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MS Blog
Claims firms could start to damage the economy
It was widely believed that lenders had gone big with their provisions to pay out claims for the mis-selling of payment protection insurance but now it is clear they underestimated the scale of the scandal.
Planning reform unashamedly backs building
The National Planning Policy Framework is published today amid criticism it gives a free pass to steamroller over England’s green and pleasant land.
The privatisation of social housing
Privatisation is back in vogue and is seen as the panacea to all problems from policing to roads and housing is getting in on the act too.
Industry Blog
Battening down the hatches - what a Greek exit would mean for the UK mortgage market
At the beginning of the year, I wrote a blog predicting a Greek departure from the euro. I suggested that this was the inevitable scenario given that Greece has debt at 144% of GDP and its economy was and is in a downward spiral of contraction and austerity.
10 ways to get the mortgage market moving
With all the negative sentiment surrounding the UK mortgage market at the moment, Legal & General has put together its ‘Mortgage Manifesto’, or 10 things that government, providers, brokers and borrowers can do to help improve prospects for the market in 2012.
It takes two to tango
Bad habits of lenders are driving intermediaries to distraction, wrote Mortgage Strategy’s Samuel Dale last week in a list of things that really tick off brokers.
Monty's Blog
HSBC does it again
HSBC has once again claimed that it “accepts around nine in 10 of all customers who apply for a mortgage” - ha, ha, don’t make me laugh.
Half A Glass…
At a time when negative headlines dominate the economic landscape it is hard not to notice that consumer confidence has taken a battering in recent weeks.
First-time buyers: Retreating or returning?
First-time buyers have been in the news this week with a report from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, stating that last month saw a 10-month high in the numbers of first-timers purchasing, although still down from this time last year.
John Charcol's Blog
The Vickers Report and the mortgage market
There is naturally a major focus in the media today on the Vickers Report but it is important to recognise that the proposals, which the chancellor George Osborne has already accepted, don’t have to be fully implemented until 2019, the same deadline as for the previously announced Basel 3 regulatory changes.
Eurozone sovereign debt default gets closer
New evidence of problems in the global economy emerge almost every day now from somewhere in the world - figures from the UK service sector today were much worse than expected by economists, many of whom seem to be pretty rubbish at predicting figures these days.
Why now is the right time to think about fixing
The proportion of our clients taking fixed rates has fallen steadily from an 18 month peak of 55.8% in February this year, when five-year fixes were still available at close to 4%, to 30% in June and 29% in July as we continued to recommend variable rates to most clients.
