Here are the business stories making headlines across the UK this morning.
Scotland sees biggest rise in people working from home
Working from home stuck around more in Scotland than other parts of the UK even as Covid-19 restrictions eased, figures show.
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that the number of people working from home between January and March this year had more than doubled compared to before the pandemic.
Between October and December 2019 there were 4.7 million people working from home, the ONS said. In the first three months of this year, 9.9 million people used their homes as their workplaces.
There was a lot of variation across different parts of the country. In Scotland homeworking increased nearly 204% as more than half a million more people were working from home, according to The Independent.
Multi-billion pound plans to decarbonise ‘every platform in North Sea’
A pioneering offshore wind firm has unveiled details of its multi-billion pound plans aimed at decarbonising “every platform” sitting in Scottish waters of the North Sea.
The Press & Journal reports that Cerulean Winds is making a bid for four huge gigawatt-scale sites from Crown Estate Scotland when an auction process opens in August, expected to cost around £6 billion each.
If successful in the so-called Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (Intog) leasing process, the company expects it will spend around £6 billion on each site.
Futher the company estimates the work would create over 10,000 UK jobs, with the majority of these in Scotland. It further pledges that “full fabrication and assembly” of the wind turbine towers and foundations will take place in Britain.
Small firms ‘mistreated’ by lenders, FCA finds
The City regulator has ordered bank boards to step in and improve the way struggling small business borrowers are handled after uncovering widespread mistreatment of companies across the banking industry.
The Times reports that a Financial Conduct Authority review of 11 banks’ handling of borrowers who are in financial difficulty, including those struggling to repay taxpayer-backed pandemic loans, found “repeated instances of poor customer outcomes and failures to treat customers fairly”.
The regulator has today written to the boards of all banks with SME customers to outline its concerns and disappointment over issues such as recordkeeping and 'indications that vulnerable customers were being ignored or not properly responded to'.
Shell shuts gas plant after strike
Shell has been forced to shut its troubled Prelude floating liquefied natural gas plant as workers escalate a strike over pay.
The oil and gas group was yesterday in the process of halting production at the plant off the coast of Australia after informing customers it would be unable to offload cargoes.
The Times reports that Shell had already been forced to reduce output from Prelude after workers at the floating plant went on strike last month.
The latest strike plans effectively prevent tankers being moored alongside the plant to offload cargoes and, with storage facilities on the plant nearing capacity, Shell was forced to shut down production. Strike action is expected to continue until July 21.
Euro tumbles to 20-year low against dollar
The euro tumbled to the brink of parity against the US dollar on Monday as fears grew that Russia will plunge the Continent into darkness by shutting off gas supplies this winter.
The single currency fell to a fresh 20-year low against its US counterpart following the shutdown of Russia's main gas pipeline to Germany for scheduled maintenance.
Experts fear that deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 network will not come back online when repair work ends later this month, plunging Europe’s largest economy into a full-blown energy crisis.
Concerns over an impending economic disaster sent the euro down as much as 1.1pc versus the resurgent dollar to hit $1.0053, the closest the pair have come to parity in two decades. The Telegraph reports that currency analysts predict that the euro will fall further in coming weeks.
First to overhaul Aberdeen depot to make way for electric buses
First Bus has formed plans to revolutionise its Aberdeen fleet, with proposals to overhaul its depot to serve 148 electric vehicles.
Earlier this year, the firm pledged to invest more than £10.5 million in new fully electric and zero-emission buses in the city.
The Press & Journal reports that bosses have now lodged plans with Aberdeen City Council that could pave the way for 148 energy-efficient models to charge at the King Street base.
They would replace the same number of diesel engines, significantly reducing the level of fumes entering the atmosphere.