CBI warns on rate rise

The Bank of England may have to raise interest rates in the first three months of next year to combat the UK's overheating housing market, according to the CBI.

 

Property prices are expected to increase by 8.2% this year and 5.1% in 2015. Although overall housing transactions are currently running at 30% below their 2006 peak, the market is quickly picking up pace, with a 25% increase in London prices fuelling speculation of a bubble.

 

CBI director general John Cridland said: "Housing has come back under the spotlight as annual house price inflation figures have reached double-digit figures on some measures."

 

(source: The Daily Telegraph)

Use Skype to hire lawyers outside London

Lord Thomas, the Lord Chief Justice, has said the public should use Skype to hire lawyers outside London to avoid paying the large legal bills levied in the capital and drive down the cost of going to court.

 

He said he wanted to see a "truly national market" in which litigants used internet technology to opt for cheaper lawyers from cities such as Leeds and Manchester.

 

Lord Thomas said that would force lawyers in the capital to cut their fees and produce a "benefit for society as a whole".

 

His comments, in a speech at Gray's Inn, came as he warned that legal costs were still "far too great" despite a succession of reforms. "London has no monopoly on skill or experience," he said. "In the age of the internet, of tele-conferences, Skype and Facetime there is no reason why a litigant should not or could not properly instruct a lawyer from outside London to work for them at a cost significantly less than in London."

(source: Evening Standard)