The Reporter

Rental arrears More than a third of private landlords have tenants who have fallen behind with their rent, according to a new survey. Around 37% of landlords said some of their tenants were currently in rent arrears, while 44% said they had experienced the problem during the past six months, according to the National Landlords Association. That may help explain why there has been a big rise in the number of buy-to-let properties being repossessed. Some Guardian readers will probably be secretly pleased to hear that some ­buy-to-let landlords are finding life tough, but will, of course, also be sympathetic to the plight of tenants in financial ­difficulty.

Cup of woeYour cup of tea may be about to get more expensive, according to the BBC News website. It says new data shows that global cuppa demand exceeded supply in 2008 (perhaps the credit crunch is prompting more of us to reach for a comforting cup of something warm and wet?). Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, while production was 3.78m tonnes. "Tea prices have soared as drought has hit Kenya hard in the past year, as well as Sri Lanka and India, which is the world's biggest producer of tea," adds the website. If you get through half a dozen cups or more a day, perhaps you'll need to think about cutting back...