UK’s housing stock hits ‘highest level in eight years’; FTSE 100 slips as commodity sabong market pulls back – business live

Water access has been restored to most homes in the Tunbridge Wells area after almost a week of disruption, the provider South East Water has said.

The outage began on Saturday, which SEW blamed on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts. It forced many of the affected households in the Tunbridge Wells area to pick up bottled water from makeshift distribution centres and travel out of the area to wash and use flushing toilets.

This morning SEW’s incident manager Matthew Dean has told the Press Association:

Water supplies have now been restored to the 6,500 properties in Tunbridge Wells area.

Some customers may be experiencing low pressure as the water levels continue to build this morning throughout the area’s pipeline network.

Continuous supplies have been restored to the town after we implemented our recovery plan which involved keeping local booster pumps switched off for 36 hours so our drinking water storage tank could fill.

We are very sorry to every single one of our customers who have been affected.

We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is and how difficult it makes everyday life.”

It comes as SEW’s chief executive David Hinton faces criticism over his pay, as he is in line for a £400,000 long-term bonus regardless of his performance.

Hinton is set to receive the online sabong payout if he stays on until July 2030. You can read the full story by my colleagues Jasper Jolly and Helena Horton here:

Meanwhile the regulator Ofwat confirmed this week that it had launched an investigation into whether SEW had “complied with its obligation to provide high standards of customer service and support for its customers”.

Wall Street has found another potential winner from America’s weight-loss drug boom: airlines.

Airlines could end up saving hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel costs, as slimmer passengers mean lighter planes, analysts at the broker Jefferies have said.

A slimmer society equals lower fuel consumption. Airlines have a history of being vigilant around aircraft weight savings, from olives (pitless, of course) to paper stock. Passenger waist lines have thus far been out of their control.

As weight-loss drugs become more accessible and with obesity rates falling, major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta, United and Southwest could be in for big savings, the analysts said.

Together the four airlines are expected to consume 16 billion gallons of fuel this year alone, at an average fuel price of $2.41 per gallon, Jefferies estimated. It gives the airlines a combined fuel bill of nearly $39 billion, or 19% of their total expenses.

Jefferies thinks that a 10% reduction in average passenger weight would lead to roughly 2% total aircraft weight savings, up to 1.5% in lower fuel costs and as much as a 4% boost to earnings per share.

Earlier this month the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk launched the first pill version of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight loss drugs in the US, at a lower cost than jab varieties.

TikTok to strengthen age-verification technology across EU

Mark Sweney

TikTok will begin the rollout of new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow in countries including the UK.

ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young people such as YouTube, are coming under increasing pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children.

The system, which has been quietly piloted in the EU over the past year, analyses profile information, posted videos and behavioural signals to predict whether an account may be belong to a user under the age of 13.

TikTok said accounts flagged by the system will then be reviewed by specialist moderators rather than face an automatic ban, and may then be removed. The UK pilot led to the removal of thousands of accounts.

There aren’t many dramatic movers on the FTSE 100 this morning, but over on the mid-cap FTSE 250 index, shares in the biotech business Genus have shot up by as much as 10% this morning.

The animal genetics company beat expectations for its half-year trading update, forecasting about £50m in actual currency for its adjusted pre-tax profit.

The £1.8bn company, which is headquartered in Basingstoke, helps farmers breed animals with certain traits such as disease resistance and faster growth.

Analysts at the broker Peel Hunt credited its earnings beat to strong performance in its pig breeding business.

Copper prices are falling by about 2% this morning after reports Chinese regulators have ordered exchanges to remove servers operated by high frequency traders from their data centres.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange, a major metals trading platform, has told brokers they need to get equipment for high-speed clients out by the end of the month, according to a report by Bloomberg. Other clients will need to do so by the end of April, it reported.

The news has taken the wind out of some of the metals rally this week, which has seen both precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as industrial metals such as tin and copper, all rise.

It is weighing on the FTSE 100 too, with London’s listed miners among the worst performers in the City this morning. Shares in Endeavour Mining, Antofagasta, Fresnillo, Rio Tinto and Anglo American are all down by more than 1%.

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The stock of homes for sale in the UK has hit its highest level in more than eight years, the property portal Zoopla has found.

The average estate agent started the year with 32 homes for sale, the highest level in early January in Zoopla’s research, which dates back to 2018.

The greatest growth in housing for sale is in London, up 16% compared with last year, followed by the south east, up 9%.

Not all the properties however are “brand new” to the market, Zoopla added – 33% were previously listed in 2025, with sellers coming back to the market after some of the uncertainty around the budget starting to fade.

But the growth is evidence that appetite in the property market is starting to improve, Richard Donnell, a director at Zoopla, said.

Growing numbers of homes for sale is evidence of a strong underlying appetite to move home for many households.

Across much of southern England, there is a much greater choice of homes for sale. Buyers are price-sensitive and have more choice, so achieving the best result depends on setting a competitive asking price and attracting early interest. Homes priced too high often take longer to sell and at the risk of achieving a lower price. It is important that homeowners price carefully and seek the advice of agents to plan the right strategy for their home sale.

Across the rest of the country there is a degree of scarcity, but sellers need to remain realistic over pricing. The market is stable rather than booming. Buyers are active but careful, which means pricing correctly from the outset is crucial. Homes that are well-presented and realistically priced continue to sell, while those priced optimistically will take longer and may need price reductions to attract interest.”

Elsewhere this morning, the FTSE 100 has slipped 0.15% as the commodities market starts to pull back. Copper, nickel and tin prices are down this morning, as well as gold, although it is still trading above $4,600 per ounce.

Oil prices are however rising slightly as investors continue to consider risks around supply, even after the US said it would hold off on any attacks on Iran. Brent crude rose by 0.2%, to $63.92 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate rose 0.2% to $59.37 per barrel.

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