In the Autumn Statement the chancellor George Osborne confirmed plans to throw significant sums of money at the housebuilding sector in a bid to provide 400,000 affordable or starter homes by the end of the decade. Jonas Crosland gives his verdict on what this might mean for companies in the sector.
Meanwhile, Mr Osborne also attempted to apply the brakes on the buy-to-let sector by upping stamp duty, a move which hit share prices of some lenders, says Ian Smith.
Elsewhere, the well trailed boost to defence spending already saw share prices in the sector rise earlier this week. But, as Daniel Liberto reports, one of the doyens of the defence sector, Roll Royce, has some significant hurdles to overcome before it can take advantage.
For an assessment of the state of the UK’s finances by our resident economist Chris Dillow following the latest projections, click here.
In the personal finance sphere, Moira O’Neill writes that it is a good time to be a pensioner, but uncertainty prevails for pensions savers while Leonora Walters reports on new developments which should see P2P investments allowed in Isas.
