British attitudes towards hiring ‘help’ around the home are changing and the ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ lifestyle is no longer the preserve of the privileged few. Despite the challenging economic climate, over a quarter (28 per cent) of modern-day households now employ help around the home on a regular basis to do the cleaning, odd jobs, look [...]
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Appetite for remortgage advice hits a high
Latest figures from unbiased.co.uk’s Advice Drivers report show that remortgage enquiries hit an all time high in March 2012, with 37 per cent of all searches on unbiased.co.uk’s ‘find a mortgage adviser search’, compared to 33 per cent in February 2012 and 31 per cent in March last year. Karen Barrett, chief executive of unbiased.co.uk, [...]
DIY in decline: men lose their ‘man skills’ as women catch up
Men are rapidly losing their ‘man skills’ and are being caught up by their female counterparts in DIY proficiency, according to new research from the AA’s Home Emergency Response Service. The findings reveal that young men are less than half as likely to know how to perform tasks such as changing a plug, bleeding a [...]
Property discounts hit high
Over a third (36.7 per cent) of UK properties for sale currently have been reduced in price at least once since first coming onto the market. The average discount off the original asking price being offered by sellers across the UK on these homes now stands at £19,580 (7.5 per cent), according to property search [...]
Water bills to rise in 2012
The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales is forecast to increase by 5.7 per cent, or about £20. This takes into account a rate of inflation of 5.2 per cent1, and will mean an average bill of £376 in 2012/13. In 2009 Ofwat made its decision on how much water and [...]
Brits stay financially confused
New research from Gocompare.com has found that when it comes to matters of life and debt, UK consumers find it very difficult to tell the difference between fact and fiction. For example, 44 per cent of Brits believe that life insurance policies do not pay out for suicide and 18 per cent believe that [...]
The Personal Finance Awards winners announced
The winners of the Personal Finance Awards 2011/12 have been announced at a London reception. Nationwide Building Society won best overall personal finance product provider, while there were also multiple wins for Natwest, Aviva and Halifax. The winners were decided based on a poll of readers of The Money Pages and What Mortgage websites, followed [...]
Winter weather damage to homes tops £600 million
Home insurance claims as a result of weather damage during the winter have doubled over the past three years, according to M&S Money. The total cost of damage is now over £600 million a year. Insurance may be invalid if homeowners don’t carry out preparations for winter weather and the research from M&S suggests that [...]
It’s another hold for bank rate, with many more to come
"The MPC’s decision to leave Bank Rate unchanged for another month was really the only possible conclusion and the committee probably spent more time discussing the Quantitative Easing (QE) programme than whether to change Bank Rate. With…
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