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Budgets stretched amid darker times ahead

NEW figures have revealed a two-year low for mortgage approval rates, while a separate - but equally gloomy - report has warned that almost half of us will see our financial situation worsen in the next six months.

According to R3’s quarterly debt snapshot survey, 43% believe the state of their finances will worsen over the next six months - an increase of 13% on the last quarter.

And fewer than a quarter of those surveyed (24%) believe that their financial situation will improve in the same period.

R3 also found that the number of people who are worried about their current level of debt has increased by six percent in the last quarter, with close to half (45%) now concerned about the amount of debt they owe.

Linda Farish, chairman of the North East arm of R3 and director of recovery & insolvency at Newcastle-based accountants RMT, said: “Since we last carried out the survey, people have seen a rise in the cost of living, from the VAT increase; to the rise of fuel and utility costs.

“This has happened against a backdrop of pay freezes, pay cuts and, in some cases, redundancies, so it is understandable that many are feeling pessimistic about their financial outlook.”

Meanwhile, new figures released yesterday show mortgage approvals for those buying a new home remained broadly unchanged in January at 28,932, the lowest number of monthly approvals since January 2009, according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA).

The number of remortgages saw a slight improvement to 26,109, up from 24,946 the previous month.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .