The UK mortgage market is set to grow according to the high street bank Abbey, which reported a 25% jump in quarterly profits yesterday.

António Horta-Osório, Abbey’s chief executive, said that in spite of the UK’s struggling economy, unemployment had not yet risen to the level the bank had predicted, and house prices were also higher than expected in the current economic climate.

“I am prudently optimistic about our business prospects for the remainder of the year,” he said.

“In spite of this being a very negative environment, it is a little bit better than we thought, although not significantly. We had assumed house prices would fall by [a further] 10 per cent this year and that unemployment would rise from 5 per cent to 8.5 to 9 per cent.” (more…)

The Nationwide Building Society has decided to scrap a mortgage promise which ensured that customers would pay no more than 2% above the bank base rate.

Whilst existing customers on Nationwide’s variable home loam, called BMR, are guaranteed to pay no more than 2% above the Bank rate, new customers will be charged 3.49% above the base rate, currently 0.5%. The move will affect all borrowers who take out a home loan with the building society from this Thursday, 30 April.

Nationwide, Britain’s largest building society, introduced the 2% BMR (base mortgage rate) in 2001 in order to attract new customers. However, the new rate prompted an onslaught of complaints from existing customers who ended up paying more than the society’s then standard variable rate. Nationwide responded by scrapping the dual pricing system and refunding £90 million to some 400,000 out-of-pocket borrowers.

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Holiday operators Thompson and First Choice have cancelled their flights to Mexico after the swine flu outbreak claimed its 152nd victim.

The companies, which are both owned by TUI travel, said that they had cancelled the planned flights to Cancun from Manchester and Gatwick airports on advice of the Foreign Office, which had urged Britons to avoid travelling to the Mexico unless essential. Thompson and First Choice have already started putting their customers in Mexico on flights back to the UK.

“Whilst we do appreciate that this news may be a great disappointment to customers, we hope they will also understand that their health and safety is of paramount to Thomson and First Choice” the firms said in a statement.

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Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced a new top tax rate of 50% which will come into effect in April 2010 - a year earlier than predicted. The 50p tax rate replaces the planned 45p new top rate announced in November’s pre-budget report and will apply only to the 2% earning over £150,000 a year, who will also see tax relief on their pension contributions curbed.

The chancellor attempted to draw a clear line between Labour and the Conservatives as he announced the 50p income tax band for the highest earners after unveiling a stark Budget report on the state of the UK economy.

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Chancellor Alistair Darling will today set out his view of Britain’s prospects for economic recovery as he delivers one of the most anxiously awaited budgets of recent years.

He is expected to reveal soaring public borrowing and confirm that Britain is in the most savage recession since the Second World War.

Meanwhile, tax increases and spending cuts from 2011 are likely, as Mr Darling announces plans to restore public finances.

Mr Darling admitted weeks ago that he had underestimated the impact of the recession. In November he said the economy was expected to contract between 0.75% and 1.25%. But economists now forecast a 3% drop in GDP, while the International Monetary Fund has predicted a fall of 3.8% in the U.K. economy this year, which would make this the worst recession since 1945.

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British homes are more affordable than they have been in nearly seven years, according to new figures from the Halifax.

The Halifax study revealed that the total relative cost of housing had reached its lowest point in the last seven years thanks to falling house prices and interest rates at a record low.

The study measured affordability of housing by looking at the proportion of disposable income spent on mortgage payments. On average, mortgage payments equalled 31% of disposable income in the first quarter of this year, compared with a staggering 48% of income from July to October 2007.

The Halifax said that rise in affordability was mainly due to the recent decline in house prices as well as historically low interest rates.

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The Pensions Regulator has warned that pensions are at a greater risk of fraud, dishonesty and risky behaviour by employers who want to make savings during the recession.

The body has called on employees, trustees and pensions professionals to act as whistleblowers if they become suspicious that employers are not fulfilling their pension obligations.

“Employees and pension scheme members should report any concerns to trustees, whose duty it is to protect their interests. Trustees should contact us,” the regulator said.

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2 million homeowners in Britain are either in negative equity, or have too little equity to move house, new research has revealed.

According to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, millions of Britons are unable to move house because there is not enough equity in their property. The study by James Tatch, senior statistician at the CML, found that around 900,000 mortgage holders who took out their mortgages between early 2005 and the end of last year were in negative equity - 4.8% of all UK homeowners. However, two thirds of these represented “modest shortfalls” of less than 10% of a property’s value - typically between £6,000 and £8,000.

Mr Tatch estimated that another 600,000 homeowners did not have enough equity to raise a 5% deposit for an average priced house in their region, while a further 500,000 could not afford a 10% deposit. Those homeowners worst affected had bought their houses at the height of the property boom, during the spring and summer of 2007.

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Get two meals for the price of one at Ask restaurants.

Dine with a friend at any Ask restaurant between Sunday and Thursday and get two meals for the price of one throughout April and May.

Choose any pizza, calzone, pasta or risotta from the Ask menu and get a second dish free. Click here to see the full menu.

To benefit from the offer, simply print off this voucher and hand it in at your nearest Ask restaurant when you order.

This offer runs until 31st May 2009. The cheapest meal is free, and only one voucher may be used per party (up to 6 people). Click here for full terms and conditions.

A criminal gang that made £3.5 million in a week by cloning thousands of credit cards has been sent to jail.
Four fraudsters were given a total jail term of 18 years yesterday after being found guilty of running a global credit card cloning operation.

Police found stolen passports, fake cards, lists of credit card numbers, stolen passports and hi-tech counterfeiting equipment when they stormed a two-bedroom council flat in Walworth, south London.

Yesterday jurors at the Old Bailey heard how the criminals exploited the takeover of Morgan Stanley by Barclaycard last year. During the merger some security systems had failed, enabling the group to defraud 2,000 accounts in 27 countries between 28th September and 8th October 2008. Countries where the cloned cards were used included the UK, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, India, Malaysia and Canada.

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