Thursday newspaper round-up: Private rents, NHS drugs, data centre

(Sharecast News) - Average private rents have stopped rising in Great Britain after almost a decade of increases, as more landlords cut their prices to secure a tenant, data shows. The typical advertised private rent outside London for properties coming on to the market remained flat at £1,370 a calendar month in the first three months of 2026, according to the property website Rightmove. It is the first time since 2017 that rents have not increased in the first three months of a year compared with levels at the end of the previous year. - Guardian The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated. The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain's electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember. - Guardian

HP is pushing to investigate the assets of Mike Lynch's widow as it seeks to recoup more than £900m in legal damages. The US technology giant asked the High Court on Wednesday to appoint administrators over Lynch's estate, who would manage the holdings and investigate past transactions. - Telegraph

NHS patients risk prescription shortages within weeks if the US and Iran fail to strike a deal ending the Middle East conflict, drug manufacturers have warned. Medicines UK, which represents companies that make 85pc of all NHS prescriptions, said it was "increasingly concerned that some chemicals and solvents used to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients are now in very short supply". - Telegraph

The government has expanded plans to reduce bills for thousands of manufacturers as they face a rise in costs following the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced the government will widen access to an initiative designed to lower electricity costs for energy-intensive manufacturers by up to 25 per cent to help businesses "compete, win and create good jobs across the country". - The Times

Britain's first proposed "nationally significant" data centre would be powered by gas, putting the government's ambition to create an AI superpower on a collision course with its net-zero goals. The £2 billion Wapseys Wood data centre in Buckinghamshire would include a new gas-fired power station to provide "a resilient and reliable power supply" for the site, planning documents show. - The Times