THE DAILY BRIEFING

HOT SALES DIY retailer B&Q is expected to reveal a secondquarter 1.3pc rise in sales when parent company Kingfisher reports on thursday. the warm weather is believed to have helped, with shoppers splashing out on barbecues and garden furniture.

LENDER’S RANT Christoph Rieche, chief executive of small business lender iwoca, has hit out at plans for a £775m fund to promote competition for banking services, saying that worthwhile challengers are being sidelined by an unfair application process. MORE WINE

Investor Imbiba is stumping up an extra £3.5m to help pour-your-own wine bar Vagabond expand. It has five bars in London and a winery in Battersea Power station. Drinkers get a topup-card at a till before sampling from more than 100 wines.

BEER BOOST Power station Drax said it could help secure carbon dioxide supplies for the nation’s breweries and pubs, using carbon dioxide captured from renewable energy generation. It reckons its plans could help to keep the fizz in 32,000 pints.

FIRE PROBE Defence firm Chemring said analysis of the fatal fire at its plant near salisbury on its finances is underway. one worker was killed and another badly injured in the disaster on Friday night. Production at the site has been suspended. BULKING UP Headcount at the Financial Conduct Authority watchdog has increased from 2,511 to 3,739 since 2014, while the number of people employed by the Pensions Regulator has increased by 30pc to more than 600.