LinK-UK

theguardian  Larry Elliott

A one-off repayable £200 discount and a rebate on council tax bills have been announced by Rishi Sunak in a £9bn package designed to “take the sting” out of a £700-a-year rise in the average household’s energy bills in April.

The chancellor said 80% of households would receive £350 in support this year in response to the decision by the energy regulator Ofgem to raise its price cap to just under £2,000.

In an attempt to mitigate Britain’s cost of living crisis, Sunak said:

• All households would receive £200 off their energy bills in October – but then pay the discount back by £40 a year over five years from 2023
• Council taxpayers in England in bands A to D would receive a rebate of £150 from their bills in April, which will not have to be paid back.
• Local authorities would receive £150m to make discretionary payments to the neediest.
• The number of poorer households eligible for the warm homes discount – worth £150 from October – would be increased by a third to 3m.

“Without government intervention the increase in the price cap would leave the average household having to find an extra £693. The actions I’m announcing today will provide to the vast majority of households just over half of that amount, £350,” Sunak told MPs.

“In total the government is going to help around 28m households this year. Taken together this is a plan to help with the cost of living worth around £9bn.”

The Treasury will make £565m available to share between the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which they can use as they see fit to cut council tax. Northern Ireland will get an extra £150m to spend on cutting energy bills.

He said the fourfold increase in the global wholesale price of gas meant the energy price cap had to rise, but added: “We can take the sting out of this significant price rise for millions of families.”

The chancellor said a council tax rebate was more generous and better targeted at less well-off households than the cut in VAT on energy bills proposed by Labour.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said under Labour’s plan there would be £400 in targeted support for the poorest homes, as well as £200 in general support for most households. The poorest families would be largely protected from the increase in bills from April.

“The chancellor wants to load costs on taxpayers with a buy now, pay later scheme – while Labour will keep bills low with a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers with booming profits,” Reeves said.

“In the midst of a cost of living crisis, the government’s proposals will leave families in Britain paying hundreds of pounds more as a result of the breathtaking rise in energy prices. It will be of little comfort to many.”

The Scottish government said the £290m it is expected to receive was too little to cope with energy poverty in Scotland. Michael Matheson, Scotland’s energy secretary, said the Treasury needed to do far more, including removing VAT from energy bills.

Adam Scorer, the chief executive of National Energy Action, a fuel poverty charity, said: “We needed deep, targeted support for the most vulnerable. We have shallow, broad measures for all. That simply does not work.”

The charity warned that the depth of support offered by the Treasury’s package of measures was not proportionate to the financial toll which is expected to drive the number of UK households living in fuel poverty to the highest level on record by this spring.

“A household paying by prepayment [meter] will still have a £500 increase when you take into account rises from October 2021 and April 2022,” Scorer said. “We expect the government will have no choice but to return to the issue of spiralling fuel poverty and another price rise later this year.”

‘Why is no one up in arms?’ Six householders on the menace of fuel poverty

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Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said: “The chancellor’s announcement is hopelessly inadequate. For most families it’s just £7 a week and more than half must be paid back. It’s too little, it’s poorly targeted, and it’s stop gap measures instead of fixing the big problems.”

Struggling businesses and manufacturers have been pressing Sunak for help, saying soaring costs are making their products uncompetitive. His package, however, contained no help for companies.

Hannah Essex, the co-executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said businesses would be “dismayed at the lack of support for those firms also struggling with their energy bills. Many have already been hit by steep rises, with further significant spikes expected as existing fixed tariff contracts come to an end in the coming months.”

Mike Cherry, the national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The government is right to help households with rising costs. It should be helping the smallest firms too, which face many of the same challenges as consumers in the energy market, but without the same protections.

“The household rebate should be matched by an equivalent business rates rebate, to help the smallest firms which have been weathering these price increases for months already, and which desperately need a measure of protection from the energy crisis storm.”

By Harry Low, BBC London (20 September)

The Treasury announced last year that it would temporarily raise the stamp duty threshold from £125,000 to £500,000 for property sales in England and Northern Ireland.

But many people have been left scrambling to complete their transactions with just five weeks to go until the March 31 deadline, worried that if they do not, they could be left with a £15,000 tax bill.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will use his Budget next week to move the deadline to the end of June, reports The Times.

If the Government decides to extend the deadline by six weeks, between 120,000 and 160,000 additional property transactions in England could potentially benefit from the tax saving, according to property website Rightmove’s estimates.

CNN • Updated 28th January 2021

(CNN) — British people arriving home from 30 “high risk” countries will have to undergo a 10-day hotel quarantine at their own expense, as the United Kingdom tightens border controls to try to curb one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks.

Announcing the measure, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the tougher new rules would apply to travelers from “red list countries where we have particular concern about new variants.”

Non-UK residents will be refused entry, while British citizens and permanent residents will be picked up straight from the airport and transferred to government-provided accommodation where they will begin their mandatory stay.

Meals and hotel expenses in what is one of the world’s most expensive cities could end up costing travelers more than $2,000 for a 10-day quarantine.

The announcement came the same week the UK reached the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths — the first country in Europe to do so.

Johnson also said that travelers will be questioned as to their purpose for travel. “I want to make clear that under the stay-at-home regulations it is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes and we will enforce this at ports and airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel,” he said.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel later announced that people wishing to travel out of the UK will have to first make a declaration proving that their journey is essential.

It comes on top of the January 18 announcement that all travelers entering the UK, including British citizens, must present a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of arrival. Prior to that date, the borders had been open with no test requirements.

The UK Department for Transport list mostly includes countries where the South African and Brazilian variants of coronavirus are believed to be spreading, as well as countries with strong travel links to South Africa and Brazil. However, the travel ban includes some exceptions, while some notable countries are excluded.

The United States, France, and Israel are not on the banned list, although the South African or Brazilian variants of coronavirus have been detected there.

Portugal is the only European country on the UK’s list and was included because of its strong travel links to Brazil, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said earlier this month.

Yet the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and WHO have warned about coronavirus variants reported in other European countries.

The banned list also includes some countries with no direct flights to the UK, such as Venezuela, Seychelles, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But because the travel ban and hotel quarantine policies also apply to anyone who has transited through the list of banned countries in the last 10 days, it also applies to passengers with connecting flights or those who have arrived via a third country.

UK residents, meanwhile, have been under stay-at-home orders since January 4, and many citizens returned from overseas on repatriation flights closer to the beginning of the pandemic, so it seems unlikely there is a large number of UK citizens and residents seeking to return home at this time.

The new policy might take weeks to come into effect, as the new accommodations are not yet ready. Said Johnson, “The Department of Health and Social Care is working to establish these facilities as quickly as possible.”

The policy was criticized by Nick Thomas-Symonds, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Labour party, who said the announcement was “too little too late” and called for “comprehensive hotel quarantining.”

Thomas-Symonds has also made calls for the government to announce a sector support package for aviation.

Heathrow Airport, the UK’s largest airport, said it fully backs any measures that protect public health but called for more fiscal aid.

“Aviation will play a vital role in delivering the Government’s ambitions for Global Britain, leveling-up and a green recovery, but only if it survives — now we need 100% business rates relief, an extension to the furlough scheme and a road map to reopening borders safely,” said Heathrow in a statement to CNN.

Gloria Guevara, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), responded to the UK government’s latest proposal in a statement.

“We firmly believe testing on departure and arrival for all travelers is the only way to halt the spread of the virus in its tracks, while still allowing negative testing passengers to travel in safety and restore international mobility,” she said.

“The government must be transparent about the metric used to label a country as ‘high risk,” she added. “It is also vital we have a clear exit strategy and more details on its testing on arrival policy.”

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/ 8 January 2021

HSBC will resume offering mortgages to buyers with a 10 per cent deposit, following similar moves from the likes of NatWest, Halifax and Coventry Building Society.

The bank said that its 90 per cent loan-to-value products would be available to customers from 12 January.

Two and five-year fixed rates will be available, with terms of up to 35 years. The rates will be announced when the mortgages are launched next week.

HSBC has said it will start offering customers 90 per cent LTV mortgages from next week

Customers will be able to borrow up to £400,000, which means the mortgages will only be suitable for those buying properties that cost less than £450,000.

High-LTV mortgages such as these are usually popular with first-time buyers and homeowners who want to move but do not have a large amount of equity.

Michelle Andrews, head of buying a home at HSBC UK, said: ‘I am pleased and proud to announce that we will be re-introducing mortgages at up to 90 per cent LTV.

‘These mortgages build on our significant support for brokers and mortgage customers throughout 2020 and will be available across the board – for home purchases, first time buyers and to those remortgaging – all up to a maximum of 35 years.

Most banks pulled their 10 per cent deposit mortgages from the market during the initial lockdown in March.

One of the reasons for this was that lenders and brokers were worried that the logistics of working at home and restrictions on carrying out property surveys would cause about a backlog in the mortgage application system, which their staff would not be able to cope with.

However, Andrews said that lenders had learned from the first lockdown and would be able to cope with demand better this time around.

‘The new lockdown will undoubtedly present challenges, but the experience of overcoming numerous difficulties during the original lockdown, for example making more use of automated valuations, will be invaluable,’ she said.

‘We are all seeking a return to normal, although for many it will feel like we may not see that for a while. With us returning to the higher LTV space, hopefully that is a little bit of welcome normality.’

Other lenders have been slowly moving back into the 10 per cent deposit market since December.

NatWest recently launched a two-year fixed deal at a higher rate of 3.55 per cent with a £995 fee, but its five-year fixed product has a slightly lower rate than Coventry’s at 3.6 per cent and a £995 fee.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire Building Society is offering a higher 3.69 per cent two-year fixed rate with a £995 product fee, and a higher 3.79 per cent five-year fixed rate with a £995 product fee.

The digital-first challenger bank, Atom Bank has some of the most competitive rates on the market, offering 3.09 per cent on a two-year fixed deal with a £1,500 fee and 3.24 per cent with the same fee for its five-year fix.

However, these rates are still higher than those that buyers were being given before the pandemic.

At the same time, buyers with deposits of 40 per cent or more have seen rates fall, sometimes to as little as 1.2 per cent

  18 Dec 20

THE STAMP Duty Holiday has provided important financial support to Britons who are purchasing a home. But homebuyers have been warned about missing the key deadline which is just around the corner.

The Stamp Duty Holiday was implemented by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak as a way of offering a financial helping hand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Usually, the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is applicable in England and Northern Ireland, and must be paid on property or land which is over a particular price. To alleviate a financial challenge for homebuyers, Mr Sunak has set the threshold at £500,000, but only until March 31, 2021.

However, with demand rapidly increasing, and the wait for mortgage approval lengthening, there are fears many could miss out, including those who are already in the process of buying a home.

The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) and The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), have issued a joint warning to buyers who are hoping to complete by the all-important March 31 deadline.

The organisations have urged Britons to consider the possibility they could miss out, and take this into consideration, as it could potentially cost buyers thousands of pounds.

People who have not factored this in could have to withdraw from their home purchase, but this could have a domino effect, and cause chains to collapse – creating further chaos.