Is It Time For The Government To Bail Out Banks Again?
News that mortgage approvals are down 32% for the year ended June 2008 has prompted calls for more assistance from the authorities as the situation in the housing market continues to worsen. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has also voiced fears that a rise in interest rates to try and subdue inflation would literally kill the UK mortgage market overnight.
The true problems in the mortgage market are clearly shown by the fall in business of 11% in the first three months of 2008 and the fact that it increased to 21% in the second quarter. Noises from within the industry also suggest that the rate of slowdown could rise yet further as money markets tighten and buyers flee the housing market.
While the recent mortgage rate reductions by Nationwide and Halifax to name but two were well received they do not mask the underlying problems of the industry. Whether these reductions were implemented to try and entice more people back to the market or finance is becoming cheaper remains to be seen, but there will surely be more pain before we hit the bottom of the UK housing market.
Share this..
Related stories
UK government puts politics first
In a shocking indictment of the current state of the UK government, it was revealed that employees from the stricken van maker LDV were ignored as they attempted to lobby ministers for government aid. With a demonstration planned for Friday they were informed that there were no ministers available to speak to them because of ongoing issues within the UK government, i.e. the Cabinet reshuffle.
Read More
UK unemployment falling
17/10/2013 Unemployment in the UK fell by more than 18,000 to less than 2.5 million in the three months to August according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Additionally, those claiming job seekers allowance fell by 41,700 to 1.35 million last month alone, the lowest since January 2009. This has left the UK’s unemployment at around 7.7%, whilst the number of people in either fu...
Read MoreBSkyB places 10.4% stake in ITV
As expected, BSkyB has today confirmed the placing of 404.4 million shares in ITV at a price of 48.5p each. This now brings the company's shareholding in ITV down to 7.5%, a figure which the Competition Commission is happy with, although it does crystallise a £348 million loss on the 10.4% share sale. The company has confirmed that the residual 7.5% stake will be held in the medium term for inves...
Read MoreRBS rights issue flops
Just 0.25 per cent of new stock has been sold in the latest rights issue from RBS.The bank had signed up to the government's £37 billion recapitalisation scheme, which sees the Treasury using public money to take out equity stakes in banks whose stability is under threat from the credit crunch.Under the terms of the plan, RBS launched the rights issue on signing up to receive up to £20 billion o...
Read MoreCarbon footprints to appear on food labels
The UK government has announced plans to roll out a scheme to print the carbon footprint of all produce sold in UK supermarkets to show where it came from and how much energy has been used to provide this product to the consumer. While the likes of Tesco, Pepsi and other leading retailers in the UK are already taking an interest in the carbon footprint of the products they sell, the UK government'...
Read More