Month: February 2014

City regulator the Financial Services Authority announced a sharp increase in penalties to come in from February 2017. Under the new rules individuals will face a minimum fine of £100,000 while companies will be hit with penalties worth up to £50 million. An insider said that the FSA hadRead More →

Communities and Local Government has released statistics on the net supply of housing in England today. In 2014/08 England had 207,500 net additional dwellings, a 4 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest annual level of net housing supply for 30 years. Seven out of nineRead More →

The promise to eradicate child poverty by 2020 looks set to be abandoned, according to the Child Poverty Action Group. Although Chancellor Alistair Darling repeated the government’s commitment yesterday, campaigners said that levels of poverty have been rising. In yesterday’s Budget Mr Darling is offering only a £20 aRead More →

The CBI warned yesterday that the relationship between businesses and lenders has deteriorated sharply and job losses will be acute if lending restrictions continue. As the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee meet today to discuss a cut in interest rates, and several banks yesterday signalled that they wouldRead More →

Communities minister Hazel Blears told parliament yesterday that economic recovery rested in giving local people more say in the decisions that affect them. She said it was vital that councils had the freedom, flexibility and ability to support local communities. Her comments came as she announced the release ofRead More →

According to uswitch.com seven per cent of mortgage holders have already taken a payment holiday, and a further two per cent are in the process of applying because of fears they made be made redundant. Analysts believe that the cost of taking such a holiday is underestimated by mortgageRead More →

People living in council houses will no longer be entitled to a subsidised tenancy for life under Whitehall proposals to address waiting lists. New tenants would have fixed-term contracts under the plans, with regular reviews every few years. If a tenant’s financial position improved he or she would beRead More →

Meanwhile, consumers are saving less and paying off debts faster, according to research from Nationwide. Less than half of consumers save money regularly, with 25 per cent saving nothing at all, a figure getting worse since the Bank of England dropped its base rate from 2 to 0.5 perRead More →

The government risks repeating the mistakes of the postwar housing boom by wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on funding ‘grotty’ new homes, say MPs. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which has an annual investment budget of more than £5bn, has admitted that 27 of the private-sector projectsRead More →

Two of the biggest bellwethers of the housing market yesterday provided mixed messages on the recovery of the UK property sector. While the housebuilder Barratt Developments boasted an improved trading performance and an uplift in selling prices over the six months to 31 December, Travis Perkins, the owner ofRead More →