Northern Rock to repay £261m: Thousands of customers to receive over £6,000 each December 10, 2014 The remains of Northern Rock have been ordered to pay back £261m in interest and fees to borrowers, due to badly worded paperwork, the High Court decided yesterday. Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) is owned by the government, which nationalised the Newcastle-based lender when it collapsed in 2007. As a result, the bill for compensation [...]
Competition is boosting home loan borrowers December 9, 2014 MORTGAGE lending continued to make gains in the three months to September despite stricter rules on lenders, the Bank of England revealed yesterday. Mortgage advances totalled £55.9bn in the third quarter – an increase of 12.8 per cent compared with last year and the highest level of lending for six years. Meanwhile, the number of [...]
As the Bank says borrowers can cope with rate hikes, are fears of a repayment crisis overdone? December 8, 2014 Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank, says Yes. Some households will be poorly prepared for a rise in rates, but this is a question of magnitude. The Bank of England yesterday showed that, if wages grow, even a 2 percentage point rise in rates would just increase the number of vulnerable households to [...]
Bank of England: Most mortgage borrowers could cope with an interest rate rise December 8, 2014 The majority of mortgage borrowers could cope if interest rates rose two percentage points, the Bank of England said today. According to the Bank's quarterly bulletin, which looked at the results of the annual NMG Consulting survey of household finances, if interest rates rose from their historic low of 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per [...]
It’s official: The Bank of England says mortgage borrowers could cope with an interest rate rise December 8, 2014 The majority of mortgage borrowers would be fine if interest rates rose, reckons the Bank of England. According to the Bank, if interest rates rose by two percentage points, just four per cent of mortgage borrowers would need to "take action", ie. cut their spending or work longer hours. That represents 1.3 per cent of [...]
Bank of England: Brits can cope with higher rates December 8, 2014 ECONOMISTS at the Bank of England believe interest rates can rise from their current historic lows without significantly harming Britons’ spending power. The Bank’s latest quarterly report, published this morning, includes thorough calculations regarding the impact of tighter monetary policy. “Overall, these results do not imply that increases in interest rates from their current historically [...]
UK house price growth slows, but prices are five times average earnings December 4, 2014 House prices across the UK were up 8.2 per cent in the year to November, another month of slower growth after October's 8.8 per cent rise. The price to earnings ratio is ticking up, however, and has reached a multiplier of 5.02. Halifax’s house price index also showed quarterly prices up 0.7 per cent (slowing [...]
Cheap mortgages are here to stay as OBR predicts interest rates will remain low December 3, 2014 Interest rates will stay lower for longer, the fiscal watchdog predicted yesterday, because the Bank of England is now not expected to tighten monetary policy until well into 2015. When it last made its forecasts in March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted the average mortgage interest rate would dip below three per cent [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: What does George Osborne’s budget mean for you? From single parents to entrepreneurs December 3, 2014 THE SINGLE PARENT Catherine Gannon, 51 Managing partner of law firm Gannons Gannons Commercial Law continues to perform extremely well as profits and earnings increase on last year. Catherine is commercially savvy and has recently restructured the business from an LLP to a Limited Company due to the new Legislation covering LLPs. This illustrates that [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: Stamp duty, business rates, banking profits and tech firm taxes. How has industry responded? December 3, 2014 There were a number of surprises in George Osborne's final Autumn Statement before the general election, many of which are solidly aimed at middle class voters. Bankers taxes are being limited, multinational tech firms are going to have to pay more taxes and stamp duty slabs have been scrapped. The squeezed middle and chattering [...]