Here are the business stories making the headlines locally and across the country this morning.
Backing for offshore energy ‘could create thousands of jobs’
The number of jobs supported by the offshore energy sector could rise by 50% if supportive policy were to help to unlock spending, research suggests.
Offshore Energies UK, the trade body, says decisions taken by the next government will affect the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers in the sector.
It estimates that by the end of the decade there is potential for up to 225,000 people to be employed in the oil and gas, carbon capture and storage, offshore wind and hydrogen sectors. That would be up from 150,000 direct and indirect roles in place today.
However, it warns that a failure to manage an oil and gas transition, a slow pace of offshore wind deployment and a lack of investment in other areas could lead to the loss of up to 24,000 positions.
Low investment blocking UK growth, says think tank
Investment levels in the UK remain among the worst of the world's richest nations and unless they improve it is hard to see how the economy will grow, a think tank has said.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said total investment in the UK is "significantly" behind the nearest competitor in the G7 group of wealthy nations.
However, the centre-left think tank said both the Conservatives and Labour plan to reduce government investment over the next parliamentary term.
It calls for government to commit to an industrial strategy and end the chopping and changing of policy in order to boost investment by private companies.
London becomes Europe's largest stock market again
The UK’s main stock market retook its crown as Europe’s most valuable for the first time in nearly two years, data shows.
The total value of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) hit $3.18tn on Monday, overtaking the $3.13tn total value of companies listed in Paris, according to Bloomberg data.
Both valuations have shifted since and remain close, but analysts describe it as a milestone.
They say the French market has slumped because of the uncertainty around its election, while the UK market is recovering after several years of underperformance.
Superbugs and E coli present in Lidl chicken, campaigners find
Superbugs have been found on more than half of the Lidl chicken tested by campaigners, leading them to urge the supermarket to use slower-growing breeds.
Animal welfare groups and scientists have been concerned for years about the use of antibiotics to keep livestock healthy. They say it is leading to more bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobial drugs.
The campaign group Open Cages bought 40 chicken products from five branches of Lidl, which is the sixth biggest UK supermarket and Europe’s largest.
The meat, which ranged from whole chickens to drumsticks, thighs and breast fillets, was packed into cooler bags and sent by refrigerated lorry to a laboratory in Germany.