The British government is set to release data showing around 1.1 billion pounds of small business loans ($1.27 billion) made under a COVID-19 emergency lending scheme has already been classified as suspected fraud, a source told Reuters. The previously unpublished data from Britain's Department for Business, Energy and Industry (BEIS) gives the first firm indication of likely fraud levels in the scheme, which has faced scrutiny over the quality of checks on borrowers.

Tens of thousands of applications for a payment-by-instalment plan have flooded into a British budget grocery chain just two weeks after its launch, as a cost of living crisis crushes UK household incomes, Bloomberg News reported. Customers of Iceland Foods have sent in around 60,000 applications so far, more than the total number of loans the credit provider behind the initiative expected to offer in 18 months. Successful applicants can borrow up to £100 ($115) to pay for food at one of its outlets.

Transport for London on Tuesday reached a multi-billion-pound bailout deal with Government that will avoid the capital’s transport system falling into “managed decline,” the Evening Standard reported. But London Mayor Sadiq Khan warned that Tube fare rises and some cuts to buses were still on the horizon as the settlement leaves TfL with a “significant funding gap”. City Hall bosses have been locked in intense negotiations with Government staff for weeks to secure an agreement.

The UK government’s £400 payment to help households with surging energy bills could be about to shake inflation markets and the nation’s stretched finances, according to a Bloomberg News commentary. The Office for National Statistics will announce Wednesday whether the £12 billion ($14 billion) in aid, which will be spread over six months, should be considered an income adjustment or a price adjustment. If the latter, that will ease official inflation figures in the coming months.

British credit card borrowing grew at the fastest pace since 2005 in the 12 months to July, Bank of England data showed on Tuesday, in a potential sign that some households are struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living soars, Reuters reported. Credit card borrowing rose by a net 740 million pounds ($869 million) on the month, down from a 945 million-pound increase in June but 13% higher than the year before, the biggest annual increase since October 2005. The average interest rate on credit card borrowing rose to 21.7% in July, the highest since late 1998, the data showed.

For months, a tsunami of high energy costs has borne down on Europe. On Friday, the first big waves crashed ashore in Britain, with the news that household gas and electricity bills will nearly double in October, the New York Times reported. The announcement, by Britain’s energy regulator, raised the specter of a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s richest countries: Millions of Britons might not be able to afford to heat or light their homes this winter, unless the government steps in on an enormous scale to cushion them from the vagaries of the market.

This inability to find people to hire has spread across the British economy, in virtually all industries, and the solution chosen by many employers — higher pay — is embedding inflationary pressures deeper into an economy where prices are soaring, the New York Times reported. Last week, Britons learned that the annual rate of inflation reached 10.1 percent in July, the fastest pace since 1982, as energy prices rose and businesses passed higher costs — for supplies but also labor — onto their customers. In some ways it’s a great time to be a worker in the hospitality business.

U.K. inflation is on course to hit 18.6 per cent in January — the highest peak in almost half a century — because of soaring wholesale gas prices, according to a new forecast from Citigroup based on the latest market prices, the Irish Times reported. The investment bank predicted that the retail energy price cap would be raised to £4,567 (€5,386) in January and then £5,816 in April, compared with the current level of £1,971 a year — shifts it said would lead to inflation “entering the stratosphere”.

Cineworld Group Plc, the owner of Regal Cinemas, is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after struggling to rebuild attendance from pandemic lows, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The British cinema company has engaged lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis LLP and consultants from AlixPartners to advise on the bankruptcy process, these people said. Cineworld is expected to file a chapter 11 petition in the U.S. and is considering filing an insolvency proceeding in the U.K., they said.