Manchester based lender Evolution Money is proud to announce its expansion into new city centre premises. Securing the deal for the coveted location earlier on this year, the move was inevitable for the loan provider, having out-grown its previous home near the busy Spinningfields area of the city. Evolution Money has now relocated to the newly refurbished and larger 12,000sq ft offices at 9 Portland Street, Manchester.
The Grade II-listed property in the Piccadilly commercial area underwent renovation at the end of 2014, with Evolution Money now taking the entire third floor of the building which has been fully fitted out and designed for the company.
Kerri Turtill, Operations Director at Evolution Money commented: “We are excited about the next phase of development of our growth and we feel the high quality accommodation we have secured at 9 Portland Street will give us the platform to achieve our objectives.”
Evolution Money has grown steadily and robustly since being established in 2011, and has developed to be a key player in the second charge sector, recently celebrating its fourth birthday. The business now boasts a strong workforce of over one hundred employees and is set to grow further through its ongoing recruitment strategy and significant investment for training and staff development.
2015 will see the multi-award winning lender grow and build on the previous years’ successes with the promotion of the Evolution loan products and lending range through its business partners and directly to customers.
Banks in Greece have closed and are likely to remain so for more than a week, according to Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras.
He was speaking after the European Central Bank (ECB), announced that it will not increase the supply of emergency funds to Greek banks that have, so far, been keeping the country afloat.
The Prime Minister also announced that he would be imposing capital controls although he did not specify their nature. It is likely, though, that these will include caps on the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from ATMs and banks. Some reports are suggesting that the cap on ATMs is likely to be set at just 60 euros or £42 per day. Credit card transactions may also be limited.
Greece is supposed to make a payment of £1.1 billion (1.6 billion euros) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday. The country risks a ‘forced default’ on its debts and is moving closer to withdrawing from the Eurozone.
There were long queues at many ATMs across both mainland Greece and its islands over the weekend, as Greeks sought to withdraw cash. By Sunday evening, more than 60 per cent of all ATMs had run out of money. Petrol stations and supermarkets also saw increased trade, with many households stocking up on fuel and food items.
The decision by the ECB to withdraw emergency funding followed the Greek Prime Minister’s announcement that he would hold a referendum on the proposals made by Greece’s creditors. The referendum is to take place on July 5 and Alexis Tsipras is urging the Greek people to vote against accepting the creditors’ terms.
Whilst a Greek exit from the Eurozone is not yet inevitable, it is becoming increasingly likely with bookmakers now offering odds of just 3 -1 of a Grexit.
Manchester based lender Evolution Money is proud to announce its expansion into new city centre premises. Securing the deal for the coveted location earlier on this year, the move was inevitable for the loan provider, having out-grown its previous home near the busy Spinningfields area of the city. Evolution Money has now relocated to the newly refurbished and larger 12,000sq ft offices at 9 Portland Street, Manchester.
The Grade II-listed property in the Piccadilly commercial area underwent renovation at the end of 2014, with Evolution Money now taking the entire third floor of the building which has been fully fitted out and designed for the company.
Kerri Turtill, Operations Director at Evolution Money commented: “We are excited about the next phase of development of our growth and we feel the high quality accommodation we have secured at 9 Portland Street will give us the platform to achieve our objectives.”
Evolution Money has grown steadily and robustly since being established in 2011, and has developed to be a key player in the second charge sector, recently celebrating its fourth birthday. The business now boasts a strong workforce of over one hundred employees and is set to grow further through its ongoing recruitment strategy and significant investment for training and staff development.
2015 will see the multi-award winning lender grow and build on the previous years’ successes with the promotion of the Evolution loan products and lending range through its business partners and directly to customers.
Unemployment in the UK has fallen once more and wages are at their highest level for four years, according to recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The total number of adults without work dropped by 43,000, to 1.81 million from February to April of this year.
The percentage of the adult population now unemployed is 5.5 per cent, the lowest figure since April 2008. The total number of adults in work is 31.05 million people, 114,000 more than during November 2014 to January of this year.
More women are in work than ever before in Britain with 68.6 per cent of the female adult population currently in employment, a record figure.
Employment minister, Priti Patel, welcomed the ONS figures, saying that they confirmed that the government’s long term economic plan was working.
The rate of unemployment for young people in between the ages of 16 and 24 is higher, however, than in other older age groups.
ONS statistics also revealed that wages rose by 2.7 per cent from February to April, the period of fastest growth since August 2011. The growth rate remained the same, whether bonuses were included or excluded.
Some financial experts are predicting that the rise in wage growth may lead to a rise in interest rates. David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, believes that the increase in wages could embolden the minority in the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, who wish to see interest rates rise. However, he added that a rise is unlikely until there is clear evidence that productivity in the UK is also increasing.
Other economists believe that the recent spurt in wage growth will not be sustained and that companies are unlikely to raise their employees’ salaries much more while inflation is so low, at just 0.1 per cent.
Over one million British holidaymakers are expected to arrive in Greece over the next few months and many will, understandably, be a little worried about what kind of impact the current financial crisis will have on their holiday.
Greek citizens have been taking billions of euros out of their banks in the past few days and weeks. When a similar situation arose in Cyprus in 2013, the banks closed for two weeks. They reopened but imposed a limit on the amount people could withdraw per day, of 300 euros. Limits were also imposed on credit card transactions and amounts that could be taken out of the country. Many experts predict that a similar situation is likely to unfold in Greece over the coming weeks.
Both the Post Office, Britain’s largest provider of travel money, and ABTA, the association for travel agents, are advising travellers to have enough euros in cash to see them through their whole holiday.
Post Office Travel Money recommends that couples take around £500 in euros for local trips, meals out and hot and cold drinks. This figure doesn’t include accommodation, of course, and travellers are advised to phone ahead, to see if it will be possible to pay in advance in sterling. Cash should be stored in safes and security boxes during your time in Greece or split among family members. It is also worth checking your holiday insurance before you go, to see what cover you have for lost or stolen money.
Credit cards should continue to work as normal but you may find that owners of independent businesses, such as restaurants and small hotels, are reluctant to accept them and prefer you to pay in cash instead. This was certainly the case in Cyprus in 2013.
Remember, too, that ATMs on Greek islands are more likely to run out of cash than on the mainland, even if capital controls have not been imposed.
The rate of inflation has turned positive after only one month of negative inflation.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measured inflation in the UK at 0.1 per cent in May, up from -0.1 per cent in April.
The rise of 0.2 per cent was largely due to transport costs, particularly air fares, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The drop to negative inflation in April was caused largely by a fall in sea and air fares and was the first time inflation turned negative in 55 years.
Food and fuel prices also rose in May, although they were still less than one year ago.
ONS statistician, Philip Gooding, and senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, Ben Brettell, both said that the timing of Easter this year was in part responsible for the negative inflation figures for April. Ben Brettell said that falling air fares around the Easter break pushed CPI inflation down in comparison with twelve months ago. Now that those factors have altered, inflation has returned to its previous levels.
The Consumer Price Index measures the weighted average of prices of a range of consumer services and goods, such as medical care, food and the cost of transport. The goods and services are weighted according to their significance. The CPI is a calculation of the average of all the price variations month on month.
A second method of measuring inflation, the Retail Price Index (RPI), also rose in May, up from 0.9 per cent the previous month to 1 per cent. The RPI includes the cost of housing.
Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has said that he expects inflation to remain low and that an inflation rate that is close to zero will help UK households by increasing their spending power.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, (OBR), an independent watchdog, has said that austerity measures must extend well beyond the end of this Parliament if the national debt is to be brought under control. It could take as many as fifty years to reduce the national debt to its 2007 pre-financial crisis level.
The OBR, in its annual report, said that the national debt will continue to increase if permanent cuts to government spending are not made. If public spending is permanently reduced by £20 billion by 2020, the national debt could be reduced to 40 per cent of Britain’s economic output or GDP by 2064.
Last year, in 2014, the net debt for public spending was £1.48 trillion, 80 per cent of the GDP. In 2008, the net debt was £600 billion, around 42 per cent of the UK’s economic output.
The OBR went on to warn that even if public spending is reduced by as much as £20 billion, this will not be sufficient to keep the national debt to around 40 per cent in the years following 2064.
The report from the Office of Budget Responsibility comes a day after the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced plans to legally bind future governments from spending more than they receive in tax revenue during times of economic growth. The OBR will be responsible for ensuring the new regulations are followed. It is also likely to be given the power to decide if a government should be able to spend more than it is gaining in tax revenue in times of recession.
The OBR forecast such a steep increase in national debt by 2064, if sufficient cuts are not made to public spending. This is due to the UK’s ageing population, the impact of student loans and the fact that revenue from North Sea oil and gas will continue to decline.
House prices in the most expensive areas of the capital have fallen by as much 22 per cent since last autumn, according to property services group, LSL.
The group said that property values in Westminster were down by 22 per cent from their peak last November whilst Kensington and Chelsea has seen falls of 16 per cent.
LSL said that the downward turn in prices was due to the new stamp duty regulations, introduced in December 2014, penalising the most expensive homes. In Kensington and Chelsea, the average bill for stamp duty is £118,000 alone.
Director of Your Move and Reed Rains estate agencies, both part of the LSL group, Adrian Gill, said that activity across the housing market has cooled due to the decrease in the number of high end properties being bought and sold. In fact, the number of properties going onto the market fell by 16 per cent in the twelve months to April 2015. According to a recent survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), there are fewer properties per surveyor than there has been for at least 37 years. Its survey suggested that prices could continue to rise by as much as 25 per cent during the next five years because of the depleted housing stock.
Beyond Central London
House prices in the suburbs of London and all other parts of England and Wales have continued to rise, however, the LSL says.
It says that prices have risen by 4.5 per cent across the UK, taking the average cost of a property to £277,178. Rutland, the UK’s smallest county, saw rises of 23.8 per cent in the year to April 2015, while prices in Carmarthenshire in Wales went up by 16.4 per cent.
The rise outside of the capital is, in part, fueled by the drop in stamp duty on properties worth less than £937,000.
Lloyds Banking Group has been fined a record £117 million by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), for its mishandling of Payment Protection Insurance complaints.
Only two months ago, Clydesdale Bank was fined £20.7 million for similar shortcomings.
The fine is the latest to be levied on Lloyds Bank. The bank was fined £218 million in 2014 by both the FCA and US regulators, for playing a part in the rigging of international lending rates.
The Lloyds Banking Group is part owned by the state with British taxpayers holding a 19 per cent stake, but the government has said recently that it will sell its shares to the public within the next twelve months.
According to the FCA, the bank dealt with 2.3 million complaints between March 2012 and March 2013, regarding the mis-selling of PPI. Lloyds immediately rejected 37 per cent of these. Call centre staff were told by the bank that it had not breached regulations when selling PPI and, consequently, said the FCA, a number of valid complaints were wrongly rejected.
Undercover investigation
The Bank’s unfair rejection of complaints came to light following an investigation by journalists from The Times.
Bonuses cut
Lloyds has already announced that its executives will be forfeiting a total of £2.65 million in bonuses over the affair. Chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, stands to lose £350,000 alone from his bonus.
It is not only the executives who will lose money, however. Lloyds has cut £30 million from its entire group bonus fund. An employee who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC that the bank was punishing all its staff for the behaviour of its executives.
Customers who have been unfairly treated by the Bank will be compensated. Lloyds has put aside £710 million for those customers who are entitled to redress for mishandled complaints regarding the selling of PPI.
HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, plans to cut 8,000 jobs in Britain as part of a savings drive.
Forty eight thousand people work for HSBC in the UK and the job losses will hit both the investment and retail banking sectors.
Staff turnover currently stands at 3,000 but chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, has said that the job losses would be made by ‘natural attrition.’
Globally, HSBC plans to lose 25,000 jobs, around 10 per cent of its global workforce.
The bank also plans to rebrand its UK high street bank branches but has not yet announced under which name. It is thought possible that it will use the old Midland Bank name; HSBC bought Midland Bank in 1992 – or it could use its on-line bank name, First Direct.
According to Stuart Gulliver, the name change is so that British customers are able to distinguish between HSBC’s retail banking and investment operations. New government regulations mean that the bank has to separate the two businesses.
National officer of union Unite, Daniel Hook, said that it was very sad that union members at HSBC would be paying with their jobs for all the scandals that have hit the bank over the past few years.
HSBC has also said that it may move its headquarters out of Britain and will announce its decision at the end of this year. There has been speculation that it may relocate to Hong Kong.
Shares fell by 0.9 per cent immediately after the news of the proposed job losses was announced. HSBC is valued at close to £120 billion.
BBC business editor, Kamal Ahmed, said that global banking is far harder now to run as a profit-making business than it was before the financial crisis and that Stuart Gulliver is running a bank which investors don’t believe is making enough money.
Think carefully before securing debts against your home your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other loan secured against it. If you are thinking of consolidating existing borrowing, you should be aware that you may be extending the terms of the debt and increasing the total amount you repay.
