Thrifty Loans

The big house flip

Grade-II listed house, Witanhurst is set on Highgate Hill, in five acres of grounds. The house is the second largest in London, behind Buckingham Palace, but has been largely empty in recent years, though it was used for some periods as the base for the BBC reality TV show Fame Academy. However, despite the fact [...]

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Student loan interest rate doubles

Hundreds of thousands of students will be taking out loans this year to pay for their forthcoming years in further education, and they will be doing so  at an interest double that of 12 months ago. Jointly owned by the Department for Education and Skills and the Scottish Office, the Student Loans Company has doubled its [...]

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Concern over buy and rent back schemes

With the numbers of families facing repossession on the increase, there is concern about the growing ‘sell and rent back’ market. Businesses in this arena offer to buy properties from those struggling to meet their mortgage repayments and then lease them back to save them having to move out of their home. The worry is [...]

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Is Mervyn King too tough?

Is Mervyn King too hawkish? A former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has said that the MPC is just that and likely to raise interest rates too far. His concerns about managing inflation would mean that he would be more hawkish than required. Stephen Nickell left the MPC last year and [...]

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