Monday newspaper round-up: North Sea strikes, BT/TalkTalk, bank taxes

(Sharecast News) - A looming strike by oil workers in the North Sea could "severely disrupt" UK fuel supplies, the Unite union has said, adding that staff were left with no choice after a breakdown in pay talks with the Texas oil company Apache. The union said Apache workers had "emphatically" backed strike action after being given what it said was an unacceptable pay offer that amounted to a real-terms pay cut for many employees, at a time when the company was "raking in eye-watering profits". - Guardian

Britain does not have a plan for how to feed people in a crisis and is unprepared for potential future food shortages, according to a warning from more than 150 experts delivered to Andy Burnham. The climate crisis, geopolitical shocks, cyber-attacks and energy outages are among the threats to food chain security, according to the open letter, which claims the government is "complacent about food as a national security matter". - Guardian

Forcing through a BT takeover of TalkTalk would damage Britain's standing as a destination for international investment, the Government has been warned. Ares Management, the US private credit giant which has lent the stricken broadband operator hundreds of millions of pounds, said in a letter on Sunday to officials that the proposed deal would undermine the UK's pro-business credentials. - Telegraph

Councils would have to pay nearly £8bn to take over England's empty homes under plans to ramp up seizures, according to new figures. Ministers announced proposals last week to permit the seizure of empty homes, such as buy-to-lets, after just six months instead of the current two-year period. However, bringing properties up to scratch would cost £25,000 on average - suggesting a total upfront bill of £7.6bn across England's 303,000 such houses, according to Telegraph analysis. - Telegraph

The chancellor's fiscal headroom has more than halved since the war in Iran broke out and is at risk of being eroded entirely if the conflict persists, economists believe. In March, it stood at £23.6bn but is likely to have declined to about £11.3bn by the time John Healey delivers his first budget on October 28, according to economists at EY, the Big Four accounting firm. - The Times

The chancellor has been warned by one of his recent predecessors against further increasing taxes on banks before a crunch meeting with industry leaders on Tuesday. Writing in The Times, Sir Jeremy Hunt, who was chancellor between 2022 and 2024 under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, told John Healey that ordering banks to pay billions of pounds in extra taxes may "look tempting" but he should ignore the "siren voices" calling for it. - The Times