Barclays Share News (BARC)

Property investors are gearing up for court showdowns with Britain's banks over claims that they were mis-sold billions of pounds in complex interest rate derivatives. Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland are facing legal claims from property groups totalling more than £1.5bn, based on research conducted by The Times of the biggest upcoming potential lawsuits. - The Times Workers in the UK are cheaper to hire than their counterparts in Italy or Spain as stagnant or falling wages continue to erode British pay packets, official figures reveal. UK workers have endured years of poor wage growth, which is starting to turn the UK into a 'low-cost country' among many of its European neighbours. The average cost of employing someone in the UK remained unchanged at €20.90 an hour last year - significantly below the EU average of €23.70. - Daily Mail The prospect of political upheaval over the next year will hinder economic growth, according to Deloitte. The accountancy firm said that fallout from the Scottish independence referendum next month, the build-up to the general election in the spring and a potential referendum on European Union membership would put a dampener on the economy at the start of 2015. - The Times An independent Scotland should walk away from its share of the UK's national debt if Westminster continues to refuse a sterling union, one of the Yes campaign's leading economic gurus has advised. "Britain inherits the debt," said Sir James Mirrlees, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and a prestigious figure on Scotland's Council of Economic Advisers. - The Daily TelegraphThe Labour party believes the rules covering fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - for gas are not tight enough and will attempt to strengthen regulation of the controversial drilling method by tabling a series of amendments to the infrastructure bill in the House of Lords on Tuesday. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) says there are adequate safeguards covering drilling for shale gas under existing rules or voluntary agreements. - The Guardian Seventeen years after he led a £236m buyout of Gala Bingo from the old Bass brewing empire, John Kelly is trying to do it again. The gaming industry veteran is understood to have teamed up with Park Square Capital, an investment firm, to launch a bid to buy back Britain's biggest bingo club chain for as much as £300m. - The TimesAB