The Bank of England is certainly giving the impression that the UK households need to ready themselves for a second credit crisis amid signs that mortgages and loans will be more difficult to secure in the latter part of 2010. This comes at a time when the UK government is slashing the public-sector budget and there is little or no money available to pump back into a financial system which is beginning to creak again.
As more and more people in the UK continue to fall into financial hardship it is becoming ever more evident that many people are still living the lives they were living two years ago despite the fact their incomes are under pressure and the cost of living has increased dramatically over the period. It is vital that we all learn to live within our means because this will see us through the hard times and allow us, hopefully, to enjoy the good times again. So what do we need to do?
Now that the UK government's emergency budget is out of the way we can start to see how these changes will impact upon the everyday life of people in the UK. Despite the fact that many of us may not intentionally change our spending habits there is no doubt that such basic changes as an increase in VAT will mean less money in our pockets. So will you be changing your spending habits?
The UK government yesterday attacked housing benefits which have grown by 50% over the last decade to a staggering £21 billion a year. Indeed it was revealed that some families are receiving over £100,000 year in housing benefit which is a figure completely unsustainable in the future. So how has George Osborne tackled the problem?
A report by IMRG has confirmed that the appetite for online shopping in the UK continues to grow with £4.5 billion spent online in May which was a 22% increase over the same period last year. While the base figure may well have been artificially low, due to the recession, there is no doubt that demand for online shopping continues to grow. So what does this mean for the UK retail sector?
In a sign of the times, it has been revealed that 56% of new mothers are ill prepared for the financial challenge of bring up a child especially within the current economic environment. It is now obvious that more parents than ever before are being forced back to work to make ends meet with a need to address the challenge of childcare.
A report today has cast further light on the problems facing many UK Internet users with the revelation that 420,000 scam emails are received each and every hour in the UK. One person will become the victim of these scams every 7 seconds with the average scam costing £285 per person. For those who believe this is not a major issue, think again!
Tesco has today reported like-for-like sales up 1.1% in the 13 weeks to the end of May. However, while the 1.1% increase in like-for-like sales is higher, at least on the surface, than many had expected, if you strip out January's VAT increase this falls to a much lower 0.1% like-for-like increase in sales. Total group sales rose by 8.2% and if you strip out petrol sales it was still an impressive 6.9%.
The SNP government is looking to introduce a zero waste policy in Scotland which will see consumers and businesses forced to separate food from their traditional waste by 2013. It is believed that food waste will then be used to generate electricity which will then be pumped back into the national grid and made available to Scottish consumers and Scottish businesses.
Since the very early years of the UK welfare state many people have been dependent on state handouts to pay their monthly bills and "get by". However, there is no doubt that over the last 20 years there has been a massive increase in the number of benefit claimants in the UK and these figures are moving higher and higher each year. So why has the UK benefit system moved so much out of control?
