Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Dozens of Petrofac workers to strike
Around 85 Petrofac workers will strike for six days after rejecting a pay deal.
Unite the Union said the workers had “overwhelmingly rejected” the deal because of a dispute over “clawback” provisions
Unite said Petrofac had offered to reduce the policy to 12 days, with the industry norm being seven days.
Sharon Graham, the union’s general-secretary, told the P&J that members rejected the latest offer because it would leave them working the highest number of “clawback days” in the offshore sector, resulting in up to £6,000 lost income per worker.
“This is unacceptable,” Ms Graham said, adding: “Our members will have their union’s full support in the latest phase of their strike action.”
Councils given £80m more for staff pay deal
An extra £80m has been found for a pay deal to end the threat of strikes in schools, BBC Scotland says.
Council leaders are due to meet later to discuss the new offer, which would then be presented to unions.
Unison had set a Wednesday deadline for a new pay deal, but council body Cosla asked for an extension to seek extra funding from the Scottish government.
The three-day action by Unison, Unite and the GMB is scheduled for on 26, 27 and 28 September in 26 council areas, including the North-east.
Sunak increases heat pump grants to £7,500
Households will be offered larger grants worth up to £7,500 to fund the installation of heat pumps under plans announced by Rishi Sunak.
The current voucher scheme run by the Government offers £5,000 for air source heat pumps and £6,000 for ground source ones.
But the typical grant offered to households will be increased by 50pc, or £2,500, as part of a package of net zero policies announced by the Prime Minister on Wednesday.
Mr Sunak said the grants would be offered with “no strings attached” as he set out a new approach to hitting climate targets that included relaxing deadlines to ditch polluting technologies.
Government borrowing rose to £11.6bn in August
Government borrowing was higher than economists had expected in August, new official figures show.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - rose to £11.6bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
That was £3.5bn more than a year earlier and the fourth highest August borrowing since monthly records began in 1993.
Experts had predicted public borrowing would stand at £11.1bn last month.
Inflation ‘on course for 5% by end of year’
Inflation is set to fall below 5% by December, economists predict, putting Rishi Sunak on course to achieve his pledge of halving the rate of price rises this year.
The forecasts came after a surprise fall in consumer price index inflation to 6.7% in August from 6.8% in July, which bolstered the view of analysts that the rapid acceleration in living costs over the past 18 months is easing.
The City and Bank of England had thought the rate of price growth would have risen to about 7% last month, led by higher fuel costs as a result of an increase in global commodity prices.