It appears that the growing demand for Champagne has left wine growers in the region struggling to cope. Annual sales have now grown to £7 billion meaning that French authorities are considering expanding the region in which wine growers are allowed to make Champagne. Currently 317 villages have been judged to have the right soil and weather conditions that are needed to produce grapes of sufficient quality to make Champagne. The boundaries are now likely to be redrawn to include a further 40 villages which will start producing Champagne within ten years. Last year the British were the biggest Champagne drinkers outside of France, consuming 39 million bottles.

Marks and Spencer will start charging customers for carrier bags with the money raised going to an environmental charity. Customers will be charged 5p for every carrier bag. The move follows a successful trial at 50 of its stores in Northern Ireland and south west England. The trial saw the demand for bags fall by more than 70%. Chief executive Si Stuart Rose said that if this figure was replicated across the county the number of bags used could be reduced by 280 million a year.

Household water bills are set to increase by 5.8% on average across England and Wales. The regulator Ofwat said that the increases will mean the average combined bill will be about £330 a year, a rise of about £18. However, in some areas of the country the combined bill rise is as much as 8% although the increase is actually lower than last years average price increase of 7%. Customers of South West Water will see the smallest rises of 3.7% on their annual water bill meaning and increase of £18. Southern Water customers will see an increase of £26, whilst Wessex Water customers face an increase of £29.

As someone who uses my car rarely I have not really noticed a rise in fuel costs. This article, however, suggests that drivers are now paying around £18.84 a month more for fuel. Petrol now costs 17p a litre more than it did this last year with the average price at £1.04p a litre. This means that a driver with an average 50 litre fuel tank pays £8.79 more every time they fill up with petrol. Diesel is up too, having soared to an average price of £110.3p a litre compared with 91.1p a year ago. The huge rises have been blamed on the weak dollar and unrest in oil producing countries. The situation however, is likely to get worse, if Alistair Darling goes ahead with his plans to add an extra 2p per litre to fuel duty. Business groups and the motoring lobby are currently calling for the government to scrap the planned rise in the light of rising prices.

Sainsbury’s will launch a new collection of clothes that are made from recycled plastic. The clothes are made from plastic such as soft drink bottles, fruit and vegetable packaging and meat trays. The new range will include shirts, trousers and skirts and will go on sale at half of the group’s stores later this year.

French vineyard owners are to start shipping some of their wine by boat. This method of shipping was last used in the 1800s but could help to reduce their carbon footprint. Although shipping by boat takes around a week longer than by plane it is estimated that it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle. Later this month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland with further voyages planned soon. Each bottle shipped by boat will be labelled as “carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet”.

Tate and Lyle sugar is to be Fairtrade accredited. This will make it the largest UK firm to carry the Fairtrade label. Granulated white cane sugar will be the first Fairtrade product but Tate and Lyle expect the whole range to follow by the end of 2009.

npower are the latest energy company to report a massive rise in profits. The firm has reported a 41% rise in profits making £724m last year. The news comes after British Gas reported a fivefold increase in profits. The consumer group energywatch have launched an investigation into household bills amid concerns that companies are profiteering at the expense of their customers. News of npower's profits came only weeks after it raised electricity bills by 12.7% and gas bills by 17.2%.

PC2Paper have just launched their virtual printer. The product has launched initially at a beta version but if early indications are anything to go by, it should make sending a letter from your computer much easier. Previously you had to log in and go through the process of uploading your letter or writing it online. The virtual printer, however, acts just like a desktop printer. Once you have installed it you simply select the PC2Paper printer option from your list of printers, add the address you want the letter to go to and choose your print options from the different types of paper and formats available. Then just enter your user name and password and the letter is automatically transferred to PC2Paper who take care of the printing and posting for you. What a great idea.

Weather balloons could be used to provide mobile phone and broadband services to rural Britain. An American company called Space Data has already used small phone masts attached to balloons to provide wireless internet access to remote areas. The group has supplied military and commercial clients for four years but is now preparing to link with broadband companies to offer services to residential customers. Space Data has patented the service in 41 countries and is now considering the US as a potential market. The service uses a small transceiver attached to a balloon which then rises to an altitude of 30,500m after it has been released. The company says that one balloon can beam a signal to an area equivalent to 80 mobile phone towers. The service does have one drawback, the balloons only last for 24 hours before bursting which means a constant supply has to be released to maintain the connection and the radio equipment on the burst balloon has to be retrieved by a team using location devices.