Tuesday newspaper round-up: Home sales, Tesco, offshore energy

Ministers have held a series of high-level meetings with trades unions and business leaders amid fears that millions of people will be too fearful to return to work as pressure intensifies on the government to publish a path out of the national lockdown. The Guardian has been told that both sides of industry have been drafted into seven sector-by-sector meetings chaired by the business secretary, Alok Sharma, in recent days – after concerns arose in Whitehall that many employees may be reluctant to return to the workplace, even when the government gives the green light. – Guardian

Almost 400,000 home sales worth a total of £82bn have been put on hold as a result of the housing market lockdown, according to Zoopla. The property website said that 373,000 sales had stalled since the end of March when ministers told people to delay their home moves if possible, and social distancing rules made valuations and viewings impossible. – Guardian

Tesco has started laying off the first wave of the 45,000 temporary workers it hired at the height of the coronavirus crisis. In one store, 80pc of the new staff were given seven days' notice on Saturday as thousands of newly created roles face the axe. Some staff argue that the cuts are arbitrary. One employee, who worked in a restaurant in Gloucestershire before the outbreak took hold, was told the job at Tesco would be for 12 weeks. – Telegraph

The offshore energy industry in Britain is facing a “bleak” future, with as many as 30,000 jobs at risk, a trade group is warning as oil prices tumble amid concern about scarce storage capacity. In a report to be published today, Oil and Gas UK says that urgent government action is needed to protect jobs and the security of the country’s energy supply as the industry is crippled by low energy prices and the broader fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. – The Times

The market for new passenger airliners is reeling from national lockdowns, travel restrictions and airlines haemorrhaging cash, but there could be still more pain on the way for Boeing, Airbus and other manufacturers as a flood of cheaper rentals hit the market. About a thousand commercial passenger jets will be repossessed from airlines over the next year as the impact of coronavirus ravages the industry, according to a forecast provided to The Times. – The Times