'Green shoots' hailed as house prices rise again

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The country's biggest building society, Nationwide, reported that the average house price rose to £154,016 last month. The annual rate of decline has slowed to 11.3 per cent from 15 per cent in April.

It cautioned that it was "still too early to say" that the market was turning for the better, but the figures do chime with anecdotal evidence from estate agents.

The Government has revealed that 35,000 orders for new cars were made in the first two weeks of the new scrappage scheme for old cars.

It hopes that strong uptake will boost Britain's car factories and trickle through to the wider economy. Doubters say people buying cars will rein back other spending, damaging other parts of the economy, particularly retailers.

So far, however, the High Street has been bearing up well in recent months. John Lewis said last week's trading was its strongest so far this year, with sales up two per cent on a year ago.