House prices still falling
House prices continued their downward trend during April with the average cost of a home falling by 1.3%, Britain's biggest mortgage lender said today.
Properties have now lost 4.2% of their value since the beginning of 2008, with prices falling during six of the past eight months, according to Halifax.
The annual rate of price growth also turned negative during April for the first time since February 1996, with house prices now 0.9% lower than they were in April 2007.

Bank chief is leaving
A senior executive at a major high street bank is to leave the company, it was announced today.
Paul Idzik, group chief operating officer of Barclays, will leave the group later this year.
Mr Idzik was reportedly one of chief executive John Varley's key lieutenants with a brief to overhaul the bank's culture and management.

Too busy to exercise ...
Workers are missing out on exercise, cooking, relaxing and relationships because of the UK's long hours culture, according to a new report today.
A survey by American Express Insurance showed that four out of five were too busy in their jobs to spend time on their home and social lives.
Work was increasingly eating into people's lives, leaving less time for exercise, cleaning the house, and keeping in touch with relatives and friends, and cooking.

Spending less on holiday
More than half of Britons are planning to cut back on their holiday spending this year, a survey showed today.
Around 57% of people said they planned to reduce the amount of cash they parted with while they were away, with consumers planning to spend an average of just £460 each, according to pre-paid currency card provider FairFX.com.

O2 success
Regulator Ofcom today said mobile phone operator O2 had met its extended deadline to roll out 3G services to at least 80% of the UK population.

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