High childcare costs needn’t give you a case of baby blues November 25, 2012 RISING childcare costs are deterring British mothers from returning to work. According to a 2011 Eurostat survey, 48.8 per cent of women with three or more children are in employment in the UK, compared with 71.3 per cent in the Netherlands and 68.2 in Finland. But family formation patterns have changed over the past few [...]
Why Britain’s housing market has escaped the disasters of the 1990s November 22, 2012 DESPITE economic woes, the British housing market is holding up reasonably well. According to the Office for National Statistics, house prices in September were 1.7 per cent higher than a year earlier in nominal terms, and only 2.5 per cent down on their 2008 peak. Of course, there are qualifications. Higher prices are mainly confined [...]
Banks are pressing the BBA to consider a trade group merger November 20, 2012 SEVERAL UK banks want their trade association to consider merging with other industry groups as part of a radical re-think of the British Bankers’ Association’s (BBA) structure and finances. The BBA used to be able to charge for the use of Libor data, but the association has lost that multi-million pound revenue stream since the [...]
Paragon profits soar as bigger lenders cut back on buy-to-let November 20, 2012 MORTGAGE firm Paragon increased profits by 22.5 per cent in the last 12 months, according to full-year results published yesterday. The specialist buy-to-let and consumer finance group reported record pre-tax profit of £95.5m, up from £80.8m in the previous year. Paragon benefited from bigger lenders cutting back credit, allowing it to expand. The results allowed [...]
Mortgage loans see Funding for Lending boost November 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending climbed to an 11-month high in October, according to data out yesterday, as the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) entered its third full month of activity. Gross mortgage loans hit £12.9bn in October, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed, up 13.3 per cent on September, and up 4.2 per cent [...]
Should the government consider lowering the level of tax relief on private pensions? November 20, 2012 YES Vidhya Alakeson Britain could raise up to £1.5bn by limiting tax relief on the very largest personal pensions – those built on lifetime savings of more than £1m. This would affect only very wealthy savers and seems necessary in these straitened times, when deep welfare cuts are underway. The money saved from pension tax [...]
London houses withstand UK asking price collapse November 18, 2012 LONDON’S resilient housing market defied a UK-wide fall in asking prices going into November, data revealed this morning, driven by the top end of the market. The UK’s average property asking prices fell 2.6 per cent in just a month to hit £236,761, according to the Rightmove house price index, a sharp turnaround from the [...]
Record London rents keep up investor profits November 15, 2012 LONDON rents hit another record high in October as landlords celebrate solid returns on investment, according to the LSL buy-to-let index published today. Average monthly rents in the capital jumped 0.9 per cent to £1,102, breaking the £1,100 mark for the first time. That represents a seven per cent hike on the year, and holds [...]
Barratt eyes higher profits November 14, 2012 BARRATT Developments yesterday said it was on track for higher profits this financial year as its focus on higher-margin sites, rather than volumes, pays off in a tough market. The UK’s largest housebuilder said market conditions had remained stable since July, but it highlighted that recent government schemes aimed at easing mortgage lending had yet [...]
Official data shows house prices slid into decline in September November 13, 2012 HOUSE PRICES started to slide going into September, ending a six-month run of unbroken expansion, official data revealed yesterday. The UK’s average house price slipped 0.2 per cent between August and September, the data from the Office for National Statistics showed, as even London’s housing market came under pressure. London house prices dived some 1.2 [...]