Taj Kang

The chief economist to the Bank of England (BoE), Spencer Dale, has continued to argue for a base rate rise sooner rather than later. He has argued that inflationary pressures require a rate rise as soon as possible to remain under control. This is true for individuals and companies with savings, however those who are borrowing will be negatively affected by a base rate rise.

The Bank of England today released its quarterly inflation report and it revealed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) could rise to four or five per cent this year, before stabilising in the years ahead. The recent increase in VAT was partly to blame, states the report, while the government's target of two per cent inflation won't be hit for a year or so.

UK interest rates were held at a record low for the 25th month in a row last week, which has posed questions to contractors who currently have a mortgage or are thinking of taking one. How long can this last? Should I assume rates will go up and take a 5 year fixed rate, or gamble that they will stay low and take the risk on a variable deal? Sound familiar?

Average house prices, as measured by the Halifax House price index, have fallen this month by 1.4% compared to last month's average house price. All figures were seasonally adjusted and also showed a quarterly decline in average house price of 1.2% as compared to the three months before that.

There is no doubt that industrial espionage and cyber theft is on the rise, in no small part due to easily available tools that are available for online attack. If you are a contractor you will be eager to protect your valuable data and ensure your machines are not disabled due to an attack. But if a trillion dollar company can't protect themselves, what can a lone contractor do?

Yesterday at 12pm the bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to hold the base rate at 0.5%. It has been held at 0.5% for 26 consecutive months. A few economists were predicting that this month would be when the MPC would start raising the base rate but most said that we would have to wait until August to see a rise.

After another successful month of predictions, contractor specialist mortgage broker Contractor Mortgages Made Easy has yet again held its own version of The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee.

A quarter of those surveyed said that they plan to work during the two bank holiday weekends. Many are using the time to catch up on paperwork that has built up over the last month. This double bank holiday will undoubtedly see many people catch up on outstanding tasks, but even more people would have enjoyed the great weather.

House purchase applications rose month on month in March by 11.6% and were up 20% year on year. This is according to Mortgage Advice Bureau and Coreco Group index.

Residential valuations in March this year were 7% higher than the same period last year, according to Connells Survey and Valuations. They reported that this was the fourth month in a row with an increase in valuations over the same period a year ago.