Banks, Brexit reassurance and identity theft

George Osborne will meet bank bosses today to discuss Brexit. Ahead of the meeting, business groups have called on the Government to move ahead with infrastructure projects and provide reassurance for EU workers living in this country. ‘This may be a time for calm reflection, but it is not a time for inaction,’ five of the UK’s biggest business groups said in an open letter. The British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Directors, and EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, signed the letter saying ministers needed to show ‘clear leadership’. Meanwhile, Standard Life Investments has suspended trading in its UK property fund blaming ‘exceptional market circumstances’ following the EU referendum result. The fund manager said the number of investors asking to withdraw their money had increased following the vote. ‘The suspension was requested to protect the interests of all investors in the fund,’ it said in a statement. The last time Standard Life stopped investors taking their money out of the fund was during the financial crisis.

The UK’s construction industry experienced its weakest performance for seven years last month, according to a closely watched survey. The Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers’ index fell to 46.0 in June, its lowest level since June 2009. It had been 51.2 in May. A figure above 50 indicates expansion – below that, contraction.

And the FTSE 100 is not off to a great start this morning, falling 0.2 per cent to 6,508 points in early trading. In addition, the pound has skidded back towards its lowest level in 31-years against the dollar as investors eye the release of the financial stability report from the Bank of England later today.

Identity theft

The number of victims of identity theft rose by 57 per cent last year, figures from fraud prevention service Cifas suggest. According to the BBC, the data, taken from 261 companies in the UK, suggests fraudsters are increasingly getting people’s personal information from social media sites.

Cifas said Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn had become a ‘hunting ground’ for identity thieves. It said there were more than 148,000 victims in the UK in 2015 compared with 94,500 in 2014. Home improvements

Television programmes about home renovation and luxury property purchases encourage the average British household to spend as much as £1,750 a year on refurbishing their home, according to new research.

Web-Blinds.com polled 2,069 UK adults aged 21 and over, all of whom were homeowners across an equal spread of each of the UK regions. The vast majority agreed that seeing how homes could look with added improvements had encouraged them to consider investing in property updates. The most common updates were revealed as open-plan room remodelling, kitchen remodelling and colour scheme changes.

Consumer complaints

Millions of UK consumers have taken to social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to air their grievances about companies’ products and services.

A new study by price comparison website Gocompare.com has found that 33 per cent of the UK’s adults have complained via social media and 42 per cent of those said that having done so their issue was resolved quickly. More than a quarter subsequently received refunds and money off while 15 per cent received a goodwill gift.

Researchers found that in the last 12 months, social media complainers have received discounts and free gifts worth around £140 million from the companies they’ve engaged with on social media, an average of around £32 each.

However, a surprising 42 per cent of UK consumers have also used social media to praise companies, proving that these days, consumers are just as likely to share their positive experiences as they are their bad ones.

Mortgages

Research from Moneyfacts.co.uk shows that the proportion of mortgage deals for new landlords has shrunk to a record low.

Charlotte Nelson, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: ‘Despite all the changes to regulation in the buy-to-let (BTL) market, the number of BTL mortgages has increased. However, first-time landlords have been missing out on this boost in product numbers. Indeed, the percentage of the market that is available to new landlords has now dropped to just 75 per cent, down by around 10 per cent in two years. As first-time landlords don’t have a proven track record in managing rental properties, offering them a BTL mortgage poses a greater risk to the lender, and it’s this risk that is making the number of first-time landlord deals remain relatively static.’

In other mortgage news, up to one in 10 over-55s homeowners across the UK are still paying interest-only mortgages and therefore face the prospect of clearing their debt when the deal runs out, new research from over-60s property experts Homewise shows.

The company found 10 per cent of the 1.4 million over-55s homeowners who are still paying mortgages – the equivalent of 143,500 households – have interest-only loans and while the majority are confident of clearing the debt substantial numbers fear they will not be able to.

The average amount owed by over-55s with interest-only mortgages is around £91,000 with one in seven owing more than £150,000.