Treasury Confirms Discounts On Council Borrowing For Housing Projects

Councils are offered a discount on borrowing for housing projects from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). In October, the Treasury hiked the PWLB rate by one percentage point, with councils fearing a hit to housing plans. But the Budget pitched PWLB as going back to its pre-October rate. And the Treasury is also pitching plans to cut the PWLB interest rate for all borrowing, but only after it has introduced measures to ban councils borrowing to invest in commercial property. A wider consultation on changes to the PWLB is underway, with Government saying that once a “workable system” is designed and implemented, cuts to the interest on all new loans from the PWLB will come. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/treasury-confirms-discounts-on-council-borrowing-for-housing-projects/

UK Lenders Approve Fewest Mortgages In Nearly Two Years

British lenders approved the fewest mortgages in nearly two years last month as the housing market continued to slow after the Brexit vote, raising the chance of an outright fall in prices next year. House purchases have been falling since the start of the year, buffeted by higher taxation on investment properties as well as the EU vote. However, other figures suggest that for now consumers are continuing to spend and to borrow heavily, placing the Bank of England in a quandary as it considers whether it will need to cut rates for a second time this year. The number of mortgage approvals last month dropped to its lowest since November 2014 at 60,058. Read more on the Reuters website.