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Following pressure from the economy, businesses and consumers, interest rates cut by 1.5% to 3% by the Bank of England. This is the largest rate cut in 15 years, and follows a cut of 0.5% in October. The BoE has faced pressure from lobby groups representing many sectors,...

Extract from the Mais Lecture on “Maintaining stability in a global economy”, given by The Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP, at the Cass Business School yesterday, within which the green light would appear to have been given to the MPC to...

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published today its latest mortgage lending data covering the period from Q1 2007 to the end of Q2 2008. The report shows the total value of mortgage arrears is ?1,178bn, an increase of 7.5% compared to a year earlier. But quarterly...

In a very interesting speech last night to the CBI, Institute of Directors, Leeds Chamber of Commerce and Yorkshire Forward in Leeds, Mervyn King mentioned the fact that we are probably in a recession, but also pointed to the among other things potentially selling units in the...

Figures released today show that inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index is running at 5.2% in September up from 4.7% in August. The increase is mainly due to higher energy costs, and it is thought that with prices of energy now falling back, inflation has probably now...

It’s all happening in the financial markets, with the Bank of England cutting the base rate to 4.5 per cent and Alistair Darling’s ?500 billion rescue plan… Chancellor Darling’s plan aims to bring Britain’s high street banks back from the brink of...

Across the UK, selling prices for houses is at an average of nine percent below the asking price with sellers in some regions being forced to accept as much as 12.5 percent discount off their advertised price, says RICS research. As economic fundamentals continue to worsen, the...

The Treasury says it will be business as usual for Bradford Bingley savers and borrowers Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is to be nationalised, the government has confirmed. Under the arrangement, the government will take control of the bank’s ?50bn in...