You and Yours - 09/09/2010

Consumer affairs with Julian Worricker. The argument for 250 new towns: A club is launched that wants the public to identify land which could play host to the half a million new homes a year we need to build to meet housing demand in the next two decades. Housing minister Grant Shapps responds. Last week the high street banks revealed they received 1.3 million complaints between January and June but Consumer Focus says they are not much use to consumers because they were not broken down either by financial brand or by specific complaint. Cambridge mathematicians have developed an algorithm which will help the police more accurately predict the nature, the frequency and the location of crime; what will it add to the fight against crime? The world is fast running out of helium. Its most visible use is in party balloons but it does have more important applications too. The gas cannot be replaced and currently it is too cheap to recycle. The true cost of a novelty balloon, say researchers, should be £64! Not so long ago, from a Polish perspective, the UK was viewed as a land of plenty but now it seems the tables are turning. Poland was the only EU country not to dip into recession and sales of luxury goods in the country are booming.