Brexit leaves British companies short on workers, Japanese firms invest in UK wind farm, and more top news

British companies are struggling to fill vacant positions as EU workers avoid coming to the UK. A survey of over 2,000 companies found that applications for both skilled and unskilled jobs had dropped off, with an average of 20 applicants for the former category compared to 24 last summer. Applications for medium-skilled roles fell from 19 to 10. But despite the shortage, employers expect salaries to rise just 2% over the next year, half the typical increase prior to the financial crisis.  

Two Japanese energy firms will help finance a massive offshore wind farm being built off the coast of Lincolnshire. J-Power and Kansai Electric Power announced a ￡1 billion investment into the ￡2 billion Triton Knoll project, which is being built by German firm Innogy. Offshore construction is expected to begin in 2019, with the project anticipated to supply the equivalent of 800,000 UK homes.

Ticketmaster will shut down its two secondary ticket selling sites in order to stop them being used by touts. Seatwave and GetMeIn allow tickets to be sold on after concerts are sold out, but often at vastly inflated prices. After criticism from fans and artists including Ed Sheeran, Ticketmaster has confirmed that no new events will be listed on the sites, which will be replaced by a fan-to-fan resale site.

Developers have come under fire over a new apartment block near London’s Kensington Gardens that will not include a single affordable home. The Park Modern development, which is being built on the site of a former hostel, will consist of 57 apartments, the cheapest of which will be priced at ￡2 million. In lieu of providing homes for the nearly 4,000 households on Westminster's affordable housing list, Fenton Whelan will have to pay ￡11m to the council housing fund.

As many as 60% of people admit to checking their work emails at least once a day while on holiday, with 24% of Britons saying they find it impossible to relax unless they do. New research by LinkedIn reveals not only that checking work emails while on annual leave makes a third of workers more positive about returning to work, but just 5% said that doing so makes them feel more stressed. Meanwhile, 3% said the reason they check in with work is because they are bored.

Idea of the Day: Business leaders can’t be across every single thing happening in a company, which is where good employees can step in, writes Go By Truck co-founder Dawn Strobel.

“Companies crave individuals that work outside the lines of their job description because they want their organization to succeed. We need more people that identify problems as opportunities to learn and progress, and less of people that notice a problem and finger point to the person in charge because it's "not their job."”

— Orlando Crowcroft