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The UK's privacy watchdog has approved Google's controversial photomapping tool Google Street View. The program integrates photos of streets into Google Maps to enable users to get an accurate impression of what locations look like.

Nationwide have released their house price index figures today and it certainly makes for grim reading if you’re a homeowner. There’s been an 8.1% drop in the last year, with the average house price now at £169,316 – that’s £15,000 cheaper than in the same month last year.

House prices have now fallen for nine months in a row and are at their lowest level since August 2006.

According to a survey conducted by Confused.com, DIY disasters cost the average Brit £669.58. 1 in 5 men admit to a self-inflicted disaster with just 8% of women fessing up to the same. That said, women’s DIY disasters are costlier than those of their male counterparts; the average resulting home insurance claim for women is a whopping £758.58, compared with £556.36 for men.

According to ratings agency Standard and Poor's, statistics show that 1 in 7 UK homeowners will go into negative equity in the next 12 months.

Building materials group Saint Gobain has announced that it will cut 4,000 jobs worldwide, including 1,100 in the UK.

One of the leading Scottish home builders, Homes for Scotland, was called for action from the Scottish parliament as it faces the highest volume of job losses "since Ravenscraig in 1992." Chief executive for the Edinburgh-based form, Jonathan Fair was quoted in the Scotsman s

It was reported today in the Times (ironically under "Crime News") that Gordon Williams, 58, a painter and decorator from Llanafan in Wales has been fined £30 for smoking in his van.

Shares in Rentokil Initial fell a further nearly 5% this morning to a 52 week low of 67.25 this morning as the fallout from last week's revised profit forcast continued to cast a gloomy cloud over the service company.

According to a report from Rightmove, properties in London are staying on the market longer than ever before as vendors in the capital cling on to the vain hope that the value of their home will hold up in the current slump. Rightmove's commercial director Miles Shipside cited an uncharacteristicly sluggish Spring for the stagnant state of play.

It now takes an average of 85 days to sell a property in London, up from 76 days in June.

In a report today in the Daily Mail, it was announced that house buyers pulling out of deals has increased to 4 in 10 as more and more buyers are failing to secure finance or losing their nerve.