Archive for June, 2009

Rates hike on cards as pension pot dips: Belfast Telegraph

 
Business and domestic ratepayers face a hike in district rates as a result of a dramatic fall in the value of Northern Ireland’s local government pension scheme because of the global financial crisis.
 
Northern Ireland’s local government pension fund lost £600m in value between January 2007 and the beginning of this year, a Freedom of Information [...]

Money Talks: Belfast Telegraph

 
Paul Gosling joins the Belfast Telegraph to write a weekly column helping readers get their finances into shape. He already writes a weekly column on personal finance for the Belfast Telegraph’s sister paper, The Independent, where he is the paper’s ‘financial agony uncle’. Paul has also written for the Financial Times, The Times, the Irish [...]

Housing market shows signs of recovery: Primelocation

House prices in England and Wales continued to fall slightly in April, but they have begun to rise significantly in London.
The figures were produced by the most authoritative index, published by the Land Registry, which reports the actual prices paid for all properties and so is more reliable than statistics produced by mortgage lenders.

Builders not trusted to give green advice: Primelocation

Most homeowners assume that advice on environmental improvements from building contractors is aimed at getting more work and cannot be trusted.
A mere one in six would be confident in the advice given by tradespeople, according to a survey conducted for the Energy Saving Trust (EST).
Yet the poll also found that more than 80% of tradespeople [...]

Spanish mutual banks in deep trouble: Co-operative News

 
Raining in Spain
 
Globalisation has had the effect of ensuring that one nation’s problems are even more likely to be the world’s problems. And one nation’s troubled institutions are often in a very similar crisis to similar institutions in other countries.
 
So, the sub-prime property crisis started in the United States, but because the securitised financial instruments [...]

Questions of Cash: ‘Abbey left me short of cover’: The Independent

 
Q. I took out an additional loan with Abbey on my mortgage in July last year and decided to transfer to Abbey my existing insurance, covering me against unemployment – adding accident and sickness. I arranged cover for £1,200 per month – 50 per cent each for my wife and myself. The policy was to [...]

Economic boss slams ‘lack of pride’: Belfast Telegraph

 
Weak leadership and a lack of civic pride have been blamed for the slow pace of economic development in Londonderry — by the man tasked with regenerating the city.
 
Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of Derry’s Ilex Urban Regeneration Company, wrote his blunt criticisms of other public bodies and the local population in a letter and report [...]

Capital punishment: Public Finance

New Labour has made great play of its shiny new schools, hospitals and transport projects. But, reports Paul Gosling, this great building programme is about to come to a grinding halt as capital spending is expected to halve over the next four years
On the surface, there are positive signs for public sector capital projects. Two [...]

Investing in housing: Accounting & Business

The UK has a housing crisis with several dimensions.  Construction companies are going broke.  Homeowners cannot sell their properties.  Would-be buyers can’t get mortgages.  And the waiting list for social housing is increasing rapidly.
 
The social housing crunch has reached the point where 4.5 million people – 1.8 million households – have applied to social landlords [...]

Accounting news: Accounting & Business

UK
 
Value of audit doubted
 
The banking crisis raises doubts about the value of audit, according to a report from the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.  It recommends banning firms from conducting non-audit work for audit clients.  The FSA is urged to consult on ways to improve financial reporting, enabling users to better understand banks’ accounts.  [...]