Barclays Share News (BARC)

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to ditch the auditors that reviewed its accounts before, during and after its £45bn taxpayer bailout, the Daily Telegraph said on Tuesday.The bank said Deloitte, which had conducted audits since 2000, will be replaced by Ernst & Young, which would audit its accounts for the financial year ending December 2016.RBS are not the only bank changing its auditors, with Barclays set to replace PwC, which has audited the bank since 1896, while HSBC has named PwC as its auditor to replace KPMG which had been in place since 1991.Robert Hannigan, the new chief of Britain's electronic spying agency, GCHQ, has accused US technology companies of aiding terrorist groups, the Financial Times reported.On his first day in the office, Hannigan has accused US tech firms of becoming "the command and control networks of choice" for terrorists, adding the companies were "in denial" about the misuse of their services, though he reiterated tech companies must work closely with intelligence agencies."However much they may dislike it, they have become the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals, who find their services as transformational as the rest of us," Hannigan said.House prices outside London are still 16% below their 2007 peak and have only just recovered to the level they hit 10 years ago, according to The Guardian.According to an analysis of September's Land Registry data by property investment firm London Central Portfolio, while average prices in England and Wales reached £177,299 during the month, once greater London's market is omitted from the equation, the figure stands at £133,538.The level is 16% lower than in December 2007, when homes were being bought for an average of £158,494, and the typical price paid in 2004, when the last boom was under way.George Osborne dismissed as "speculation" reports that Angela Merkel would rather see the UK leave the European Union (EU) than change freedom of movement rules, The Times has said.The chancellor insisted that Britain's national interest will form the basis of David Cameron's plan to renegotiate EU immigration rules and that the UK government continued to enjoy a healthy relationship with Berlin.United Biscuits, the maker of Jaffa Cakes and McVitie's, has been sold to Turkish food group Yildiz in a deal worth £2bn, writes The Guardian. The takeover will create the world's third-biggest biscuit manufacturer.The Telegraph has cited research that claims that the UK's struggling supermarkets face as much as a 40% increase in business rates due to the revaluation of Britain's property scheduled for next year.