Victoria Scholar: The economic clouds are parting – for housebuilders, at least February 8, 2024 Victoria Scholar is head of investment at interactive investor and writes a fortnightly notebook for City A.M. In a surprise announcement, Britain’s largest homebuilder Barratt Developments has offered to buy smaller FTSE 250 rival Redrow in a £2.52 billion deal. The announcement skyrocketed shares in Redrow, while Barratt extended its year-to-date declines. The new ‘Barratt [...]
Bank urged to ‘release brake pedal’ as starting salary inflation drops to 34-month low February 8, 2024 Starting salary inflation slipped to its slowest rate since March 2021 and was comfortably below the series average
Remortgaging rates tick up as lenders bet on ‘captive audience of existing customers’ February 7, 2024 Mortgage lenders are increasingly raising rates on their home loan products amid uncertainty over the UK economy.
‘About a third’ of Facebook Marketplace listings could be scams, MPs told February 7, 2024 A director at TSB Bank has warned a group of top MPs that Facebook Marketplace and cryptocurrency investment are major breeding grounds for scams amid calls for Big Tech to take more responsibility for a wave of fraud on social media.
Changes to UK mortgage market cushions blow to borrowers from interest rate hikes February 7, 2024 Stressing is likely to have supported the "resilience of individual borrowers and the overall market," they noted.
Risk of persistent inflation ‘diminished’ as Bank of England considers timing of interest rate cuts, MPC member says February 7, 2024 "I have become less concerned that interest rates might need to be tightened further," Breeden, a member of the Bank of England's MPC, said.
Still “jeopardy” over CBI future, but new prez Rupert Soames says firms are re-engaging February 7, 2024 The new boss of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed that there is still some doubt as to whether the business lobby group can survive the scandal. Speaking to the BBC, the CBI’s new president Rupert Soames admitted that the organisation has to refinance its bank debt in autumn of this year. He explained [...]
UK housing market: Borrowers weigh up taking the plunge, or waiting for rates to fall further February 7, 2024 After a torrid year, the outlook for the UK’s property market is poised to improve. A number of reports have suggested that house prices will continue to drop, which will hopefully help more would-be-buyers finally get on the housing ladder, even if this negatively impacts those who already have property, and want to see its [...]
Bank of England’s bond sales a ‘leap into the dark’, warn MPs – with £130bn of taxpayers’ cash in play February 7, 2024 The Bank of England's quantitative tightening programme is a "leap in the dark" with policymakers failing to consider the potential costs.
London jobs market struggles to recover from impact of hybrid working February 7, 2024 "The persistence of hybrid working and slowing in many professional services sectors continue to be factors weighing on hiring demand in the capital," the report noted.