Commuter misery as London tube network shut; oil prices climb and gold breaks through $3,600 – business live

Strikes mean almost no underground trains running in London until Friday; China’s export growth slowest in six months while German exports fall

Tell us how the London tube strike has affected your commute

The new housing secretary Steve Reed, who has replaced Angela Rayner, is due to meet the bosses of Britain’s biggest developers and housebuilders this week.

He told senior civil servants over the weekend that his mantra is “Build Baby Build!”, adding that he intends to

move on to the next stage in unleashing one of the biggest eras of building in our country’s history.

I will leave no stone unturned to build the homes Britain desperately needs.

Hestia’s investment strategy will focus on identifying sites to bring forward vital new infrastructure and manage the construction of new communities of between 400 and 3,000 homes each.

Rapidly growing the pipeline of large mixed tenure sites across the country, making more use of Modern Methods of Construction, and backing SME housebuilders are all essential to achieving our Plan for Change target of building 1.5m homes in this Parliament.

By mobilising private capital alongside government investment, this significant new joint-venture will bring forward more high-quality, mixed-tenure developments and deliver thousands of new homes to buy and rent.