Monday newspaper round-up: Wind power, JLR, business rates, Heathrow

(Sharecast News) - The UK and nine other European countries have agreed to build an offshore wind power grid in the North Sea in a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a "clean energy reservoir". The countries will build windfarms at sea that directly connect to multiple nations through high-voltage subsea cables, under plans that are expected to provide 100GW of offshore wind power, or enough electricity capacity to power 143m homes. - Guardian Eleven towns and cities in the UK, including Warrington, Barnsley and Wakefield, have seen their disposable incomes rise twice as fast as the rest of the UK over the past decade, a study has found. A report from Centre for Cities, a thinktank, showed that between 2013 and 2023, disposable income for residents of these top performing towns and cities rose by an average of 5.2%, compared with an increase of 2.4% for urban areas in the UK overall. - Guardian

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is exploring plans to develop a new petrol-powered engine after coming under fire over a controversial "woke" rebrand. The company is reportedly drawing up proposals for a vehicle powered partly by a combustion engine, despite earlier pledges to go "all electric". The new car, which is said to be in the early stages of development, would be classed as a "range-extended electric vehicle", which uses a small petrol engine to charge the main battery powering the vehicle. - Telegraph

Hundreds of thousands of graduates are claiming benefits amid a post-pandemic surge in people who say they are too sick to work. Analysis of official data by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) showed there were 707,000 people with a university degree at the end of last year who were out of work and claiming one or more benefits. - Telegraph

The government is facing last-ditch calls to broaden an expected £300 million support package this week for pubs facing a rise in business rates. The Treasury is expected to announce a temporary support package focused on pubs after the chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated at Davos last week that she would not extend relief across the sector to struggling hotels, restaurants and cafés. - The Times

The proposed £49 billion third runway scheme at Heathrow risks becoming an unaffordable "vanity project" that does not meet the needs of passengers, research has found. The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport said the development was based on assumptions about traveller behaviour, airline economics and capacity at other London airports that were more than ten years out of date, and in its present configuration the project was unlikely to be "affordable". - The Times