News Tag: 2010
March 19, 2010
Banking giant, Lloyds Banking Group, has said it will return to profitability in 2010.
Last month the bank, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer, posted a full-year loss of £6.3 billion.
It was hit by bad debts following the acquisition of HBOS, which it took over at the height of the financial crisis in autumn 2008.
However, it appears to be leaving ...
Lloyds Banking Group eyes profit in 2010
by Kay Murchie
March 18, 2010
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is expecting "further modest volatility" in the UK housing market in the coming months.
The comment came as the body revealed a 6% rise in gross mortgage lending in February (to £9.2 billion) compared with January.
Given that the end of the stamp duty holiday distorted lending figures considerably in both December and January, the CML ...
Gross mortgage lending up 6% in February
by Gill Montia
March 17, 2010
Sustainable and ethical investments are expected to increase their share in the ISA market by more than 1000% this year, according to research by The Co-operative.
Ethical investments currently have a 1% share of the ISA market, but The Co-operative predicts that this could increase thirteen-fold later this year as savers use their increased ISA allowance for more eco-friendly investments.
The Co-operative's ...
Ethical investments could increase 1000% this year
by David Masters
March 12, 2010
British consumers should expect to face more financial difficulty this year than during 2009, a financial expert has claimed.
Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel, said it is "obvious" that living costs are going to rise while income is squeezed.
The tough times are "really still to come," Perks said.
"That doesn't necessarily mean we are going to have a double dip ...
Consumers warned 2010 will be difficult
by David Masters
March 4, 2010
Persimmon Homes managed 8,976 legal completions in 2009, compared with 10,202 in 2008, with an average selling price of £160,513 (down from £172,994 last year).
However, Britain's largest house builder says it has a strong forward sales book of around £900 million, up 29% on 2008.
Ninety new sites are scheduled to open in the first half of 2010, compared with 90 during ...
Persimmon reports strong forward sales book
by Gill Montia
February 16, 2010
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has said the euro zone economy will grow by about 1% in 2010.
The chief of the 16-member nation, who is also Luxembourg's Prime Minister, said: "Growth is on the path of consolidation but growth in 2010 will be fragile, moderate."
The euro zone has hit the headlines over the last few weeks due to the severe ...
Euro zone expects growth of 1% in 2010
by Kay Murchie
February 11, 2010
Repossessions fell 13% to 10,200 in the final three months of 2009, compared to the previous quarter.
The figure, which includes home-owner and buy-to-let mortgage borrowers, was also 2% down on the same period of 2008, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
However, for 2009 as a whole, mortgage lenders possessed around 46,000 homes, up 15% on a year earlier but well ...
46,000 homes repossessed in 2009
by Gill Montia
February 9, 2010
Enquiries from new home buyers dipped in January, for the first time in 14 months.
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the winter freeze may have been responsible for the downturn with house sellers also affected and the number of homes being put up for sale falling for the first time in seven months.
Last ...
Spring bounce in housing market likely to be short lived
by Gill Montia
Growth too slow to halt record company administrations
by Gill Montia
February 4, 2010
Halifax has announced a 0.6% rise in UK house prices in January, compared to a month earlier.
The seventh successive monthly increase was more modest than the 1.1% average for the previous six months but nonetheless takes the price of a typical home to £169,777, or 3.6% more than at the start of 2009.
The annual rate of change (which is ...
House prices up 3.6% on January 2009
by Gill Montia
Twenty per cent rise in home loans on offer
by Gill Montia
February 3, 2010
Mortgage brokers are feeling upbeat about 2010 and predicting a good year ahead for the UK mortgage market.
Research carried out by Platform (part of Co-operative Financial Services) found that 66% of participants in its Intermediary Outlook Survey are expecting improvements.
Seventy-four per cent of respondents believe UK house prices will rise by up to 5% during 2010 and the same proportion think low ...
Mortgage brokers upbeat on 2010
by Gill Montia
February 2, 2010
Hometrack has declared that the housing market in England and Wales has seen a "sluggish" start to the year, after an unexpectedly strong end to 2009.
In its January survey, the housing intelligence firm detected a 0.1% rise in the price of the average home, compared with December; however, the year-on-year rate of grow stood at a disappointing minus 0.1%.
Both the number of ...
Hometrack: house prices down year-on-year
by Gill Montia
House prices up 20% by 2013 CEBR predicts
by Gill Montia
February 1, 2010
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR), in a study commissioned by shopping comparison website Kelkoo, found that UK shoppers spent more online than anywhere else in Europe in 2009.
The research showed that UK consumers spent £38 billion online last year (the equivalent of €1,240 (£1,070) per shopper) and accounted for almost a third of all European sales.
Poland was ...
Shoppers shun the High Street for the internet
by Kay Murchie
January 29, 2010
In the first of the 2010 house price surveys, Nationwide has announced that the average price of a home rose by 1.2% in January, compared with a month earlier.
The ninth consecutive monthly increase puts the average value of a UK home at £163,481, showing a year-on-year gain of 8.6% (up from 5.9% in December 2009).
Furthermore, the building society's chief economist, Martin Gahbauer, ...
House prices up 8.6% year-on-year
by Gill Montia
January 28, 2010
Brits have more than doubled the amount they are saving in the past 12 months, according to research published this week.
An investigation by Birmingham Midshires found Brits are saving 136% more per quarter compared to this time last year.
In the three months to January 2010, the average UK consumer saved £776.
This is compared to the £329 saved on average during ...
Brits saving double compared to January 2009
by David Masters
January 20, 2010
Rightmove has reported that its initial statistics for 2010 show increases in both seller confidence and buyer interest.
According to the property portal, sellers who have come to market so far in January are asking more for their properties "causing a big turnaround in figures that were on course for a third consecutive monthly fall".
The firm's commercial director, Miles Shipside, says he ...
Seller confidence and buyer interest return
by Gill Montia
January 12, 2010
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has today announced that the High Street experienced the strongest December for eight years, boosting hopes that the UK economy will have emerged from recession in the fourth quarter.
According to the BRC, like-for-like sales grew 4.2% by value during December as last-minute Christmas shoppers boosted sales.
However, the BRC did highlight that the figures compare with ...
BRC: December retail sales in sharp rise
by Kay Murchie
