A recent report has stated that UK House prices have raised by more than 0.7 % (£3,000), while updates forecasts show that annual property inflation is due to slow down from the current rate of 9%. The increase more or less cancels the 0.8% fall in February.

The average UK property is now valued at £164,519, £16,773 more than the in February 2009, which was the low point in the recent property value slump In from the worst recession since World War II.

In last week’s budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling scrapped a tax on house purchases for first-time buyers spending £250,000 pounds or less. The tax previously started at 1 percent for properties costing more than £125,000 pounds. The policy will mean nine in 10 first-time buyers will avoid the levy, according to government forecasts. Signs of increased demand is recent mortgage approval figures s released that show that almost 60.000 new mortgages were approved in February, more than double those approved at the at the trough of the financial crisis in November 2008, and less than half the 120,000 reading at the peak of the boom.

The Bank of England said net mortgage lending for February 2010 rose by £1.6 billion pounds, the most since December 2008.

In addition, figures recently released show that UK households added to their unsecured debts in February, with net consumer credit rising by £528 million pounds, a significant increase on economist’s predictions of a £400 million-pound increase. Credit-card lending increased by £374 million, while personal loans and overdrafts increased by £154 million.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have been fined £28.6 million for breaking competition law in the first big case brought against a financial services company, potentially exposing the part-nationalised bank to lawsuits from clients. RBS admitted staff involved in making loans to big law and accounting firms had illegally given pricing data to counterparts at Barclays. Barclays reportedly escaped being penalised because it voluntarily disclosed its part in the affair to the Office of Fair Trading.

Desire Petroleum, the British company who are drilling for oil off the Falkland islands have seen their shares halve in value , after they revealed the existing supply may not be commercially viable.

In a statement on their Web site, Desire stated that "oil may be present in thin intervals, but the reservoir quality is poor."

Desire will release the final results of its 30-day test drilling operation in the South Atlantic archipelago on Wednesday. According to the company it may have to drill deeper to find greater quantities of oil and gas.

Desire estimated that the North Falkland Basin could contain 3.5 billion barrels of oil as well as having "significant gas potential."

Potential revenues from oil and gas reignited have already re-ignited a long-running dispute between London and Buenos Aires over ownership of the Falklands.

Leasing UK high street banking groups, Banco Santander SA and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc are reported to be in advanced talks with the U.K. government over allowing their client’s access to their bank accounts through Britain’s 11,500 Post Offices. According to a recent statement, the negotiations are part of a package of measures intended to breathe life back into the Post Office network. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is about to announce another series of measures, including allowing consumers to open a Post Office current account, issue mortgages for up to 90 percent of a property’s value. Another revolutionary proposal will be subsidised savings accounts for people on low incomes. If Mandelson’s proposal bears fruit, it means that the government will add 50 pence for every pound saved.

Mandelson was reported to have said that the Post Office is a well-loved community institution. "This move will bring more banking services back to the heart of those communities.” He concluded.

Nowadays, with pensions and benefits being paid directly into bank accounts, and services including car licensing have gone online. Falling revenue has seen the number of U.K. Post Office branches declined from 25,000 in their peak during the 1960s.

U.K. publisher Daily Mail & General Trust PLC have announced their predictions that first-half operating profit will be up sharply for the last six months trading figures. They state that the increase is due primarily to improvements within its consumer businesses, but it remains cautious about the second half of the year given the political uncertainty in the U.K. ahead of the imminent general election. The Daily Mail and the Sunday Mail newspapers reported an 8% rise in underlying advertising revenues at Associated Newspapers for the six months period.

The pound was little changed at $1.5079 while the Euro rose on increased optimism on the Greek situation to €1.1249.

The FTSE 100 index dropped again on trading, finishing down 31 points to 5,672.32

The Dow Jones industrial average ended at a fresh 18-month high and the rest of the market churned Tuesday as investors weighed a rise in consumer confidence, more weakness in the housing market and a stronger dollar.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 11 points, or 0.1%, closing at 10,907.42, the highest finish since 11,143.13 on Sept. 26, 2008. The NASDAQ composite also added 6 points to close on 2410.69.

The Irish government are expected to inject a further €8.3 billion Euros (£7.4 billion, $9.9 billion) into the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank.

A spokesperson for the Irish Finance Ministry revealed that pumping in more money was the" best of a series of bad options". Although both Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland will attempt to raise funding from private investors, it appears more likely that Allied Irish Banks will also require taxpayer support,

This second bailout follows the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank last year.

The Irish government also owns 25% and 16% stakes in Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland respectively

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Anglo Irish Bank, Banco Santander SA, Bank, Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Budget, Credit Crunch, Desire Petroleum, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, General Trust PLC, House Prices, Inflation, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Peter Mandelson, Post Office, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Savings, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, The Daily Mail, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Wall Street

Chancellor Alistair Darling will say in his pre-Budget report that the economy performed worse in 2009 than he first predicted, Treasury sources have said.

Darling is expected to say that the UK economy shrank by 4.75% this year – more than the 3.5% originally forecast in the Budget in March.

The adjustment follows the economy’s unexpectedly poor performance in the first three months of the year. The chancellor looks likely to stick to 2010 forecasts of growth between 1-1.5%, despite the emergence of Dubai’s financial problems which now raises fresh fears that UK banks could face more write-downs on bad debts, and chimes with warnings earlier this week from the International Monetary Fund, who said that global banks had only worked through half their toxic assets since the banking crisis broke two years ago. Investors had been hoping the British financial sector had worked through much its toxic debt, which included exposure to America’s sub-prime mortgage market.

Despite this week’s setbacks, economic analysts continue to predict that the UK economy should emerge from recession by the end of the year, with the Northern Ireland and Scotland facing a more challenging recovery. The prediction came as revised gross domestic product (GDP) figures showed the UK recession was shallower than previously thought between July and September. Revised estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a 0.3% fall in UK output in the third quarter, compared with the 0.4% slide originally stated. While UK business confidence surveys on the "mainland" bear out signs of recovery, Northern Ireland business activity continued to fall in October, albeit at the slowest rate since the start of 2008. The reasons apparently are local margins remaining under pressure, is that the manufacturing sector in the province is still reporting a lack of demand and heavy competition in difficult markets. The combination of these factors looks like meaning Northern Ireland will likely lag the UK recovery. Scotland’s growth will continue to lag behind the rest of the UK’s, according to a leading economic think tank. Similar sources also announced that they had observed some "disturbing weaknesses" in the Scottish economy and predicted growth of -4.9% this year and 0.7% in 2010. Job cuts are expected to continue, with the unemployment rate reaching as high as 8% in 2010. The only prescription for growth for both Northern Ireland and Scotland would be to switch to a more export-led economy, exploiting global markets

Jaguar Land Rover had seen its sales rise 23% in the second quarter after its new models were well-received.

Owner Tata Motors said new products such as the upgraded Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery 4 had had successful launches.

Although Jaguar Land Rover made a net loss of £60 million in the July-September quarter, it was much less than the £240 million loss it made a year earlier.

India’s Tata Motors made a net profit of £2.8 million in the third quarter of, 2008, compared with a loss of £127,000 for the same period last year.

Borders U.K., the bookstore chain once owned by U.S.- based Borders Group Inc., has called in administrators after failing to find a buyer for its stores. A total of 1,150 employees are affected, according to the statement.

“All stores currently remain open for business as normal whilst the administrators undertake a review of the company’s affairs and seek a purchaser for all or some of the company’s stores in which there has already been interest,” Philip Duffy, principal administrator announced in a statement.

U.K. media have reported that HMV Group Plc’s Waterstone’s books chain is considering buying some of the stores. A spokesman for HMV declined to comment on this when contacted by Bloomberg News earlier.

The steep advertising downturn pushed U.K. publisher Daily Mail & General Trust PLC’s into a net loss for its full fiscal year, as management focused on cutting costs and its £1.05 billion ($1.76 billion) debt pile, but the company said there are signs that trading conditions are improving.

Daily Mail, which publishes the Daily Mail and its sister Sunday paper and the Metro free-sheet, posted a net loss of £303.4 million for the 12 months ended Oct. 4, compared to zero net profit a year earlier.

According to brokers, Thursday’s activity on the FTSE was very similar to when Lehman Brothers collapsed, warning that Dubai’s problems could be the catalyst for the market to fall further. RBS, which is 70 per owned by the UK taxpayer, fell 7.8 per cent, wiping off £1.73 billion of its market value. Barclays lost 8 per cent, cutting its capitalisation by £2.65 billion. HSBC fell 4.8 per cent losing £6.2 billion of its value and Lloyds Banking Group lost 5.6 per cent, wiping off £1.5 billion.

All in all around £44 billion was wiped off London’s biggest companies amid growing fears the UK financial sector could be heavily exposed to Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate which yesterday asked for a standstill on its £36 billion debt pile. The FTSE 100 tumbled 170.68 points or more than 3 per cent to 5194.1 in its biggest one-day percentage fall since the market plunged to six-year lows in March. Encouragingly enough, the exchange recovered well on Friday, closing on 5245.73.

The pound declined against the dollar after a drop in stocks across the world prompted investors to sell U.K. assets and on speculation the government will downgrade its forecast for the economy. Sterling slipped to the weakest level since Nov. 3 against the U.S. currency as the MSCI World Index declined for a second day after Dubai’s attempt to reschedule its debt continued to rattle investors.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6553
• Pound/Euro 1.10996
• Pound/Japanese Yen 142.7188
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6565

US shares have fallen on worries about Dubai’s debt problems, with the Dow Jones ending down 154 points, or 1.5%, at 10,309.92, in a shorter trading day.

It was the first chance for markets in the US to react to news that state-owned Dubai World had asked for more time to repay its debts.

US markets were closed for a holiday on Thursday when other world markets suffered steep losses.

The Dow Jones average dropped 154.58 points on Friday’s trading to close on 10309.92 The NASDAQ lost 37.61 points to close on 2138.44

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Tags: Alastair Darling, Bank, Banking, Barclays, Borders Group Inc, British Economy, British Pound, Daily Mail, Discovery 4, Dow Jones, Dubai World, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, General Trust PLC, HMV Group Plc, International Monetary Fund, Jaguar Land Rover, Lehman Brothers, Lloyds Banking Group, Money, MSCI World Index, NASDAQ, Office for National Statistics, Philip Duffy, pre-Budget report, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tata Motors, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Waterstone's