Notes reveal ministers housing market fears
House prices are set to fall by "at best" between five per cent and ten per cent this year, according to forecasts in confidential government documents. The cabinet's expectation was revealed after Caroline Flint, the housing minister, inadvertently left her briefing notes on display after a meeting at Downing Street. Her notes, which were headed 'Caroline Flint - speaking notes, State of Housing Market', said: "Given present trends they will clearly show sizeable falls in prices later this year - at best down five to ten per cent year-on-year."The market is being affected by the global credit crunch which is making it difficult for many who would like to buy to do so. We can't know how bad it will get."Earlier on Tuesday a report published by Communities and Local Government showed that house prices fell by 0.1 per cent during the first quarter of this year.
Share this..
Related stories
900 sacked at Lindsay oil refinery
In a follow-up to our earlier post regarding the unofficial strike at the Lindsay oil refinery it has this evening been confirmed that 900 of the 1200 contract workers who walked out early this week have been sacked by Total. While the workers are said to believe that there was an agreement that no UK workers would be made redundant before foreign workers at the site, Total has confirmed that no s...
Read MoreAre you getting value for money from your landlord?
A report by the housing charity Shelter this week confirmed the difficulties facing those desperate to sign up to rented accommodation after falling foul of mortgage credit restrictions in the short-term. It is believed there are around 3.5 million rented properties in the UK, housing around 8 million people, making the rental market in the UK significant to say the least. So are you getting value...
Read MoreHouse prices have fallen year-on-year
House prices during April are now on average one per cent less than they were 12 months ago, new data has shown. According to Nationwide's monthly house price survey, the average value of a property now stands at £178,555. This is some £1,759 less than it has been during April last year. The year on year decline was fuelled by 1.1 per cent fall during April this year and a drop of 0.7 per cent i...
Read MoreTreasury in VAT rise row
The government and the Conservatives have become embroiled in a row over an apparent future VAT rise.David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, said that a Treasury document which apparently showed plans to increase the sales tax to 18.5 per cent in 2011, was "a secret tax bombshell".Treasury minister Angela Eagle subsequently dismissed this as "scaremongering", while the government says that th...
Read MoreFSA update regarding whistleblower saga
The FSA has this evening revealed that the authority received a complaint from Paul Moore regarding the situation at HBOS over three years ago. It would appear that the FSA was both concerned about the risk management of HBOS before and after the complaint was received but apparently took no action. This calls into question the whole basis of the FSA complaints handling process as well as the FSA'...
Read More