Property Rescue Blog

As we continue to see cuts in government spending, the latest program on the chopping block appears to be the Child Trust Fund. Currently, parents receive a voucher for at least £250 to invest for each newborn child, with an additional payment made after the child reaches the age of seven.

According to an estimate by uSwitch, UK consumers currently owe approximately £728 million on energy bills. While some figures seem promising, such as the numbers showing that 5.5 million households (21%) are currently in debt to their energy suppliers, compared to 6.5 million (25%) last year, this does not show the entire picture.

Household debts are on the rise in the UK, partially due to many families relying on credit cards and loans to make ends meet during the recent recession and continuing to do so during the slow recovery the economy is now experiencing.

Some of the UK’s major train operators have recently been accused of surreptitiously increasing train fares by extending what are considered peak hours.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that more job cuts are on the horizon. After a massive 2007 government bail-out saved the back from collapse and resulted in RBS being 84% taxpayer owned, the bank began to look for ways to cut costs.

The UK economy is recovering from the recent recession at a rate that is slower than experts predicted. Official estimates show that recovery during the first three months of this year was approximately half of the anticipated rate, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting a growth of 0.2% in the GDP between January and March.

According to reported figures, UK retail sales dropped significantly in April. These figures, reported by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), indicate that sales were down 0.2% from April of last year, with a like-for-like drop of 2.3%.

Experts anticipate little change occurring in the housing market over the next few months. During the first three months of the year, the demand for mortgages fell, due largely to the end of the temporary stamp duty holiday, as well as the poor weather.

As many consumers have discovered, there have been several recent changes in the mortgage and personal loan industries.

As most UK residents are well aware, consumer prices are on the rise. Not only must consumers contend with increasing prices on food, non-alcoholic beverages, clothing and footwear, but they are also feeling the continuing impact of the increase in VAT, which returned to 17.5% in January of this year.