550,000 people in Britain have not claimed Premium Bond wins, worth £30 million in total.

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) said unclaimed wins ranged from £25 to one prize of £100,000. Premium Bond cheques are sent to the address to which the bond is registered. However, many savers forget to inform NS&I when they move house.

Many people were given Premium Bonds as children by their parents, but are unaware of this. Also, people whose relatives have died may have inherited Premium Bond wins without any knowledge of this.

“We urge anyone who believes they could have unclaimed prizes to check with us,” said Sally Swait, Premium Bond manager at NS&I.

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Lenders warn that a “meaningful revival” in mortgage lending is unlikely to happen soon, as home loan values plumet to their lowest level since April 2001.

According to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), mortgage lending dropped 8% in January compared with December 2008, and 52% compared with January last year. A drop in mortgage lending is common between December and January. However, the most recent fall indicated that the housing sector was still in a rut, said the CML.

“Mortgage lending activity continues to be very weak and while people are searching eagerly for some signs of recovery, it would be unrealistic to expect a meaningful revival in lending in coming months,” said Bob Pannell, head of research at the CML.

Banks are still reluctant to lend to potential homeowners, and many first time buyers are holding back from entering into the market as house prices continue to fall.

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The Bank of England has reduced the interest rate to 1% - a record low - in an effort to boost the UK’s ailing economy by encouraging more lending. This marks the fifth interest rate cut since last October, when the Bank Rate stood at 5%.

The Bank said that the rate cuts together with various government initiatives will give the economy a much needed boost by providing “a considerable stimulus to activity” as the year progresses.

However, there are concerns among business leaders that the latest interest rate cut will do little to ease the economic crisis as banks are still reluctant to lend to each other in the current climate.

Nationwide, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Skipton Building Society have said they will pass on the latest rate cut to customers with standard variable rate mortgages.

But some banks and building societies are worried that savers will feel they have been “punished” by the move and pull out of savings accounts, hindering the funds available to societies to lend as mortgages.

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UK House prices rose by up to 1.9% in January after falling during every one of the previous eleven months, the Halifax reported. But despite January’s rise, house prices showed an overall fall of 17.2% .

The average house price reached £163,966 according to the figures, which are taken from mortgage approvals. In January 2008 the average house price as estimated by the Halifax was £197,243. The current average house price shows a 16.8% fall on that figure. However, lenders tend to compare the average price for the past three months with the same period last year, which would make the drop 17.2%.

But figures are uncertain. A survey published last week by the Nationwide building society suggested that house prices had in fact dropped by another 1.3% in January.

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Barclaycard has cut interest rates for some of its customers after coming under pressure to ease the strain on cardholders during the credit crunch.

The credit card company will drop interest rates for three million of its lowest-risk customers by between 2.5 and 5 percentage points. However, a further nine million customers would not benefit from the cut in rates would not see their rate fall as their risk of defaulting had increased, said Barclaycard chief executive Anthony Jenkins.

The move by Barclays follows the publication of a new set of “fair principles” agreed between major UK credit card agencies and the government in December, after lenders were threatened with referral to the Office of Fair Trading. As part of the agreement, card companies have promised “breathing space” to consumers struggling with repayments.

Other initiatives by Barclays include a financial support helpline, lower rates for new customers and a freezing of rates for at least four months for existing customers.

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The government has announced plans to extend banking services at the Post Office, creating a nationwide “People’s Bank” under proposals presented to a committee of MPs reviewing the future of the Royal Mail.

The Post Office currently offers limited banking services in a joint venture with the Bank of Ireland. The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), headed by Lord Mandelson, now wants to broaden these services at the Post Office’s 12,000 UK outlets, allowing post offices to act like fully-fledged banks with debit card facilities and current accounts, on top of its current offering of credit cards, mortgages and personal loans.

“Royal Mail has been very clear that we want to expand the range of banking services we provide through the Post Office network and there are a number of things in the pipeline,” said Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier.

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Woolworths is set to make a comeback as an online business this summer, after the chain was bought up in a surprise deal by Shop Direct Group, the owner of Littlewoods. The takeover marks an end to the pick’n'mix retailer’s high-street presence.

A month after the last high street Woolworths store closed its shutters, the home shopping group Home Direct, owned by the Barclay brothers, is thought to have paid administrators Deloitte between £5 million and £10 million for the Woolworths brand, but declined to provide exact figures. Shop Direct has also bought Woolworths’ childrenswear brand Ladybird.

Shop Direct hopes to move the business away from household merchandise to focus on gifts and children’s clothing. The Ladybird brand will be sold both online and through Shop Direct’s various catalogues including Kays and Littlewoods.

Mark Newton-Jones, chief executive of Shop Direct said: “[The product offer] will be more targeted than the previous offer. It will definitely have childrenswear and definitely have entertainment, but I really don’t think we will be selling washing up bowls and light bulbs.”

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