Mortgage lending rose a little in October compared with a month earlier, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage lenders, but slumped by more than half compared with a year earlier.

There were 39,900 house purchase loans in October, worth £5.5bn, an increase of 14% in volume and 10% in value from September, but an annual decline of 52% in volume and 57% in value.

Halifax’s decision to waive the collar on its mortgages could cost the beleaguered lender up to £575 million a year.
 
The bank had a floor on its tracker products of 3%, which meant that the rates paid by borrowers could not fall below this figure plus their tracking margin. However, Halifax has, like other banks, decided to yield to pressure from the Government and disregard the clause in its contracts that enforces the floor.

The bank, which is being supported by taxpayers' money and is due to merge  with Lloyds TSB early next year, is falling into line with other major lenders whose borrowing rates follow the Bank of England with no limit.

East London has been named the fraud capital of the UK, with nine out of 10 of the most fraudulent areas of the UK falling within the Greater London area. Outside London, only Liverpool makes it into the top 10.

Only last month East London was named as the most   indebted area in the UK.

At the same time, residents of Hereford have been identified as least at risk of falling victim of fraud, followed closely by areas such as Dorchester, Worcester, Exeter and Belfast.

The City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has warned about 11,000 UK shareholders that their personal details are on a database shared by fraudsters, which can be used to target people and illegally sell them shares.

Share fraudsters (also known as boiler room fraudsters) are often based overseas and use high-pressure sales techniques to target investors illegally, offering them non-tradeable, overpriced or even non-existent shares.

The consumer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading is to look into the way houses are bought and sold, especially at alternatives to estate agents.

At the same time Margaret Beckett, the housing minister, annouced that home information packs - HIPs, which sellers are required to provide when they put their house on the market, are to  be changed, after admitting they were not working.