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Category: Economy & Housing & Uncategorized
According to the Home Builders Federation (HBF), official statistics released in late May show that 40,340 new homes were started in England in Q1 of 2015, the highest quarterly number since 2007. The figures show that the momentum from 2014, which saw 137,310 new homes started, up 10% on 2013 and 60% on the trough in 2009, is gathering speed.
Category: Lifestyle & Protection & Uncategorized
Brits consider an internet connection and mobile phones to be greater financial priorities than protecting mortgages and incomes, according to new research in the latest Scottish Widows Protection Report. Only 39% considered providing financial security for their family in the event of death as essential ā which has dropped from more than half in four years ā compared to eight out of 10 (80%) who considered broadband and mobile phones (71%) essential for daily living.
Category: Lifestyle & retirement & savings & Uncategorized
New research in Spring 2015 from Aegon UK reveals that just 7% of the UK population are on track for the retirement they aspire to, exactly the same percentage as in April 2014. Aegonās third UK Readiness Report ā the latest in a series of reports that looks at attitudes towards retirement ā has a particular focus on levels of engagement with workplace pensions. It finds that the nationās āreadiness scoreā has actually fallen over 12 months from 52 to 47. The people surveyed said that they wanted to retire at age 63, contributing to the falling score, as peopleās expectations about the amount of money they hope to retire on each year rose from Ā£35,000 to Ā£42,000, despite the fact that this would require a saving pot of more than Ā£1m, a sum higher than the new pension lifetime allowance.
Category: Market commentary & Uncategorized
An essential part of writing this bulletin each month is making daily notes on the main business and stock market news. This month we have comfortably broken our record ā more than six pages of notes. And as you might expect, about half of those pages are about Greece and its debts.
Category: Economy & Uncategorized
Wage growth in Britain hit a four-year high of 2.7% in April, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures, delivering a welcome increase to household finances following the fall in inflation this year. But some analysts warned that the jump in real wages, the highest for seven years, would be short-lived if inflation continued to rise over the rest of the year and productivity remained flat.
Category: Lifestyle & pensions & Uncategorized
Retiring abroad is a common desire for many in the UK. For those that move to the sunny Mediterranean countries of the EC their UK state pension is preserved and increased each year. If you move to the United States, it is preserved and again increases each year in line with state pensions paid in the UK. This is not the case for every destination however, and the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) has said the UK is the only country in the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) that does not āup-rateā their state pension for all pensioners regardless of where they live.
