Almost half a billion pounds was wasted in a project to build fire control rooms that was flawed from the start because it failed to win the support of fire and rescue services.

Britain's co-operative sector outperformed the wider UK economy last year in a boost for businesses owned by their employees or customers. Co-operatives UK said the combined turnover of mutual organisations rose 4.4 per cent last year. The biggest growth was at employee-owned firms such as John Lewis and Suma Wholefoods, while the customer-owned Co-operative Group's £14bn revenue made it the biggest business.

Wolseley revealed a rise in like- for-like revenues yesterday, when the building supplies group received a boost from an uptick in the US, its largest market.