Unkempt properties in your neighbourhood could push down the price of your house, one home insurance company has warned.

Liverpool Victoria has advised potential buyers to check the state of surrounding houses before signing up for a new home, since one untidy house in a street can bring down the value of surrounding properties.

Across the UK, homes lose a total £71 million in value because of unsightly homes in the area, according to research from the insurer. Dilapidated housing can pull property prices down by 10%, whilst unkempt front gardens can knock a whopping 22% off the value of neighbouring homes. Peeling paint can devalue homes by 19%, with discarded furniture taking up to 10% off the asking price.

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Nationwide is to buy a large part of the Dunfermline Building Society, which has collapsed under its unsustainable debts after the government declined to bail it out.

Under a deal announced this morning, Dunfermline’s branches, good loans and deposits have been sold to the Nationwide Building Society.

However, Nationwide has refused to buy up its high-risk assets, such as self-certification mortgages made at the height of the housing boom. The tax payer will have to foot the bill for these, along with bad loans from Bradford & Bingley.

Nationwide confirmed that Dunfermline, which was established 150 years ago, would keep its name. The building society warned of possible job losses in Dunfermline’s back office and support operations, but said there would be no compulsory redundancies in its branches in the next three years.

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Bank of England figures have revealed a surprise jump in the number of mortgages approved in February.

38,000 mortgages were approved in February, up from just 32,000 in January of this year. The sharp rise in approvals suggests that low interest rates and falling house prices may be encouraging consumers back into the property market.

However, mortgage lending as a whole has still dropped significantly over the last year, with gross mortgage lending by building societies recorded as £1,214 million in February, compared with £3,861 million in the same month of 2008.

“February’s household borrowing figures suggest that housing market activity may finally have turned a corner,” said Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics.

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The credit crunch is encouraging Britons to put away more money over fears they could lose their job or home, according to National Savings & Investments (NS&I) survey.

Over December, January and February people saved an average £90.12 per month, up from £86.35 in 2008, the largest amount since the survey began four and a half years ago.

In spite of the downturn, the number of people who put away money in savings each month in 2008 remained static at 47% of the population. Over half of these said that they were saving in case of an emergency, the NS&I survey of survey of more than 12,000 Britons revealed.

Dan Harkins, senior savings strategist at NS&I said, “It is clear that people are aware of the need to save more in these uncertain times and it is encouraging that, despite additional pressures on incomes, the average value of people’s total savings was £17,443.”

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Energy Regulator Ofgem has cleared energy companies of getting bills wrong or benefitting from “free loans” through overcharging direct debit companies. However, the regulator said that firms needed to make monthly direct debit demands clearer to customers.

Earlier this week consumer association Which? published the results of its own survey which suggested that many direct debits for gas and electricity bills were too high, effectively providing firms with free loans until the overcharge was reimbursed.

However, the watchdog Consumer Focus said it was reassured that no malpractice had taken place.
“It will be reassuring to customers that there’s no evidence of energy companies systematically over-collecting direct debit payments,” said Audrey Gallacher of Consumer Focus.

“It’s still the cheapest way to pay for energy, and spreading the cost over a year can be a convenient way to cope with large bills.”

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The decline in house prices in England and Wales is accelerating, according to the Land Registry.

Prices went down by another 2% in February, pushing the annual rate of decline to 16.5%, compared to 15.5% last year. The average property price now stands at £153,862, the same level as in 2004 and a £30,361 drop on last year.

This marks the eighteenth month in a row that property prices have fallen, due to the impact of the recession and the limited availability of mortgages. The Land Registry’s survey confirms the findings of mortgage lenders such as Nationwide and the Halifax.

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MP’s have expressed dismay over the continued overpayment of tax credits.

A report from the Public Accounts Comittee has revealed that overpayments still stand at £1 billion a year. Between 2003 and 2007 overpayments amounted to £7.3 billion. £4 billion was clawed back from claimants at a later date.

The committee of MPs said that the overpayments were a burden on some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

“The tax credit scheme was designed in such a way that there was always going to be a degree of overpayment,” said the conservative MP Edward Leigh, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee.

“It is the scale of that overpayment that has continually caused dismay.

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Critical illness claims rose sharply last year, new figures from the Norwich Union show.

According to the data, the number of claims made to the insurer for critical illnesses in 2008 was up 14% on the previous year. Over the course of last year Norwich Union paid out £121 million for such claims, and a further £216 million to the families of customers who had died or been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The largest proportion of claims - 63% - were from people who had been diagnosed with cancer.

The insurance firm declined 2% fewer critical illness claims than a year earlier, with an average £75,000 payout on 90% of claims. 2% of claims were rejected for non-disclosure of information - whereby a customer withholds his medical history when filing the claim.

Michael Whyte, chief underwriter at Norwich Union said that he was pleased with the figures, because they show that more people are aware of the guidelines in making an illness-based claim.

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Alliance and Leicester will pay a £100 bonus to people who sign up to their Premier Current Account online before 2nd April.

To benefit from the deal, you need to use their Premier Switching Service to move your money into the new account. Alliance and Leicester will then pay you £100 within four months.

Alliance and Leicester’s Premier Current Account offers a 12 month 0% AER overdraught up to £2,000, pays 0.5% AER variable on balances up to £2,500, and includes free annual multi-trip European travel insurance worth up to £60 (upper age limit of 65 applies).

The Premier Switching Service provides a quick and easy way of transferring your funds, as well as any direct debits, standing orders and incoming payments from your existing current account to your Alliance and Leicester Premier account.

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Online banking fraud more than doubled in 2008, according to payments association Apacs.

An increase in the availability of ‘keylogging’ software that allows criminals to track what you type has enabled fraudsters to gather passwords and credit card numbers very quickly.

Online banking fraud jumped to £52.5m last year, up from £22.6m in 2007, and total fraud on credit and debit cards jumped 14% to £609 million, Apacs reported.

Online banking has become increasingly popular in recent years, with consumers preferring to arrange their finances from the comfort of their own home rather than going into town.

However, criminals tend to become familiar with new technology quicker than consumers, so internet fraud has increased steadily year on year.

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