Wednesday newspaper round-up: lettings fees, BHS, BA, Lufthansa

Britain’s landlords will suffer a further blow on Wednesday as Philip Hammond announces a ban on letting agents charging fees to tenants. In his first Autumn Statement, the chancellor will take aim at the charges letting agents can levy on tenants which can include administrative services such as checking references, preparing a tenancy agreement, renewing a tenancy or ending a contract. – Financial Times

The chair of a committee probing the collapse of BHS has asked the regulator whether it can seize Sir Philip Green’s assets, which include his multimillion pound yachts, to plug a pensions shortfall. In a letter to Lesley Titcomb, chief executive of The Pensions Regulator, MP Frank Field asked if the regulator could acquire “assets other than cash” from “a person or company from which payment is being sought”. – Financial Times

The boss of Heathrow’s biggest customer, British Airways, only discovered that building the airport’s planned third runway would require the demolition of his airline’s head office after looking at a map. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, claimed that despite the group being responsible for about half of all flights at the London hub, he received no formal warning of the proposed demolition. – Guardian

Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa said it would cancel nearly 900 flights on Wednesday because of a strike by pilots, causing travel disruption for tens of thousands of passengers in the latest escalation of a long-running pay dispute. The stoppage, called by the pilots’ union Cockpit, would start at midnight and affect Lufthansa flights at airports across Germany. – Guardian

Britain’s energy market has become so heavily distorted by subsidy payments for suppliers of low-carbon, renewable and nuclear power it is now “completely opaque”, Lord Darling of Roulanish claimed last night. During a session of the House of Lords economic affairs committee the former chancellor suggested that the UK’s energy market is failing to deliver value for money for consumers and sharply criticised a plethora of government subsidy schemes. – The Times

Housebuilders will receive a major boost in the Autumn Statement today as the Government steps up its affordable housing drive to help address a chronic shortage. Philip Hammond will use his first fiscal statement since becoming Chancellor to announce a £1.4bn funding injection to help thousands more families to buy a home. – Telegraph