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We now know that the bank itself was appallingly run and in the disgraced Paul Flowers had a chairman who should never have been let anywhere near the job. The main fault lay with the Co-op

Bank but its then auditors KPMG and other highly paid advisers hardly covered themselves in glory either. As the Treasury Select Committee report into the collapse of the planned sale of

Lloyds branches to the Co-op Bank points out, even the Financial Services Authority as the City’s top regulator failed to spot the problems until it was too late. As a result of Project

Verde’s breakdown the chance to build a major new challenger to the larger high-street banks was missed and the Co-op Bank itself narrowly avoided having to seek a taxpayer bailout.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SuperGroup’s new chief Euan Sutherland is no stranger to the world of

clothes retailing, having sat on its board for two years and having previously held a senior post at Matalan. But he has not been appointed for his fashion sense. Founder Julian Dunkerton

can take care of that side of things. Instead Sutherland has been hired for his experience of running large organisations, not least laying the foundations for a shake-up at the Co-op. His

looks a shrewd appointment for a company with big ambitions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If anything

cost-conscious DIY-ers should flourish in austere times but that has not been the experience of Homebase. Maybe today’s youngsters are more ham-fisted than their parents but their lack of

DIY skills has not troubled fast-growing rivals such as Wallpaper Direct or Wilko. Part of Homebase’s problem is that like the big supermarkets it has too many massive out-of-town sheds that

look out of place in a fast changing retail environment.