Conservative leader David Cameron, 43, has become Britain’s youngest Prime Minister in almost 200 years following Gordon Brown’s resignation after 13 years of Labour rule. Mr Cameron will now form a coalition Government with the Liberal Democrats, which represents the first such Government in the UK for 70 years. Announcing his resignation, Prime Minister, Gordon [...]
Gordon Brown has this evening announced he is stepping down as Labour leader. Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, Mr Brown, who has been Prime Minister since June 2007 after the resignation of Tony Blair, said he intended to stand down as Labour leader “in the national interest”. The news comes after Friday’s hung parliament result, [...]
The financial world was in shock over the weekend following the decision of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to charge Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents with fraud. The Wall Street bank allegedly sold investors down the river by “misstating and omitting key facts” about a financial product tied to US [...]
The Labour Government is not ruling out a VAT rise but is set to pledge not to raise income tax rates for the lifetime of the next Parliament. These are two items set to be on Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s election manifesto today in Birmingham. However, while the PM is leaving open the possibility of [...]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has today confirmed the general election will take place in exactly one month’s time – on 6 May. The move was widely expected and the PM made the announcement outside Downing Street, following a 20-minute meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace to seek the dissolution of Parliament. Mr Brown will [...]
The Government-led crackdown on credit card companies is expected to save consumers around £300 million a year. The crackdown comes after the Government warned credit and store card firms to “clean up their act” after it launched a review of the industry in a consumer White Paper in July 2009. According to Prime Minister, Gordon [...]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed the date of the Budget as March 24 with speculation mounting that the general election will be 6 weeks after – on May 6. The Treasury is set to confirm the Budget date later in a written statement to MPs. Meanwhile, in the build-up to the budget, Chancellor Alistair [...]
The pound plummeted to a 10-month low today over fears of a possible hung parliament in the forthcoming election. Sterling lost 1.6% and dipped below $1.50 for the first time since May 2009 – it has already lost 7% against the dollar this year. The pound also lost ground against the euro and many other [...]
Prior to Wednesday’s Pre-Budget Report, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has outlined plans to slash public spending by £12 billion over four years – 25% more than originally thought a few months ago. Mr Brown will endeavour to show how Labour plans to slash the UK’s budget deficit by half. In a speech today, the PM [...]
At last week’s G20 summit, the world’s leading nations agreed to “tough new regulations”. Following the summit, which took place in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday, US President Barack Obama announced that in order to prevent another financial crisis: “We have agreed tough new financial regulations to ensure that the reckless few can no longer [...]
A new initiative called “Backing Young Britain” is set to get thousands of young people back to work in the form of apprenticeships or training. The latest official figures show that the jobless rate among 16 to 24-year-olds has surged to almost 20%, with nearly a million classed as unemployed. Leading business groups have been [...]
The topic of bank bonuses continues to hit the headlines with Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggesting a possible cap on bonuses within the banking industry, and indicating that bonuses should be based on long-term success. The PM added that banks should be able to “claw back” bonuses if the bank later performed poorly. Mr Brown [...]
The UK’s ailing car industry has received a boost today with the news that Nissan will create 350 new jobs at its plant in Sunderland, while safeguarding hundreds more in the related supply chain. The new jobs come as part of a £200 million investment, spread over five years, to produce batteries for electric cars. [...]
Dunfermline Building Society, established in 1869, has collapsed after last-minute rescue attempts failed. The British financial institution, which has a workforce of around 500 across more than 30 branches, is to be auctioned off to the highest bidder with The Sunday Times reporting that Santander, National Australia Bank and Bank of Ireland are potential bidders. [...]
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, is calling for aggressive action to stimulate the US economy. Speaking in front of the Senate Budget Committee in Washington, Mr Bernanke said that stabilising financial markets is vital for economic recovery. Mr Bernanke said progress has been made on the financial side since last autumn but more bold action [...]
Former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension package is being criticised by the organisation which was set up to oversee taxpayer’s interest in UK banks. John Kingman of the UK Financial Investments (UKFI) said Sir Fred could have been paid off for much less than the £630,000 annual pension that he [...]
Bank shares on Friday took a battering amid speculation that more financial institutions will have to be rescued by the Government. Barclays stock was down 25% to its lowest level since 1993, while Royal Bank of Scotland lost 13%, the latter is 57.9% owned by the Government. Last week alone, Lloyds TSB saw its shares [...]
Tracker mortgages are becoming increasingly hard to find following the Bank of England’s aggressive attack on the base rate of interest. Market statistics show that in the last year, the number of tracker mortgage products available has dropped by over 700, from 763 to 45. This is expected to decline further next year with additional [...]
The 15 Eurozone leaders have met in Paris this weekend and agreed on an emergency plan to prevent further financial institutions collapsing. France and Germany followed the UK by spending billions of euros to guarantee loans in leading banks in a bid to fight off financial meltdown. Banks’ reluctancy to lend to each other has [...]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday that the UK may freeze the assets of Icelandic companies after he branded Iceland’s failure to guarantee British savings in its failed banks as ’unacceptable and illegal‘. The two countries are battling over who should compensate British savers whose money is in Icelandic amid the collapse of the country’s [...]
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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