Spell of hot weather jumpstarts B&Q owner’s ailing sales July 24, 2013 Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer and owner of B&Q and Screwfix, has reported like-for-like sales at its UK and Ireland stores open more than a year were up 2.5 per cent in the ten weeks to 13 July, thanks to the spell of hot weather (release). Total group like-for-like sales were also up 2.5 [...]
How to best invest for your child’s future July 23, 2013 Make sure you maximise tax-free saving for your newest addition THE Royal parents may have few financial woes, but the cost of raising a child for most extends far beyond nappies or baby food. The current average cost of a wedding is £18,244, the average first-time buyer deposit is £26,956, and student debt for 2013 [...]
Help to Buy not for second homes, says Osborne July 23, 2013 THE EXTENSION of the Help to Buy Scheme will be closed to second home buyers, the chancellor confirmed today. George Osborne met with lenders and housebuilders at Number 11 to discuss the second stage of the scheme, which enables people to buy new homes with just a five per cent deposit. In addition to the [...]
‘Appy days – App Store at 5 July 17, 2013 Alex Dymoke looks back at the five year history of Apple’s revolutionary online shop THE app was unleashed on the world with a typically smart advertising campaign from Apple. A niggling problem in your daily life? There is, they assured us, an app for that. “A what for what?” was the reaction from most people [...]
Back Pietersen to be thorn in side of Aussie bowlers July 17, 2013 Kevin Pietersen will have mixed emotions about his Test match debut against Australia at Lord’s back in the heady and historic summer of 2005. It was all going swimmingly when Steve Harmison ran through the tourists, taking 5-43 and restricting them to just 190 on day one. But when Glenn McGrath skittled England for an [...]
Further solid rise in house prices confirmed July 16, 2013 UK HOUSE prices are rising strongly, ticking up by 2.9 per cent in the year to May, the Office for National Statistics announced yesterday. The release showed the fastest year-on-year growth in prices yet seen in 2013. London contributed most to the increase, with a 6.6 per cent rise, soaring above average wage growth. In [...]
Britain’s economy is finally recovering – enjoy it while it lasts June 8, 2013 TIMING, as they say, is everything. If you are interested in the short-term, and agree with John Maynard Keynes, not my favourite economist, that we are all dead in the long run, now is the time to turn bullish. Growth is returning. There is no doubt that the UK economy is looking up; the short-term [...]
Osborne’s gambled on the wrong policy March 23, 2013 THERE is a striking paradox at the heart of George Osborne’s approach to the economy, as demonstrated yet again in yesterday’s Budget. He was remarkably risk-averse with his tax and spend policies, refusing to embrace the kinds of shock and awe tax reforms many of us wanted, or to cut spending faster, though he did [...]
First-time buys up to five year high in London February 26, 2013 FIRST-TIMERS rushed back to the London housing market in 2012, with first-time sales up to their highest since 2007. London housing transactions involving first-time buyers rocketed up 15 per cent between 2011 and 2012, from 32,400 to 37,300, according to Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) figures out yesterday. And the figure continued to rise through to the [...]
Mortgage rates fall to new low with state aid February 21, 2013 MORTGAGE interest rates dropped to their lowest level ever in February, new figures showed yesterday, six months after the Bank of England started offering banks cheap funding in an effort to boost lending to the private sector. The average five-year fixed mortgage costs just 4.14 per cent, according to finance research site MoneyFacts. That is [...]