Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

James Mcgregor, chairman of the consultancy company APCO Worldwide and the author of two books on China, says the UK is "sucking up" to it's new economic friend in the east.

"It's unbelievable what's going on," he tells Today. "If you act like a panting puppy the Chinese will think they've got you on a leash."

The Chinese will happily do business with any country if it's in their interest and beneficial, so there's no need to act like a "supplicant", he says. "I'm sure they are laughing behind closed doors."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Disney/Lucasfilm

The cleverly controlled release of information about the new Star Wars film will likely ensure it becomes the highest grossing movie of all time, beating Avatar, says Alex Ritman, of Hollywood Reporter.

He points out on Today that the film is the first of the Star Wars franchise to be released in the era of social media.That will ensure that the momentum towards the release date keeps building.

On the same theme, an interesting aside from Dr Allen Baird, who runs a Star Wars course at Queens University Belfast. He's asked by a Today presenter, the last three Star Wars films were rubbish, weren't they? "Yes" is his blunt reply. 

Image source, Reuters

The hotels and coffee chain owner, external, Whitbread, expects the increased minimum wage to cost it around £15m-£20m a year.

It says it can mitigate those costs through "a combination of economies of scale as we grow, procurement benefits and investment in training and systems to deliver increases in productivity and efficiency".

It has reported a pre-tax profit of £254.9m for the first half of its financial year. That's up 5.4% on the same period last year.

Total sales rose 11% to £1.44bn.

Sales at Premier Inn rose by 12.6% and the company plans to invest £130m in that business this year.

Its Costa Coffee business made a profit of £67m.

It is the final set of results under the leadership of Andy Harrison, who has been in charge for five years.

Alison Brittain will take over in December.

BBC Radio 5 Live

In a very short space of time PwC, the administrators of Caparo Industries, have had expressions of interest from "all manner of parties". 

"It's amazing," says Matthew Hammond from PwC.

So far approaches have come from the UK and there's been interest in buying all of the failed steel business and individual parts.

"There are some really attractive businesses," says Mr Hammond.

He reassures staff that they will continue to be paid. PwC needs two weeks to assess the situation, the whole administration process should take couple of months he says on Radio 5 Live.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

It's the second annual Black British Business Awards tonight, and co-founder Melanie Eusebe is on Today talking about the event.

What do the awards achieve? "It focuses on an imbalance in the workplace," she says. "It's about changing perceptions, and improve attraction and retention."

But introducing boardroom quotas is the key to real change. "I'm a firm believer in quotas. We have waited too long," she says. 

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The human cost of the collapse in the UK steel industry is underlined by Steve Grant, chief of engineering training provider TTE. His firm looked after training for 51 apprentices at the Redcar steel plant. He told Today:

His fear, though, is that the apprentices will drift into any job they can find to survive, losing valuable skills for UK engineering.  

Starbucks and Fiat, externalface tens of millions of euros in tax repayments, according to the front page of today's Financial Times.

That will follow a European Union investigation into tax deals between Starbucks and the Netherlands and Amazon and Luxembourg.

The EU's competition commissioner will rule that those deals amounted to illegal state aid. 

It could cost Starbucks around €30m and for Fiat the sum could be up to €200m, the FT reports.

Apple and Amazon's tax affairs are also being investigated by EU authorities.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Not a lot of Chinese steel is imported directly into the UK says Peter Brennan from Steel Business Insider.

He says the real competition comes from European suppliers, who are helped by the euro's relative weakness against the pound.

UK suppliers are also hampered by relatively high energy costs and costly business rates, he says.

There is overcapacity in the steel industry from the boom years, and demand has not returned in Europe and the US he points out on Wake Up To Money.

BBC Radio 5 Live

The steel industry is blaming a glut of cheap Chinese steel for driving down prices on the global market.

Lord James Sassoon is chair of the China British Business Council and sounds uncomfortable when discussing the subject.

He says the problems of the steel industry is due to a 50% drop in steel prices.

But Wake Up To Money presenter Adam Parsons points out that the drop in prices is due to a massive surge in Chinese production.

Image source, EDF

China is to take a one-third stake in the project to build new nuclear power plants in the UK, the Financial Times reports, external.

The deal will be officially announced on Wednesday it says, and coincides with the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

French energy group EDF is leading the project which will start with a new power station at Hinkley Point, with a budget of £24bn.

That power station will get a new completion date of 2025, the FT reports.

China will also co-operate on future plants in Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex it says.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Tata Steel is expected to announce up to 1,200 job cuts in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire, Scotland later today.

It adds to the grim news for the steel industry. Last week the Redcar steelworks in Teesside went into liquidation, costing 2,200 jobs.

It is also thought that 1,700 jobs are under threat at Caparo, which owns steel plants across the UK.

This is what one Tata steel worker in Scunthorpe had to say on Wake Up To Money: