Latest entries

European-Parliament

…on the EU Gender Directive. If you haven’t heard about it, this new European law comes into force later this year and will mean that a person’s sex will not be taken into account when insurance premiums are calculated. The European Parliament has decreed that an insurance company basing their premiums on someone’s gender is [...]

May 13, 2012 | Posted in: Greg May | No Comments

Image2

Guest blogger Dr Liz Bentley (meteorologist at the Royal Meteorological Society, founder of the Weather Club and regular media commentator on BBC News 24, Radio 4′s Today programme, Sky News, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast) looks at how the climate may impact our homes and our everyday lives sooner than we think… I was asked [...]

April 27, 2012 | Posted in: Dr Liz Bentley | 2 Comments

Mouse

Maybe it’s my age but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to imagine living without the internet – even though I try to explain to my kids what life was like when you couldn’t just Google something. Homework used to involve ‘Looking Things Up in a Book’, or even (gasp) going to an actual LIBRARY, not [...]

April 18, 2012 | Posted in: Peter Loverdos | 1 Comment

planing

You may remember the debate between the Government and environmental/historical groups last autumn over the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The main concern was that the Government’s plans for economic growth would be at the expense of the country’s environmental and heritage assets, especially the Green Belt. However, the final version of the NPPF [...]

April 7, 2012 | Posted in: Helen Adcock | No Comments

ben

Since last week, I’ve been asked by a number of people: how will the Budget affect the property market? Not a great deal, in my view. The Lib Dems (along with the media) have argued that the new 7% Stamp Duty on residential properties over £2m is not far off a ‘Mansion Tax’ – but [...]

March 26, 2012 | Posted in: Peter Coles | 2 Comments

Halifax2

So the Halifax (the UK’s biggest mortgage lender) will raise its Standard Variable rate (SVR) from 3.50% to 3.99% on 1st May. You may be tempted to say, “So what?”, as the news has been greeted with indifference in the street and apparent shock in the mainstream media. But in fact the increase was not unexpected, nor is it bad news – [...]

March 11, 2012 | Posted in: Greg May | 2 Comments