麻豆约拍

In Wednesday's Budget, George Osborne told the House of Commons that it was not "right that we go on asking taxpayers to subsidise, through the tax credit system, the businesses who pay the lowest wages" and "that Britain is able to afford a pay rise... Britain deserves a pay rise and Britain is getting a pay rise". The Chancellor announced a compulsory National Living Wage of 拢9 an hour by 2020. But can Britain's businesses afford a pay rise of that level?

It was once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, and it is now a nation of retail workers, with almost 5 million employed in this sector, many of them among the lowest-paid. Money Box talks to a shop-owner and one of his employees about the challenge of meeting the Chancellor's Living Wage.

Money Box looks at how various tax changes will affect freelancers and contractors, as the Government seeks to end what it calls "tax motivated incorporation". Is this the beginning of the end for the UK's 200,000 Personal Service Companies and a blow for self-starters or just a long-overdue levelling of the tax playing field between employees and the self-employed?

As the Competition and Markets Authority prepares to give its verdict in September on competition among Britain's retail banks, Money Box looks at whether it is the customers, rather than the banks who are to blame for the lack of "switching".

And in the latest in our Travel Tips series, Money Box looks at the cheapest ways to see Europe by rail.