Monday newspaper round-up: Covid booster, Factory gate inflation, Small businesses

Every adult in Britain will be offered a Covid booster jab by the end of this month, Boris Johnson pledged tonight, as he warned there was “a tidal wave of Omicron coming”. Under plans for an unprecedented acceleration of the country’s vaccination campaign, from today anyone over the age of 18 will be eligible for a third Covid vaccination with plans to set up seven day a week mass walk-in vaccination centres around the country. - The Times

A record number of manufacturers are raising prices, with factory gate inflation of up to 10 per cent becoming “built in” to customers’ expectations, a survey has revealed. Companies have increased their prices for a fourth quarter in a row and buyers must brace themselves for further rises in the first three months of next year, according to the survey by the trade body Make UK. - The Times

A third of UK small businesses are planning to make staff redundant over the next few months, rising to more than four in 10 in London, according to a new survey. In a clear sign of the financial stress felt by many owner-run businesses as they head into a potentially difficult new year period, many also said they would be forced to raise prices, with Britain’s supply chain meltdown being cited as the main reason – adding further to inflationary pressures. - Guardian

The UK’s housing market is likely to return to more normal levels of activity in 2022 but will still be busy, with strong buyer demand carrying forward into next year and a rebound in the number of homeowners apparently getting ready to sell, according to Rightmove. The property website said that following a “frenzied” 18 months, the market was heading for a “less frenetic” period, with a more even balance between buyers and sellers as more homes are put up for sale and higher interest rates take some of the heat out of buyer demand. - Guardian

Scientists are discovering that industrial bottom-trawling of coastal waters is an even greater ecological catastrophe than previously supposed. Emmanuel Macron and his Dutch and Danish allies seem determined to make it worse. The British concession of 23 extra licences to French fishermen on Friday - under coercive pressure, and on the false claim that the UK is violating the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - hardly matters in the greater of things. The commercial sums are trivial. - Daily Telegraph