Buy-to-let landlords out of the woods?
Adrian Holliday
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Loans, Mortgages, Property
RICS' latest Lettings Survey has good news for buy-to-let landords: demand is rising while supply is on the wane. Apparently.RICS claims that 23% more chartered surveyors reported a fall in landlord instructions in the last quarter. Reasons vary, but the modest rise in the housing market generally is a factor, RICS' reckons.
FTSE-100 wobbles on China growth
Adrian Holliday
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Economy, Markets
Is China's economy slowing? The Telegraph reported today (see link at end of article) that the FTSE-100 benchmark index retreated yesterday, with mining stocks dragging confidence down. China is worried about its economy overheating. There are plenty of economists already warning that China's economy looks strikingly close to that of Japan's in the late 1980s.
Winter of discontent for SMEs
David Burrows
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Small Business
British smaller and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are facing losses of more than £7bn from the worst Winter in decades, according to new research by Lloyds TSB Commercial.As the impact of Britain's big freeze becomes clear, the research shows that 70% of small and medium sixed firms have been affected by the freezing conditions that have wreaked havoc across many parts of Britain.
Equifax goes online with credit check
David Burrows
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Credit Cards, Debt
Credit reference agency Equifax is making its £2 Statutory Credit Report available online – it has been trialling this service since August 2009 with around one in five of requests for the Statutory Credit Report now being delivered this way.The launch of the online facility comes hot on the heels of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) introduction of new voluntary measures to improve people's access to credit files.
Big leap in new UK mortgage funding
Adrian Holliday
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Personal Finance, Mortgages, Banking
It's raining mortgages out there with a record 70% increase in mortgage products. Moneyfacts says that at the start of April 2009 there were just 1,209 UK products offered – that's now increased by 70% to a total of 2,053.
EU slams Brown and Darling on deficit
Adrian Holliday
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Economy, News
EU bureaucrats claim Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are not trying hard enough to bring down the UK's deficit. The EU Commission warns that the UK won't slash its deficit in line with EU rules by 2015 - these rules state that deficits must be under 3% of GDP.
Kraft face grilling over Cadbury pledge
David Burrows
Mar 16th 2010
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Kraft Foods will be questioned over whether it intentionally misled Cadbury workers over plans to keep open the chocolate manufacturer's UK factory in Keynsham.
Kraft's vice-president Marc Firestone will face the House of Commons' Business Committee and will need to qualify the US food company's decision to continue with the closure of Cadbury's Keynsham factory despite pledging to keep it open during the sensitive takeover negotiations.
No interest in the mortgage
Money Expert
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Mortgages
Researchers believe that almost one in three homeowners do not know how much interest they are paying on their mortgage.Taking no interest in your mortgage bill is never a good idea given that for homeowners, a mortgage will tend to be their biggest single monthly expense. Failing to understand your home loan and its interest rate is no help if you are trying to keep your budget under control.
Pick of the early market news
David Burrows
Mar 16th 2010
The FTSE rose slightly on opening today. In what was a fairly quiet morning for reports, financial company Close Brothers showed a fall in profits in its half year results to the end of January 2010.
Adjusted operating profit for the period was £62.5m (2009: £64.9 million), which represented a 4% reduction year on year.
Hiscox: reinsurance rates must rise
Chris Wheal
Mar 16th 2010
Filed under: Insurance
Lloyd's insurer Hiscox said this morning that based on an insured market loss of $8bn for the Chilean earthquake, and $3bn for windstorm Xynthia, Hiscox estimates a combined net loss of approximately £100m. It said the estimate is within budgeted losses for such events and Hiscox has reinsurance cover remaining for other catastrophes. Crucially, Hiscox believes these losses will result in the firming of some reinsurance rates. It had better do.
NY and the City clash: London falling
Economy doing worse than suspected?
