By the time Theresa May had assembled her cabinet there was only a week until parliament’s summer recess. Nice timing because it gave her team breathing space to work out what on earth to do about Brexit.

MPs and peers are back tomorrow and economic policy will be under scrutiny. First up on Wednesday is the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and fellow rate-setters at the Treasury select committee. After the Bank took what its chief economist, Andy Haldane, called a sledgehammer to monetary policy by cutting interest rates and printing more money, MPs will want to hear about their thinking on the impact and limits of monetary policy amid doubts about what rate cuts can achieve when they are close to zero.

That should set things up for the Lords economic affairs committee to question chancellor Philip Hammond the next day. Being the Lords, it will no doubt be a civilised affair but peers should take the chance to press Hammond, in his first committee appearance, on what measures he is considering to give the economy a fiscal boost. Even City economists and businessmen such as Sir Martin Sorrell argue the government needs to step in to promote growth, for instance by spending on infrastructure.

With Hammond’s autumn statement not far off, what clues will he give to his thinking?

Not such a fun summit

There are no doubt times when prime ministers look forward to G20 meetings. You get to feel important and have your picture taken with other leaders of major economies, and it’s usually a chance to get away for a few days. But Theresa May is unlikely to feel in this frame of mind at her first G20 summit, which takes place on Sunday and Monday.

First, it’s in China. Not only does that mean a gruelling 13-hour flight to Hangzhou, but when she gets there her hosts will demand to know what she’s up to over Hinkley Point. A year ago, China agreed to fund a third of the £18bn nuclear power station in Somerset on the understanding it would get to build two reactors of its own in Essex and Suffolk. May, who has long had doubts about the security implications of all this, put the project under review and one option appears to be going ahead with Hinkley but delaying a decision on the other two reactors. That would incense the Chinese, who want to showcase their nuclear abilities in Europe.

Then there’s Brexit and its potential to upset the global economy. May is tough, but she could face a gruelling time from her fellow leaders.

High asking price at builder

Following share-price plunges straight after the vote to leave the EU, most housebuilders that have reported results have been fairly upbeat. Persimmon, the biggest in the sector, said buyers paused for thought and then carried on viewing. There are more to come this week, including Barratt and Redrow, but the most interesting is Berkeley.

The company could – or should – face a tough time at its annual meeting near its HQ in out-of-the-way Cobham, Surrey, on Tuesday when it will update on trading. Its shares have picked up a little since their initial drop after the referendum vote, but are still down 18%, and Berkeley is likely to drop out of the FTSE 100. While all this is going on, shareholders are being asked to approve £21.5m in pay for chair Tony Pidgley, mainly from share options.

Berkeley builds expensive homes in London whose prices have soared but are now falling fast. The average price of a home in the capital fell by £30,000 in a month in July, according to estate agent Haart.

No one knows what effect Brexit will eventually have on the property market, but it’s fair to ask whether Pidgley, whose options date mainly from 2009, when the market was moribund, is raking in millions from a bubble that is bursting.