The government has announced that financial support to students will be frozen next year because of ‘difficult economic times’. The decision has been described as a ‘kick in the teeth’ for young people who argue the cap in grants and loans represented a real term cut and would increase student debt level.
David Cameron has apologised for his party’s mistakes on the economy. The Tory leader said he was sorry he had got some things wrong and said that politicians needed to admit past mistakes if they were to built public trust and lead the economic recovery. He added that opposition members as well as ministers should
Meanwhile, councils have been given a year’s grace on targets in recession-affected industries such as housebuilding. Communities and Local Government has decided that targets for indicators, such as the number of new homes built, will now not be set until April 2010.
New research from the National Housing Federation reveals north England’s rural population has been ‘overlooked’ by policy makers, while facing the dual challenge of ‘staggeringly’ high house prices and ‘crippling’ low incomes. The research found that 86 per cent of the north’s most expensive house price districts are predominantly rural and almost 66 per cent
And today it is expected that Ms Blears will warn that the recession could tip Britain into civil unrest unless voluntary organisations are given extra resources. She said that a recession could drive people apart and ‘fracture community spirit’ or bring them closer together.
According to research commissioned by internet bank First Direct, as many as 2.5 million people are sitting on a cumulative pot of £20 billion in savings, waiting for house prices to drop. The average amount of savings per person is just over £7,000 plus equity in property, and London has the highest proportion of housebuyers
A financial analyst has suggested that house prices could fall by another 55 per cent and push Britain into a recession and the ‘very real probability’ that it will go bankrupt. Numis Securities said the collapse in house prices was ‘not anywhere near over’ and was scathing in its analysis of the government’s response to
The economy will keep shrinking well into next year or the year after, after most of the UK’s leading competitors will have started to see a return to growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will warn this week. The IMF believes the UK will fall by 3.8 per cent, followed by a further 0.2 per
Research from uSwitch.com has found that the recession is hitting towns across the UK with growing unemployment, falling property prices, and rising council tax. Swindon in Wiltshire has been the hardest hit as unemployment soars 197 per cent while house prices fell 16 per cent and the number of people collecting jobseeker’s allowance rose from
Figures from Communities and Local Government show the annual rate of decline in house prices hit 12.3 per cent in the three months to February. The December to February quarter saw a fall of 4.8 per cent, compared with the previous quarter’s decline of 4.3 per cent. The drop was most pronounced in Northern Ireland