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International students splash out £600 million in rent on flats in London: London’s international student population is contributing £600 million in rent to the capital, new research shows, with some of the wealthiest students spending three times the average U.K worker on their home.

North Sea oil and gas companies to slash investment after worst performance since 1976: Oil and gas firms could slash investment in the North Sea by more than £10 billion annually over the next three years after incurring their worst cash flow deficit since 1976 amid the crude price plunge, experts have warned.

U.K living wage: on the battlefield: You may not know it, but one way or the other you are taking part in a three-way fight. In one corner of the triangle sit a company’s customers. In another sit its suppliers (largely — but not only — the staff). In the third sit shareholders. All want to extract as much as possible from the company in the middle. Seconds out, round one. In the U.K, the referee has intervened in the fracas. The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in July the introduction of a so-called living wage — staff over the age of 25 will have to be paid at least £7.20 per hour from next April, rising to £9 by 2020, against the current minimum wage of £6.50. A victory, surely, for the staff. Customers and the shareholders will hurt. On Tuesday there were the first indications of just how much. Whitbread, which runs Costa Coffee shops and Premier Inn hotels, employs 42,000 people on hourly wages. Of them, 16,000 are in line for a pay rise under the new rules. That will add £15 million-£20 million to the group’s £460 million annual wage bill. Whitbread plans to offset the increase by improving efficiency and passing some of the higher costs on to customers in the form of price increases. In this case, the minimum wage starts to look good for the staff, bad for the customers and neutral for the shareholders. The shareholders were not so sure though — Whitbread’s shares slipped 2%.

Plunge in North Sea investment predicted: Capital investment in the North Sea will have halved in two years, warns a report that lays bare the impact of the oil price slump on one of Britain’s biggest industries.

Help to Buy lays the foundations for record profits at housebuilder: The Government’s Help to Buy scheme has propelled housebuilder Redrow to record profits – and another payday for its multimillionaire founder Steve Morgan.

Woodside in Aus$8 billion bid for Oil Search: Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s biggest independent oil producer, has made an $8 billion bid for Oil Search, to bolster its access to vast gas deposits in Papua New Guinea.

Indonesia set rejoin Opec seven years on: Indonesia is set to rejoin the Opec cartel of oil producers this year, seven years after being suspended from the organisation when it became a net oil importer.

Oil price collapse costs 65,000 North Sea jobs: Oil industry Bosses will hold crisis talks today about the future of the North Sea, after new figures showed up to 65,000 jobs have been lost in the U.K since international crude prices collapsed last year.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.48% or $0.24 higher at $49.76 per barrel, ahead of the Energy Information Administration weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract climbed 3.97% or $1.89, to settle at $49.52 per barrel, as it found support from upbeat data on the Euro-zone’s economy and strong export figures for Germany in July.

Berkeley Group was continuing to see stable operating conditions at the half-year mark, prompting the homebuilder to reiterate its medium-term commitments as regards dividends and profits. Normal transaction levels had been maintained across the firm's sites, with the number of underlying reservations in line with last year, the company said in a trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting. Berkeley Group attributed that to good demand fundamentals and a shortage of quality homes on the market. In particular, those steady sales meant the amount of cash due on forward sales over the next three years remained in line with previous guidance. During the period the group continued investing in the acquisition of new sites for development, including one at Battersea and another at West End Green in Paddington. "Since the start of the financial year, Berkeley has continued to invest in the business, contracting to purchase five new sites and further investing in build to deliver the enhanced profitability over the next three years as previously guided," management said. The company maintained its plans to pay an additional 433p per share in dividends by September 2018 through regular equal payments. "Following this positive start to the year", the Board reiterated its previous guidance for aggregate earnings in the region of £2 billion over the three years to 30 April 2018.

Russia is not interested in joining Opec: Russia has no plans to join the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), an oil-producing cartel of mostly Middle Eastern countries, according the to Boss of a major Russian energy company

Chinese buyers look to put cash in London’s ‘safe haven’ property: Economic turmoil in China has led to a jump in the number of Asian investors property hunting in London, according to estate agents

Falling oil prices force Saudi Arabia to cut public spending: Saudi Arabia is to cut back its spending and delay public projects in the face of plunging oil prices, the country’s finance Minister announced

Gazprom’s North Sea deal faces scrutiny: Ministers are to examine a deal that hands Russia’s Gazprom interests in the U.K. North Sea, amid calls for Britain to send “a clear message” to Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.88% or $0.42 higher at $48.05 per barrel, ahead of the American Petroleum Institute weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Meanwhile, Gulf Oil Ministers would hold a meeting in Qatar on Thursday to discuss the ongoing drop in oil prices. Yesterday, the contract declined 3.99% or $1.98, to settle at $47.63 per barrel.

Shortage of homes set to fuel new price boom as figures show enquiries from potential new buyers are surging: There could be another boom in house prices by the end of the year as the supply of homes being put up for sale dwindles.

Bumper payouts for housebuilding Executives as market booms: Two of Britain’s largest housebuilders, Berkeley Group and Persimmon, could hand out about £1 billion to their top Executives and Managers in pay and bonuses over the next six years, boosted by strong U.K. house prices and government-subsidies for home-buyers

Russia flirts with Saudi Arabia as OPEC pain deepens: The OPEC oil cartel cannot withstand the pain of low crude prices indefinitely and may be forced to abandon its pugnacious bid for market share within months, Russia’s Chief energy official has predicted.

U.S. shale oil industry hit by $30 billion outflows: U.S. shale producers reported a cash outflow of more than $30 billion in the first half of the year, in a sign of the challenges facing the U.S.’s once-booming industry as the slump in oil prices begins to take effect

North Sea oil areas at ‘serious risk’ of shutdown: There is a “serious and urgent risk” that parts of the North Sea oil industry will be abandoned unless energy companies join forces to become more efficient, the man in charge of reviving the sector has warned