March 1 (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

- British online supermarket and technology group Ocado has threatened to take legal action against retailer Marks & Spencer in a multimillion-pound dispute over the performance of their grocery delivery partnership.

- U.S.-based warehousing firm GXO Logistics has stepped up a bidding war for UK peer Wincanton by offering to buy the business for 762 million pounds ($961.95 million).

The Guardian

- Clare Lombardelli, the chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has been appointed as a deputy governor of the Bank of England.

- Britain's Treasury committee on Thursday opened an investigation looking at the effectiveness of the UK's economic sanctions on Russia, including whether the measures need to be widened to cover the buyers of Russian oil and gas.

The Telegraph

- Large public sector pay hikes this year are unaffordable and risk damaging the delivery of frontline services, the UK Treasury has warned.

- Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt has scrapped plans for a scheme that would enable first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder with a 1 pence deposit, just days after it emerged the Treasury was considering the move.

Sky News

- British supermarket group Sainsbury's has revealed plans to cut around 1,500 roles as part of a previously announced shake-up of its operations.

- London-listed investment firm Bridgepoint Group is to kick off the search for a successor to William Jackson, its veteran chairman.

The Independent

- Former British Prime Minister John Major has called on finance minister Jeremy Hunt to prioritise extra spending on defence over tax cuts in Budget.

($1 = 0.7921 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)