luxury chocolate is growing in emerging economies, but slowly shrinking in richer countries.

World record-breaking chocolate train

So it makes more economic sense for the larger companies to shift production to new markets where labour costs are low and the beans do not have to be shipped to Europe to be processed.

Since the recession, Belgian artisans have been mostly shielded from a dip in local demand by growing demand in eastern Europe and the so-called BRIC countries.

But there could be problems ahead when they have to pay more to buy processed chocolate from further afield.

There certainly is not an air of impending crisis.

We saw a giant chocolate sculpture of a hippopotamus draw gasps in Grand Sablon, the "quality street" where most of the famous chocolate houses have a flagship shop.

There was also the unveiling of the world's longest ever structure built purely from chocolate in the Gare du Midi near the railway platform where Eurostar trains rumble in from London.

The 34 metre long sculpture of a vintage steam train was checked by inspectors from the Guinness Book of World Records to ensure it was solid chocolate and not bulked out using cheaper ingredients.

The tourism minister Christos Doulkeridis told Sky News that he believed Belgium will keep its chocolate crown.

"We don't want to be the first one just in chocolate. We want to be the first one in chocolate of quality," he said.

The test will be whether the country can continue to maintain its reputation as a marque of quality in the teeth of foreign competition.

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Steve Jobs' Yacht Row Settled With Payout

Steve Jobs' yacht is free to set sail after the late Apple co-founder's estate paid a deposit to resolve a dispute with the designer.

The boat, which reportedly cost more than £80m to build, was impounded after Philippe Starck said Mr Jobs' estate still owed him around £2.5m for his contribution to its design.

Mr Starck said he was to be paid a fixed sum of £7m, while lawyers for Mr Jobs' estate said he was to be paid a percentage of the project's cost - equal to £5m.

"The Venus is no longer impounded, we have found a solution," said lawyer Gerard Moussault.

"A security deposit was paid into a bank account, but I cannot say for how much."

The designer was supposedly "very close" to Mr Jobs during the period the design was agreed and construction went ahead.

That was said to be one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job.

The Dutch-built yacht was unveiled in October, just over a year after Mr Jobs died of respiratory problems related to his pancreatic cancer.

Seven iMacs are installed in the bridge

Although the boat is no longer impounded, it remains in Amsterdam harbour because of bad weather.

The yacht will reportedly be taken to the United States, where Mr Jobs' family, including his widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, are to take charge of the boat.

The aluminium-hulled 70-metre (230-foot) yacht was built by shipbuilder Royal De Vries in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with the interiors designed by Mr Starck.

He described the vessel as "sleek and minimalist", with teak decks.

The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers.

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Pop-Up Shops Benefit From Empty High Street

By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent

With 20 shops closing every day on Britain's high streets, some premises are being temporarily rented out for as little as £1 a week to pop-up businesses.

One in six premises now stands empty compared with one in 20 at the start of the recession, according to retail research firm the Local Data Company.

So could pop-up shops help alleviate the situation?

"I've heard of examples of some shops going for as little as £1 a week because the landlord is saying to himself, I think these people have got a good product and if I give them a month or two at a cheap rate they may want to stay longer and then I can charge a commercial rate, " said Jerry Blackett from Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

In Birmingham's Great Western Arcade, No 22, a jewellery shop showcasing the talent of young, local designers, moved into premises which had stood empty for months.

Silversmith and mentor Kerry O'Connor said: "We pay rates and all the bills and we get a reduced rent.

"It works both ways that we can stay here potentially as long as we want but likewise if somebody comes along who wants to take on a proper lease we could get kicked out within a month."

No 22 is paid for by European funding and a local council who are keen to help fledgling businesses and promote Birmingham as a centre of jewellery excellence.

"The pop-up encourages people to come to the arcade and see something new," said Carol Alderson from Birmingham City Council.

"We've put out flyers around the city, we've emailed, lots of people have gone on the website, it encourages new people into the arcade which should have a knock-on effect on the other businesses with people coming into the pop-up shop."

Designer Karen Collis said: "It's a brilliant opportunity to showcase my work for the first time really because I only graduated in June so I can test the market to see if people like the stuff that I'm making and also there's the opportunity to sell, I sold a piece yesterday, it was exciting."

Pop-ups come and go quickly, so it's not known how many are trading, or their impact.

But those involved with No 22 recognise that no-one benefits from premises standing empty.

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Boxing Day Sales: Bargain Hunters Hit Shops

Britain's shops look set for a bumper Boxing Day of profits as bargain hunters go on a predicted £3bn spending spree at the sales.

People queued overnight in London's Oxford Street in preparation for stores opening this morning, with thousands pouring through the doors from as early as 6am.

Selfridges bosses said they took £1.5m at the tills in the first hour of opening and stores across the West End expect some £50m of takings in one day.

Sue West, Selfridges director of operations, said handbags and menswear were among the items flying off the shelves.

She said: "Online sales have been great but year on year people still want to experience the Boxing Day sales."

Manchester's Trafford Centre has been enjoying what is thought to be the biggest Boxing Day in its history - with police drafted in to help manage the crowds.

Hundreds of shoppers poured through the doors when Selfridges opened

The centre's Gordon McKinnon said: "Many retailers have kept stock levels much tighter this year, so the sales will not be stretching on into January."

Queues began to form at Kent's Bluewater at 1am on Boxing Day, with around 3,000 waiting for the doors to open at 7am.

Up to 7.1 million shoppers are expected to hit the shops at some stage, with one in 10 venturing out for a deal before 9am, according to research from Green Flag.

According to MoneySupermarket.com, shoppers in the UK are set to spend a total of £2.9bn.

A poll for the website found almost four million Britons (8%) planned to head to the high street on Boxing Day in addition to more than five million (10%) who will be searching online.

Queues formed outside some shops from as early as 1am.

However, figures from one survey, by comparison website Pricerunner, suggested that almost half (47%) of those questioned were not planning on buying anything in the post-Christmas sales.

A strike by London tube drivers about bank holiday pay does not seem to have had too much impact on the sales.

Extra buses were laid on for those travelling to the West End, as well as the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford, east London, and White City, west London, Transport for London said.

Jason Tyrrell from the New West End Company told Sky News: "We were prepared for this strike and had coaches for staff. The shoppers are out in force, but I hope both sides get round the table and sort it out."

Stores reported an influx of shoppers from abroad

Online retailers tried to stay one step ahead of the competition by offering heavy discounts on Christmas Day with Amazon's UK website seeing a 263% rise in sales over the last five years.

Analyst Experian predicted that Christmas 2012 would be the "biggest and busiest ever" for online retailers in the UK, with visits to retail websites expected to reach 126 million today, up 31% on 2011 and consumers predicted to spend £472.5m online.

But there was more gloom for the high street in the run-up to Christmas with shoppers preferring to buy presents online, according to Business recovery group Begbies Traynor.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said high street spending was "acceptable but not exceptional" this festive period - blaming it on poor accessibility to high streets and weak consumer demand rather than online shopping.

Richard Dodd of BRC said: "There are a lot of myths around online retail - 10% of overall retailing over the year comes from online shopping and actually it presents lots of opportunities for the retail sector."

A Begbies Traynor report said almost 140 high street firms were in a critical condition in the fourth quarter, meaning they are on the brink of collapse, while more than 13,700 were in "significant" distress - up 35% during the three months to December 17.

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Penguin Reaches Ebook Price-Fixing Settlement

Penguin has reached a settlement with the US Justice Department after it accused America's largest book publishers of colluding with Apple to raise the price of ebooks.

The US government claims Apple conspired with several publishers in the autumn of 2009 to force electronic book prices several dollars above the $9.99 (£6.13) charged by Amazon on its popular Kindle device.

The Justice Department, which sued the firms in April, settled with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster earlier this year.

The Penguin deal leaves Apple and book publisher Holtzbrinck, which does business as Macmillan, as the only remaining defendants.

"The proposed settlement with Penguin will be an important step toward undoing the harm caused by the publishers' anti-competitive conduct," said Justice Department lawyer Jamillia Ferris.

She said it would help restore retail price competition so consumers can pay lower prices for Penguin's ebooks.

The settlement had been expected by some industry observers as a means to simplify Penguin's impending merger with Random House, which is not a defendant in the case.

That deal would create the world's largest publisher of consumer books.

Under the settlement, Penguin must submit to a "strong anti-trust compliance programme" that includes telling federal officials about any joint ebook ventures or any communications with other publishers.

The Justice Department's lawsuit stems from agreements reached between major publishers and Apple in 2010 that allowed publishers to set their own prices for ebooks, an effort to counter Amazon's deep discounts of bestsellers.

It said Apple and the publishers had cost consumers more than $100m (£61.3m) in the past two years by adding $2 or $3 - and sometimes as much as $5 - to the price of each ebook.

Apple said the accusations were untrue. The trial is scheduled to begin in June.

Last week, the European Union's competition watchdog accepted proposals by four publishers and Apple to end agreements that set retail prices for ebooks.

Ebooks are believed to comprise around 25%-30% of total book sales.

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Instagram Denies Plans To Sell Users' Pics

Instagram has said it will revise a planned update to its service agreement after a global backlash over rumours the company would sell users' photos.

There were thousands of complaints after claims the photo-sharing company, which is owned by Facebook, would start using individuals' photos in advertisements following a policy change taking effect on January 16.

The new terms, which would allow an advertiser to pay Instagram "to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata)" without compensation, caused users to leave the site, upset that it would make money from their uploaded content.

Many users, including celebrities like Mia Farrow, Seth Green and Kim Kardashian, said they had deleted their accounts as news of the changes emerged.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom

But in a blog posted on Tuesday the company's co-founder Kevin Systrom insisted it has no plans to sell users photos and apologised for the "confusing" language that had been used.

"To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear," he wrote.

Mr Systrom said the new terms were part of plans the app has to "experiment with innovative advertising".

The blog went on: "Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos."

The company has given users 30 days to provide feedback on the terms and said there will be more updates coming soon.

Facebook bought Instagram for £600m earlier this year.

The row has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.

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Superstorm Sandy To Cost Lloyd's Insurance £1.5bn

The Lloyd's of London insurance market has estimated claims totalling £1.55bn ($2.5bn) arising from Superstorm Sandy in the US but says the figure could rise.

Its preliminary estimate was released after the deadly weather system caused an estimated £15.5bn ($25bn) of damage while wreaking havoc in the north eastern US at the end of October, killing 132 people.

The market said its exposure would not cause it financial stress.

Lloyd's, a collection of about 80 competing insurance syndicates, said it expected total net claims of between £1.25bn and £1.55bn.

Chief executive Richard Ward said: "The Lloyd's insurance market remains financially strong and, while claims from this storm could still evolve over time, the market's total exposure is well within the worst case scenarios we model and prepare for."

Lloyd's added there would be no impact on Lloyd's central fund, a reserve used to meet claims if any individual syndicate finds itself unable to pay.

Sandy, a 1,000 mile-wide storm which packed sustained winds of 90mph, torrential rain of more than 9 inches (23cm) in some states and then snow, is expected to be the second-costliest storm after hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Thousands remain displaced from their homes amid the continuing clean-up and reconstruction effort.

A six hour star-studded concert in New York on December 12 to benefit the victims, which featured performances from Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Sir Paul McCartney, is now reportedly distributing the first £31m ($50m) in support funds.

Congress is debating the merits of a £37bn ($60bn) aid package the White House has proposed to assist the rebuilding programme.

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British American Tobacco In E-Cigarettes Deal

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Britain's biggest tobacco company is poised to swoop on a pioneer of some of the world's biggest-selling electric cigarette brands, a vital new frontier in an industry buffeted by growing restrictions on its sales and marketing practices.

I have learned that British American Tobacco (BAT) will announce today the acquisition of CN Creative, a Manchester-based company which specialises in the development and production of non-combustible cigarettes.

The takeover is believed to be costing BAT tens of millions of pounds, but insiders say the purchase will be of potentially far-reaching strategic importance to the group.

I understand that the deal will involve CN being acquired by BAT rather than Nicoventures, a BAT subsidiary which was set up last year to focus on what it called "the development and commercialisation of innovative regulatory approved nicotine products".

Talks between BAT and CN Creative are understood to have been taking place for several months.

CN is one of a small number of companies to have benefited from the Government's £200m Future Technologies Fund, which was set up by the last Labour administration to give British companies a stronger foothold in life sciences.

Among the Manchester-based company's products is Intellicig, which it claims is the world's best e-cigarette, selling in 26 countries around the world, including in the UK.

CN Creative also manufactures ECOpure, a nicotine-based product, and is developing a new generation of products under the name Nicadex that the company says "will exist under the medicines regulatory framework as a smoking cessation device/drug".

CN Creative is chaired by Dale Pfost, a partner at Advent Life Sciences, one of the company's investors. The company's founders are likely to make a substantial multimillion pound sum from the takeover by BAT.

The tobacco industry's biggest players are seeking to develop credible products which provide alternatives to smoking at a time when pressure on major companies is unrelenting.

New European Union proposals to put graphic images warning of the dangers of smoking have faced intense lobbying from the industry but are widely-viewed as inevitable.

BAT is run by Nicandro Durante, an Italian, who replaced long-serving chief executive Paul Adams two years ago.

The company declined to comment on the CN Creative deal.

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OFT 'Powerless' To Protect Consumers

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) does not have the resources to protect consumers from companies' unscrupulous practices, a report has found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said at least £450m of financial harm is being caused by the trading watchdog's failure to regulate the consumer credit market effectively.

It found the OFT is not adequately resourced to carry out either the supervision of companies or the monitoring of their compliance with licence standards.

As a result, the regulator only acts when it receives information of non-compliance, meaning much malpractice goes unreported.

But the report found the OFT had achieved good returns on the money available to it - saving consumers £8.60 for every £1 it spent on enforcing regulations.

The watchdog spent £11.5m regulating the consumer credit market in 2011-12, which the NAO said was not enough given the size of the market and level of consumer harm.

Excluding mortgage lending, UK consumers borrowed £176bn in 2011-12 from credit providers like credit card companies, small businesses and payday lenders.

High-cost credit is the fastest growing sector of the market - accounting for around £8bn of total lending annually - but these customers are the most at risk, the NAO warned.

These borrowers often have "lower than average financial understanding", low incomes and poor credit records, it said, and could end up paying too much for a loan or incurring interest and charges due to arrears.

The NAO's head, Amyas Morse, called on the Government to ensure consumers are better protected.

"The OFT has achieved a good return for a small outlay, but has not been able to tackle the full extent of harm to consumers in credit markets," he said.

"This is because it has not had enough resource to regulate effectively or the right kinds of powers.

"The Government's proposed new regulatory system will need to address these problems."

Consumer Affairs Minister Jo Swinson said: "The OFT performs an outstanding job within the limits of its resources, saving consumers more than eight times what they spend on enforcement activities.

"But Government recognises there is more we can do to protect consumers."

She added that the policing of consumer credit will be strengthened by the new Financial Conduct Authority, which will have wider powers and and be better resourced when it takes over in 2014.

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Rangers Shares Begin Trading As Club Floats

Rangers Football Club say they raised more than £20m from their listing on the stock exchange, as shares begin trading.

Fans of the Glasgow club - who were Scottish champions a record 54 times - contributed £5m, while £17m was raised from large institutional investors.

Rangers' manager Ally McCoist said he was impressed by the backing of fans, and vowed to spend any cash he receives wisely.

"In the lead-up to Christmas, when finances are tight at the best of times, in a recession, for our supporters to go into their pockets and come up with that money is another incredible show of support for this football club," he said.

"The one thing the investors and, certainly, the fans deserve is for their money to be used wisely."

The club's shares will be traded under the ticker RFC on the smaller Alternative Investment Market (AIM), part of the London Stock Exchange.

Manager Ally McCoist praised the "incredible show of support" from fans

Shares were offered at 70p, valuing the club at £45m, and opening up at 75p.

Rangers' return to the stock market comes after they were demoted earlier this year following the collapse of their former parent company.

Chief executive Charles Green, whose company bought Rangers for £5.5m in June, said the listing was an important step to ensuring the future success of the club.

"We are delighted to see our plans for bringing Rangers back to its glory days coming to fruition; a key part of which is its listing on AIM today," he said.

"The response from investors and fans alike has been tremendous and we are very proud to have such loyal supporters."

He added: "With a settled squad, led by manager Ally McCoist, the club has made a strong start to the 2012/13 season and the Rangers brand and facilities provide tremendous opportunities for commercialisation and expansion."

Mr Green was listed as the club's main shareholder with a stake of almost 15%, which will now be diluted - although he said he did not plan to add to his shares.

The owner of Newcastle FC and Sports Direct chain Mike Ashley was the third largest shareholder with 9% before the issue of extra shares, behind a consortium called Blue Pitch Holdings.

Mr McCoist had almost a three per cent stake before the issue and said he planned to buy more, although his shareholding will be diluted.

:: Rangers chief executive Charles Green will be on Jeff Randall Live from 7pm

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New Bank Governor To Get £874,000 Annually

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

Mark Carney, the incoming Bank of England Governor, will receive an annual pay package equivalent to £874,000, the Bank confirmed today.

Among his benefits will be a £250,000 annual accommodation payment the Canadian central bank chief insisted upon when he accepted George Osborne's offer to take over from Sir Mervyn King.

The pay package, which also includes a £480,000 salary and a further cash sum of 30% of salary in lieu of pension, is significantly higher than the £305,000 salary Sir Mervyn currently receives.

However, the Bank said that Sir Mervyn benefits from membership of the Bank's lucrative final salary pension scheme, and that it would have cost an equivalent sum to Mr Carney's salary and cash pension sum to have given him similar remuneration benefits to Sir Mervyn – although this is before one factors in the accommodation allowance.

But given Sir Mervyn's pension pot is already full, and therefore no further payments are being made to it, the total annual cost to the Bank of the new Governor will be significantly higher than they are currently.

On top of those payments, Mr Carney and his family will also have their relocation costs paid for by the Bank – although these have yet to be calculated.

He is due to start his new role at the end of June when SIr Mervyn officially retires.

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Nissan To Build Luxury Car Model At UK Plant

Car giant Nissan is to build a new luxury model in the UK, creating 1,000 jobs with a £250m investment.

The new global model will be manufactured at the Japanese firm's plant in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers.

The car, built under Nissan's Infiniti premium brand, is set to be produced from 2015.

It will be developed with help from Nissan's design centre in London and technical centre in Cranfield and then exported around the world, the firm said.

Around 280 of the new jobs will be in Sunderland, with the rest in other sites across the country.

Because of capacity limitations at Sunderland, securing the new Infiniti will mean that a C-segment hatchback previously announced for the plant in April will be manufactured elsewhere, said the company.

The North East plant will build more than half a million cars this year, the first UK manufacturer to achieve this milestone.

The new model will be made at the Nissan factory in Sunderland

Colin Dodge, Nissan's executive vice-president and chief performance officer, said: "This milestone, our first premium product to be manufactured at Sunderland, reconfirms our commitment to UK manufacturing and the ongoing success of the plant which is moving up the value chain.

"Just as important, the new Infiniti, which will be exported around the world, is being developed with help from our London design centre and our European Technical Centre."

Business Secretary Vince Cable, who will attend a ceremony in Sunderland to mark the announcement, said: "Sunderland will be the only place in the world to make this new premium compact car.

"Nissan in the UK goes from strength to strength. Not only will the new car be made here and exported all over the world, the UK has already contributed to its design and development.

"Today's news is a strong endorsement of the quality of Britain's car industry which is creating jobs, taking on apprentices and contributing to building a stronger economy.

"The auto sector is living up to being one of the great success stories of our industrial strategy and a testimony to government and private sector working together in close partnership."

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G4S Close To Olympics Security Settlement

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The company at the centre of the summer's Olympics security fiasco is close to a deal with the Games organisers that would involve it incurring a smaller loss than the City had feared.

I have learned that G4S, which was widely-ridiculed over its handling of the most prestigious contract in its history, has made substantial progress on reaching a financial settlement with Locog, the organising committee, in recent days.

People close to the talks said it was conceivable that an agreement between the two sides could be announced before Christmas, although they cautioned that it was more likely that the negotiations would drag on into the new year.

The deal between G4S and Locog is expected to see the security company making a loss from the contract of between £55m and £70m, according to insiders. The final number is not yet nailed down and will depend on the progress of further talks in the coming days.

Nick Buckles, G4S's chief executive, said in August that the company expected to incur a £50m loss from its involvement with the Olympics.

"The talks are focused on a deal that will mean G4S makes a larger loss than it has publicly acknowledged so far, but it will not be on the scale originally feared," one insider said.

A settlement on these or similar terms would be regarded as a positive outcome for G4S. Chairman, John Connolly, has stepped in in recent days to take charge of the discussions with Locog, according to insiders.

G4S failed to supply more than 10,000 security staff to help police the Olympics and Paralympics, resulting in thousands of military personnel stepping in to make up the shortfall.

News of the impending settlement comes weeks after Sky News revealed that the Home Secretary could be asked to intervene to help resolve an impasse between them.

The security contractor has hired Herbert Smith and Linklaters, the City law firms, to help thrash out a deal, while Locog is being advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The negotiations between the two sides follow the departure of three senior G4S executives who were involved in managing the Olympics contract.

Yesterday, Mr Connolly appointed three new board directors, including Adam Crozier, the boss of ITV, to accelerate the overhaul of the company's boardroom.

G4S declined to comment. A Locog spokeswoman said it was "continuing to seek resolution with G4S".

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Libor Rate-Rigging: UBS Pays £940m Penalty

The Swiss bank UBS is to pay £940m, including £160m to regulators in Britain, to settle Libor rate-rigging investigations.

The fines, which amount to the second biggest penalty paid by a bank in the wake of the £1.2bn money laundering settlement announced by HSBC in the US last week, relate to manipulation of yen Libor and euroyen contracts.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said the case was "all the more serious" as UBS had attempted to manipulate Libor submissions at other banks, making corrupt payments to reward brokers for their efforts.

The FSA's report revealed incriminating conversations between UBS traders and brokers, saying they would "play the rules" and "return the favour".

One trader said: "I need you to keep it (the six-month Japanese Libor rate) as low as possible ... if you do that ... I'll pay you, you know, $50,000, $100,000 ... whatever you want ... I'm a man of my word."

The Libor scandal cost Bob Diamond the top job at Barclays

Bankers, the FSA said, also referred to each other in congratulatory terms, such as "the three muscateers (sic)", "Superman", and "Captain caos (sic)".

The £940m fine goes to regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland and the bank said it could not rule out further penalties in future.

The total comes to more than three times the $290m fine levied on Barclays in June for rigging the Libor benchmark rate used to price financial contracts around the globe from home loan rates to complex derivatives.

UBS said today that around 40 people have left or been asked to leave the bank as a result of the Libor investigation and it now expected to report a loss of up to £1.7bn for the fourth quarter as a result of the case.

Chief executive Sergio Ermotti added: "We deeply regret this inappropriate and unethical behaviour.

"No amount of profit is more important than the reputation of this firm, and we are committed to doing business with integrity."

In its statement, the FSA said UBS made "corrupt payments" of £15,000 per quarter to brokers for at least 18 months to reward them for helping the Swiss bank manipulate global interest rates.

It said that at least 45 individuals including traders, managers and senior managers were involved in, or aware of, the practice.

Kweku Adoboli lost UBS £1.4bn

The regulator recorded at least 2,000 requests for inappropriate submissions and said many more would have been made orally.

Tracey McDermott, FSA director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "They manipulated UBS's submissions in order to benefit their own positions and to protect UBS's reputation, showing a total disregard for the millions of market participants around the world who were also affected by Libor and Euribor."

The FSA had already fined UBS £29.7m for failings which allowed a rogue trader to rack up losses of £1.4bn in an unrelated case.

Kweku Adoboli was jailed for seven years in November after being found guilty of fraud.

The Libor scandal, which is expected to engulf other banks including RBS, has resulted in pledges to reform how the rates are set.

The British Banking Authority, which currently oversees Libor, has agreed to give up that responsibility as part of the changes.

A criminal investigation in the UK, led by the Serious Fraud Office, resulted in its first arrests last week,

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Virgin Atlantic Takes On BA With Delta Deal

Singapore Airlines has sold its 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic to rival Delta, in a move that will bolster Virgin's reach in the United States and intensify its rivalry with British Airways.

The deal was announced just 24 hours after a verbal spat between the chief executive of BA's parent firm and Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson over Virgin's future.

In their statement, Delta and Virgin said their joint venture would enhance competition between the UK and North America, offering greater benefits for customers travelling on those routes.

As part of the agreement Delta, which is the largest carrier in North America, will invest $360m (£224m) in Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Group and Sir Richard will retain a majority 51% stake and Virgin Atlantic Airways will retain its brand and operating certificate.

Between them, they will jointly operate up to 31 round-trip flights between the US and UK each day.

Delta is taking a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic

Steve Ridgway, Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive, said: "Consumers will reap the rewards of this partnership between two great airline brands on services from the UK to the USA, Canada and Mexico through a shared ethos in the highest standards of customer service.

"This unique joint venture will deliver much more effective competition at Heathrow.

"Both airlines are confident that the Department of Transportation will be as convinced as we are of the extensive consumer benefits arising from this joint venture, with expedited approval being granted by the end of 2013.

"The transatlantic market is Virgin Atlantic's heartland - it's where we started. By aligning with Delta we can continue to grow our North American network and offer greatly enhanced connectivity across the USA."

Sir Richard Branson and Willie Walsh are at each other's throats

Sir Richard, who is Virgin Atlantic's President, commented: "This is an exciting day in Virgin Atlantic history. It signals the start of a new era of expansion, financial growth and many opportunities for our customers and our business.

"I truly look forward to the possibilities our partnership with Delta will offer. We have always been known for our innovation and service and have punched above our weight for 28 years. That is why our customers love us so much.

"We will retain that independent spirit but move forward in a strengthened partnership with Delta."

News of the deal followed the latest spat between BA and Virgin. Sir Richard offered to pay staff at BA £1m if the Virgin brand disappeared within five years as the boss of BA's parent firm, Willie Walsh, had suggested would be the case if Delta sided with Virgin.

Mr Walsh is reported to have responded that he did not have £1m as he was not a billionaire banker (referring to Virgin Money) but would settle for a 'knee in the groin' instead.

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Libor Scandal: UK Police Make Three Arrests

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has made three arrests as part of its investigation into the manipulation of the interbank lending rate, Libor.

The major banks declined to comment on the development but Sky sources have suggested that one of the people detained used to work as a trader at the Swiss bank UBS, which has a big presence in the City.

The SFO, with the assistance of the City of London Police, executed search warrants at three residential premises - one in Surrey and two in Essex.

It said in a statement: "Three men, aged 33, 41 and 47, have been arrested and taken to a London police station for interview in connection with the investigation into the manipulation of Libor."

It added: "The men are all British nationals currently living in the United Kingdom."

The SFO's criminal inquiry began in July when it decided existing legislation gave it the scope to bring potential prosecutions.

While the identities of those arrested and their employers are not known at this stage, it is known that the SFO's inquiry has been wide-ranging and not limited to Barclays - the only UK bank so far to have been fined in connection with the scandal.

Bob Diamond quit Barclays after its £290m fine came to light

The £290m penalty inflicted on Barclays preceded the departure of its chief executive Bob Diamond and forced the British Bankers' Association to signal it would abandon its responsibility for oversight of Libor amid a clamour among politicians for reform.

Libor, which stands for London interbank offered rate, affects more than £350trn in global transactions and the rates created through the submissions bear a heavy influence in the calculation of a host of financial products including mortgages.

The City regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has been working closely with the SFO in its investigation.

A review of Libor by the FSA's boss Martin Wheatley has suggested a new body be created to oversee it with the rates set being based more on actual trades rather than just banks' own estimates.

Around 16 financial institutions have been investigated worldwide over alleged Libor rigging - including a total of three based in Britain.

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has previously said it hopes to settle any claims over Libor manipulation soon and warned that potential penalties could be significant.

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Vince Cable Unveils SME Lending Boost

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A peer-to-peer lender backed by Lord Rothschild will be unveiled as one of the major beneficiaries of a Government scheme to stimulate small business lending.

Zopa, a company which promotes direct lending over the internet, will be awarded £10m in public funding to provide loans to small companies.

The award will form part of a £110m funding package unveiled by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, as he attempts to revive a crucial component of Britain's stuttering economy.

The small business tranche of the Business Finance Partnership (BFP) scheme is designed to provide greater access to credit at a time when many SMEs are struggling to do so.

Ministers had hoped that George Osborne, the Chancellor, would unveil the details of the BFP in last week's Autumn Statement, but they were delayed by demands from Whitehall officials for additional legal due diligence.

Wednesday's announcement by Vince Cable's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills will name three other private sector companies that will be granted public money to stimulate small business lending.

Under the programme, the Government will provide £55m, with match-funding from the private sector expected to deliver at least the same sum, making at least £110m available to lend to small businesses.

Insiders said that the other successful bidders being named are: Funding Circle, a peer-to-peer lender which will receive £20m; Boost, a new market entrant, which will also receive £20m to set up a fund that will make loans of between £1m and £8m; and Credit Asset Management Limited, a subsidiary of City of London Group PLC, which will receive £5m to provide asset finance and professions loans.

Mr Cable is expected to say that the new awards, while modest in scale, will help to diversify choice for SMEs.

However, the £110m project is tiny in the context of Britain's SME financing requirements.

A new British Business Bank, which is being seeded with £1bn of Government funding, has yet to get off the ground.

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Adam Posen: Osborne's Plan Is 'Misguided'

George Osborne's economic strategy is "misguided" and has left Britain "malnourished", according to a former Bank of England policymaker.

Adam Posen, who stepped down from the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in August, accused the Government of focusing on "the wrong goal".

Adam Posen: There are alternatives

He attacked the Chancellor and David Cameron for doggedly pursuing deficit reduction, which he claimed was "self-defeating", and urged them to change course.

His comments come a week after Mr Osborne's mini-Budget, in which the Chancellor insisted that to switch approach now would lead to "disaster".

Mr Posen told Prospect Magazine: "Sitting central bankers should not publicly comment on fiscal policy. Silence, however, was not assent on my part.

"For two-and-a-half years the Government's economic policies have focused on the wrong narrow goal, been self-defeating in pursuit of that goal and in so doing have eaten away at British economic capabilities and confidence."

He continued: "Unfortunately, his Autumn Statement reiterated the same misguided priorities of deficit reduction and the same failed approach, with only minor variations."

Arguing for a change of direction, he said: "It is not enough for Messrs Cameron and Osborne to claim that they have done what they promised to so.

"Their policies have left the British economy malnourished, and indeed made parts of it quite ill. There are alternatives available, and the British government should switch to these now."

George Osborne delivering his Autumn Statement

Mr Posen, an American economist, joined the MPC in September 2009 but left earlier this year to become director at a US think tank.

On the committee, he was the only member to vote consistently for quantitative easing - the practice of printing more money to try and boost the economy.

He has previously advised parts of the US government, the European Commission, the Cabinet Office and the International Monetary Fund.

In his Autumn Statement last week, Mr Osborne admitted the Government is set to miss his target of reducing debt by 2015 and that slashing the deficit will take longer.

Despite criticism that he is not doing enough to stimulate growth and that his drastic austerity measures are holding back the recovery, the Chancellor refused to give ground.

"We cannot relax our efforts to make our economy safe but Britain is heading in the right direction. The road is hard but we're making progress. It's taking time, but the British economy is healing," he insisted.

However, official growth forecasts have been slashed - with the economy predicted to shrink by 0.1% this year and only grow by 1.2% in 2013.

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Compensation Culture: Firm Rapped Over Ads

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has raised fears about the activities of a claims management company while upholding complaints against it relating to text messages about compensation.

The ASA said Data Supplier, based in India, had not responded to its enquiries about the texts which were found to have breached its code.

One of the messages, judged to be in breach of the rules, said: "We have been trying to contact you regarding your PPI (payment protection insurance) Claim, we now have details of how much you are due, just reply CONFIRM and we will call you back".

The second text said: "Our records indicate you may be entitled to £3750 for the accident you had. To claim for free just reply CLAIM to this msg. To stop text STOP."

Three complainants, two of whom received the first text and one who received the second, challenged whether they were misleading and could be substantiated.

This was because they had not recently had an accident or did not believe that they were eligible to reclaim PPI payments, and suggested that the texts breached the advertising code because they were unsolicited.

The ASA said it was concerned by a lack of response from Data Supplier to its findings and apparent disregard for the code.

It said: "We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

"We noted that we had not seen any evidence to show that the recipients of the texts had given their explicit consent to be included on the Data Supplier's database.

"We also understood that none of the recipients had recently had accidents or considered themselves to be eligible to make a PPI claim, and that the texts did not identify who the message had been sent from.

It added: "The texts must not be sent again in their current form. We told Data Supplier not to send texts to consumers unless they had their explicit permission to do so.

"We also told them not to make claims in their advertising unless they could provide evidence to substantiate them, and to identify themselves as the advertiser in any future texts."

The claims management market has come under intense scrutiny this year amid concern about its behaviour in the wake of the PPI scandal - hampering efforts to get compensation to those who truly deserve a share of an estimated £10bn for mis-selling.

The insurance industry also blames 'ambulance chasing' by claims management companies (CMCs) for rising premiums.

The consumer group Which? has even gone as far as to recommend avoiding CMCs altogether while the Financial Ombudsman Service has raised questions about fee structures and MPs are considering tighter regulation.

Among the industry's lines in its defence is that it has raised awareness of financial shortcomings to consumers and enabled people to make claims they may not have been aware of amid a deep lack of trust in the country's major institutions.

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SuperGroup's Profits Up After Sales Boost

The owner of the SuperDry fashion brand has reported an increase in profits, as a broader product range boosted sales.

SuperGroup - whose products are favoured by celebrities including David Beckham and Pippa Middleton - said pre-tax profit over the 26 weeks to October 28 was up 13% to £14.7m. 

Sales of its trademark t-shirts, hoodies and jackets, among other clothing products, were up 3.9% at UK stores open for over a year, while revenue at the group increased by over 16% to £158.2m.  

The retailer's chief executive, Julian Dunkerton, said the company's recent investment was starting to pay off. 

"Although the trading environment has remained challenging and volatile, the group's sales performance in the first half of the year has been encouraging,"  he said in a statement.

"There have been a number of positive factors that have supported this performance but it is clear that the ongoing investment in design and the growing presence of the brand have enhanced sales both in the UK and overseas."

The results come after an overhaul of the group's management structure following a series of profit warnings in 2011.

"Good progress is being made but the full infrastructure upgrades, and the associated benefits, will take a number of years to deliver," Mr Dunkerton added.

He said that despite global economic uncertainty, he remained confident that company could meets its full-year profit targets.

Since SuperGroup listed on the stock market in 2010, its shares have rocketed from 500p to a high of 1,899p in early 2011.

Its share price fell dramatically last year after a string of management mistakes led to stock availability issues and "arithmetic errors", before beginning to recover this summer. 

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Barclays Hires Former FSA Boss Hector Sants

Barclays has hired the former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Hector Sants, as its head of compliance.

The bank's interest in Mr Sants, which was exclusively revealed by Sky's City Editor Mark Kleinman last week, emerged soon after news that accounting firm Deloitte had held talks with him over the prospect of a new job.

Kleinman said then that taking a Barclays role would be seen as significantly more controversial than a move to Deloitte, given the bank's involvement in the Libor-fixing scandal this year.

Mr Sants stepped down from the FSA in June, the same month in which the regulator fined Barclays £59.5m for manipulating the interbank borrowing rate Libor.

In September, Mr Sants released correspondence with Barclays to Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, in which it emerged that he had raised profound concerns about the culture and governance arrangements at Barclays when Bob Diamond was appointed as the bank's chief executive in 2010.

Kleinman learned that Antony Jenkins, who replaced Mr Diamond as CEO, was keen to recruit Mr Sants to bolster the status of Barclays' compliance and regulatory oversight functions and make them integral to the way the bank operates.

Mr Jenkins is due to present his strategy for Barclays to the City in February on the day of its 2012 results. The new boss of Barclays has stated publicly his desire for it to become the "go-to bank" in terms of the ethical standards with which it conducts its business.

The move effectively sees Mr Sants swap sides from one of the regulator to being the first point of contact at Barclays on regulatory matters.

The role will also include him policing trading activities.

He said today: "I left the FSA with the intention of finding a role which would allow me to put into practice the experience I have gained in both the public and private sector.

"Taking on the responsibility of leading Barclays global compliance function, and overseeing the bank's relationships with governments and regulators, gives me that opportunity.

"I am delighted to have been asked by Antony Jenkins to create and implement a new compliance concept and approach which will be central to the cultural change which is already underway at the bank."

Barclays share price was 1% higher shortly after the announcement was made.

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Youth Unemployment Falls Amid Jobs Record

There has been the biggest quarterly fall in unemployment for a decade amid a welcome drop in the number of young people without work.

The Office for National Statistics said unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds fell by 72,000 to 945,000 in the three months to October.

It helped drive a fall of 82,000 in the total jobless total to 2.51 million - with a record number of people now in work after what the ONS said was the biggest quarterly fall in unemployment since the spring of 2001.

The jobless total was down by 128,000 on a year ago.

Employment jumped by 40,000 to 29.6 million, the highest figure since records began in 1971 and up by half a million on a year ago.

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell unexpectedly in November by 3,000 to 1.58 million following rises in the previous two months. Analysts had expected an increase of 7,000.

The figures highlighted the growing gulf between public and private sector employment as public sector jobs fell for the 12th consecutive quarter, by 24,000 to 5.7 million, the lowest since 2002.

Employment in the civil service was cut by 3,000 to 455,000, the lowest since records began in 1999, while local government employment also fell to a record low of 2.5 million after a cut of 32,000.

Private sector employment rose by 65,000 in the latest quarter to 23.8 million, the highest on record.

That figure was seized on by employment minister Mark Hoban as proof that the Government is delivering on its economic programme.

He told Sky News: "Cynics were saying the private sector wouldn't step up to the plate, they wouldn't create the jobs ...to offset losses in the public sector but we've seen in the last year an extra half a million people in work."

But Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, claimed that the Government's handling of the economy meant that millions of families faced another miserable Christmas with "little hope of things getting better".

He said: "Instead of the recovery the Government inherited in 2010, the economy faces a triple dip recession due to the failed and futile attempt to deflate their way to growth."

At Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, the Labour leader Ed Miliband welcomed the fall in unemployment but highlighted stubborn long-term unemployment and sought assurances from David Cameron that more would be done to tackle it.

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Cameron Hopes 'Every Little Helps'

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The chief executives of Diageo and J Sainsbury, two of Britain's most successful companies, are to step down as advisers to David Cameron amid growing private sector scepticism over the Coalition's efforts to revive the economy.

I have learned that Paul Walsh and Justin King, who run the drinks company and supermarket chain respectively, will relinquish their roles on the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group as part of a wider shake-up of its membership.

I also understand that Philip Clarke, the chief executive of Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, will be among the new members joining the advisory group when the revamp is announced by Downing Street in the new year.

The overhaul of Mr Cameron's advisers comes at a sensitive time for relations between the Government and the business community. Last week's autumn statement was welcomed by business leaders for unveiling an additional 1 per cent cut in the headline rate of corporation tax but condemned for its raid on savers' pension funds and other measures that employment groups warned would do little to stimulate the economy.

The removal of Mr King from the group will raise eyebrows given his track record as one of the country's most respected businessmen.

He has been a vocal critic of a number of Government policies, including recent proposals made by George Osborne, the Chancellor, to allow company workers to trade employment rights for share ownership. Mr King also advocated the introduction of a national insurance holiday to support job creation.

Insiders pointed out that both Diageo and Sainsbury's had been ranked among Britain's most admired companies in 2012 in a survey published last week by Management Today magazine.

"It does send a rather odd message," one insider said today.

Another observer suggested that Mr Cameron risked "scoring an own goal" over the changes if Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google, remained as an adviser while British executives were allowed to depart.

The ongoing row over the low levels of corporation tax paid by some overseas multinationals, including Google, has left ministers open to criticism that they are doing too little to level the playing field for British companies despite reforms announced last week by Mr Osborne.

A Downing Street source insisted that the changes would be "routine" and that membership of the group was always intended to be the subject of regular reviews.

A number of other members of the advisory panel are expected to make way for new names, according to insiders.

Other existing members of the group include Angela Ahrendts, chief executive of Burberry; Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Group; Sir Roger Carr, chairman of Centrica and president of the CBI; and Dick Olver, chairman of BAE Systems.

The advisory committee meets on a quarterly basis and continues a format employed by Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister.

Announcing the formation of the group in October 2010, Mr Cameron said:

"The Deputy Prime Minister and I want to make sure the Government is getting really good high level advice from some of Britain's leading business men and women. Having an advisory group with a range of experience and expertise should ensure that there is real interaction and discussion.

"It is vital that we get these policies right as we take forward our plans to drive down the deficit and transform our economy. Our prize will be balanced growth, getting Britain working and ensuring our whole country shares in rising prosperity."

A spokesman for Number Ten and the companies involved all declined to comment.

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Mick Jagger Love Letters Sell For £187,000

Passionate letters sent by Mick Jagger to his secret lover in the summer of 1969 have sold for £187,250.

The Rolling Stones front man penned the love notes - which include song lyrics and a band playlist - to singer Marsha Hunt in the summer of 1969.

The American, who was the inspiration for the 1971 Stones hit Brown Sugar, had expected to receive between £70,000 and £100,000 for the 10 letters.

After the sale, Hunt said: "The passage of time has given these letters a place in our cultural history.

"1969 saw the ebbing of a crucial, revolutionary era, highly influenced by such artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown and Bob Dylan.

"Their inner thoughts should not be the property of only their families, but the public at large, to reveal who these influential artists were - not as commercial images, but their private selves."

The auction house's books specialist Gabriel Heaton said: "These beautifully written and lyrical letters from the heart of the cultural and social revolution of 1969 frame a vivid moment in cultural history.

"Here we see Mick Jagger not as the global superstar he has become, but as a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests."

The letters were penned by Jagger while filming Ned Kelly in Australia, at a time when his relationship with Ms Hunt was a closely-guarded secret.

In a separate auction, Bonhams has been tasked with auctioning the Beatles collection, once owned by the legendary band's lead guitarist George Harrison.

His leather jacket - worn on stage during the early 1960s in Hamburg and The Cavern Club - has an estimate of between £90,000 and £120,000.

Also up for grabs is a pair of Harrison's custom-made leather boots from around 1964, and an orange shirt worn during his famous charity event, the Concert For Bangladesh in 1971.

Bonham's director of entertainment memorabilia, Stephanie Connell, said: "This leather jacket is instantly recognisable and was an important part of the Beatles' image in their early years.

"It is extremely exciting to see such an iconic part of Beatles history emerge onto the market, this fresh piece of important music memorabilia never offered at auction before is sure to garner significant interest during the sale."

A guitar used by Sir Paul McCartney in the 1950s - before the Beatles formed - will also go up for sale, with an estimate of between £20,000 and £30,000.

And a collection of photographic negatives of the iconic band could fetch up to £50,000.

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Household Spending Up But Families Get Less

The average UK household spent £483.60 a week in 2011 - the highest amount ever recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Last year's level was £10 higher than in 2010, due in part to increases in transport and housing costs.

However, although the average family's weekly spend hit a record high in cash terms last year, it actually fell when adjusted for inflation.

British households spent £498.20 in 2010 when adjusted for inflation, which means spending fell in real terms by 2.9% the following year.

In cash terms, the highest spend in 2011 was on transport, which rose by 80p to £65.70 per week, driven by hikes in petrol and diesel prices.

Rents rose by 70p to cost families' £40.60 a week in 2011

A rise in spending on cinema tickets, leisure classes and sporting events meant that recreation took up the next highest chunk of families' spending, at almost £64 a week.

Housing, fuel and power represented the third largest amount of households' spending at £63.30 a week in 2011 - a weekly increase of £2.90.

Rents were up by 70p to reach £40.60 and average spending on electricity, gas and other fuels was £22.10 per week - another increase of 70p.

But some types of household expenditure fell in 2011.

Spending on household goods and services was down by £4.10 to £27.30 a week, mainly due to a significant drop in the number of people buying furniture and clothing.

There was a small fall in expenditure on audio-visual equipment - including computers - which edged down by 90p to £6.30 a week.

London had the highest average spend - at £574.90 - driven by high housing and fuel costs.

Spending on audio-visual equipment - including computers - fell last year

Weekly spending was lowest in the North East, where the total came to £384.20, Wales with £398.20 and Yorkshire and the Humber with £410.10.

The ONS said there were "notable differences" in the way people of different incomes chose to spend their money.

The 10% of households with the lowest incomes spent a significantly larger proportion of their weekly total on housing, fuel and power, and food and non-alcoholic drinks than the 10% with the highest incomes. 

Better-off households spent a greater proportion on transport and recreation and culture. 

Differences in income also had an impact on internet access - with just four out of 10 low income families having the internet at home, compared with 99% of the highest income households.

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Sir Philip Green Sells Topshop Stake

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Sir Philip Green, the high street billionaire, is to sell a chunk of his burgeoning Topshop empire to outside investors in a move that will cement his reputation as one of Britain's most successful businessmen.

I can exclusively reveal that Sir Philip is in advanced talks about selling a stake of up to 25% of Topman and Topshop. The deal, which is not yet finalised, is expected to value the two chains at close to £1bn, confirming their status as the most lucrative franchises in British fashion.

If completed, the spectacular move will add credence to Sir Philip's ambition of becoming a global retail magnate and will represent the latest in a string of deals which have transformed him as the most powerful man in the UK fashion business.

The buyer of the stake in Topshop and Topman, which will be ring-fenced from the rest of Sir Philip's fashion businesses as part of the transaction, is understood to be one of the joint owners of J Crew, the American clothing business.

Sources close to the talks said the deal was yet to be finalised but that an agreement could be announced as early as this week.

J Crew is owned by Leonard Green & Partners (LGP) and TPG Capital, two big American private equity firms which between them have backed companies such as Debenhams, the department store chain, and Neiman Marcus, the upmarket American retailer.

People close to the situation said that LGP, which is based in Los Angeles, had been in talks with Sir Philip about making an investment in Topshop for some time.

LGP also owns companies in the banking, consumer products and healthcare industries, and this year announced that it had raised a fund of $6.25bn to invest in the coming years.

TPG and LGP bought J Crew for about $3bn in November 2010. J Crew is run by Millard 'Mickey' Drexler, the former chief executive of Gap, one of the most successful US fashion exports of the past 25 years.

The spectacular deal to sell a stake in Topshop will be Sir Philip's most significant business transaction since he failed with his second attempt to buy Marks & Spencer eight years ago.

Since then, the women's fashion chain has enjoyed a period of soaring growth fuelled by its knack of producing on-trend clothing at affordable prices. Its partnership with the supermodel Kate Moss has also kept Topshop in the tabloid headlines and raised the profile of Sir Philip's business.

Sir Philip's latest deal will also mark a decade since he created the Arcadia fashion business following an £800m takeover that set him on the path to becoming one of Britain's wealthiest people. The Sunday Times Rich List reported this year that Sir Philip and wife Tina, the legal owner of the business, were worth £3.3bn.

Arcadia's six other brands, which include Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, will not be included in the transaction, according to people close to the discussions.

The funds from the stake sale will be used to accelerate Top Shop's international expansion. Sir Philip has been in talks with a wide range of potential investors and partners for several years as he targeted growth in the US and Asia.

Topshop outlets in the US have performed well since flagship stores opened in Chicago, Las Vegas and New York, fuelling the billionaire's ambition to open shops in a much larger number of markets. Earlier this year, he struck a deal with Nordstrom, the New York-listed department store chain, to sell Topshop and Topman-branded clothing in up to 100 outlets.

Sir Philip is understood to be determined that his staff do not see the sale of a stake in Topshop as undermining his commitment to the rest of his brands.

Arcadia employs 43,000 people and is one of Britain's biggest private sector employers. Sir Philip has defended the company's tax arrangements amid the escalating row over corporate taxes because the business is owned by his Monaco-based wife.

He pointed out last month that Arcadia had paid more than £2bn in tax since he acquired the business, including £591m in corporation tax.

Announcing Arcadia's annual results last month, Sir Philip said pre-tax profit had increased before exceptional items from £133.1m to £166.9m in the year to August 25.

Sir Philip also owns the BhS chain, which has struggled amid tough trading conditions on the high street. He has explored a sale of the chain in the past.

Goldman Sachs, Sir Philip's long-standing City adviser, is understood to have been working on the deal to sell a stake in Topshop for at least six months.

Sir Philip refused to comment on the talks to bring a new investor into Topshop and Topman on Tuesday night. LGP could not be reached for comment.

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Ex-FSA Chief Sants In Talks With Deloitte

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) risks igniting a conflict of interest row by entering negotiations about a job with Deloitte, the accounting firm, just months after he left the City regulator.

I have learned that Hector Sants, who stepped down from the FSA in June, is in talks to become an equity partner at Deloitte. If he accepts the post, he would advise clients across a range of industries including in banking and financial services, insiders said today.

Deloitte, one of the 'big four' accounting firms, has made Mr Sants an offer but he has not yet accepted it and his appointment could fall through, according to people close to the discussions.

People close to Mr Sants said that he was considering a number of options and would not make up his mind about his next move until a period of gardening leave expired at the end of the month.

If he does opt to join Deloitte, it could be controversial given the amount of FSA work channelled through the big accountancy practices in recent years.

Deloitte's rivals were paid millions of pounds for assisting with widely-derided inquiries into the banking crisis, although it is unclear how much Deloitte itself made in fees from the regulator during Mr Sants' five years in charge.

Mr Sants is widely-regarded as an ethical individual whose personal conduct during his career has been beyond reproach.

It is unclear how much Mr Sants would be paid by Deloitte but he would be expected to rejoin the ranks of well-rewarded executives as a member of the partnership at one of the City's most profitable professional services firms.

If he does take the Deloitte role, Mr Sants would be the latest in a string of former executives from the City regulator to accept lucrative posts in the City.

Jon Pain, who headed the FSA's supervisory division, joined KPMG, another member of the 'big four', as a partner in its regulatory practice. Margaret Cole, the head of enforcement at the FSA, now works for PricewaterhouseCoopers, a third member of the powerful quartet.

Mr Sants would also be joining Deloitte at a time when the accounting profession is under intense scrutiny regarding the dominance of its audit work for FTSE-100 companies and across other areas such as tax planning and remuneration consulting.

Prior to joining the FSA in 2004, Mr Sants was an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston. He arrived at the regulator during the era of light-touch banking regulation that preceded the crisis of 2008, with banks allowed to operate with minimal oversight and wafer-thin capital levels.

Mr Sants was promoted to be chief executive of the FSA in July 2007, with one of his first decisions being not to raise objections to the takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro by a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

It was that deal that exacerbated the funding crisis at RBS and led to the bank requiring a £45bn rescue by British taxpayers, along with massive amounts of other Government support.

In 2010, Mr Sants resigned from the FSA following the new Coalition Government's decision to abolish the FSA and fold its responsibilities into two new bodies, one of which will be overseen by the Bank of England.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, persuaded him to stay on as a deputy governor of the central bank while overseeing the FSA's transition to the new regulatory framework.

Mr Sants, who resigned for the second time in March, could not be reached for comment today. Deloitte declined to comment.

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Tesco Confirms It Could Pull Out Of US

Tesco has confirmed a review of its loss-making US operations with "all options under consideration" as it attempts to convince the City on its wider turnaround plans.

The move, which was exclusively revealed by Sky's City Editor Mark Kleinman last night, prompted a 4.6% surge in its share price in early trading.

The plan could see Britain's biggest retailer either close or sell all of its American stores, which trade under the Fresh & Easy brand

Tim Mason, the chief executive of Fresh & Easy, is to leave the company today after a career of over 30 years, Tesco said.

Tesco confirmed too that its battle to retain strong market dominance in the UK remained strained as like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and VAT, fell 0.6% in the third quarter - figures which pile more pressure on the supermarket giant's boss, Philip Clarke.

In his statement confirming the review, Mr Clarke said: "My role is to deliver long-term value for shareholders. Following a year in which my priority for Fresh & Easy was to improve its performance, I have now made a fully informed assessment of its long term potential.

"Whilst the business has many positives, its journey to scale and acceptable returns will take too long relative to other opportunities. I have therefore decided to conduct a strategic review of Fresh & Easy with all options under consideration."

Fresh & Easy currently operates approximately 200 stores employing 5,000 people.

The brand was launched in 2007 but has never made a profit, losing several hundred million pounds overall - £74m in the first half of this year alone.

Kleinman reported that Mr Clarke was already under pressure because of the group's sluggish performance in its home market which resulted in a £1bn transformation programme focused on improving customer service and the availability of fresh produce.

While Tesco had been treading water under its new boss, rivals including J Sainsbury and Waitrose have been performing strongly though there are signs of progress with grocery sales growth outperforming the market.

Regarding Tesco's turnaround attempts, Mr Clarke said today: "I am pleased with the performance of our food business in the UK.

"Our six-part plan is about improving the shopping trip for customers for the long term and this is a positive early sign. We've now refreshed nearly 300 stores, upgraded or introduced well over 3,000 products and added innovations such as Delivery Saver to our already successful online grocery business."

He described general merchandise sales as "not good enough".

Despite the tough non-food trading, Tesco's fightback against its resurgent rivals has not gone unrewarded as market share data from Kantar Worldpanel on Tuesday revealed that Tesco had seen the best sales growth of the "big four" players in the four weeks to November 25 and grew its market share.

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TV Manufacturers Fined For Price Fixing

Six television manufacturers have been fined a record 1.47bn euros (£1.2bn) by EU competition regulators for fixing the price of a key component.

Philips, LG Electronics and Samsung SDI are among those firms affected by the case, which examined the prices of TV cathode ray tubes in two cartels lasting nearly a decade, European Commission (EC) investigators said.

The biggest penalty of 313.4m euros (£254m) was imposed on Dutch-based Philips, and LG was hit with the second-largest fine of 295.6m euros (£240.4m).

The EC said the other companies involved were Panasonic, Toshiba and France's Technicolor.

Taiwanese firm Chunghwa Picture Tubes blew the whistle on the price-fixing and escaped a fine.

The two cartels - one of which involved tubes used for televisions and the other for computer monitors - operated across the world between 1996 and 2006.

During this period, the EC said executives from the companies would discuss how to fix prices at so-called "green meetings", which regularly ended with a round of golf.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement: "These cartels for cathode ray tubes are 'textbook cartels': they feature all the worst kinds of anti-competitive behaviour that are strictly forbidden to companies doing business in Europe."

The violations were especially harmful for consumers because cathode ray tubes make-up between 50% and 70% of the total price of a screen, he added.

Cathode ray tubes - which use an electron beam to create the images - have largely been superseded by new display technologies including liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma displays.

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Starbucks Close To Deal On Paying More Tax

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Starbucks will try to end the damaging row over its UK tax affairs by striking a deal with the Government that it believes will involve paying a comparable level of corporation tax to Costa Coffee, the British-based chain.

The US-owned coffee shops group is close to agreeing with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) a binding agreement over its UK corporate and tax structures.

The new terms could land Starbucks with a corporation tax bill of in the region of £10m for the current financial year.

In the 14 years since arriving in the UK, the chain has paid just £8.6m in corporation tax.

I have learned that the two sides have been in discussions about whether the agreement will be backdated as a gesture from Starbucks that would reflect its concern over the impact of the recent row on its image among British customers.

Sources close to the talks said that a retrospective application of the new structure was now unlikely.

A full statement will be made by Starbucks before the end of the week.

The company is unlikely to refer directly to Costa's tax bill, but insiders said that it had been "a reference point" in talks between Starbucks and the Government.

Tax experts questioned the premise of that discussion because Whitbread, Costa's owner, operates under a different tax structure.

In 2010-11, Costa paid around £15m in UK tax, while a year later it is expected to have paid £18m.

Costa has about 1479 shops in the UK, some of which are run by franchisees, while Starbucks owns approximately 720.

Multinationals with large operations in Britain, including Amazon and Google, have faced intense criticism in recent weeks over their minuscule UK tax bills.

The light tax burdens have been generated by a practice called transfer pricing, which involves charges being made by companies in the same group based in different jurisdictions, with the effect of depressing profits in the higher-tax jurisdiction.

In Starbucks' case, that relates to the royalty fee paid to a sister company in the Netherlands for the right to use its brand and coffee recipe.

Earlier this week, the Chancellor committed £77m of additional funding to combat tax avoidance and evasion.

The Treasury and Starbucks declined to comment.

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Olympic Stadium: West Ham Poised To Take Over

West Ham United are poised to win the battle for the Olympic stadium after being named as "first ranked" bidder to take over the venue.

The London Legacy Development Corporation board (LLDC) unanimously made the decision in favour of the Premier League club ahead of rivals from Intelligent Transport Services in association with Formula One, UCFB College of Football Business and Leyton Orient.

London Mayor and LLDC chairman Boris Johnson said: "We had four good bids, as everybody knows. The bid that has been ranked top is West Ham United. I am very pleased about that.

"It will, if it goes through, mean a football legacy for the stadium but there is still a lot of negotiation to go on between the LLDC and West Ham United about the terms of the deal."

If the move goes ahead, West Ham would move from their Upton Park home, but the new stadium is not expected to open before August 2015 at the earliest.

The main issue still to be resolved is how future commercial windfalls from the £468m stadium will be split.

West Ham's owners David Sullivan and David Gold will be expected to share the profits from any future sale of the club to ensure the taxpayer is not left out of pocket.

The deal would see West Ham leave their Upton Park home

Other undecided factors include adaptations to the stadium and who bears the cost, and gaining planning permission and appropriate national governing body approvals.

If football use can be agreed, the stadium would be reconfigured to provide retractable and moveable seating so there could be a quick changeover between athletics and football use.

That work is expected to cost £130-£150m, with the bulk funded by public money, including a £40m loan from Newham Council, the local authority.

Mr Johnson said: "There is no deal-breaker as such - it is just a question of making sure that an asset which is a public asset and something that taxpayers put half a billion pounds into, that the value of that is properly reflected in the commercial deal that is now being done with a private sector entity.

West Ham's David Gold and Karren Brady welcomed the decision

"People will understand that my job is to get the best possible deal for the taxpayer."

West Ham said the LLDC's decision "guarantees a true and lasting legacy for east London and the best possible outcome for the British taxpayer".

Vice-chairman Karren Brady said the stadium could become a "multi-use destination of which east London and the nation as a whole can be proud".

"I have never lost sight of our vision to play our part, along with the Stadium's major stakeholders, in ensuring it grows into a global asset. It is the 'jewel in the crown' of the Park, watched by the world," she added.

A previous deal for West Ham to take up the lease collapsed in October 2011 due to legal challenges from Leyton Orient and Tottenham Hotspur.

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