UK Business News

BA to clip wings of short-haul fleet

Gatwick to bear the brunt of cutbacks with fuel costs grounding 20% of short-haul flights as airline follows budget rivals' streamlining

• BA executives face price-fixing charges

• EasyJet profits to slide 43% as fuel costs bite

Carter Jonas and Dreweatt Neate to merge

Mayfair meets Newbury as estate agents join forces to create business with annual revenues of £35m

• Home sales fall to lowest level in 30 years

Brown plugs into future of electric cars

Prime minister pledges £90m of government support for electric, hybrid and environmentally clean car projects

• Motor Show goes green

Network Rail braced for governance inquiry

KPMG consultancy expected to question how board is held to account and demand transparency on management bonuses

• Rail chief receives £500,000 bonus

World Business News

Global scale fuels profits at Reckitt Benckiser

Chief executive Bart Becht — the best paid boss in the FTSE 100 with a package of £22m — keeps a low profile while his 17 power brands do the talking

Swiss Re in talks to buy Barclays life insurance arm

Swiss giant is close to deal to buy division from bank with more than £7 billion under management and 70,000 policyholders

Unilever in search for new chief executive

Four top executives battle to replace Patrick Cescau at the helm of the £41 billion Anglo-Dutch consumer giant behind Persil and Flora

• Unilever sells Bertolli to Spanish Grupo SOS

BVT chairman John Parker says shipbuilder can be a world-beater

The joint venture uniting naval yards owned by BAE Systems and VT Group hopes to expand beyond its £4 billion aircraft carrier contract

Analysis

Get used to volatility: the hedgies are in control

The days of the fund managers controlling the destiny of our corporate giants are long gone

• Traders head for hedge funds

• Hedge funds post worst first half since records

Can the economy grow even if consumers wilt?

The fall in the oil price from farcical to merely ridiculous levels, with other commodity prices easing in tandem, is good news

Wall Street: Save analysts from cry babies

Once they were blamed for puffing stocks outrageously, now brokers are being sued for speculating that banks might fail

Money 

Phishing fraud on the rise

Bank customers using the internet are increasingly at risk from an array of sophisticated scams

• Facebook bonanza for ID thieves

• Who will cover the cost of your stolen identity?

Tax tips for getting through the crunch

With record inflation and huge increases in the cost of servicing mortgage debt, consumers are feeling the pinch

• Credit crunch: the Times jury

• Credit crunch hits homes in the sun

The remortgage diaries

Follow the progress of three families desperately searching for new home loans amidst the credit crunch

Law 

Human rights lawyer to be new chief prosecutor

Keir Starmer is to take over from Sir Ken Macdonald in the high profile role of Director of Public Prosecutions

• Anonymity changes may not save trials

• DPP: longer terror detention 'not needed'

Buncefield damage 'was foreseeable'

Total UK has backed down again as it prepares to fight £1bn in claims over Britain's biggest peacetime explosion

• Buncefield drama relived on the web

• Oil companies criticised over slow compensation for blast

Mosley opens new front in battle for privacy

Max Mosley’s lawyers prepare to bring libel actions that could reap him hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages

business travel 

When business trips get dangerous

Despite new legislation on corporate responsibility, many firms show a worrying disregard for their business travellers

Review: Wyndham Grand Chelsea Harbour

This all-suite five-star property is right by the Thames between Heathrow and the City

Profile: Dominic Lowe of Green & Black's

How does the boss of a company which wears its green credentials on its sleeve justify travelling around the world on business?