Official figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility published as part of the Autumn Statement show the cost of buying a house has been severely underestimated.

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a flurry of new tax and rates incentives designed to ease the pressure off struggling High Street shops

The Chancellor unveiled a raft of upbeat data pointing to the recovery gaining momentum, with record numbers in work, borrowing falling and house prices forecast to soar by 5.2 per cent next year.

Prime Minister David Cameron has signalled he wants to go further and increase the amount available to couples who tie the knot.

Accidental landlords who let their former homes have been hit harder than wealthy foreigners who sell UK properties under capital gains tax changes.

Tom Dewhurst, 22, was told by Leslie Bottomley 'you seem to have talent', and left Manchester Magistrates' Court with a fine and community service order.

The officer sustained serious injuries and is in a 'poorly but stable' condition after the incident in Leeds. James Leslie, 37, pictured, was arrested yesterday.

The family of hairdresser Carly Harper, 24, claim she died when five months pregnant thanks to negligence by staff at Arrowe Park Hospital, Merseyside.

Painter and decorator Tony Sweetapple, of Sutton, Surrey, endured a painful two-hour wait before a friend arrived to remove the hook with wire cutters.

Stephen Taylor, 60, from Bury, was receiving £71.20 a week in Jobseeker's Allowance while searching for work after losing a previous job as a pub manager.

Marks & Spencer has announced that sherry sales are already up by a third on last year.

Prime Minister said he plans to double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and increase funding to reduce the cost to schools of providing Mandarin training.

An estimated 463 children start smoking every day in England, with 50 in Scotland, 30 in Wales and 19 in Northern Ireland.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: The 50-year-old man had initially developed an infection in his foot after some new shoes rubbed, the New England Journal of Medicine reports.

Before he was taken in by dog behaviour consultant Shaun Hesmondhalgh, of Bolton, Lancashire, Olla the German Shepherd was terrified of anything that moved.

Jeffrey Morris, 40, and wife Louise Cook, 45, from Horton, Northamptonshire, are fighting the local council over orders to pull down the wooden structure in their back garden.

The Education Secretary is embroiled in a furious dispute with Nick Clegg over money earmarked for new facilities to offer 1.8million youngsters a hot lunch.

The Deputy Prime Minister has refused to act to curb fixed offs betting machines despite posing for pictures in March alongside campaigners trying to reduce the stakes and payouts.

George Osborne has secured a 5 per cent cut in wind power subsidies amid increasing concerns about the hostility turbines have caused in rural areas, and to head off a revolt by Tory MPs.

Workers will be allowed unpaid leave to catch their children's performances after a panel of 5,500 mothers said they felt they could not miss the school nativity.

Laresce Browne, 16, from Manchester, holds six powerlifting records despite suffering from hypermobility syndrome.

The statistics, released at a trade show, have been dubbed a victory for start-up authors who have traditionally struggled to get their work published.

Cy Chadwick, who played bad boy Nick Bates (pictured in 1992 and today) denied abusing a boy when he was himself a teenage star before Leeds magistrates today.

Mark Bamford, 67, from Hinckley, Leicestershire, had been missing since the start of October when he failed to rendezvous with partner Amanda Morgan in Syracuse, Sicily.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore believe a vulnerability to anxiety and mood disorders can be transmitted from mothers to babies before birth.

Abdullah Shaibie and Brigida Aro, both 75, had used candles to light their home in Tooting, south London, pictured, after a blown fuse left them without electricity.

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An jury returned a verdict of misadventure after Millie Thompson choked during her lunchtime feed at Ramillies Hall in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester.

Videos of the light appeared on YouTube with many claiming it to be an 'alien'. Biologists suggest it may be a marine salp which has drifted off course.

Amber, a six-year-old mastiff cross, was emaciated and missing patches of fur when she arrived at K9 Crusaders animal rescue centre in Bissoe, Cornwall.

Two academics from the University of Sydney say there are also numerous other benefits, such as staving off depression and insomnia.

Dr Anthony Youn, from Detroit, says cannabis can lower a man's testosterone levels making him more likely to develop 'moobs'.

The man burst into a Costcutter store in Deborough, Northamptonshire, battered a shopkeeper and took hundreds of pounds worth of notes from a till.

The doting mother cat saw no other way of making it all the way home than climbing up a very wobbling branch while carrying her tiny kitten.

These bizarre Christmas tattoos serve as a reminder of the season of goodwill for the rest of the year.

Performance artist George Ferrandi decided to see how people would react when she fell asleep on a stranger's shoulder on the New York subway.

The dashcam clip filmed in Russia shows a car overtaking a truck that has stopped on the inside lane. What the driver doesn't see until it is too late is the pedestrian dashing across the road in front of the truck.

Graham Bickers said that being so close to the bird in his Ipswich living room was a 'once-in-a-lifetime moment' which left his fellow twitchers envious of his luck.