Monday newspaper round-up: Labour shortage, house prices, NMC Health

The average asking price of homes coming on to the UK property market hit a high of a third of a million pounds in May, according to figures from the listings website Rightmove. The average asking price has increased by 1.8%, or £5,767, over the past month to £333,564, the website said, with an “unexpected mini-boom” that started last year continuing well into 2021. – Guardian

UK towns have lost 529 bank branches since the start of the pandemic despite the City watchdog urging lenders to hold back on cuts during the Covid crisis, it has emerged. Since the first national lockdown was imposed on March 23 last year, banks have gone on to close 529 branches, according to Which?. – Telegraph

American broadcaster Discovery, one of the backers of Andrew Neil’s GB News network, is in talks to merge its media assets with those owned by AT&T. The US telecoms giant took control of some of the world’s best-known film and television brands including HBO, CNN and Warner Bros with its $85bn (£60bn) acquisition of TimeWarner in 2018. – Telegraph

Job recruitment has returned to pre-pandemic levels with hiring intentions at an eight-year high as the economy recovers from the easing of restrictions. All sectors are experiencing a recovery in jobs and an improvement in pay prospects, a quarterly report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has found. – The Times

The administrators of NMC Health, the former FTSE 100 private healthcare group that collapsed amid an alleged accounting fraud, are pursuing its former directors. Alvarez & Marsal, which was first appointed in April last year, is targeting “various claims” and a letter before action was due to be issued against unnamed directors before May 7, which was a deadline for directors’ insurance policy, the latest creditors report shows. – The Times