BUSINESS LIVE: House prices up 4.3%; Virgin Money takeover given green light; Berkeley on track to hit guidance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been pressed to not increase fuel duty in the upcoming Autumn Budget with the warning it would have a ‘devastating impact on the economy and society’s most vulnerable’.

The AA says there is overwhelming evidence that any increase in road fuel taxation would not just impact drivers, but be a hammer blow to low-income household budgets and the voluntary care sector as it called for it to remain frozen for a 15th consecutive year.

Accountancy firm PwC is to begin tracking its employees’ locations and insist they are at their desk at least three days a week in a crackdown on office attendance.

The firm informed its 26,000 UK employees that from January it would start tracking their working location.

Remember the Royal Mail? It was back on May 15, when the Tories were in Downing Street, that the flaccid board of International Distribution Services (IDS), owner of the Royal Mail, decided to hand the keys of Britain’s 500-year-old postal service to a Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his shadowy Slovakian backers J&T.

The Royal Mail is a company in difficulty, faced with a fast-shrinking market for the letter post, competition from ambitious rivals and a tortured relation with the Communication Workers Union.

Business leaders yesterday warned Labour that hobbling the UK with tax hikes would leave it at a disadvantage to international rivals.

The boss of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market has urged the new Labour Government to be ‘sensible’ as speculation swirls over possible rises in capital gains tax, inheritance tax and National Insurance paid by employers – and a raid on pension savings.

Primark suffered a summer washout as wet weather hit sales.

The clothing giant said the rain made it harder to shift everything from flip-flops and T-shirts to light dresses and shorts over the past three months.

Several AstraZeneca staff are under investigation in China for allegedly breaking the law.

The UK pharma giant said five current and former workers were being questioned.

House prices rose in August, according to Halifax, recording the biggest annual increase for almost two years.

The mortgage lender revealed that house prices increased by 0.3 per cent last month after a bumper 0.9 per cent rise in July.

Santander is latest major bank to announce a wave of mortgage rate cuts.

From tomorrow, the lender will be reducing a number of fixed rate deals for both new and existing borrowers, by as much as 0.32 percentage points.