Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.
No clarity yet on Aberdeen council-tax increase
A 10% council tax rise in Aberdeen looks to have been ruled out.
A confidential brief prepared ahead of the council budget meeting showed finance chiefs were campaigning for the huge increase.
Both Labour and Conservative councillors balked at the suggestion - putting pressure on the SNP and Liberal Democrat leadership.
The SNP, by far the largest group on the council, has now ruled out a 10% hike.
Councillors will have the final say on the annual budget a week tomorrow.
The Press & Journal says it remains unclear what level of council-tax increase the SNP and Liberal Democrats will bring forward.
Kate Forbes joins SNP leadership race
There are now three candidates for SNP leader, after Finance Secretary Kate Forbes announce her candidacy yesterday.
She joins Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and former minister Ash Regan.
However, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson ruled himself out of becoming leader, saying the "time was not right" for him and his young family.
The BBC reports that Nicola Sturgeon said she will not be endorsing any particular candidate.
Nominations for candidates to succeed Ms Sturgeon close at noon on Friday.
Bookmakers have made Ms Forbes the narrow favourite to win the SNP leadership, although Mr Yousaf is reported to have the party establishment behind him.
The winner is due to be announced on March 27.
Ms Regan yesterday said she would not support the rapid phase out of North Sea oil and gas - at odds with her party's position.
She has adopted an immediately more pro-fossil fuel stance than under Nicola Sturgeon, making it an early battleground in the race to be next first minister.
Ms Regan also called for the dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness to be "accelerated" and for dualling of the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness to "commence without delay".
The Press & Journal reported her as saying a move away from oil and gas as fast as possible would "throw tens of thousands of oil workers out of jobs".
Ms Sturgeon's government unveiled a new energy strategy in January which calls for a "presumption against" new North Sea oil and gas exploration.
Arrears crisis looms for landlords
UK landlords face a looming arrears problem as the cost-of-living crisis disproportionately hits renters, official data has suggested.
Tenants are 4.4 times as likely to be experiencing financial hardship compared to homeowners amid soaring interest rates and household bills, data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.
More than half of renters would be unable to afford an unexpected expense of £850, the ONS said, with just one in eight outright homeowners saying the same.
The Telegraph says findings were based on survey responses of 18,464 adults between September 2022 and January 2023.
Some 1.4million low-income private renter households were already in arrears with their household bills or lending repayments in October last year, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Decarbonising heating in Scotland
Scotland will fall "significantly short" of its target for decarbonising heating in homes, a new report warns.
Environmental campaigner WWF Scotland said a faster rollout of heat pumps could lower energy bills and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The BBC says heating of homes is the fourth-largest cause of emissions.
Zero Carbon Buildings Minister Patrick Harvie said the government's strategy sets a hugely-ambitious vision to cut carbon across Scotland's homes.
Scotland has pledged to become net zero by 2045, meaning its contribution to climate change will have ended by then.
As part of that target, the Scottish Government is aiming to remove fossil fuels from heating in more than a million homes by 2030.
It has also pledged that all homes will meet band C in energy performance certificate standards by 2032.
Tomato shortage
Supplies of some fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, to UK supermarkets have been disrupted by poor weather in Europe and Africa.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that harvests had been hit by difficult weather conditions.
Numerous pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.
Sources within the industry have acknowledged that there have been temporary supply challenges.
A significant proportion of the tomatoes we consume over the winter months are grown in Morocco and Southern Spain. Both regions have recently been affected first by warm weather - which affected crop yields - then by a cold snap which has meant longer growth times.
The BBC says cancelled ferries from Morocco due to bad weather have also affected supplies.
Shrinking workforce
The UK risks a shrinking workforce caused by long-term sickness, a new report warns.
Pensions and health consultantLane, Clark and Peacock (LCP) says there has been a sharp increase in "economic inactivity" - working-age adults who are not in work or looking for jobs.
The figure has risen by 516,000 since Covid hit - and early retirement does not appear to explain it.
The total of long-term sick, meanwhile, has gone up by 353,000, says LCP.
It means there are now nearly 2.5million adults of working age who are long-term sick, official data from the Labour Force survey reveals.
The report comes at a time of increasing debate about the rise in so-called economic inactivity - totalling 8.9million people - and what is fuelling it.
The BBC says ministers are concerned that it could hold back economic growth.
Soaring cost of new surgery centre in Scotland
The estimated cost of a new surgery centre to tackle Scotland's NHS waiting list backlog has more than doubled.
The National Treatment Centre (NTC) in Livingston was originally projected to cost £70.9million, but estimates now suggest the new facility will cost £184million.
A new specialist eye hospital for the Lothians has also jumped in estimated cost from £112.5million to £123million.
The BBC says the two centres are part of a network of 10 sites across Scotland which are meant to be delivering at least 40,000 additional elective surgeries, diagnostics and other procedures per year by 2026.
The Scottish Government has said the network is the "single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in the NHS", but the £400m plan has been subject to a series of delays with many NTCs years behind schedule.