Jeremy Hunt says he mustn’t pump extra money into people’s pockets; BoE’s Mann says better to over-tighten interest rates – as it happened

Chancellor says focus is to fight inflation, while Bank of England policymaker argues for higher interest rates

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A group of the UK's largest retailers are lobbying the government not to increase their property taxes, saying it would cost them around 400m.

Bosses from 44 firms, including Tesco, M&S and B&Q, are urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to freeze their property taxes to avoid a roughly 400 million hike in tax bills.

Global supply chain issues are already likely to increase costs in the months ahead, including Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and targeting of Ukrainian grain silos, plus restrictions on Indian rice exports and ongoing labour market challenges.

Against this backdrop, the Government should not make the situation worse by adding significantly to our cost base - freezing the business rates multiplier at its current level would avoid this."

It follows a similar move from Jaguar Land Rover's parent company Tata in July when it announced plans to create a gigafactory for battery production in Somerset.

However, Honda said it was exiting its Swindon plant in 2019, resulting in thousands of job losses.