Page 36 - Londra Gazete Sayı 1097

Londra Gazete, 17 March 2022 LondraGazete.com/English 5

Number of first-time buyers doubled last

year but half had family help

THE number of first-time potential or existing first-time to save enough for a down pay- More than 55% confessed
buyers in Britain has almost buyers giving a snapshot view of ment on their first home, with they had no idea where to be-
doubled in the past year accord- the first time buyer market post the average age of a first-time gin, while 39% didn’t know they
ing to new research. lockdown. buyer staying constant at 32. had to factor in solicitor’s fees.
It’s optimisic news, but unfor- The study found that FTBs had Most people (62%) said they Nearly half were unaware of
tunately it is not seemingly get- jumped 98% between 2020 and relied on their own savings, but stamp duty — or that in some
ting through to would-be home- 2021, despite a hike in property more than half (56%) said they cases they might be exempt.
owners — nearly two-thirds of prices. New homeowners paid wouldn’t have been able to buy The average income of a
whom still fear they will never an average of £281,900 last their first home without family solo first-time buyer has also
make it onto the property lad- year, which although less than support or a financial contribu- jumped, rising from £45,900
der. the 2020 average of £294,500, tion. in 2019 to £50,800 in 2021,
New research from the Bar- is up 13% from the average Saving for a deposit was cited while the average household
clays Mortgages’ First Time pre-pandemic price of £249,700 as the biggest obstacle to home income of those buying jointly
Buyer Index, combined its own in 2019. Barclays found the av- ownership by 35%, with more grew from £63,800 in 2019 to
data with consumer research erage person started saving for a than 70% saying they wished £70,500 in 2021, down from a
and polled more than 2,000 deposit at 24, taking eight years they’d started saving earlier. high of £72,200 in 2020.

ONS: Number of UK workers Average petrol price reaches £1.65 per litre

on payrolls rises to record DRIVERS continue to be clob- declined last week, leading to a cut in

29.7 million bered by record fuel prices as petrol wholesale costs.
reaches an average of £1.65 per litre.
Mr Williams expressed hope that
Figures from data firm Experian
recent reductions in the price of
THE number of UK workers on ment stood at just below 4 per cent. Catalist show the average cost of a retailers will “soon start to pass on
payrolls has risen to a record 29.7 Grant Fitzner, chief economist litre of petrol at UK forecourts has wholesale fuel”, but warned they are
million, according to new official at the Office for National Statistics increased by 16p in the past month. “extremely conscious of protecting
That has made the cost of filling a
figures. (ONS), said the market continued typical 55-litre family car nearly £9 themselves from any more rises that
The Office for National Statistics to recover from the effects of the more expensive. could suddenly materialise”.
(ONS) said this followed a 275,000 Covid pandemic, which was reflect- The average cost of diesel on Tues- He added: “With the Spring State-
increase in a single month, adding ed in unemployment levels and the day was £1.76 per litre, up 24p in just ment just a week away, drivers will
that the number of payrolled em- number of payroll employees. one month. be looking to the Chancellor to end
ployees in the UK was now “well “However, the number of people RAC fuel spokesman Simon Wil- their misery by cutting duty or VAT.
above pre-pandemic levels”. out of work and not looking for a liams said drivers “badly need a break “One thing’s for sure: simply reiter-
The ONS also estimated unem- job rose again, meaning total em- from these relentless daily rises”. ating that fuel duty has been frozen
ployment levels had fallen to levels ployment remained well below its Oil prices surged immediately af- at 58p a litre simply isn’t going to cut
predating the Covid pandemic for pre-pandemic level,” he added. ter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but it.”
the first time, with 1.34 million “We have seen yet another record
without jobs in the quarter running number of job vacancies, and with
to January - down by 200,000 in the the redundancy rate falling to a new UK food prices to jump 15% this year,
three-month period before the UK record low, demand for workers re-
first went into lockdown. mains strong.
The latest figures analysed the “Because bonuses have continued industry boss warns
UK’s labour market as a whole, also at high levels for some workers, to-
finding a record number of job va- tal earnings growth just kept ahead
FOOD prices could jump 15 per
cancies - 1,318,000 - last month. of rising prices over the past year, cent this year as a result of the
The employment rate was more though regular pay has dropped war in Ukraine, according to a
than 75 per cent, while unemploy- again in real terms.” leading industry boss.
Russia and Ukraine are two
of the world's biggest suppliers
of wheat. he invasion has also
caused a surge in energy costs,
making fertiliser, transport and
heating more expensive. Ronald
Kers, the chief executive of food
company 2 Sisters, told the BBC's
Today programme that prices it
pays farmers for chickens had ris-
en 50 per cent. He indicated that
if the war continues for months,
"fundamentally it means as a made it more difficult to co-op- Horticulture Development Board.
country we may need to start im- erate with Europe to ensure food Farmers have also had to contend
porting less and producing more security. Last week, the National with a five-fold increase in fertil-
ourselves". "We need to work to- Farmers Union (NFU) wrote to iser prices. The latest warnings
gether with all food supply chain ministers, urging them to make came as economists forecast that
partners to find a solution to food security a top priority. UK poorer households face overall in-
make us a country less dependent wheat prices are 39 per cent high- flation as high as 10 per cent this
in imports ... it's a very complex er than they were a year ago, ac- year, much higher than the peak
issue." Mr Kers said Brexit had cording to the Agriculture and for richer families