It’s been the weakest August for Britain’s housing market since 2018, as sellers slash their prices in search of a buyer. New data from Rightmove showed that the average price of a newly-listed home in Britain fell by 2% this month to £364,999 – that’s a much larger drop than in a typical August. The decline means average asking prices are now 1.0% lower than a year ago.
Rightmove also cut its forecast for house price growth this year to between 0% and -2%, down from a previous forecast of 2% growth. Yet more bad news for sellers, for whom it has been a difficult year – but a boost for buyers… Virgin Trains was granted track access by the rail regulator to run new services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030. In a step forward for Virgin’s plans to break’s Eurostar’s passenger monopoly on the cross-Channel route, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said it had approved up to 20 new daily return services through the Channel tunnel.
The agreement, which covers 1 October 2030 to 31 December 2040, means Sir Richard Branson’s company has passed another important regulatory hurdle towards starting the international services. Massive Attack and Brian Eno were among 200 musicians to write to Andy Burnham urging him to reject plans for more North Sea oil and gas drilling. The letter, signed by 211 artists such as Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and the xx singer Romy, called on the prime minister to reject the Rosebank oilfield, warning that the project would fail to lower energy bills or provide energy security.
The government’s consultation on the project, which lies about 80 miles north-west of the Shetland Islands, closed on Monday. Ministers will now decide on its future as well as that of the Jackdaw gasfield off Aberdeen, whose consultation concluded a week ago. Jamie Dimon, the boss of the US bank JP Morgan, urged John Healey not to use his first budget as chancellor to increase taxes on banks’ bumper profits.
Dimon told Healey in a phone conversation that higher levies could hit jobs, citing a fall in finance roles in New York that he blamed on the city’s tax regime. The call came after growing speculation that a windfall tax could be imposed on UK lenders to fund Andy Burnham’s cost of living agenda, with campaigners estimating such a move could raise £19bn. Government borrowing costs across several advanced economies hit their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis on Monday, amid fears the Middle East crisis will keep inflation persistently high.
Concerns over rising prices and government spending pushed up the cost of debt issued by Paris, Berlin, Washington DC, Tokyo and London, as investors fretted it would push up interest rates. The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year French bonds rose to its highest level since September 2008 at 4.8558%, up one basis point (0.01 percentage point), LSEG data showed.
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