FSA figures show Barclays have received more complaints than any other banking brand with 251,563 complaints made by UK customers 53% of which were upheld in customer favour.

Santander had 168,888 complaints, Lloyds TSB 181,907 and HSBC received 98,150 but figures have suggested banking complaints are at their lowest since 2008 at 812,197- a 10% decrease on the previous half year and 22% down on a year ago.

Overall complaints on advising selling and arranging increased 21% to 648,924.

The total number of PPI claims also increased by 23% to 531,667.

Complaints on terms and disputes sums or charges have fallen and are at their lowest since 2008 at 429,423.

The rise in complaints about PPI combined with legal case resulted in the percentage of general insurance and purr protection complaints closed within 8 weeks decreasing from 84% in 2010 to 72% in 2011 contributing to a fall in the total number of complaints closed within 8 weeks.

The total of closed complaints decreased by 9% to 1,562,287.

This was mainly caused by the number of closed banking complaints which decreased by 15% to 834,145.

The percentage upheld remained stable increasing from 49% in 2010.

Nationwide’s chief economist said:

UK house price have declined by 0.6% in August this doesn’t change the picture of a relatively stability that has characterised the market over the past 12 months. Prices were broadly unchanged compared to August 2010 just 0.4% lower.

Sluggish demand for homes combined with a gradual rise in supply has helped keep prices stable over the summer. This will remain mostly unchanged for the rest of this year.

Economic outlook has become more challenging.

The UK economy grew by 0.2% in the second quarter of this year and well below the long term trend of around 0.7%. Despite being more than 18 months into the recovery UK activity is still around 4% below where it was at the end of 2007.

The Office of National Statistics have said that there was at least some weakness in q2  and this results in one off factors being the Japanese earthquake and extra bank holiday and the Royal wedding.

Recent data shows little evidence of a rebound with surveys of business activity in the manufacturing and service sectors still implying modest growth in the months ahead.

The US economy recovery may be running out of steam and ongoing problems in the Eurozone are a particular concern for UK growth prospects at present.

Exports are the main engine for the UK growth over the next few years since consumer spending is under pressure from a combination of high unemployment lack in wage growth while public spending is being held back by austerity measures.

Labour market developments key for housing

The major risk for the housing market is the weak economic growth which could lead to further deterioration in the labour market.

UK forms laid off far less workers in the recession in 2008 than in previous downturns and it’s was the deepest and longest recessions on record.

This was due to greater flexibility in the UK labour market which held back wage growth and allowed for reduced hours and a shift into part time work and temporary workers cushioning employment from the impact of weaker demand.

For a while now the residential market has been moving sideways as weak demand and few homes coming onto the market.

A further fall in employment would upset the delicate demand supply balance and put downward pressure on prices.

Stability still expected

We believe the UK economy will get back on its feet in the next few quarters which should safeguard against deterioration in employment.

Against this backdrop we continue to expect house prices to move sideways or drift lower over the remainder of 2011 although we recognise the downside risks have increased.

A drop in prices does look dramatic on paper but the subdued state of the mortgage market makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions from Nationwide’s data at the moment.

With 9% market share Nationwide’s sample share is only 4000 which explain the volatility of their numbers. Also areas where price growth is currently fastest are being driven by cash buyers which do not factor into Nationwide numbers.

Reality is probably less gloomy than figures suggest the improving affordability of finance will improve lenders confidence in the UK’s mortgage borrowers which should stimulate more lending as the year goes on.

Sales Index:

Prices rise 36% in two years

New Instructions rise 20% in 12 months

Head of Residential research Liam Bailey said:

Stock had risen by 13% but sales is keeping pace with the increase with a number of exchanges rising by 15% year on year and the number of properties going under offer rising by 67% over the same period.

In summary prices are higher as is demand and supply increased are being absorbed by the market with sharp rise in year on year sales volumes.

Lettings Index:

International tenants take 60% of prime London rental stock

Rents rise 26.3% since June 2009

New Instructions rise 23% in 12 months

Liam Bailey said:

One of the main drivers of this is the fact that international demand for London Prime properties is even more pronounced in the rental sector with almost 6 out of 10 tenants coming from overseas.

European tenants have grown as a proportion of the overall market, reflective of the demand for accommodation from smaller banks and financial organisations from Europe who have been setting up or expanding operations in London over the last two years.

11,300 loans for house purchases worth £1.3b were taken out in the second quarter of 2011 a rise of 36% in number and 42% in volume from first quarter .

The UK as a whole saw an increase of 26% in volume and 25% in value. Scotland house purchase loans remained static at 9% of the UK total unchanged since the end of 2010.

Loans for first time buyers rose from 3,300 in first quarter to 4,300 in the second.

This was a larger increase at 30% by volume and 37% by value than the increase by first time buyers UK wide.7,000 loans were advanced to home movers in Scotland compared to 5,100 loans in the first quarter.

Scottish first time buyers borrowed 79% of property value up from 77% in previous quarter. This is now closer to but below the average 80% in UK as whole.

First time buyers also took out loans on average 2.9 times their income up from 2.84 in first quarter but below the 3.19 seen UK wide.

Lending criteria does not fluctuate as much as for first time buyers. A typical LTV ratio for Scottish home movers increased from 70% to 71% and now stands 1% point higher than the UK wide average.

The rest of the remortgage activity fell in second quarter in Scotland  it remained unchanged. There were 8,900 mortgage loans taken out compared to 8,800 in first quarter. The value of the loans were £900 million.

Kennedy Foster for CML Scotland said:

We have seen an expected seasonal increase in activity in Scotland in this second quarter 2011  but levels of mortgage activity remain low by historically standards . With uncertain economic outlook we expect this to continue throughout the rest of this year.

The National Housing Federation said the shortage is hitting home ownership rates and boosting rents.

The government said it had made more land available to builders to start building, it is also investing £4.5bn in new low cost homes over the next four years but the NHF said this represented  a cut of 63%.

The government investment in more affordable housing would stimulate a wider and faster economic recovery and help fix our broken housing market.

Grant Schapps Housing Minister said Britain needs to get building again. And that is why I have announced plans to release thousands of acres of public land for house building.

Despite the need to tackle deficit this government is putting £4,5bn towards the homes programme which is set to exceed its expectations and deliver up to 170,000 new homes over the next four years.

Due to the level of house prices the rate of home ownership has declined because of the large deposits now required and stricter lending criteria set by the banks.

 Research has found that the current proportion of home ownership in England is currently 67% and could decline further to 63.8% over the next ten years.

With rents rising and more than 1.5 million people on waiting lists for social housing in England and also with a lack of alternatives to home ownership that is worrying to the NHF and others.

Millions are desperate for an affordable home with more and more forced into expensive and unregulated private rented accommodation.

Major developers are now holding planning permission for at least 188,000 new homes and the government must look at ways to get construction going. This will create jobs and drive growth and also deliver new homes which are desperately needed.

Oxford Economics predict the average rents will rise by 20% over the next five years.

Young people are now faced with the toughest housing environment in decades and producing a lose-lose for generation rent.

Income squeeze from rent rises and inflation and stagnant wage rises are making saving for a deposit impossible.

Mr Schapps said he was determined to pull out all the stops so that first time buyers could get onto the property ladder. I have held summits with lenders to encourage them to do more to help these people take the steps onto the ladder and launched the FirstBuy scheme as a valuable alternative to bank of mum and dad for those who are struggling to get a good deposit.

With common shareholder and senior management team within the two businesses it has for some time appeared the most sensible approach to combine the businesses. The great news for link in doing so is our ability to benefit from access to greater sources of funding and reduced cost.

Link is also delighted with the revamp of the entire product group range.

A Director at link said:

“ we are improving the current Platinum product with higher LTV introducing a product that straddles the price gap between Platinum and Core as well as introducing a rehabilitation product and higher LTV plan.”

“It is business as usual for Link in terms of team and our ability to make pragmatic lending decisions.”

“We also thank our loyalty of broker partners in making Link a success are delighted to be able to repay that faith and support with such a significant move with product range”.

These products are a 2.99% fixed rate until  Oct 2013 up to60% LTV with £2495 completion fee and a 2.99% 2 year discounted rate up to 60% LTV with a £1249 completion fee. With Booking fee for both at £250 and no early repayment charges for either product.

TBMC said:

“ We are pleased to launch these two new buy to let products with Hinckley and Rugby.

“The 2.99% 2 year fixed rate is a good product in the 60% LTV bracket and will be popular with landlords looking at fixing costs and the fact of no early repayment charges and provides a good opportunity for property investors who are wary of rate increases.”

Hinckley & Rugby Said:

“We are keen to develop buy to let mortgage products that meet the requirements of landlords. These two new products are a good option for landlords with high deposits and we are expecting a high level of interest. “They are well priced in short term and offer great flexibility and are delighted to build further on our success with TBMC and being able to control volumes and be confident of good quality applications.”

There was a 7% lower rate in repossession in the first half of 2011 in the latest figures out. The data shows that 9,000 repossessions occurred in the second quarter of the previous year that was lower than the 9,100 in the total for the first quarter to 18,100 compared to 19500 in the first six months of 2010.

The number of mortgages in arrears was unchanged in the second quarter but a slight increase in the number of mortgages with low levels of arrears and reduction in number in deeper arrears.

The number of mortgages of between 1.5% and 2.5% outstanding balance edged from 77,800 to 78,500 but those in arrears of more than 2.5% declined from 166,700 to 164,500. The number of mortgages more that 1.5% in arrears declined 243,000 in second quarter from 244,500 three months previous.

CML says it is not making any revision to arrears and possessions forecast on experience. The current forecast is for a repossession rate of 0.35% this year and 0.4% in 2012 that means 40,000 cases of repossessions in 2011 as a whole and 45,000 next year.

On arrears this is for a steady 180,000 mortgages in arrears of 2.5% more of a balance representing 1.58% of total 11.3 million stock of first charge mortgages.

Mortgage repayments have stabilised with a backdrop of stable employment and low interest rates. Despite the uncertainty within the financial market and we see no need to revise the forecast.

Anyone with debt problems should seek advice and speak with their lender at the earliest possibility as most problems can be dealt with.

Lenders do want to keep people in their homes and are being successful in the majority of cases and repossession is the last resort.

22% of surveyors said that prices fell rather than rose in July. This does seem to be a little improvement on June which was -26 this is now negative territory for over a year. Large deposits required by lenders seem to be the stumbling block for most potential buyers.

There was a slight increase in new instructions in the early part of summer but fell again in July with surveyors saying falls rather than rises in new homes coming onto the market. And with prices still slipping and most potential sellers are unwilling to accept the reduced selling prices and so reluctant on entering the market at present.

Demand rose slightly with new enquiries moving to a net balance of +5% from 0%. Interest from potential buyers has now been flat since the start of the year.

London seems to keep a trend going as the only region to report a positive net balance for house prices with 30% of surveyors reporting a rise rather than a fall. The West Midlands and the East of England seem the most negative readings with net balance at -44 and -40 respectively. But the Capital saw strong levels of new buyer’s enquiries which is out performing the rest of the UK.

The average number of sales per surveyor dipped to 14.2 in the last three months lowest levels since June 2009 alongside the number of properties presently on surveyors books increased to 70.2 from 69.7in June.

13% of surveyors seem to think that there will be more falls over the next three months rather than an increase. But however sales expectations are upbeat with net balance of 15%.

The TRS is an ARM established in the UK market for reporting transactions in regulated instruments by firms to the FSA in accordance with SUP 17 of the FSA handbook and the market in Financial Instruments Directive.

The FSA uses the information to detect and investigate suspected cases of market abuse insider trading and also supervised firm activity.

The FSA developed the TRs to provide firms with meeting the MiFID reporting obligations. There is now a market for this provision of transaction reporting services to the industry in which the LSA operates its own ARM service through its UnaVist platform.

The FSA is confident that the ARM market is now developed to enable firms to meet their reporting obligations to the FSA.

The FSA conclude that maintaining an Arm no longer formed part of its core role as a regulator. Following a long sale process the FSA carefully selected an established operator in the London Stock Exchange which enables existing customers of TRS to fulfil their on-going reporting obligations