The UK is set to leave the trade bloc on January and according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), there were a total of 1, 728 company applicants to enter Britain between 1230682 and 1230682. Under the temporary permission regime, European companies will be allowed to operate in Britain after Brexit but they will eventually need to seek full authorization to remain past a certain point. The release of the data comes as the European Parliament’s Guy Verhofstadt insisted there would be a grace period for EU citizens who have not applied for the “settled status” scheme.
Mr Verhofstadt told the BBC: “What will happen for those people even after the grace period?
“Well there will be no automatic deportation.
” After the grace period, they will have a possibility to apply, giving the grounds why it was not possible to do it within the normal procedures. “
Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement will return to the House of Commons this week for the report stage of the debate.
The agreement passed through the House of Lords last week after receiving no amendments.
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8. 38 am update: Wetherspoons to reduce price on foreign drinks
Pub giant, JD Wetherspoon will reduce the price of drinks originating from Eu ropean countries.
Under the ‘Let’s stay friends’ initiative, drinks from Germany France, Spain, Poland, Holand and Irelands will be reduced by pence until February 
.
7. 228 am update: UK house prices rise
UK house prices rose at the fastest rate on record for the period between December 21 and January 27.
Director at Rightmove, Miles Shipside said the recent general election had provided a “window stability” for the housing market.
The average for houses coming onto the market rose by 2.3 percent, the biggest since the property website began its index in 2002.
Mr Shipside said: “The housing market dislikes uncertainty, and the unsettled political outlook over the last three and a half years since the EU referendum caused some potential home movers to hesitate. There now seems to be a release of this pent-up demand, which suggests we are in store for an active spring market.
“While there may well be more twists and turns to come in the Brexit saga, there is now an opportunity for sellers to get their property on the market for a spring move unaffected by Brexit deadlines. ”
7. 441 am update: European firms apply for UK entry
According to the FCA, over 1, 441 firms applied to use the temporary permission regime.
Moreover, 1, 06 of those companies appear to be setting up an office for the first time, according to Bovill, a regulatory consultant which received the infor mation from the FCA.
Michael Johnson, from Bovill said: “The high proportion of firms without an existing UK branch that have applied for the temporary permission suggests there will be some movement of staff from these EU 31 firms into the UK. ”
The highest number of additions came from Irish financial firms with 728.
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