A welfare-to-work company owned by David Cameron's former families tsar has been accused of being involved in a vast fraud scandal in which there was "systemic" misuse of public money.

Department for Education finds 'serious failings' after audit of trust running four schools

Chris Ronnie, the former chief executive of JJB Sports, was yesterday charged by the Serious Fraud Office over an alleged £1m fraud relating to contracts entered into by the sportswear retailer in 2008.

Three, Britain's fourth-biggest mobile phones operator, defied falling revenues in other parts of the telecoms sector to report a 14 per cent surge in annual sales to £1.78bn.

Its arch-rival Thomas Cook is stricken, but Tui Travel is still motoring. The holiday giant behind Thomson claimed yesterday it is besting the competition and continuing to attract penny-pinching Brits in need of a break from work.

How much do you care if our government was being corrupted by shady donors? What would you be prepared to pay once a year to stop it happening? The cost of half a pint of beer? Too much? How about a pound coin? Still too much? Surely we can settle for 50p then, the price of a first-class stamp?

The hundreds of thousands of people who will be sucked into the 40p tax bracket in the coming years will find it impossible to use the range of sophisticated avoidance measures routinely exploited by the wealthy, tax experts have warned.

The top rate of income tax will be cut from 50p to 45p in April next year, George Osborne confirmed in what is expected to prove the most memorable measure in his Budget.

Customers of a spread betting firm are likely to be left seeking compensation after an estimated £13 million black hole in its accounts was revealed today.

Half of the 1,000 parents surveyed by the Money Advice Service said they underestimated the costs of caring for their first baby in the first year.

The uproar over his wife's currency dealings may have cost Swiss National Bank governor Philipp Hildebrand his job, but the auditors have at least given his likely successor Thomas Jordan a clean bill of health.

Clinton Cards, the greetings card retailer, has put its ailing Birthdays chain up for sale, as the group's new chief executive seeks to turn around its performance.