Mothercare is crawling towards a recovery as chief executive Simon Calver insisted the UK company was on target to break even within two years.

Business leaders and politicians have raised concerns over the future of Inverness's links with London Gatwick. A three-times-a-day service operated by Flybe is in doubt following the airline's decision to sell all of its take-off and landing slots at Gatwick.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, tackled the political debate surrounding Britain's EU membership on Thursday night, telling a City of London audience that Europe needed �a more European UK�.

Revenues at United Utilities in the year to March 31 advanced from �1.56bn to �1.64bn, partly thanks to an inflation-beating 5.8 per cent increase in prices agreed with the regulator Ofwat, but offset by reduced volumes and more uptake of metered supplies.

A day after the International Monetary Fund urged the government to do more to spur growth, Britain's official statisticians have reminded economists of just how far the UK economy remains from full health.