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Money Week points out the scenario for Taylor Wimpey, the UK house builder resulting from the top-of-the-market merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, now that shareholders have rejected its rights offer:
We’ve been saying you should avoid investing in house builders for quite a while now.
It looks like the City has come around to [...]

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Nationwide, the UK building society, announced today that house prices in the UK fell 0.9% in June. As the worry about the international credit crisis has expanded, the UK has moved centre stage in terms of concern over house prices. As a result, I have begun to track UK house prices alongside [...]

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You kind of saw this one coming.
Bloomberg News article here

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Barclays was successful in raising the money it needed. It was able to avoid a rights issue with the attendant problems that HBOS has faced by going cap in hand to Asia and the Middle East. In the end, it was the Qatar Investment Authority and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation who bailed out the [...]

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From Firstrung:
UK house prices fall 1.2% in June as house price growth reaches near zero for past twelve months – Rightmove

U.K. house prices have declined by their biggest amount so far this year as buyers shun the market, thereby deepening Britain’s property [...]

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The Times of London says that holiday tour operators in the UK are sensing a shift in consumer behaviour because of the credit crunch. Just as the holiday season is getting under way, the strains are clear. Operators are preparing for holidays of two weeks and longer as holiday makers fight the high [...]

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The UK government came up with a new inflation data series in the 1990s to replace the RPI for tracking consumer price inflation. Many people believe this series, the CPI, understates the inflation actually experienced by consumers in the economy. The government describes the series this way:
The Consumer Prices (CPI) and the Harmonised Index of [...]

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Of all of the inflation indices the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in the UK uses, the RPI data are the most comprehensive. This particular series runs back to 1948 and is use in all manner of contracts, pension schemes, what have you.
“The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is the most familiar general purpose domestic measure [...]

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Mervyn King correctly assessed inflation risks to be temporary and the downside to come from the real economy. It sounds like he is not hawkish. Chances of a rate cut are down now. I believe the BoE wants some inflation to help do the dirty work of reducing the huge debt [...]

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According to the Telegraph, UK housing starts hit their lowest level in 63 years. With a lack of new business, how will Barrat’s and Taylor Wimpey survive? The Telegraph suggests that investors will save them, much as they have saved the banks who are also in need of capital.
“Housebuilders’ share prices surged [...]