Monday newspaper round-up: Airlines, listed companies, asking prices

Airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined, consumer rights groups and online travel agents have said. In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, the consumer rights group Which? and leading online travel agents called for the aviation regulator to be given more powers to act amid flight cancellations. – Guardian

One of Britain’s most powerful charities, the National Trust, has hit back at pressure to cut ties with Barclays bank over environmental concerns. The trust, which acts to conserve more than 780 miles of coastline and 500 historic properties, claims that it can wield influence within the banking sector as a whole and does not need to ditch the global bank as a supplier. – Guardian

Buying has become more expensive than renting for the first time in 13 years for would-be homeowners. First-time buyers now have to pay an extra £122 per month on a mortgage compared to if they rented the same property – an extra £1,500 per year, analysis shows. – Telegraph

Listed companies could be allowed to extract as much as £50 billion from their traditional staff pension schemes if the government goes ahead with a radical reform floated in the Mansion House speech last month. The dramatic shift in gilt yields in the past two years has catapulted many traditional workplace pension schemes from serious deficit into healthy surplus, raising hopes among some companies that they might be able to access the excess assets in them. – The Times

Asking prices on Rightmove are falling at the fastest rate since the summer of 2018 as sellers become more “realistic” valuing their homes. The average asking price of new properties listed on the online property portal have fallen by 1.9 per cent this month to £364,895 in the biggest monthly fall since August 2018. On average, asking prices on Rightmove are 0.1 per cent lower than they were at this time a year ago, the first annual dip since 2019. – The Times