PM 'Talks-Up' Economy

Gordon Brown promised a "transformation" of the way the financial sector is policed as the centrepiece of Wednesday's Queen's Speech. A Financial Services Bill will offer tough new powers to City regulators to tear up bankers' contracts if they include excessive pay and bonus deals which might threaten the stability of the financial system. In an upbeat podcast on the Downing Street website, Mr Brown said Britain had a "bright future" ahead of it after the economic difficulties of the past year. He said the UK had fared well in terms of jobs and repossessions compared with the last recession under the Conservatives in the early 1990s.

House Prices Falling

Asking prices fell for the first time in three months in November as homesellers tried to shift properties before the psychological Christmas deadline. Rightmove said that asking prices had fallen by 1.6% between October and November to an average of £226,440 and it predicted further monthly falls, with recovery not expected to resume until February. Prices in London were 3.1% down on October last year, at an average of £403,069, which Rightmove attributed to the more pressing need to sell among homeowners who market their properties just before Christmas. The website said that the dip was evidence that the Government's extension of the stamp duty holiday for properties priced up to £175,000 was "almost irrelevant", as there was no sign that homeowners were rushing to take advantage of the incentive before it expires at the end of December.

Raiders Die

Three British men have been killed and two others seriously injured in a car crash in Holland, after they allegedly raided a cash machine. Two men from Liverpool, aged 21 and 27, and a 25-year-old man from London were killed when their car hit the central reservation of the A12 near Utrecht. Two other men, aged 25 and 28, and from Liverpool, suffered serious injuries in the crash on Friday night and they have been arrested on suspicion of burglary, Dutch police said.

Buy-To-Let Market Grows

Gross lending in the buy-to-let mortgage market grew in the third quarter for the first time in two years, according to data published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). At £2.1 billion, lending was 10% higher than in the previous three months. The third quarter also saw a similar first increase in two years in the number of buy-to-let loans advanced, from 21,600 to 23,700. But the welcome recovery in buy-to-let lending was from a low base, with current lending volumes sharply lower than their peak in 2007. The number of outstanding buy-to-let loans grew to 1,205,000, representing 11% of all mortgages by the end of the quarter (compared to 1,180,000 three months earlier). The value of outstanding buy-to-let mortgages increased by 2.5% to £144.2 billion.

(BMcC/GK)