Python HTML Encoding xc2xa0

I’ve been struggling with this one for a while. I’m trying to write strings to HTML but have issues with the format once I’ve cleaned them. Here’s an example:

paragraphs = ['Grocery giant and household name Woolworths is battered and bruised. ', 
'But behind the problems are still the makings of a formidable company']

x = str(" ")
for item in paragraphs:
    x = x + str(item)
x

Output:

"Grocery giant and household namexc2xa0Woolworths is battered andxc2xa0bruised. 
But behind the problems are still the makings of a formidablexc2xa0company"

Desired output:

"Grocery giant and household name Woolworths is battered and bruised. 
But behind the problems are still the makings of a formidable company"

I’m hoping you’re able to explain why this happens and how I can fix. Thanks in advance!