Housebuilder Bovis Homes has today issued a positive trading statement after saying it expects profits to be ahead of expectations for the 2010 year. The company, which is one of the smaller listed housebuilders, said it will also start paying dividends again to shareholders. Many housebuilders took a battering during the housing market slump and [...]
Wolseley, which is the world’s largest supplier of plumbing and heating equipment, has today posted an annual loss due to the ongoing problems in the housing market. The company, which owns Plumb Center and Build Center in the UK, slumped to a pre-tax loss of £766 million for the year to 31 July, compared with [...]
Housebuilders are to set up new schemes to protect consumers following a report from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which has recently completed a study of the market. While the OFT found that the sector was broadly competitive, it concluded that a code of conduct and a redress scheme are needed for customers who [...]
The doom and gloom continues in the housing market today as housebuilder Bellway reported a 45% fall in reservations of its homes in the second half of the financial year, compared with the same period last year. Bellway added that completed sales had dropped by 14% compared with last year as the mortgage squeeze meant [...]
Yesterday’s announcement that housebuilder Persimmon has cut around 2,000 jobs since the start of the year has been followed by further gloomy news from Bovis Homes and Redrow, which are also reducing staff numbers. The firms expect to cut 400 and 550 jobs respectively, blaming the losses on the credit crisis and high mortgage costs. [...]
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey is close to receiving a huge cash injection in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. The rescue is being co-ordinated by investment bank UBS, and JP Morgan Cazenove. The agreement, which is believed to raise as much as £500 million could be reached by Wednesday, at which time a trading [...]
Shares have plummeted in many of the UK’s largest banks as fears about the UK economy grow. Yesterday, shares in HBOS the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, fell 11% while Alliance & Leicester and Royal Bank of Scotland fell 8% and 9% respectively. The HBOS sell-off meant its share price fell to 258 pence, less than [...]
The Government has announced plans to purchase newly built properties from housing developers whose sales are plummeting. The £200 million scheme could provide 1,000 homes that can either be rented out by social landlords or offered to first-time buyers who can purchase the properties through the existing Homebuy scheme. The plans forms part of the [...]
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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