The UK housing market continued its recovery throughout 2013, with prices rising by an average of 8.4%, according to the Nationwide Building Society.
Prices in London and the south-east have given the biggest boost to the market, but the last quarter of the year saw rises across all regions of the UK, bringing the price of the average home up to £175,286.
The number of people using more than half of their disposable income on debt repayments could almost double from 600,000 to 1.1 million by 2018 if interest rates rise to 3% according to the Resolution Foundation.
The rate in which job vacancies are growing has hit the fastest levels in 15 years according to the job vacancies index, which uses data from 400 recruitment firms, whilst the report also shown that salaries for permanent staff were also rising at the highest level of six years.
George Osborne has been releasing his Autumn statement for 2013 today, making some key statements which claim the austerity agenda is working.
In fact, Osborne has claimed that the UKâ??s economy is growing at a faster rate than any other country from the G7, and further claimed that Britain will be back in the black by 2018/19. However, Labour claimed that the conservative party were in denial about the cost of living crisis, stating that â??for most people, there is no recovery at all.â??
Energy giant Npower which employs 9,600 workers in the UK is to cut 1,400 UK jobs, with a number of these being outsourced to India. The cuts are expected to be in relation to site closures at Peterlee in Durham, Thornaby in North Yorkshire, and Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, however it's expected that Npower will confirm exact details later on.
A new report has revealed that just short of nine million people in the UK consider themselves to have a serious financial problem related to debt. At the same time, the Money Advice Service (MAS) has said that very few of those in this situation are making any real effort to get professional help.
Another well known high street provider has announced today that it is set to shut 72 out of its 264 stores throughout the UK, and cut 452 jobs after confirming earlier in the week it was going into administration. The troubled DVD rental chain Blockbuster is one of the many high street stores that have come under pressure from its online competitors and supermarkets.
The UK economy grew between July and September as GDP increased by 0.8% according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the best quarterly performance since 2010.
The UK economy has seen ‘fairly strong’ growth across all sectors, building on growth of 0.7% in the previous quarter, leading to claims from Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne that “Britain’s hard work is paying off and the country is on the path to prosperity.”
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.
The prompt payment code, backed by the UK government has been failing it's objectives of ensuring that small suppliers are paid on time.
Around 1,500 firms signed up to the scheme when it was originally set up in December 2008 in order to facilitate a need for small suppliers to recover over £30.2 billion in owed payments. However, it seems that the scheme, despite being supposedly strengthened by the European Directive on late payments, is failing to meet is objectives.
