Households' available funds dipped down to £39759 the analysts KDB said

Households' available funds dipped down to £39,759, the analysts KDB said.The main factors behind the fall were price falls on stock market, and the failure of house prices to keep pace with homeowners' appetite for new mortgage debt, it said.Meanwhile, IDS warned that public sector workers were set to suffer a real- terms pay cut, as the Treasury's squeeze on pay bills starts to bite."Treasury policy for public sector pay rises in the next 12 months is for rises of no more than 2 per cent," IDS said. Households that install energy generation systems such as solar panels and wind turbines could be guaranteed a minimum price for selling their spare power back to the electricity networks, the regulator said today. "Inflation close to 4 per cent will be a very strong upward pressure on the level of pay settlements."Headline inflation is expected to hit 4 per cent between December 2006 and February 2007, according to a survey of City economists by IDS. "Based on previous experience, this will set a benchmark for private sector pay settlements," it said.The strongest upward effect on inflation has come from higher domestic fuel bills which have cut into employees' disposable income, and this is likely to form a key component of wage claims.It said high housing and other living costs in London and the South-east have meant that many large employers had increased their premiums for staff in the capital over the past few years.Its warning came as a separate survey showed that average household disposable wealth had fallen back below the £40,000 threshold.

Companies face hefty pay demands in the new year when inflation is forecast to hit 4 per cent, an independent think-tank warned today. Incomes Data Services said it expected private sector pay rises of between 3 and 4.5 per cent, going up to 5.9 per cent in the lowest-paid sectors affected by the national minimum wage. In an analysis of pay trends next year, it said rising inflation would provide the background for the two most important months in private sector pay bargaining - January and April."The RPI inflation measure is the key to pay setting in the private sector," Ken Mulkearn, the editor of IDS Pay Report, said. "Where we have to do an early collection from a particular box, we always aim to ensure that there is a later collection at a nearby box or post office branch. "None of our rivals provide collection and delivery nationwide to the UK's 27 million addresses or have the capability to do so.". A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: "Only the Royal Mail collects the mail, delivers the mail six days a week right across the UK.

We are beginning to hear some concerns about changes to delivery and collection times. "People are telling us that in some areas post is being collected as early as 9am, whereas deliveries come later than that. "We need to find out what customers really want from their post and then we will decide if anything needs to be done about it." Ms Chambers said collection times seemed to be changing "gradually" in some parts of the country. Residents in areas including South Wales, Derbyshire and Ipswich complained that collections are being made before their post was delivered, giving them no time to respond to correspondence on the same day.

Postcomm announced a three-month consultation to check details of when post was being collected and delivered before deciding whether to order any changes. Chief executive Sarah Chambers said 9am seemed "very early" to be collecting post, adding: "There may be some parts of the country where post boxes are so remote that the only way the Royal Mail can guarantee next-day delivery is to collect post early "But we need to find out what customers want. A Royal Mail spokesman said: "The LGA has not written to us and they are entirely wrong in thinking anything Royal Mail has done will lead to 'unlimited' amounts of unaddressed mailings being sent to people's homes. "75% of unaddressed mail is delivered by rivals - and if Royal Mail did not deliver any of this mail then it would simply be posted through people's letter boxes by other operators." * The postal regulator today launched an inquiry into complaints that letters are being collected from post boxes as early as 9am. The LGA has said a move to boost this would increase the 78,000 tonnes of junk mail put in landfill sites each year. The amount of waste generated is already increasing at around 3% a year, according to the association, and has led to a 15% rise in landfill tax this year and £206 million more of council taxpayers' money being spent on collecting and disposing rubbish in the last 12 months.

"This comes at a time when councils are trying to minimise waste, increase recycling and are striving to provide value for money to the taxpayer. "Every extra tonne of rubbish that goes into landfill costs the taxpayer an extra £100, and any steps that can reduce this cost is one less burden on the hard pressed council taxpayer. "More junk mail for services people do not want or need will only lead to an increase in the amount of unnecessary rubbish created and could place further pressures on the council taxpayer through no fault of either the council or local people." The Royal Mail delivered 3.3 billion items of unaddressed mail last year, an increase of 12.5% on the previous year. Investors in London held their nerve today in the face of international fears over North Korea's first nuclear weapons test. Stock markets across Asia fell sharply after the test, which was condemned by leaders around the world Shares were also down in continental Europe,. Abolishing the limit on junk mail deliveries to people's homes will damage the environment and cost council tax payers more, the Royal Mail was warned today.