Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the Independent titles, said in an email to staff: "Our businesses are at a critical stage and a bold approach is needed for our industry.

"Our goal is to develop a pioneering and integrated newsroom for the 21st century, providing print, digital and television output 24/7."

He said the "energy, creativity and resourcefulness" of the new editors "will invigorate both the Independent and i".

Rajan, 29, moved to the UK when he was three and studied at Cambridge. He has also been a media advisor to Lebedev.

"Nearly £120 billion of taxpayers' money was wasted or spent on useless projects by the Government in 2011-12," the report states. "We have identified and listed hundreds of examples of spending by politicians and bureaucrats that can be cut without closing a single hospital, firing a single teacher or disbanding a single regiment."

The report, which is based on official statics, independent reports and media coverage, said £25 billion has been wasted through inefficient public sector procurement and poor use of outsourcing while £20.3 billion has been lost through public sector fraud. Around £5 billion has been paid out in benefits to claimants with an income in excess of £100,000 and £1.2 billion was paid out in an annual subsidy to foreign farmers through the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

The TPA suggests £2.9 billion could be saved by scrapping the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport and hiving off their essential functions to other departments. It also questions the need for high spending on locum doctors, suggesting there could be far fewer now that GPs work out-of hours far less frequently than they used to.

The report warns every penny counts and includes a number of "small but ludicrous examples of wasteful spending in the public sector". It claims £19,000 was spent by Cotswold Council on hiring a motivational magician to boost staff morale, reports that an Arts Council £95,000 grant was made in Brighton for a skip decorated with yellow lights and claims £12,000 was spent on a clothing allowance for "Geordie Armani" at Durham council.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "If ministers do something about it, they can give taxpayers a better deal and still provide the frontline services which people depend on the most. More money must be left in the pockets of struggling households who need it to support their own families and their own causes. They will get better value than any politician or bureaucrat."

The Cabinet Office insisted that work was well under way to make government "leaner". A spokesman said: "We will push ahead with our programme of reforms to the Civil Service, stripping out waste and buying more goods and services centrally. Our reforms to public sector pensions will save the taxpayer billions and strike a fairer balance between the contributions by workers and the taxpayer, and we are working to reform outdated terms and conditions in the Civil Service. Hard-working taxpayers rightly expect their money to be spent wisely."

Three in 10 (30%) 20 to 45-year-olds thought the schemes would work - but the same proportion believed that they would not.

Nearly three-quarters of younger people (71%) thought that the problems facing those struggling to buy their first home are in danger of causing a damaging split between those who can afford to buy their own home and people who cannot.

Three-fifths of the non-homeowners surveyed feared that they may never be able to retire if they are forced to rent for the rest of their lives. One-fifth of those surveyed who were not on the property ladder said they had already given up hope of getting on it.

Official figures recently showed that home ownership has dropped off in recent years across England and Wales for the first time in almost a century. Some 64% of people owned their own homes in 2011, down from a peak of 69% in 2001.

The Government launched a scheme called Funding for Lending last August to kick-start the housing market, which has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of mortgages on the market and a mortgage price war, with lenders slashing their rates.

Lenders have been reporting signs of increased first-time buyer activity this year, although the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that the number of loans advanced to this sector dropped back slightly in April.

P2P lenders have low overheads and the rates they can offer to savers can be as high as 15%, although the average returns were found to be around 3.6% and 6.3% before tax, according to the Which? investigation.

Which? asked its members to rate the three main P2P lenders in terms of customer satisfaction, including how well sites explain risks, ease of use and savings rates. RateSetter and Zopa were both given a customer score of 65%, while Funding Circle achieved 61%.

Which? described the scores as "impressive" and 81% of its members who had used P2P lenders plan to continue using their provider.

The findings come at a time when savers have struggled to make any real money in the low interest rate environment. The situation has worsened in recent months, following the introduction of the Government's Funding for Lending scheme, which gives lenders access to cheap finance to help borrowers. Experts have said the initiative has made lenders less reliant on attracting savers' deposits.

The top tax-free cash Isa currently on the market pays 2.3% in interest, according to financial information website Moneyfacts.

People who invest their money with a P2P lender are taking on bigger risks than with a bank and could face a situation where the borrower defaults. P2P investors do not have the protection of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which guarantees up to £85,000 of a consumer's cash if their financial institution goes bust.

"In the winter I always avoid desks where I know the previous occupant had a cold, but even so I have noticed more people taking time off as any flu or sore throats go round the office like wildfire."

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "A dash for seats every morning is the worst possible way to start the day.

"Unison is calling on employers to think twice about introducing hot-desking, especially in areas like call centres. The target-driven culture, coupled with the constant demands of customers, can be dehumanising enough, without the loss of your personal space.

"We all need to bring a bit of individuality and our own personality to any job and packing up your working day into a locker or crate can be very depressing and morale-sapping."