By Tim Shipman PUBLISHED: 17:02 EST, 22 Apr 2012 | UPDATED: 17:02 EST, 22 Apr 2012 Warning on a economy: Former chancellor Ken Clarke warned of ‘long tough work’ forward on inhabitant finances Ministers have been systematic to ready adult to £16billion of serve spending cuts amid warnings that it could take years to get [...]
Budget 2012: tax cuts for the rich – but what about the 62.5pc tax on the ‘squeezed middle’?
Tax cuts expected in the Budget to reduce the top rate of income tax from 50pc to 45pc will be welcomed by 350,000 fortunate enough to earn more than £150,000 – but what about many more people who earn much less than that but suffer substantially higher marginal rates of tax and National Insurance Contributions [...]
Centrica faces calls for cuts to British Gas bills as wholesale profits soar
By This Is Money Reporter Last updated at 11:36 AM on 23rd February 2012 Mild weather led to a drop in energy use and a 30 per cent slump in profits to £522million at household supplier British Gas last year, according to owner Centrica. But a bumper year for its upstream gas and oil exploration [...]
Cheap money cuts bankruptcies – but beware worse to come in 2012
Cheap money – with interest rates frozen at a historic low for 33 months – means the number of people going bankrupt continues to fall and has now reached its lowest point since the credit crisis began, accountants calculate. But experts at RSM Tenon and Grant Thornton warn that this trend will reverse when interest [...]
House prices in south double those in north as public sector cuts widen gap to record levels
House prices are now more than twice as high in the south of England as in the north – their biggest gap since records began – as unemployment rises due to cuts in the public sector payroll but wealthy foreign investors continue to buy property in London and the Home Counties. The average house price [...]
House price cuts helped sales surge by nearly 10pc last month
The great house price stand-off, where vendors are reluctant to cut prices to levels at which buyers are willing and able to buy, may be about to end with a burst of activity. But will vendors or buyers blink first? Property sales increased by 9.5pc last month as prices continued to drift 2.3pc lower over [...]
Timid Tories outflanked by Left-wing calls for tax cuts
It’s a topsy-turvy world when a Left-wing magazine calls on a Tory Chancellor to cut taxes. Even stranger when one of the taxes concerned was lambasted by the Conservatives in opposition as a “tax on jobs that would kill economic recovery”. So, what did they do when they formed their Coalition Government? No, they didn’t [...]
Santander cuts mortgage rate by 1pc: how low can they go?
Mortgage lenders are competing in a form of financial limbo dancing to see how low rates can go in a bid to boost business despite falling house prices and home sales. Today, Santander is the latest to cut costs by as much as one percentage point with a five-year fixed rate set at 3.99pc on [...]
Swiss franc tumbles as SNB cuts rates
Central bank unexpectedly cuts interest rates and says it will increase the supply of currency to money markets to stem its rapid appreciation View full post on Financial Times – UK Homepage
Moody’s cuts Greek debt by three notches
Second bail-out of Greece will weaken credit ratings of Europe’s strongest countries as well as resulting in a default for Athens, agency says View full post on Financial Times – UK Homepage