More than 20 spice products including dips, curry powders and seasonings have been recalled over fears they may contain peanuts not mentioned on the label.

In a notice issued by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the decision to withdraw the products – supplied by FGS Ingredients Ltd in Leicester – was described as “precautionary”.

The products recalled include Domino’s BBQ Dip, seasonings and curry powders by Favourit and Dunnes Stores, and some Westmorland Family Butchery sausages and burgers.

It comes weeks after a separate recall over a possible peanut contamination by FGS Ingredients, where the firm said testing was ongoing to understand “where and how this issue originated”.

Mustard products containing traces of peanut can be found in food such as dips, sauces, salads and pre-packed sandwiches.

Last month FGS Ingredients said additional testing across its ingredients had “not detected any presence of peanut content or residue”, but advised customers to remove products from sale containing the mustard ingredients.

A spokesperson previously said: “We have never previously been involved in any incident of food contamination. Nevertheless, we continue to support the FSA investigation in every way necessary to help determine the source of this issue.”

The latest FSA notice said consumers had been advised to return the products for a full refund.

The FSA added: “These products are sold under several different brand names at several different retail stores.

“Point of sale notices will be displayed where the products were sold. These notices explain to customers why the products are being recalled and tell them what to do if they have bought the products.”

THE number of homes for sale hit a ten year high in October, according to Rightmove.

Across Britain the number of properties put on the market was 12% higher than a year ago.

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Meanwhile, the number of people contacting estate agents about properties for sale was up by 17% compared with the same period last year.

Rightmove said the number of homes on the market is driving up competition between sellers as potential homeowners continue to find their budgets are stretched.

A greater choice of homes is giving buyers more negotiating power, which is helping to stop prices from rising rapidly.

Meanwhile, some buyers are waiting for clarity from this month’s Budget and cheaper mortgage rates before they make an offer.

As a result, the typical price being asked for a home coming onto the market increased by £1,199, or 0.3%, this month to reach £371,958.

This is much lower than the average seasonal 1.3% monthly increase at this time of year.

Meanwhile, asking prices are 1% higher than a year ago, when a typical home was listed at £368,231, around £3,727 less than it would be now.

London boasts the highest average asking price of any UK region.

A typical home in the capital is worth £694,906 after prices rose by 1.1% year on year.

Homes in the South East are also well above the national average, with a typical property worth £483,780.

Prices in the region are down 0.6% in the last year but still remain well above other regions.

The North East is still the cheapest region in England, with a typical home worth £192,742, 4.9% higher than a year ago.

Tim Bannister, a property expert at Rightmove, warned that the ball is now “in the buyer’s court”, which means sellers need to price competitively to find a buyer.

He added: “The big picture still looks positive for the market heading into 2025. Market activity remains strong, despite affordability pressures on movers. 

Different types of mortgages

We break down all you need to know about mortgages and what categories they fall into.

A fixed rate mortgage provides an interest rate that remains the same for an agreed period such as two, five or even 10 years.

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Your monthly repayments would remain the same for the whole deal period.

There are a few different types of variable mortgages and, as the name suggests, the rates can change.

A tracker mortgage sets your rate a certain percentage above or below an external benchmark.

This is usually the Bank of England base rate or a bank may have its figure.

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If the base rate rises, so will your mortgage but if it drops then your monthly repayments will be reduced.

A standard variable rate (SVR) is a default rate offered by banks. You usually revert to this at the end of a fixed deal term, unless you get a new one.

SVRs are generally higher than other types of mortgage, so if you’re on one then you’re likely to be paying more than you need to.

Variable rate mortgages often don’t have exit fees while a fixed rate could do.

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“Once we have more certainty about the contents of the Budget, hopefully followed by speedy second and third Bank Rate cuts, we could see another surge in market optimism like we had in the summer.”

The average 5-year mortgage rate is now 4.61%, up slightly from 4.55% last week.

This is still a big improvement from the average of 6.11% when rates peaked in July 2023.

With more homes being put on the market the average time they are taking to sell has increased.

What it means for you

Rightmove said it now takes 61 days to secure a buyer, a slight uptick from an average of 59 days in the summer.

Competition for buyers is particularly fierce at the top of the market.

The number of four-bedroom detached houses and five-bedroom-plus homes available for sale is 17% ahead of last year.

Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves in London, said monthly property transactions are now at their strongest since 2022.

He said: “Mortgage approval levels have been strengthening for much of this year and we’re now seeing this increase in buyer demand start to filter through to actual sales. 

“This improving market momentum has also helped to tempt many sellers back into the market who had previously put their plans to move on pause.”

Who else tracks house prices?

Several big banks also track property prices and release monthly indexes.

Halifax is part of Lloyds Banking Group, which is the UK’s biggest mortgage lender.

It has been tracking house prices since 1983 and published a monthly house price index based on the mortgage data it holds.

Nationwide also publishes a monthly index which tracks the average price of homes on which it provides mortgages.

As their figures are based on mortgage approvals they don’t include cash buyers who purchase a property without needing a mortgage.

The official measure of house prices is from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which uses data from the Land Registry where the actual sold price is recorded.

These figures are the most accurate of all of the indexes but the figures are released three months after the homes are sold, so there is a big time lag.

Online property websites Rightmove and Zoopla also publish monthly house price data.

Rightmove’s data is based on asking prices from the properties listed on its website.

Meanwhile Zoopla uses sold prices, mortgage valuations and data on agreed sales.

Neither website takes into account the price a property was sold for, unlike the ONS.

Some properties could end up being sold for higher or lower, while others may not sell at all.

Here’s the latest data from other indexes:

• Nationwide: House prices rose by 0.7% in September and increased by 3.2% annually. A typical property is now worth £266,094.
• ONS: property prices increased by 2.8% annually to £293,000 in the year to August.
• Zoopla: House prices rose by 0.7% in the year to August, with a typical property now worth £267,000.

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Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic preacher who at his peak led hundreds of thousands of Turkish faithful but was accused of plotting a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has died while in exile in the US.

Gülen died in hospital late on Sunday, according to a post on X by Herkul, a website with ties to the 83-year-old cleric, which was widely reported in Turkish media.

Ahmet Kurucan, who is married to a niece of Gülen, confirmed his death to the Financial Times.

Gülen’s exile in the US had been a major irritant in Ankara’s relationship with Washington, which refused to extradite the cleric after a 2016 military insurrection that Erdoğan blamed on Gülen’s religious community.

The movement, which calls itself Hizmet, or service, is classified as a terrorist organisation in Turkey.

“Our nation and state will continue to fight against this organisation as they fight against all kinds of terrorist organisations,” Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, said on Monday, as he marked the death of the man he identified as “the leader of the dark organisation”.

Once a key ally of Erdoğan, Gülen denied having a hand in the abortive coup, in which more than 300 people died and rebel soldiers bombed parliament with commandeered fighter jets.

He remained in the US, where had he lived since 1999 and was increasingly depicted by Erdoğan as his principal enemy.

In Turkey the president intensified a crackdown against Gülen supporters who remained in the country after 2016. Erdoğan purged hundreds of thousands of people with suspected Gülenist links from state jobs, jailed tens of thousands more and seized banks, media outlets and other companies worth billions of dollars.

Turkish authorities claim Gülen’s network remains active within the country, with police and prosecutors launching frequent raids against alleged members.

The network also maintains international activities. There were thought to be at least 150 US charter schools linked to it as recently as 2017, according to a US congressional report. Analysts say organisations with ties to the cleric have also been active in Africa.

The cause of Gülen’s death was not immediately known. He had initially said his move to the US was to receive medical treatment for conditions including diabetes and heart disease. He spent his last years at a sprawling compound in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

During the movement’s peak, Gülen’s followers numbered somewhere between 500,000 and 4mn and provided the cleric with considerable political leverage beginning in the late 1980s.

Gülen dispatched volunteers to Central Asia and the Balkans after the fall of the Soviet Union to open up schools in what eventually became a global network that educated millions of people and expanded Turkish soft power.

But it was after Erdoğan came to power in 2003 that the movement emerged as a full-blown political force. Erdoğan’s Islamist-rooted politics made the Gülenists, who had quietly risen through the judiciary and security forces over decades, his natural allies.

They worked together to curtail the secularist military’s interventions in politics, primarily through a series of mass criminal trials that led to the jailing of hundreds of former and serving army officers and their allies.

Once they had vanquished their common foe, the two camps turned on each other. The power struggle came to a head in 2016. Turkish officials alleged that Gülen suspected Erdoğan would discharge loyal military officers at an annual council in August and attempted to pre-emptively seize power on July 15.

After a single night of violence, the coup attempt was defeated.

Additional reporting by Adam Samson and Funja Güler in Ankara

Drivers aged under 21 who have just passed their tests should be prevented from carrying passengers of a similar age for their first six months as drivers, the AA has said.

It suggested tougher rules that would also see them handed six penalty points for not wearing a seatbelt during the period – meaning they could lose their licence.

The motoring organisation says the proposal for a particular type of licence targeted at new, young drivers has the potential to prevent 934 serious injuries and save 58 lives on UK roads each year.

Similar measures – known as graduated driving licensing (GDL) – are already in place in countries including the US, Canada, Australia and Sweden.

If it was brought in across the UK, it would mean young drivers marking their vehicles with G plates – with a failure to display them punishable with three points on their licence.

GDL already exists in Northern Ireland, and the Department for Transport (DfT) has said it is not currently considering it elsewhere in the UK.

The department’s figures show 290 people were killed and 4,669 were seriously injured in crashes on Britain’s roads last year involving at least one driver aged 17-24.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live, Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of road policy, said what was noticable across countries with the policy in place was “a reduction of death and serious injuries to younger drivers and their passengers” by 20% to 40%.

Mr Cousens said that while the government was bringing forward a road safety strategy, at the moment it was “not convinced” of the need for GDL.

“We feel that something has to be done, so we’re going to keep banging this drum,” he said. “Hopefully the government will change tack and see that, actually, we need to make some changes for younger drivers.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “Every death on our roads is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the families of everyone who has lost a loved one in this way.

“Whilst we are not considering graduated driving licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads, and we are considering other measures to tackle this problem and protect young drivers.”