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Lessons on money management should be added to the National Curriculum to help curb rising levels of personal debt, according to a debt solutions company.

Debtmatters said an increasing number of children were leaving school with good exam results and qualifications, but with no understanding of the fundamentals of managing their personal finances.

It said the integration of a more practical approach to money into maths lessons could help reduce debt levels over the long term.

The company has identified 18 as being a key age at which financial problems can first begin. It said that although some people left school at 16, the age of 18 was the time when the majority of people had no choice but to handle money.

It said moving away from home, going to university and getting a first job put people in a position where they had to handle their own finances, often for the first time.

Michael Shirley, operations director at Debtmatters, said: “We’re not criticising maths teachers, schools or students, but we do think there is a growing proportion of the population that has little experience or knowledge of how to manage their personal finances and it is an area where the school curriculum could help.”

Meanwhile Nationwide Building Society has sponsored the publication of The Teenager’s Guide to Money, which will be available in bookshops from November 8.

Research carried out for the group found that two-thirds of teenagers did not think they had a good knowledge of finance.

At the same time one in five teenagers said they did not consider being in debt to be a bad thing, a third of whom claimed everyone was in debt these days. One in five admitted they would choose a bank or building society based on the gifts or incentives they offered, while 43% simply went to the same organisation their parents used.

Stuart Bernau, Nationwide’s executive director, said: “We are in danger of seeing the young people of today grow up without the confidence or understanding to make informed decisions about their money and plan for their financial future.”

House prices will edge ahead by just 1% next year as the long awaited slow down finally materialises, according to a property information group.

Hometrack said a combination of weaker market sentiment, stretched affordability levels and changes to mortgage lending would lead to a “pronounced slowdown” in house price growth and mortgage lending during 2008. But it added that while there would be price falls in some areas, it was not expecting a widespread drop in the value of property.

Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, said: “The greatest casualty of the current slowdown will be property transactions rather than house prices.

“While we expect the annual rate of house price inflation to slow to 1% by the end of 2008, transaction volumes are expected to fall by 17% over the year.

“Indeed, the next 12 to 18 months will be characterised by a general lack of housing for sale, which will provide a support to pricing, although this will result in much greater price volatility within local housing markets.”

The group is predicting that house price growth will be strongest in Scotland and Northern Ireland next year with these areas seeing gains of 3%, while prices will rise by 1.5% in London and the South East.

But at the other end of the scale prices could fall by 1.5% in Wales and the North East, while the group has pencilled in drops of 1% in Yorkshire and Humberside and 0.5% in the North West.

Hometrack said the mortgage market was facing its most uncertain outlook for many years as a combination of slowing mortgage demand and tightening credit standards by lenders was likely to lead to an 18% drop in net mortgage lending during 2008.

Mr Donnell said: “Housing market conditions have certainly turned over the last few months driven by affordability levels hitting a 15 year high and a weakening in market confidence.

“Affordability levels are stretched on most measures and a combination of rising incomes, slower house price growth and falling interest rates are expected to unwind affordability levels to a more sustainable level.”

Rising inflation has helped ease the burden on defined benefit pensions, reducing the cost of benefits by around £10 billion during the past year, a consultancy firm said.

Aon Consulting said higher inflation reduced the expected costs of pension scheme benefits because most schemes target investment returns that are linked to inflation, but a significant proportion of the benefits they pay out are not linked to it.

Marcus Hurd, senior consultant and actuary at Aon Consulting, said: “The Bank of England is successfully keeping Consumer Prices Inflation at around 2%, but most pension schemes measure inflation using the Retail Price Index, which increased by around 4% last year.

“This environment of higher inflation is easing the burden on UK pension schemes, because many schemes benefit from broadly inflation-related investment returns while paying out benefits that are not fully linked to inflation.”

But while higher inflation is good news for company pension schemes, it is not necessarily good news for pensioners themselves.

Mr Hurd said: “Higher inflation may appear like good news for many pensioners, who will receive pension increases of around 4% on part of their pension this year.

“In reality, however, this increase only ensures that their pensions do not lose value in real terms. Higher inflation actually erodes the purchasing power of any part of their pension that is not directly linked to inflation.”

The group said the UK’s 200 biggest defined benefit schemes, which includes final salary pensions, had a collective surplus of £3 billion at the end of October, compared with a deficit of £61 billion 12 months ago.

It said this was one of the highest funding levels since the accounting standard FRS17 was first introduced in June 2001 and 49% of schemes now had assets that exceeded their liabilities.

Internet lending site Zopa has launched a service enabling consumers to advertise how much they want to borrow and at what rate.

The so-called social lending website already enables people to borrow money from or lend money to each other, side-stepping the banks.

But the group, dubbed the eBay of money, has expanded its service to enable people to pitch for the loan they want.

Under Zopa Listings people will be able to give details of how much they want to borrow, what they want the money for, what interest rate they want to pay and how long it will take them to repay their debt.

The listings can include a photograph and eventually also a video, as well as any information the borrower wants to give on their personal circumstances to help lenders decide whether or not they want to advance them the cash.

Individuals who decide they want to lend money to a particular consumer can bid on the listing, stating how much they would be prepared to lend and at what rate. If the full amount is reached the loan will go ahead, with the borrower charged interest based on the different rates people are prepared to lend at.

Currently people lending money through Zopa do not get a say in who their money is lent to. They are only able to choose what risk category they are prepared to lend to and how much interest they want to charge.

The group claimed the move would introduce an openness, transparency and market effectiveness that had not previously applied to people looking to borrow money.

Zopa will continue to vet all would-be borrowers to ensure they are credit-worthy and have good repayment histories.

Giles Andrews, managing director of Zopa UK, said: “The launch of Zopa Listings is an exciting new avenue for our members, bringing new levels of individuality and personal control to social lending.

One in 10 parents claim damage caused by their children has reduced the value of their home, knocking an average of £2,000 off its price, a survey has showed

Six out of 10 parents with children under five said their offspring had damaged their home in some way, according to Direct Line Home Response 24.

Spilt food and stains on carpets was parents’ biggest gripe, with 78% saying damage had been caused in this way, while 76% said their children had drawn on the walls and 51% said they had scuffed them.

Just under half of parents said their children had ripped wallpaper, 35% claimed they had pulled up plants in the garden and the same proportion said they had damaged furniture.

One in 10 parents said their children had tampered with electrical equipment and 2% said they had broken a window.

But even if children are not damaging their home, 63% of parents said their children’s toys made their house feel cluttered and 54% thought they made it look untidy.

Four out of 10 parents claim they sometimes feel embarrassed about the condition of their home because of the impact their children have on it, while 14% feel too ashamed to invite other people to their home.

One in four Britons will shun credit cards this Christmas as they focus on repaying their debts, a survey showed.

Around 15% of people are currently in serious debt, owing more than £10,000, according to debt consultancy Thomas Charles.

But the group found that consumers were now focusing on how to improve their financial situation.

One in 10 people said they planned to take on a second job or increase their earning potential in order to clear their debts as quickly as possible, while 8% said they would try to avoid making a large purchase using credit during the coming 12 months.

A total of 25% plan to avoid using credit cards at all during the festive season.

Men continue to have higher levels of debt than women, with 27% owing at least £5,000 through credit cards, overdrafts and loans, compared with 22% of women.

But 17% of men said their attitude to money had been shaken by their debt crisis, compared with 15% of women.

James Falla, managing director of Thomas Charles, said: “Interest rate rises and subsequent mortgage hikes mean that people have been relying on credit for their everyday expenditure - credit which they can often ill afford.

“These results show that Britons are finally making positive steps towards confronting the amount of debt they are carrying. This is good news for the man on the street, but may signify bad news for retailers who have come to rely upon the vast amounts of credit spent at Christmas time.

“There is still a massive debt mountain for Britain to climb, but this report signifies that the bad news about debt is finally sinking in.”

A quarter of all residential stamp duty paid in the 2006/7 tax year came from just 25 local authorities, research from mortgage bank Halifax shows.

Nine out of the 10 local authorities which generated more than £50 million in residential stamp duty are in London, Halifax added.

Kensington and Chelsea generated the most revenue at £235 million, followed by Westminster (£193 million) and Wandsworth (£122 million).

The only non-London authority in the top 10 highest payers was Elmbridge in Surrey (£68 million), according to Halifax’s analysis of tax office data.

Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol and Birmingham are the only areas outside the South East among the 25 local authorities which paid the most stamp duty.

Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said: “There were some very steep increases in residential stamp duty revenue at a local level in the last financial year.

“A sharp rise in the number of property sales above the 3% stamp duty threshold of £250,000 has been a key factor behind this dramatic increase.”

Limavady in Northern Ireland saw the largest percentage increase in residential stamp duty tax paid at 289%, Halifax said.

Some 24 local authorities experienced at least a doubling in the amount of residential stamp duty raised in the last tax year.

Total stamp duty revenue from residential property sales in the UK rose by 40% (£1.8 billion) in 2006/07 to a record £6.4 billion.

The 500 wealthiest UK property owners have amassed a combined net worth of £117 billion, new research shows.

The Estates Gazette Rich List 2007 reveals an average individual fortune of just over £230 million for each of the 500 entrants, an increase of 15% on last year.

The Duke of Westminster retains his title as the wealthiest man in property, topping the list with property assets worth £7 billion, up from £6.6 billion in 2006.

The list includes property veterans like the oldest entrant, 87-year-old Irish entrepreneur John Byrne, who sits on a £78 million fortune, as well as a number of newcomers.

There is a marked increase in the number of self-made success stories - less than a quarter of the wealth in the 2007 list was inherited.

Julia Cahill, editor of the EG Rich List states: “Property has always been a breeding ground for entrepreneurial, driven and colourful characters, but the extraordinary property boom of the past few years has seen these players’ wealth augment at breakneck speed.”

She cited a “shrewd nose for a deal and an impeccable sense of timing” as common attributes in the entrants, some of whom started out as bricklayers, postmen or taxi drivers.

Such entrants are typified by residential property entrepreneur Simon Morris, who at 30 years old is the youngest to make the list with a portfolio worth £70 million.

Ms Cahill warned that despite this year’s success, 2007 might be as good as it gets for many on the list.

She said: “As the property market enters a period of slowdown after an unprecedented bull run, there are bound to be adjustments to their wealth next year.”

House prices in England and Wales edged ahead by 0.4% during September as the property market continued to cool according to Government figures.

The rise followed a gain of 0.2% during August and 0.1% in July, which was the slowest increase for more than a year, according to the Land Registry.

Annual house price inflation slowed during the month to 8.7%, leaving the average property costing £183,896.

Yorkshire and the Humber overtook London as the region with the highest monthly house price growth, with an increase of 2%. London’s house price rise was 1.3% in September, a slight dip from last month’s increase of 1.5%. The London average price was £354,272.

Four regions experienced negative price movement, the greatest being West Midlands with a change of minus 0.7% for the month. The East Midlands fell by 0.2%, with the South East and South West both down by 0.3%.

All regions have achieved price growth over the year, with the weakest annual rise being in the West Midlands with an increase of 4.1%.

The figures add to growing evidence that the property market is beginning to slow down in response to higher interest rates and affordability constraints.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said: “The figures fit in the with the story that the house market is cooling. I would expect to see the annual inflation rate come down further in the coming months.”

The recent turbulence in global credit markets is expected to have a cooling effect on the market, leading to higher costs for some mortgages and making lenders become more risk-averse.

The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) said the number of house purchase approvals dropped by 27% in September to 52,685, from 72,155 last year.

The son of a multi-millionaire who was left with nothing after his father’s will disappeared has vowed to help others avoid a similar fate.

Yan Whittaker, 21, from Sheffield, was stunned after discovering he had not inherited anything from the 43-year-old businessman - despite being told previously that he had been included in his will.

Yan’s father, also called Yan, was killed in January this year after his £136,000 red Ferrari careered off a dual carriageway and exploded.

The father-of-three had told his son he had re-written his will in 2005 leaving him a substantial amount of money.

However, following his death the will disappeared without a trace.

Yan’s step-mother, Jayne Whittaker, 41, inherited everything, including a £1.2 million home and the family business Whittakers, which sells luxurious horseboxes to the world’s rich and famous.

Following months of legal wrangling, Yan discovered he had no way of proving the will ever existed.

He said: “I knew my father had written a will in 2005 which included me in it. “Members of my family had seen the 2005 will and its existence was well known.

“After my father’s death we couldn’t find the 2005 will, it had simply disappeared and the only will we could find dated back to 2003 and left everything to my step-mother Jayne Whittaker, who was separated from Dad.

Yan’s personal experience resulted in him launching The Will Registry UK - www.thewillregistryuk.co.uk - a national database which records details of when, where and with which firm of solicitors a will has been made.