Monday newspaper round-up: Pubs, petrol prices, passive funds

Fifty pubs a month closed for good across England and Wales in the first half of this year, with experts warning that tax rises in 2025 could make it even harder for some businesses to keep their doors open. Analysis by the real estate intelligence company Altus found that 305 pubs were forced to shut their doors permanently in the first six months of the year, meaning the number of pubs in England and Wales fell to 39,096 at the end of June. – Guardian

The price of petrol and diesel in the UK is falling at the fastest pace this year, with households paying about £4 less to fill up a family car than they did a month ago. Analysis from the RAC found that the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the UK was now just above 136.15p, down 7p from the 142.86p recorded last month. Diesel now costs almost 141p a litre, compared with just under 148p a month ago. - Guardian

As many as 4m homes could be built on the green belt under Angela Rayner’s planning revolution, analysis shows. The Housing Secretary’s radical definition of so-called grey belt land could unlock sites for nearly 800,000 new homes across London and the South East alone, according to property data company LandTech. Hotspots in London’s commuter belt include the Tory constituencies of East Surrey and Orpington, which have potential grey belt sites for up to 115,000 and 89,000 homes respectively. – Telegraph

Manchester is growing as a competitive threat to Heathrow on routes to China after the number of seats being flown from the airport to the People’s Republic this winter rose by nearly fourfold. The increase comes as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have withdrawn services from Heathrow to China. – The Times

Britain’s open-ended fund management industry is growing increasingly passive and at a faster rate than the global average, figures suggest. Just under 30 per cent of open-ended funds domiciled in the UK follow the performance of the stock market rather than trying to beat it, according to estimates from Morningstar Direct, the web-based research platform. That compares with 19 per cent five years ago. Open-ended passive funds are said to make up 24 per cent of the global total, excluding China and India. – The Times