House prices increase by a quarter in Greenwich, reports Halifax

Homes in the London Borough of Greenwich recorded the highest leap in value during 2014, says Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender.

The London borough is at the top of the Halifax’s list of rising house prices in cities and towns throughout the UK. The average house value in Greenwich rose from £263,183 at the end of 2013, to £328,044 at the end of November 2014, an increase of 24.6 per cent, close to three times as much as the national average of 8.5 per cent.

Halifax compiled its list from data regarding the number of mortgages it has approved during 2014. Unsurprisingly, the top of the list is dominated by London boroughs, with all but one of the top ten being in the capital. Ealing saw the second biggest rise, recording price increases of 24.5 per cent. The average house value there is now £365,859.

Prices increased in a number of other London boroughs by more than one fifth, including Sutton and Tower Hamlets. The only town in the top ten that is not in London, is Crawley in Sussex, where prices rose by 22.4 per cent according to Halifax. The town has excellent commuter links to London and a lower average house price of £267,925.

In the capital as a whole, house values rose by £43,935, thirteen per cent over all, despite estate agents reporting a slowdown in housing market activity towards the end of the year.

In stark opposition to the increased affluence of London and the south east, house values fell in many areas in the north of England, Scotland and Wales. The biggest slump was in Bury, Greater Manchester, where prices fell by 4.8 per cent, £7,000. House values in Keighley in West Yorkshire also fell, dropping by 4.4 per cent. Other areas recording a drop were Nuneaton and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands and Newport in Wales.

Sterling at seven year high against the Euro

The UK pound is at its highest level against the Euro in seven years.

The dramatic slide follows the European Central Bank’s announcement that it will pump 60 billion euros a month into the Eurozone’s economy. As a result of the bank’s quantitative easing programme, investors have been selling the euro, causing the pound to reach an all-time high of 1.34 euros.

The euro also hit an all-time low against the US dollar of $1.115, recovering slightly subsequently.

The increasingly weakening euro brings mixed blessings for the UK. Cheaper foreign holidays within the Eurozone are an advantage but this is offset by the increased hardships UK exporters will face.

Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said that the move by the European Central Bank, (ECB), was a welcome step in the preservation of the likelihood of prosperity within Europe in the medium term.

Roger Bootle, the chairman of Capital Economics did not agree, however, calling it a ‘net negative,’ because it will make life much harder for British export enterprises and much easier for European firms exporting to the UK. Foreign holidays may be cheaper but that will be of little use to those who have lost their jobs because of the rise of the pound/euro exchange rate.

The euro has been steadily falling in value against the pound for several months as the market anticipated the recent action by the ECB. It has lost around 9 per cent of its value against sterling during the past 12 months.

The ECB’s 1.1 trillion euro stimulus programme should lower the cost of borrowing and encourage European businesses and consumers to increase their spending throughout the 19 nation Eurozone.

Share markets throughout Europe all responded positively, with shares in Athens rising by more than 5 per cent.

Banks short change savers, says FCA

Savers in Britain are getting a poor deal from their banks, says the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA. The regulator found that £160 billion in savings is currently earning less than or equal to the Bank of England’s base rate, 0.5 per cent.

The FCA also stated that savers are finding it difficult to compare savings accounts and so to switch providers. During the last three years, 80 per cent of quick access accounts have not been switched because many savers are put off by the perceived inconvenience.

Many savers are not even aware that the rate of interest that they are receiving has fallen. In future, the FCA says, building societies and banks must display the rates of interest their customers are receiving prominently in all communications with them.

However, the FCA has not banned the controversial so called ‘teaser rates.’ These attract savers with high interest rates for an introductory period of say six months or a year, after which the interest rate generally falls dramatically to around 0.5 per cent.

Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s director of strategy and competition, said that the FCA has no plans to ban introductory high interest rate accounts because many customers benefit from them. However, it will be demanding that banks and building societies improve their communication with their clients and ensure that they know exactly how much interest their savings are earning and when their high introductory rates expire.

The FCA found that a significant proportion of savings are held in older accounts which earn lower rates of interest than newer accounts. Savers receive scant information from their providers about alternative accounts they could switch to and often assume that the process of switching will be time consuming and problematic.

Woolard added that banks and building societies must be more transparent about reductions in interest rates on all their savings accounts.

Cost of raising children up by £2,000 in twelve months

The cost of bringing up a child from birth to the age of 21 has increased by close to £2,000 during the last 12 months, to almost £230,000.

The increase is chiefly due to the increased cost of childcare, according to a report for insurers, LV=, which was based upon figures from the Centre of Economic and Business Research. The report found that parents have to pay an average of £67,000 for each child for childcare during the 21 year period, a dramatic 70 per cent increase since 2013.

The second largest increase was in the cost of education. Parents pay an average £74,319 on uniform, lunches, school trips and university fees. The figure does not include private education and has increased by 128 per cent in the past 24 months.

The only cost to have dropped during the last year is that of clothing. Pocket money, food, toys and holiday costs have all increased. As a result, the study concluded, parents are spending as much as a third of their annual income on their children.

Myles Rix, LV =’s managing director of protection, said that having children is more expensive than it has ever been.

Findababysitter.com published its annual childcare report in January, showing that one in four of all unemployed mothers would like to work but is put off by the high costs of childcare.

Four out of every ten parents have reduced their routine spending in order to pay their bills, the report said, whilst ten per cent of parents said that they had postponed having more children because of the high costs.

In March 2014, the government announced a number of moves designed to help parents with childcare costs, such as a new childcare voucher scheme that will come into effect later this year.