Many adults are afraid to interact with children for fear of being labelled as paedophiles, a report has claimed.

Think-tank Civitas said the "escalation of child protection measures" had made everyone from sports coaches to Santas seem like "potential child abusers".

More than two-thirds of young people claim they have been encouraged to take out debt they did not want or could not afford, research showed today.

Around 68% of people aged between 16 and 24 said they had been encouraged to take out credit, while nearly half of young people admitted they had suffered debt problems, according to Citizens Advice and young people's charity YouthNet.

A private tenancy for a minimum of one year is proposed in a consultation launched today on new approaches to housing homeless people.

Local authorities will be given more flexibility to use the private rented sector to ease waiting times experienced by thousands of homeless families.