Remortgaging in the current economic climate is no easy task: in fact, recent figures disclosed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders have shown that the number of mortgages granted for 2008 – 516,000 – was the lowest figure since 1974; a 49% decrease on the previous year. With the economic crisis deepening further still and [...]

Originally written by Sean O’Grady, Economics Editor, Independent. British households are repaying record amounts of mortgage debt, sharply reversing the trend that saw many consumers using their homes as “ATM’s” to fund spending as they moved into positive equity. The turnaround reflects depressed household confidence and the diminished value of housing. The Bank of England [...]

Bank of England cuts the Interest Rate to 0.5% – 5th March 2009 It sounds nice but who is actually going to benefit? If I lend you £100,000 and charge you 1% interest you pay back £1,000, if I charge you half that, now 0.5% well you will owe me £500. Of course you save [...]

Mortgage lending as decreased by 60% in January 2009 with the net value of new loans falling to only £690m, figures from the Bank of England showed today. Net lending, which strips out repayments and redemptions, had bounced back in December to £1.8bn, but has now returned to the levels seen in October and November [...]

Only a few days ago the part nationalised, RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) were considering paying employees over £1 billion in bonuses. The UK government recently acquired a 70% share of RBS when they invested £20 billion in the bank. Understandably the public were outraged when the bank announced that they were considering paying over [...]