Stamp duty avoidance schemes grow in demand

Halifax: House prices up 0.6% in January

The Halifax has released its latest House Price Index report. And the news for January is that the price of the average house in the UK rose by 0.6%. That’s the first rise recorded since October 2011, with house prices in the quarter to January being 0.9% lower than the previous three months (and 1.8% [...]

NIESR forecasts recession this year

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has issued its latest UK and world economy forecast. Global growth is estimated to hit 3.5% this year, but the situation in the UK isn’t as buoyant. The NIESR is predicting a return to technical recession in this country in the first half of 2012. The [...]

Options for investing for income

AWD Chase de Vere has been a trusted source of independent financial advice for over 40 years. In this article they tackle the dilemma faced by everyone trying to generate income in the current low interest environment: The UK Bank of England Bank Rate (formerly Bank of England Base Rate) has remained at just 0.5% [...]

IFS applies more pressure for tax cuts on Osborne

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has come out pushing for tax cuts this year. The think-tank organisation joins Nick Clegg who last week publicly threw his weight behind delivering a higher personal tax allowance – the initial chunk of your wage that isn’t taxed – in a swifter time-frame than the coalition is currently [...]

Nationwide: House prices fall 0.2% in January

Nationwide has just released its latest figures estimating the performance of the UK housing market in January. And 2012 is off to another slight dip, with prices falling by an average of 0.2% across the country. That leaves the price of the typical house at £162,230, which is slightly more than the Halifax and Land [...]

Self-assessment tax deadline extended by two days

HMRC has announced an extension to the deadline by which self-assessed tax must be paid. Normally, payments are expected to arrive by the close of today, January 31st, at the latest. However, HMRC has declared an extension to February 2nd, so those who are paying a day or two late won’t be penalised with a [...]

Owning a home more economical than renting?

According to an article published in the Daily Mail over the weekend, owning a house in the UK now works out to be considerably more economical than renting. The newspaper article is based on research carried out by the Halifax into the current cost of both alternatives. The study found that based on recent mortgage [...]

Moving costs have soared since 2001

The latest piece of research from Lloyds TSB has focused on the cost of moving house, and how that cost has shot up over the past decade. Indeed the huge boom in house prices over the past ten years has actually been outstripped by the rising cost of relocating. That’s in terms of buying and [...]

Nick Clegg urges swifter tax cuts

Nick Clegg is to throw his weight behind a move to speed up the promised tax cuts the government is making for lower bracket earners. Currently the personal tax allowance – the initial chunk of your wage that you don’t have to pay any tax on – stands at £7,475. That has been raised £1,000 [...]

UK economy shrinks by 0.2%, second dip looms

The double-dip recession that many fear is heading to UK shores is becoming more of a likelihood given that the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the last quarter. That fall of 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011 was more than the 0.1% experts [...]