Article by Christina
August 23 news from your local Independent Financial Advisor:
- The average rent in England is now over £1,300 per month. Increasing by nearly 10% this year.
- Under the new Consumer Duty local Independent Financial Adviser firms have been required to make value assessments on their fund performance. St James Place have just released their results. Of their 45 funds, 7 delivered value, 20 more broadly delivered value, 13 delivered insufficient value and the other 5 were too new to assess. That’s 30% not providing value.
- The Bank of England has increased base rate to 5.25%
- According to data from the FCA 85% of all financial advice in the UK comes from local Independent Financial Advisers.
- House prices are down by 2.4% on a 12-month rolling measure
- June saw the first net outflow of investment funds, with over £1 billion in funds being taken out.
- Sales of new cars grew by almost 30% in July according to the car industry, maybe that’s where the investment money has gone?
- Latest research from Brewer Dolphin has revealed that almost one million retirees have a pension of between £1 million and £2 million. The biggest pension is thought to be worth £11 million. They estimate that a £650,000 pension pot is required to enjoy a “comfortable” retirement.
- HMRC have released figures which show that over £45 billion is now due from companies in unpaid tax. A 6% increase on last year. This figure is only likely to rise when the new higher rates of corporation tax come into force this year.
- Figures have also been released which show that 2.7 million savers in the UK will pay tax on the interest on their cash savings. That figure is up 1 million on last year. Tax is paid on interest earnings over £1000 for basic rate taxpayers. Another example of the ever creeping tax burden.
- The UK economy grew by 0.2% in the second quarter of the year, between April and June.
- But despite this new house buyer enquiries were reportedly down by 45% in July.
- UK business investment grew by 3.4% in the second quarter of the year according to the ONS.
- Inflation has now fallen to 12 month low of 6.8% at the end of July.
- The second quarter of the year saw the lowest ever value of incoming funds into UK investments, down 38% to £2.8 billion. This corresponds with earlier news about over £1 billion being withdrawn from investments. Where is all the money going?
- Average weekly earnings rose by 7.8% in the last three months. The highest rise since records began over 20 years ago.
- So far this year homebuyers have paid over £6.5 billion in stamp duty buying houses at an average cost of £9,600 per sale. Just another example of the ever-creeping tax burden. A recurring theme.
- The number of 50- to 65-year-olds who aren’t working is 27%, the highest level recorded. Over 50% of older workers say that they feel left behind by the employers and 35% say they don’t like their jobs.
- HSBC has announced that it is increasing its maximum mortgage term to 40 years effective from 30th
