The government has launched a new fund to help struggling voluntary organisations through the recession. Any UK charity that offers services to vulnerable and disadvantaged people can now apply for a grant of up to £250,000 from the £16.7 million Hardship Fund. Organisations applying for a grant must be suffering financial difficulties that impact their [...]
The Government has announced a £925 million initiative that could allow work to recommence on 270 stalled development projects across England. According to Housing Minister, John Healey, the scheme could get building work on 22,400 homes back on track and create 20,000 jobs. Every region already has projects shortlisted under the Kickstart programme, which forms [...]
The police unit responsible for fighting car crime has been awarded a £300,000 grant from the Home Office. The Association of Chief Police Officers’ Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS) will use the grant to identify trends in vehicle break-ins. The funds will also be used to work out the best ways of recovering stolen vehicles. [...]
The government has announced plans to set up a venture capital fund to be worth an estimated £1 billion over the next ten years. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the money will be targeted at small businesses and start-ups in the technology sector. Priority will be given to companies with high growth [...]
In a bid to boost the fall in demand for new cars, the UK’s car-scrappage scheme comes into force today. The scheme, which pays consumers to get rid of their old cars and replace it with a more environmentally friendly car, has been successful in overseas, particularly in Germany who reported a 40% increase in [...]
UK carmakers, Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan, have today received £720 million worth of funding, in return for investing in cutting vehicle emissions. The funding was approved by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s main source of long-term lending, and is the first such package provided to any carmaker. Jaguar Land Rover was awarded [...]
According to the Economic Survey of Charities larger charities whose incomes are between £100,000 and £1m have so far been most affected by the recession as there is a greater demand for their services even though their income has fallen. Two-thirds of large charities have indicated that they are concerned that services may need to [...]
Banking giant HSBC has rejected the Government’s offer of emergency funding. The UK’s largest banking group said it had not sought capital support from the UK Government and cannot envisage circumstances where such action would be necessary. Unlike other banks, HSBC has been relatively unaffected by the credit crisis due to its focus on emerging [...]
Anglo Irish Bank has been nationalised to prevent the bank from collapse. The Irish Government said under the circumstances, nationalisation was the only option. If it had been declared insolvent, the Government would have been left with approximately €100 billion of liabilities after guaranteeing all deposits in Irish banks last year. The funding position at [...]
The Irish Government has confirmed it is to provide €5.5billion (£5.12 billion) to the country’s three biggest banks. The three struggling banks, which are the Bank of Ireland, AIB (Allied Irish Bank), and Anglo-Irish, are to receive the funds in return for shares. Anglo-Irish is set to receive €1.5 billion in return for 75% shares [...]
The National Audit Office (NAO) is asserting that councils are rejecting planning applications in order to meet Government targets that offer rewards for speeding up the process. In a report published this week, the public spending watchdog suggests that targets demanded to qualify for grant funding actually encourage local authorities to reject planning applications, especially [...]
The chief executive of HBOS, which owns Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, has warned that house prices are unlikely to begin a recovery before 2010. According to Andy Hornby, confidence in Britain’s housing market will not return until banks can raise significant sums on the wholesale financial markets. In addition, house price deflation could [...]
A government initiated report into the UK mortgage market has been published today. The work has been prepared by Sir James Crosby, a former chairman of Halifax, who is heading a review into improving wholesale mortgage funding. Final recommendations will be published in the autumn but in the meantime the report predicts that current funding [...]
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has announced that it has failed to secure £500 million from shareholders in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. Following the news today, shares in the company plummeted 46% to 32.25p. The company, which was formed by the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey last July, said that if [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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