UK News

The value of online currency Bitcoin has exploded as speculators push its trading price above £600 per coin.

The value of the currency has risen sharply-doubling since last week alone- after attracting attention on social media sites such as Reddit and twitter with the worth of the currency gaining 80 times as much real value since the beginning of this year.

Bitcoin, as a virtual currency is completely unsecured by any government wealth or holdings and is valued purely on what people believe it to be worth. This means the market price can rise and fall relatively short...

South West Water is to freeze all its standard tariffs and standing charges for consumers and businesses until April 2015 and is also proposing to keep average bill rises below inflation to 2020.

The Exeter-based water and sewerage company is the first in the UK to freeze tariffs for all of its 800,000 customers in 2014/15. Otherwise, customers may have faced rises of four per cent – a £22 increase on the average annual household bill – under the price limits previously agreed in 2009.

This year, the South West was the only region in the UK to see bills tumble – by 7.3% –...

The owners of a Cornish bed and breakfast who turned away a gay couple have lost their legal battle in the UK Supreme Court.

Owners, Peter 74 and Hazelmary Bull, 69, said that their beliefs as Christian’s prevented them from renting a double room to civil partners Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall.

Speaking after the appeal Hazelmary Bull said: “We are just ordinary Christians who believe in the importance of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

“Our B&B is not just our business, it’s our home. All we have ever tried to do is live according to our own...

The completion of seven coastal access schemes along parts of the South West Coast Path, and the addition of 40 extra walks on its website means that now, for the first time, thousands of people with limited mobility and those with young children in pushchairs are able to enjoy stretches of the breathtaking National Trail that were once impassable.

Newly accessible walks include parts of Padstow where a £24,000 project to improve the surface and widen the path in Stile Field, which both Cornwall Council and Padstow Town Council helped to fund, now means that as well as enjoying the...