Tuesday newspaper round-up: House prices, Ofgem, NatWest

(Sharecast News) - House prices are expected to rise over the second half of the year across the UK, according to a forecast, with the market bolstered by more people selling their homes. Prices are likely to increase by 2% towards the end of 2024, Zoopla has predicted. The improved outlook for the housing market was the result of an increased number of homes for sale, the property portal said. The number of sales agreed in the four weeks to 21 July was 16% higher than the same period a year ago and the average estate agent had more homes for sale than at any point in the past six years. - Guardian Ofgem is pushing ahead with plans to make it easier for British homeowners to reap the benefits of using electric car chargers and heat pumps at non-peak times, as the grid becomes more reliant on wind and solar power. The energy regulator for Great Britain has put forward proposals to encourage flexible electricity use in the home by creating a single register in which flexibility service providers (FSPs) can access more markets and better rates for owners of energy assets such as EV chargers and battery storage systems. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak's decision to scale back HS2 cost the taxpayer more than £2bn, new documents have shown. In the latest annual report for the high-speed railway, bosses have revealed the fees associated with cancelling "phase two" of the project between Birmingham and Manchester. This includes a £1.1bn writedown for work already carried out on the northern leg, as well as an additional £1bn in accountancy charges. - Telegraph

A "Tell Sid"-style sale of NatWest shares to the public by the government has been scrapped amid fears that it would have cost taxpayers as much as £450 million. The plan to offload part of the state's near-20 per cent stake in the FTSE 100 bank to individual investors had been floated by the last Conservative government in November. - The Times

BDO and Forvis Mazars have been warned that they risk being banned from signing off the accounts of some of their biggest clients if the quality of their audit work does not improve soon. The two accountancy firms, which are the fifth and sixth largest auditors in Britain respectively, have been scolded once again by the Financial Reporting Council for their work over the past year, which the regulator found to be "significantly below [its] expectations". - The Times