The study looked at earnings, house prices, rents and spending on essentials in local authorities across the country.

Nationally, it found that couples who start a family in their 20s could be saving for a deposit for 12 years – nearly double the time faced by childless couples.

In some cases this could mean their children would be in secondary school before they own a home.

Couples without a child face an average of six and a half years of saving, and almost double that time in London at 11 years.

A single person could need more than 14 years to save enough for a deposit, it said.

The report also reveals dramatic regional variations in the time it takes first-time buyers to save.

In nearly two thirds of areas in England, couples with a child face more than a decade of saving.

London is badly affected – with single people facing an average of 30 years, while couples with children face 21 years.

Shelter has created an online calculator for people to find out how long it would take them or their children to save for a home of their own in their area, based on their individual circumstances.

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said: “This is the first time research like this has been conducted at a local level to reveal the harsh realities that ‘generation rent’ is having to confront because of our shortage of affordable homes.

“Despite working hard and saving what they can each month, today’s young people face life-changing choices between starting a family or buying a home of their own.

“It seems the only ones with any hope left are the few who can resort to the bank of mum and dad. But with so many parents already feeling the squeeze, this is not a sustainable option.

“Unless we see radical action to tackle our chronic shortage of affordable homes, the next generation of young people will find it even harder to find a place to call their own.”

Figures released earlier this month show that the number of affordable homes completed in 2012/13 was down by 29% from the previous year, contributing to a chronic undersupply of homes which forces up rents and pushes house prices and deposits further out of reach.

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Citing “a profound loss of trust born of profound lapses in banking standards”, the commission said a string of measures were needed to repair the industry’s reputation.

In its 553-page report called Changing Banking For Good, the PCBS argued that individual accountability among senior bankers was lamentable, that industry pay schemes required a radical overhaul, and that executives should face a new sanctions regime that would dish out appropriate penalties, replacing a system that “looked good but achieved little”.

It also said, as expected, that the Treasury’s strategy for managing its 82% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was not working adequately and that options, including analysis of a break-up of the bank, should be conducted in the coming months.

The commission’s hard-hitting recommendations underline the scale of public anger that so few British bank executives have faced punishment over the crisis that led to hundreds of billions of pounds of public money being put at risk to rescue them.

Only a small handful of senior bankers have been sanctioned by regulators for their roles prior to the bailouts of 2007 and 2008, while relatively few have been hit in the pocket despite mis-selling scandals such as the one involving payment protection insurance.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chaired the commission, said that senior bankers had hidden “behind an accountability firewall” but warned that governments and regulators had also been culpable for the decline in standards.

Among the concrete measures recommended by the PCBS are:

:: The introduction of a new criminal offence for reckless misconduct that would carry a custodial sentence.

:: Bankers’ pay should be deferred for up to 10 years and should be more closely aligned to the safety and soundness of a firm.

:: Regulators should gain powers to cancel the pay and pensions of executives at banks which require taxpayer support.

:: UK Financial Investments, the body responsible for managing taxpayers’ stakes in Lloyds and RBS, should be scrapped.

:: New senior persons and licensing regimes to ensure that regulators can take tougher action against bankers whose actions damage their employer’s reputation or finances.

:: Reforms aimed at bolstering competition in retail banking, including, as Sky News revealed this month, a review of the costs and benefits of full current account portability.

Parts of the banking industry, whose main lobbying group the British Bankers’ Association refused to respond on camera to the report, are expected to argue that some of the proposed reforms would undermine the City’s international competitiveness.

Measures to defer pay for up to a decade would go further than any other major banking centre, but the PCBS argued that it was essential to do so if the industry’s culture was to be genuinely reformed.

“The scale of remuneration in banking, the way it has been set and the form in which it has been paid have all incentivised misconduct and excessive risk-taking. The rewards for fleeting, often illusory, success have been huge, while the penalties for failure have been much smaller, or non-existent,” it said.

“Many bankers were on to a one-way bet. Unlike unlimited liability partnerships, they had little or no skin in the game.”

The Government is expected to consult on the PCBS recommendations that would require legislative change.

In a statement, the Treasury welcomed the commission’s report, saying there were “many recommendations in it which will help the government’s plan to create a stronger and safer banking system”.

“The Government publicly welcomes the commission’s recommendations on increased personal responsibility especially at a senior level, increased professional judgement by regulators and better functioning markets.

“We will now get on with a swift response and will report before the summer recess.”

In his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday night, George Osborne is likely to back the commission’s call for a review of the options for the Government’s stake in RBS, according to Treasury aides.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, also welcomed the report, backing calls for banks to relinquish ownership of the payments system and for a new approvals regime for bank staff.

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This will be replaced by a standardised system across a range of products.

“It’s a traffic light system,” said Janet Taylor, diet and health manager for The Co-operative Food.

“This is basically to help customers make an informed choice, you can clearly see how much fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt is in the product, a green traffic light indicates a healthy choice, amber indicates an ok choice, and red, well, you should eat this product in moderation so it really is helping customers choose healthier options.”

Those who have signed up to the scheme so far account for more than 60% of the food sold in the UK.

As well as The Co-operative, they include: Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, McCain Foods, Mars UK, Nestlé UK, PepsiCo UK, and Premier Foods.

The Government hopes others will join.

Anna Soubry, Public Health Minister, said: “The UK already has the largest number of products using a front of pack label in Europe.

“But we know that people get confused by the variety of labels that are used.

“Research shows that, of all the current schemes, people like this label the most and they can use the information to make healthier choices.

“We all have a responsibility to tackle the challenge of obesity, including the food industry.

“By having all major retailers and manufacturers signed up to the consistent label, we will all be able to see at a glance what is in our food – this is why I want to see more manufacturers signing up and using the label.”

The new labelling should start appearing over the next few months, with the majority of products made or sold by participating companies relabelled by the end of next year.

Kantar said Aldi scored another all-time record share of 3.6% in the 12 weeks to June 9, while Lidl and Waitrose both held on to record shares from May of 3% and 4.9% respectively.

Market leader Tesco, number two player Asda and Morrisons all saw their market shares dip though Sainsbury’s bucked the trend, raising its share to 16.7% with sales growth of 3.5%.

Kantar analyst Fraser McKevitt said: “The continuing polarisation of the grocery market poses a difficult question for the big four retailers – how to make their offer appealing in an increasingly squeezed market.

“Asda recently announced it is going toe-to-toe with Aldi on the price of fresh food and produce, demonstrating its growing concern with the threat from the discounter,” he said.

Earlier this month Tesco reported a first-quarter like-for-like sales fall of 1% while Sainsbury’s posted a 0.8% rise.

Last month Morrisons reported a first quarter decline of 1.8% while Asda posted a 1.3% rise.

The country’s biggest chains are investing in their online operations amid a big spend shift to the web among consumers.

Convenience store numbers are also growing while Morrisons confirmed last month it was aiming to catch its main competitors by launching an online food offering with Ocado.

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The build-up to the Flat season has been overshadowed by a series of scandals that have shaken faith in the sport.

In April, Mahmood Al Zarooni, leading trainer for the Godolphin stables, was banned for eight months after 22 horses at his yard were found to have been given performance-enhancing anabolic steroids.

A separate investigation is under way into a number of other trainers amid allegations that their horses were administered the same drug, stanozolol, in medication. One trainer, Gerard Butler, is already facing charges for this offence.

The scale of the Al Zarooni affair has caused genuine shock in racing circles and raised questions over the way the sport polices the use of drugs, particularly at international meetings like Ascot.

The Royal meeting has become a genuine international event, with entrants from America, Australia and South Africa a key part of its appeal. Overseas sprinters such as the unbeaten Australian great Black Caviar, one of the stars of last year’s meeting, have become a fixture.

But each of those countries has different rules regarding performance-enhancing drugs to the UK, causing some to ask whether Ascot’s famous acres constitute a level playing field.

The international runners are all tested on arrival in the UK and have to declare all medication they have used in the months leading up to the meeting. The benefits of using drugs in training could linger long after the drugs have cleared a horse’s system however, as the BHA has acknowledged by banning all the Al Zarooni horses for six months.

The leading overseas runners at this year’s meeting all insist they are and have been drug-free, but some are frank about the need to use drugs in their domestic racing.

Barry Irwin, co-owner of Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner who will be the star-turn of the opening day when it runs in the first race, the Queen Anne Stakes, told Sky News drugs are a regrettable fact of life in American racing.

He is campaigning to have Lasix, an anti-bleeding agent, banned in the USA. Until it is, he says, he has little choice but to use it.

“If we didn’t use Lasix on older horses it would be like Usain Bolt putting his starting blocks five yards behind the others and I am not prepared to do that.

“But I am campaigning harder than anyone else to have the rules changed. The reason we are talking about Lasix is because it is the last drug standing. Once we get rid of that then we will be in better shape.”

Danny O’Brien, who saddles Shamexpress in Tuesday’s King’s Stand Stakes, would like Australia to outlaw anabolic steroids, which can be used out-of-competition.

“I personally don’t use them (steroids) on my horses and I tend to think that going forward our rules will fall into line with British rules,” he said. “The use of them would be very minimal in Australia but I would prefer that they were not used at all.”

Dr Peter Webbon, the chief executive of the Animal Health Trust and Britain’s leading equine vet, is in little doubt that anabolic steroids such as stanozolol, the Al Zarooni drug famously used by Ben Johnson, can confer a distinct advantage, but says their use is unethical and callous.

“I think we all agree that it is really unethical to expect a race and compete other than on its natural merits,” he said.

The British Horseracing Authority and Ascot Racecourse are confident that they have measures in place to ensure that racing is fair and honest at its showpiece event. And Paul Bittar, chief executive of the BHA, says Britain will campaign for reform of rules around the world.

“The rules we have in place are the high-water mark in world racing and we want to encourage others to adopt them,” he said. “We are pretty confident that the procedures are stringent enough to give punters confidence.”

Mr Bittar said the BHA’s response to the Al Zarooni case has demonstrated that it is willing to tackle wrongdoing wherever it arises.

He said: “People can have confidence that the regulator has dealt with it without fear or favour, and I think with Godolphin we have shown we treat everyone the same under the rules, including charging the leading trainer in the country.”

But while Downing Street insiders are hopeful of progress in today’s crucial talks, they have encountered more opposition than expected.

The ongoing conflict in Syria is also threatening to overshadow the summit’s scheduled discussions on trade, tax and transparency.

The UK came to the G8 summit with a double-barrelled plan. First, to establish and potentially publish new ledgers of so-called beneficial ownership, documenting those who profit from tax haven schemes.

Second, to create automatic information-sharing systems to ensure different countries can compare notes on how much tax certain individuals are paying.

While the UK expects to achieve further progress on this front at the G8, campaigners say the proposals risk being watered down, with the beneficial ownership registers kept private and with information-sharing not extended to developing countries.

The Prime Minister has had international tax evasion and avoidance at the top of his G8 agenda since he unveiled his programme at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

While the Lough Erne summit is focusing specifically on illegal evasion, the G20 summit in St Petersburg will examine avoidance – where people pay less tax than they ought to, while remaining within the law.

Chancellor George Osborne will make an appearance at the summit this morning to explain the technical aspects of Britain’s proposals, after which there will be a full debate.

Although most other G8 members have expressed support for his plans, Russia, the US and Canada are thought to be comparatively lukewarm.

French president Francois Hollande has also undermined Mr Cameron by wondering aloud why the focus isn’t on climate change.

The first day of the summit culminated in the official launch of the EU-US trade deal – the biggest bilateral set of trade negotiations in history.

The negotiations, which will take place over the course of the following years, are expected to yield hundreds of millions of dollars worth of extra economic growth to the countries involved.

Mr Cameron said they could create a £10bn-a-year windfall for the UK.

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Police used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse small groups of masked youths who started a fire near Rio’s state legislative assembly attempting to break into the building.

In Porto Alegre, some protesters set a bus on fire and threw rocks at empty commuter trains.

Elsewhere, there were peaceful protests through the capital Brasilia, on Monday, where more than 200 youths briefly occupied the roof of the National Congress and some 5,000 later formed a human chain around the building.

Protests also were reported in Curitiba, Belem, Salvador and Belo Horizonte.

“This is a communal cry saying, ‘We’re not satisfied,’” said Maria Claudia Cardoso, in Sao Paolo.

“We’re massacred by the government’s taxes, yet when we leave home in the morning to go to work, we don’t know if we’ll make it home alive because of the violence.

“We don’t have good schools for our kids. Our hospitals are in awful shape. Corruption is rife. These protests will make history and wake our politicians up to the fact that we’re not taking it anymore.”

Sandra Amalfe added: “We need better education, hospitals and security – not billions spent on the World Cup.”

The protests follow the opening games of the Confederations Cup over the weekend, just one month before a papal visit, a year before the World Cup and three years ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In a brief statement, President Dilma Rousseff, who faces re-election next year and whose popularity rating recently dipped for the first time in her presidency, acknowledged the protests, saying: “Peaceful demonstrations are legitimate and part of democracy. It is natural for young people to demonstrate.”

The unrest, which began last week after the announcement of increased bus fares, has rapidly spread to other cities with demonstrators focusing their anger not just on the transport fares but also on the £9.5bn the government is allocating for the Confederations Cup and the World Cup.

They will be expected to come up with ways to stop access to child abuse images and report back with an action plan.

The meeting comes after two child killers were found to have viewed child pornography online.

Mark Bridger, convicted of murdering five-year-old April Jones, and Stuart Hazell, who murdered Tia Sharp, 12, both accessed abusive images.

In the 12 days since the summit was announced, web giants have already taken some action.

TalkTalk and BT have announced that customers trying to view inappropriate material will be confronted by a pop-up warning.

And Google has pledged millions of pounds to organisations who try and tackle child abuse online, such as the Internet Watch Foundation who maintain a blacklist of images.

Culture Secretary, Maria Miller said:  “Child abuse images are horrific and widespread public concern has made it clear that the industry must take action. Enough is enough.

“In recent days we have seen these companies rush to do more because of the pressure of an impending summit. Imagine how much more can be done if they seriously turn their minds to tackling the issue. Pressure will be unrelenting.”

It is unclear exactly what concrete action – if any – the government will demand from the meeting.

Companies providing internet services in Britain have already rejected a call from the Prime Minister’s adviser to impose parental filters for adult content as a default setting when viewing content online.

The Internet Service Providers Association said it remained opposed to default filtering because it “can be circumvented and lead to over- or under-blocking” of offensive web pages.

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South Korea-based Samsung, the world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, said the phone would then be rolled out elsewhere.

Samsung was in talks with several unnamed overseas carriers to take the phone.

“We’ll be the first with the commercial launch of the advanced 4G version of the smartphone,” Mr Shin said.

The new S4 will use LTE-Advanced 4G technology, an upgrade from conventional 4G called LTE, or long term evolution.

LTE-Advanced offers data transmission at up to twice the normal 4G speed.

A movie download that takes 3 minutes with conventional 4G would take slightly more than 1 minute, Samsung said.

The phones will be powered by chips designed by Qualcomm, which has had a mobile phone presence since the 1980s.

The announcement comes after Samsung’s shares have lost around £12bn since June 7 after analysts cut forecasts for Galaxy S4 sales by as much as 30% on data showing the high-end smartphone market reaching saturation.

The same saturation problem has also hit sales of the iPhone 5, made by arch rival Apple.

Samsung has also released budget Galaxy versions, reducing its margin on those phones.

The new phone revelation comes as the South Korean firm made a deal with American hip-hop star Jay-Z for one million copies of his latest, unreleased album.

The company is giving a million users of existing Galaxy phones a free copy if they download a special app.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung paid Jay-Z $5m (£3.2m) for the one million copies for the giveaway – making the rap mogul’s Magna Carta Holy Grail album potentially the first album to gain platinum status long before its official release.

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Lenders from Europe and the International Monetary Fund have long pressed successive Greek governments to implement mass lay-offs.

In April, despite widespread opposition, Mr Samaras’ three-party coalition broke a century-old taboo, voting to sack some 15,000 civil servants as part of cost-cutting measures in exchange for added bailout funds.

“To now disagree with this is hypocrisy,” Mr Samaras told conservative supporters in the Peloponnese.

“We all signed up to this legislation. And we intend to continue with reforms.”

The prime minister’s remarks signalled a hardening stance after his two leftist coalition partners – the socialist PASOK and Democratic Left parties – rejected a concession to rehire a small number of staff to resume news broadcasts at ERT, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, until a new entity is formed within the coming months.

All three political leaders are expected to meet in crisis talks on Monday to try to iron out the differences.

Failure to produce an agreement on how to proceed with ERT’s shutdown and looming lay-offs in the public sector could force Mr Samaras to either resign or send Greeks on an early trip to the ballot box.

Public opinion seems to be split.

A fresh poll published Sunday shows that while 64.4% of Greeks spurned the government’s handling of the ERT shutdown, some 57% of them disagreed with the government resorting to elections as a way out of the political crisis.

Some 40.1%, however, said elections should be held in response to the ERT fiasco.

“I’m scared. Is this how the government plans to proceed with other layoffs in the public sector?” said Maria Grigoriadou, a 45-year-old high-school teacher.

“I look at these 2,900 people who were fired and I see myself in them. Has the government no sense of reality?”

Last week, as international inspectors kicked off their review, Mr Samaras ordered ERT’s closure, sparking massive protests and a news blackout that has all television stations running sit-coms and soap opera reruns for nearly a week.

Hundreds of ERT employees remain camped at the sprawling grounds of the network, north-east of Athens, as leftists union geared for a fresh protest gathering on Monday.

Defending its decision, the government says ERT’s three domestic television channels, national and international radios stations cost the cash-strapped state €300m (£255m) a year, by some accounts, between three and  seven times the budget of commercial networks.

Many Greeks have long viewed the broadcaster as a wasteful den of political hires feeding off state coffers.

“No one kicked up a storm for the millions losing their jobs in the private sector,” said Vassilis Skrikas, a 53-year-old shop-keeper.

“Why should I care about these people at ERT? Why should they be treated like were a privileged lot and not like everyone else.”

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