If this article is correct then UK tenants pay the highest rents in Western Europe. According to the article it costs an average of £348 a month to rent a room in a shared property in the UK. That’s 75% more than it would cost in Spain where the equivalent would cost just £199 a month. France was the second most expensive to rent a room but at and average of £285 it still worked out a lot cheaper than the UK. In Italy the average cost was £282 a month. The figures come from the flatshare website easyroommate.co.uk which says the high cost of renting a room in the UK is largely down to the lack of mortgage finance available which forces first time buyers to continue renting thus driving up demand.

If you are interested in horse betting then you might want to check out this website. It saves the walk to your local betting shop and allows you to do all your horse racing betting online. If you are new to the site you can get 20% free cash on your first deposit. Then just check out the live odds and research the jockeys, trainers and horses before making your selection and waiting to see if your horse comes in.

BT are to start offering the Sky Sports channels at a reduced price. BT Vision customers who want to receive Sky Sports 1 and 2 will be able to receive them for £as little as £6.99 extra a month which undercuts Sky. The offer is available to customers who subscribe to a bundle offer of broadband and calls for a 24 month period, the total monthly cost for the deal is £16.99 a month which is still cheaper than Sky.

According to this article BT have recently signed a deal with Sky which will enable them to offer Premier League football. Although the exact details of the deal have not been announced BT have announced that they have signed a wholesale deal to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2. BT customer will be able to sign up from the beginning of August, a couple of weeks before the start of the Premier League. It is thought it will cost between £15 and £20 a month although this is still to be confirmed.

Barclaycard have recently cut the amount of cashback that customers earn for spending on their credit cards. The move comes about a month after the company withdrew cashback cards for new customers and stopped promoting its Freedom rewards scheme. Customers currently receive the cash equivalent of 1% for the first £200 of monthly spending and 0.5% for spending above this level. From the start of August this will reduce to 0.25% for the first £200, 0.35% for spending between £200 and £1,500 and 1% for spending over £1,500. The company have said the cuts have been made for commercial reasons and that there are no plans to axe the scheme altogether.

According to this article Ford will become the first car manufacturer to sells its cars direct to the customer via the internet. Ford’s research has shown that customers would like to be able to buy their new car on the internet and that many would be happy to do so without taking a test drive. Ford will make all car models available to purchase online and customers will be able to place their order by email. The car will then be delivered to one of 12 regional delivery centres where customers can inspect it before driving it away. The move is likely to trigger similar initiatives from rival companies who I’m sure are watching closely to see how successful this is.

According to this article a new project from car maker Nissan will create 200 new jobs in the North East of England. The Japanese car maker will start producing a new two litre petrol engine at the company’s plant in Sunderland. The programme is part of a £15 million investment programme. Around 60,000 of the engines will be produced every year meaning that 130 jobs will be safeguarded and 200 new posts will be created by 2013 depending on market conditions.

According to this article the government is reviewing the stamp duty break for first time buyers. Currently first time buyers can take advantage of a two year stamp duty holiday on properties up to the value of £25,000. The stamp duty holiday was granted by the Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling in his pre-election budget. It had been thought that the Conservatives would make it permanent if they were elected but it now seems they are thinking of axing the break instead. They have now said they will review the stamp duty tax relief taking into account affordability and value and money and this statement has led to the speculation that it will be axed.

NICE the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence has called on the government to cut the amount of fat and salt in food, something which they say could save 40,000 lives a year. Under the guidance NICE say that ministers should consider introducing legislation if manufacturers are not forthcoming in cutting saturated fat and salt in food. According to the article there are around five million people living with the effects of cardiovascular disease in Britain with around 150,000 deaths a year. NICE has calculated that 40,000 deaths a year could be prevented if all trans fats were eliminated from prepared foods. They have also called for the advertising of unhealthy foods to children to be banned until after 9pm and action to be taken to introduce a more transparent food labelling system.