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Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.

Decommissioning contract for Brae Alpha

Taqa is preparing a lucrative contract for work on one of its major North Sea decommissioning campaigns.

The Abu Dhabi-headquartered national oil company will tender a deal for the Brae Alpha engineering, preparation, removal and disposal project.

Worth in excess of £25million, the contract is expected to land on August 31, according to the Oil and Gas Authority's project pathfinder database.

Energy Voice says the earliest removal date for the Brae Alpha platform, located in the central North Sea, is 2025, while the latest is 2028.

As it stands the topside and jacket, which weigh in at 33,800 tonnes and 20,000 tonnes respectively, will be recycled. The Brae Alpha platform is one of the oldest in the North Sea, having started production in 1983.

Taking action on the global plastic crisis

The world is set to get a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

The BBC says nearly 200 countries have agreed to start negotiations on an international agreement to take action on the plastic crisi".

UN members are tasked with developing an over-arching framework for reducing plastic waste across the world.

There is growing concern that discarded plastic is destroying habitats, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain.

Supporters describe the move as one of the world's most ambitious environmental actions since the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which phased out ozone-depleting substances.

Record rise in the cost of a home

The cost of a typical UK home rose by a record £29,162 in the last year, according to the Nationwide.

The building society said it was the biggest cash increase in property prices since it started collecting comparable data in 1991.

It pushed up the price of an average UK home to £260,230 in February, it said.

The BBC says property values are being driven by continued demand from buyers who are competing for relatively few properties on the market.

The Nationwide, one of the UK's larger mortgage lenders, said that its data suggested UK house prices had risen by 12.6% in the year to the end of February.

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