Chancellor George Osborne is under further pressure to scale back the government’s Help to Buy mortgage scheme after calls from a think tank for a clampdown on easy credit to bring “excessive” house prices under control, the Guardian reports.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its latest report that Britain’s housing market, buoyed by record low interest rates and several government-backed subsidies for home buyers, was in “danger of over-heating without further action by ministers and regulators”.
Last week, the Bank of England warned if the Mortgage Market Review fails to cool down the housing market, it will have to step in.
The Bank of England admitted it would be “dangerous” to ignore rapidly rising house prices.
Nationwide data, also released last week, revealed that property prices grew by a double digit 10.9 per cent in the 12 months to April. Growth was not just limited to London but house prices rose by more than 5 per cent in 10 out of 12 UK regions in 2013.
Myners renews calls for radical Co-op overhaul
Lord Myners warned yesterday (6 May) that a “radical overhaul” of the way the Co-operative Group is run is needed if it is to overcome its turbulent last year, according to the Guardian.
Lord Myners, Labour’s City minister during the banking crisis, set out in “stark terms” the need for urgent reforms to the chain of supermarkets, funeral homes and pharmacies as he warned that the bank – owed £1.2bn by the group which lost £2.5bn last year – “could force the organisation to embark on fire sales of its prized businesses or increase the borrowing rate on loans without a commitment to change”.
Publishing a 180-page report, Lord Myners said the board – which he wants to abolish - was “stuck in denial” over what he described as a “near ruinous” failure of governance, which led to the near-collapse of the bank last year.
JPMorgan under fire
According to the Financial Times, JPMorgan Chase is closing the accounts of current and former foreign government officials, “sparking an angry reaction to its drive to avoid penalties for anti-money laundering violations”.
The sweeping action by the US bank has prompted a complaint to regulators from José Antonio Ocampo, the former finance minister of Colombia.
A respected economist who was nominated to become president of the World Bank, Mr Ocampo “accused JPMorgan of discrimination, as its policy only applies to non-Americans”.
Sweden skeptical of AstraZeneca takeover
Sweden’s finance minister Anders Borg has raised fresh questions over Pfizer’s commitment to keeping science jobs in Europe if it buys AstraZeneca, saying “it failed to live up to promises made when it bought a Swedish drugmaker more than a decade ago”, the Financial Times reports.
As the UK drug company stepped up its defence against its larger US rival’s £63bn approach, Mr Borg said Pfizer’s record in Sweden made him “sceptical” about its plans for AstraZeneca’s research operations in the UK and Sweden.
Osborne to challenge new tax levy
According to the Telegraph, the chancellor has promised to mount a new legal challenge to a European Union financial transactions tax after 11 countries, led by France and Germany, agreed to introduce the levy by 2016.
Chancellor George Osborne threatened new legal action, after a pre-emptive challenge was rejected last Wednesday, if Britain was asked to collect revenues for other European governments from taxes on transactions carried out in the City of London.
