Wednesday newspaper round-up: BHS, house prices, Co-op, Monte dei Paschi

A hardship charity once chaired by Charles Dickens has been overwhelmed with requests for support from struggling shopworkers in the months since the collapse of BHS. The failure of the department store chain earlier this year, which triggered 11,000 job losses, has led to a record number of applications to the Fashion and Textile Children’s Trust for help. – Guardian

House prices will rise by between 1% and 4% in 2017, according to Halifax’s annual forecast, marking a sharp deceleration from 2016, as it raised the prospect of falling prices in London. Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said a slowdown in economic growth, potential rises in unemployment and pressure on household incomes will put a brake on the property market after several years of growth. – Guardian

Co-op plans to spend £70m to open 100 stores across the UK next year, as its larger supermarket rivals shelve growth plans amid retail market jitters. The Co-op said the new convenience outlets would be predominantly based across London and the South East, with five stores opening in the capital before the end of March. – Telegraph

Royal Bank of Scotland is braced for the Bank of England to order an independent inquiry into its plans to offload Williams & Glyn (W&G), the 314-branch network the state-backed lender has been struggling to divest for more than seven years. It is understood the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the arm of the Bank that oversees financial stability, has held discussions with RBS about potentially starting a skilled persons report, also known as a section 166 report, if the lender decides to sell W&G to either challenger bank CYBG or Santander. – Telegraph

London house prices will stall next year as slowing growth and higher inflation eat into household incomes, according to the annual survey of 48 leading economists by The Times. After years of runaway growth that has seen the average price of a home in the capital soar from £294,000 before the crisis to £474,000, the majority of the respondents expect London prices to flatline or contract in 2017. – The Times

The amount needed by the Italian government to bail out the troubled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena is much bigger than initially thought, the European Central Bank has warned. The ECB said that the capital shortfall at Italy’s third largest lender is now €8.8 billion, which is significantly higher than the €5 billion that was calculated during Europe-wide banking stress tests in July. – The Times