UK mortgage approvals lowest since December 2023; diesel hits new record high near £2 a litre – business live

Smart ring maker Oura postpones IPO due to market 'uncertainty'

Warning more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk

Aviva boss Amanda Blanc said England was "for sure" building homes that might be uninsurable at some point in the future.

Meta launches Muse for Small Business as Zuckerberg pushes beyond consumer AI market

Following the success of its Muse personal AI agent, Meta is introducing a specialized version for small businesses.

Oil prices flat as Middle East supply concerns persist

The U.S. and Iran are reportedly talking separately to mediators as part of renewed efforts to end the conflict, with regional mediators seeking negotiations.

New UK homes in flood-risk areas could become uninsurable, says Aviva boss

Amanda Blanc says flooding threat is ‘absolutely increasing’, as she also warns ministers over ‘kite flying’ before budget Business live – latest updates The boss of Britain’s biggest insurer has warned that homes being built now could become uninsurable in the future because they are sited in flood-risk areas. Amanda Blanc, the chief executive of Aviva, said the flooding threat was “absolutely increasing”. Assuming current construction patterns continue, 115,000 homes will be built in flood zones in the next decade. Continue reading...

On the rocks? Scotch distilleries pause production as unsold ‘whisky loch’ grows

Demand for Scotland’s most famous export has slumped, with industry facing job cuts and closures Obscured by the Scottish countryside on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy, Cluny bond is, in effect, a small town built to store whisky. By the time the latest set of warehouses are finished on the former opencast coal mine, Diageo’s 220-hectare (544-acre) maturation campus will be able to store almost 3m casks of Scotch. The drinks multinational needs the space. After a 15-year boom turbocharged by the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for Scotch whisky has slumped around the world. Distilleries have paused production across Scotland to avoid adding to the glut of supply, known as a “whisky loch” – the equivalent of a “wine lake”. Continue reading...