PRESS DIGEST-British Business - July 10

July 10 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

- Seven housing developers have agreed to pay a total of 100 million pounds ($136 million) to affordable housing programmes in Britain following a competition watchdog investigation into potentially anticompetitive behaviour.

- Merck MRK.N said on Wednesday that it will acquire UK-based Verona Pharma I9SAy.F for about $10 billion, gaining a promising respiratory treatment as it faces pressure to diversify beyond its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda.

The Guardian

- Britain's Thames Water awarded bonuses worth 2.5 million pounds ($3.40 million) to its senior staff, despite efforts by the UK government to block the payments, according to documents shared by the UK Parliament's environment committee.

- Britain's new high speed railway line, HS2 construction contracts priced at 19.5 billion pounds have already cost £26bn despite being "just over halfway done", the boss of the high-speed rail project has told MPs.

The Telegraph

- Britain and France have agreed to co-ordinate their use of nuclear weapons for the first time to defend Europe from threats.

- Authorities are hunting for the owner of Britain's insolvent Lindsey oil refinery Prax Lindsey and are unclear as to the whereabouts of Sanjeev Soosaipillai, its chief executive, after it was placed into the hands of an official receiver last week.

Sky News

- The Chinese owner of British Steel Jingye Group has held fresh talks with government officials in a bid to break the impasse over ministers' determination not to compensate it for seizing control of the company.

($1 = 0.7351 pounds)