The latest lending statistics suggested the number of people who remortgaged their homes in June was just 27,000, down 20 per cent on a year earlier. Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics, said: “There is a sense that people have too little equity in their homes to be able to switch [ Read More → ]

Bradwood Landing was an industrial site from 1856 until 1965. It housed a lumber mill, company town and deep water port.When NorthernStar Natural Gas suspended development last week of the Bradwood Landing LNG terminal on the lower Columbia River, the company blamed the project’s demise on death by bureaucracy. After [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that’s happened since the 1980s. The deficits , $10 billion in 2010 and $9 [ Read More → ]

In a sign that green technology investing is bouncing back, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures said Tuesday that it had raised $1.1 billion to spur development of renewable energy and other clean technologies. It is the biggest first-time fund in a decade and comes as venture capital investment [ Read More → ]

Natural gas prices are at seven-year lows and it looks like heating bills may be cheap for a while. How did prices get so low, and how long are they likely to stay there? Are there ways we could be using natural gas - beyond staying warm and cooking food - [ Read More → ]

Home owners failing green targets to pay more Council Tax Under the plans, the Government would increase Council Tax and Stamp Duty for millions of homes that are not energy efficient. It could also mean families are unable to sell their home unless they spend tens of thousands of pounds [ Read More → ]

Think twice before slapping down that credit card to cover costs at your new business. The high cost of plastic credit can drag down growth at a young firm and increase the chance that it will fail in its first three years, according to a study conducted for the Ewing [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK — Investors are finding out what everybody else already knew: The consumer isn’t going to spend the economy into recovery. Major U.S. stocks indexes tumbled by the biggest amount in six weeks today as investors grew worried that they have been too quick to bet on an economic [ Read More → ]

Politicians and economists described the charges imposed on home owners in arrears by Britain’s high street lenders as unfair. It comes as the number of home owners falling behind with their mortgage payments rises to a 12-year high. Grant Shapps, shadow Housing Minister said: “With more borrowers in arrears, [ Read More → ]

The number claiming benefits is expected to reach 1.6m in figures published this week. Photo: GETTY Capital Economics says the grim milestone is likely to be reached in December, earlier than many had predicted and dampening hopes of an economic recovery next year. Vicky Redwood, consumer and debt specialist at the research consultancy, [ Read More → ]