Britain’s first budget plan since the Brexit vote will not include a big new spending push because of “eye-wateringly” high public debt levels, but will have some help for the economy and struggling families, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer has said, the Irish Times reported. Philip Hammond, who will spell out the economic priorities of the new government on Wednesday, said on Sunday he wanted to keep some fiscal “head-room” as two years of negotiations about leaving the EU approach.

Prime Minister Theresa May came under international and domestic pressure to bring order to her Brexit strategy amid accusations it’s in disarray, Bloomberg News reported. “There’s lots of chaos and we don’t understand what the position is,” Italy’s economic development minister, Carlo Calenda, said in an interview. “Somebody needs to tell us something, and it needs to be something that makes sense.” Calenda was not alone in expressing concern that there is confusion and disagreement within the U.K.

The EU’s Brexit negotiators are pushing for a draft UK exit deal by mid-2018 as part of a narrow, divorce-first negotiating approach that would demand an exit bill of as much as €40-€60 billion, the Irish Times reported. Brussels’ rigid plans for the process show it is making a priority of a clean separation settlement – and Britain’s payment of a hefty exit charge – over London’s desire to focus on refashioning trading relations.

UK banks look set to boost their loss-absorbing buffers by issuing callable senior debt after being given explicit sign-off to use the structure by the Bank of England, Reuters reported. Two banks could sell the debt as soon as next week, taking advantage of the better-than-expected market conditions that have followed Donald Trump's US election victory. Barclays is one of the rumoured names.

Siccar Point Energy, a company backed by Blackstone, the US private equity group, has agreed to pay up to $1 billion for the North Sea assets of Austria’s OMV, the Irish Times reported. It marks the biggest acquisition in the UK offshore energy industry since crude prices crashed two years ago and highlights the interest of private equity investors in the North Sea as cash-strapped oil companies shed assets.

Scotland called for more clarity on Britain's Brexit strategy on Wednesday, offering a critical response to the British government's efforts to hold together a fraying United Kingdom as it prepares to leave the European Union, Reuters reported. The London-based British government began a series of meetings with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved administrations designed to reassure them that they will have a say in shaping the country's future ties with the EU.

American Apparel placed its U.K. outlets into the equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, as the troubled retailer looks for a buyer for its brand less than year after it exited bankruptcy in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported. Administrators from U.K.-based restructuring firm KPMG said American Apparel’s 13 stores were placed in administration, a process similar to chapter 11 in the U.S. The American Apparel brand and its U.S. business are being sold. The U.K.

Premier Oil has been forced to deny fresh doubts over its heavily delayed $2.6bn (£2.08bn) debt restructuring after the company’s share price plunged by almost 17pc amid fears its lenders are looking to abandon the deal. The North Sea’s largest independent oil company acted to calm the rising market jitters by assuring investors that none of its senior lenders have left the lender syndicate, or are proposing to exit talks at this time.

Guaranteed rises in the state pension should be scrapped according to a damning report by an all-party committee of MPs, which claims the British economy has become “heavily skewed” towards well-off baby boomers, The Guardian reported. Following an inquiry into intergenerational fairness, the Commons work and pensions committee, chaired by influential welfare reformer Frank Field, said the “triple lock” guarantee on the state pension should be axed as it is “unfair and unsustainable”.

The Pensions Regulator has begun formal legal proceedings against Sir Philip Green and Dominic Chappell that could force them to fill the £571m deficit in the BHS pension scheme, marking a dramatic escalation of the scandal surrounding the demise of the high street chain, The Guardian reported. The regulator said that after a “complex investigation” and months of talks with Green about a rescue deal for the pension scheme it was sending warning notices to the billionaire tycoon, Chappell and their companies.