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That article is from two years ago - 17 April 2015.

Shut down now. Chimney was demolished one Sunday morning several weeks ago.

Hi, Is anyone following Westbury or surrounding areas? It looks like I'll be getting a work transfer there from Bristol, and I'm weighing up whether to rent or buy (max. £180,000 - 2/3 bed houses). My plans at the moment are to retire in around 8 or 9 years time and then move back to the East Midlands/South Yorkshire. I don't know much about the area, other than Westbury itself seems to be dull but bearable. Any insights gratefully received.

A lot of agents down here issue s.21s to limit your AST to a fixed period (eg 1 year), rather than allow the AST to go periodic. They may not necessarily want you out, and may ask if you want to renew the tenancy for another period. It's simply a way of screwing more fees out of you.

So much for "78% chance of a cut".

Will this go global, or is it a case of the UK's loss is the rest of the world's gain?

Doesn't the index linked real return assume future inflation (RPI) of 3%? You could get a positive return if RPI stayed below 1.6 %.

Another seagull politician flies off into the sunset, leaving everyone else's chips covered in sh!t.

For me it's Vanguard, because it's structured as a mutual. Their ongoing costs are usually competitive compared to equivaent funds, and the information sheets provided for each fund seem to be a lot more useful than some of their competitors, especially in terms of historical data and analysis. As far as I can tell, money in a fund would count as an investment for the purposes of the FSCS, so you would have up to £50,000 protected if any one organisation went t!ts up.

But if you tell some people that, they tell you you're a "victim".

This might be of interest https://www.vanguard.co.uk/adviser/adv/adviser-support/research-commentary##asset-classes_all_10 In particular, it's worth reading the paper "Bond Investing in a Rising Rate Environment", plus the section "Going Global with Bonds"

It's a good point. It's also worth finding out what housing is doing in the local area, assuming you know where you will be buying. In parts of the Midlands and North, for example, house prices have not even kept up with inflation over the last 5 years, so makes life easier for those of us who want to buy there.

I'm putting 16% of my gross into my pension. I'd put more in, but I want a lump sum on retirement (in 8-10 years) to buy my own house. About 40 % of my net goes into a stocks and shares ISA. It's all invested in tracker funds, split 40 % equities, 9 % property and 35 % bonds/gilts. I also have a bit of cash in a fixed rate ISA, which makes up the last 16 %. I'm tapering off on the equities and property, and plan to move everything into bonds or cash a few years before I need the money. I haven't been able to do this for long, but the last few years have seen over 6 % annualised growth - it works out as 7.36 % compound annual growth, if I've got my sums right. I'm sure that this doesn't protect me fully against a major event, but my cash is earning only 1.49 %. The equities are vulnerable, so I worry about a big drop taking out a lot of value at a point where there is not enough time to recover. The other worry I have is whether the bonds investments will act as a suitable diversifier, as I have read some opinion to the effect that bonds are now beginning to correlate positively with equities. Is anyone holding gilts directly with the intention of holding until maturity? I'd like the idea of knowing exactly what I'm going to get back, and when. I've looked into buying direct from the DMO by auction, but the problem is that you don't know what you are going to pay for them until you have bought them. Looking at yields, I can't see how you can match inflation at its current levels.

Just to update: It went really well. Total cost was £20 referencing fee. I'm now dealing direct with the landlords. The only hitch was during the referencing. My current letting agent held that up, because they wouldn't co-operate unless I paid them a £25 fee

I wonder what will happen to any rent paid to the landlords. Hopefully, it will be confiscated as proceeds of crime.