Lenders to UK waste management firm Biffa will take the keys from its private equity owners in a restructuring that will cut its 1.1 billion pound ($1.8 billion) debt pile by 55 percent, Reuters reported. Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which bought Biffa in 2008, backed by 1.1 billion pounds of debt, unsuccessfully tried to sell the business this year. As part of the restructuring, Biffa's existing debt will be reduced to 520 million pounds, the company said on Thursday.

British house prices were flat month-on-month in November and they are likely to stay that way or edge slightly lower over the next year, mortgage lender Nationwide said today, the Irish Times reported. The average UK house price stands at £163,853, showing a 1.2 per cent decline on a year ago and prices have been dropping on an annual basis for nine months in a row, Nationwide said. The 0 per cent month-on-month change in November follows a small 0.6 per cent monthly increase recorded by the study in October.

MF Global UK's administrator KPMG has recovered more than $2.5 billion of the $4 billion of claims it expects from the defunct broker's British clients and creditors, Reuters reported. KPMG said in an emailed statement that it has recovered $1.6 billion for general creditors' claims against the broker and $923 million for clients. "We have seen some substantial progress made since our last progress report six months ago," said KPMG's Richard Heis, who pointed out that the sum recovered for general claims had doubled over the past six months.

Kuwaiti firm Global Investment House’s decision to use the UK courts could set a new precedent for debt restructuring in the Gulf as the company bypasses Kuwaiti law to push through its second debt deal in three years, the Financial Times reported. The Gulf company is the first to try to use a London court “scheme” to force a minority of creditors to accept the terms of its new $1.7bn restructuring plan, which aims to grant creditors a 70 per cent stake in the investment company.

UBS AG was fined 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) by the U.K. and told by the Swiss that it may have to increase capital levels for operational risks as regulators levied penalties after Kweku Adoboli’s $2.3 billion trading loss, Bloomberg News reported today. The Financial Services Authority in the U.K. issued the fine today, saying that the loss revealed serious weaknesses in management systems and internal controls. Finma, the Swiss regulator, said that it instructed UBS to appoint an independent third party to report on the progress and completion of a program to fix these failings.

The developer of the tallest skyscraper in London's financial district faces a legal challenge that could force it out of business after a dispute with the tower's builder, Reuters reported yesterday. Contractor Brookfield Multiplex launched a legal claim for about 16 million pounds ($25 million) against the owners of the 63-storey Pinnacle skyscraper this summer for payments relating to a 593 million pound construction contract.

Britain and France are heading for a showdown in Brussels over the next EU budget, amid rising hopes in Downing Street that the debate is shifting in favour of the tough settlement demanded by David Cameron, UK prime minister, the Financial Times reported. Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, has proposed a compromise budget that approaches Mr Cameron’s demands for a freeze on spending – indeed on one measure he is proposing a cut.

Payday loans companies are failing to adequately check whether loans will be affordable for borrowers and have been warned by the regulator over "aggressive" debt collection practices, The Guardian reported. The Office of Fair Trading has written to all 240 payday lenders highlighting "emerging concerns" over poor practices in the market, and has opened formal investigations into several payday lenders over how they pursue borrowers who have defaulted on their repayments.

Britain's banks should be forced to fully separate their retail arms from investment banking operations if they try to circumvent new rules designed to protect the taxpayer, a top regulator warned, Reuters reported. Andrew Bailey, head of banking supervision at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said banks should face the threat of being broken up if they fail properly to comply with proposals to ring-fence retail deposits from riskier activities. Bailey said there was a risk that banks would try to "tunnel under" any ring-fence that was set for them.

British aero engineer Hampson Industries Plc, which has been struggling with a heavy debt load, on Monday said it planned to appoint administrators, less than four months after it terminated a sale process, Reuters reported. The company, which supplies tools and components to planemakers Airbus and Boeing Co, put itself on the block in February but warned that the sale process was likely to result in little or no value to the company's shareholders.