The UK housing market recorded another bumper month in October, with mortgage lending rising by £5.6bn compared with September,the British Bankers’ Association said yesterday.
The hefty net increase in home loans was the biggest monthly increase since records began. Flexible mortgages enable consumers to make additional payments or to miss payments. The site also says whether the mortgage can be linked to a current or savings account to cut payment levels.Beverley Brewster, of the FSA, said: “[The tables] are intended to help you shop around and make a shortlist of the best-value deals. People looking for a home loan could save hundreds of pounds by consulting tables launched by the financial services regulator yesterday.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has listed more than 1,300 mortgages on its website to allow consumers to compare the products on offer.Mortgage lenders often advertise loans with low interest rates but borrowers also have to pay arrangement fees, the cost of rising interest rates and redemption costs if they want to move to another loan.The tables, available at , compare monthly rates, valuation costs and arrangement fees, and state whether the customer might have to pay early redemption penalties.

There is a nine-store trial at the moment but the two groups are waiting for clearance from the Office of Fair Trading before rolling out the concept Sainsbury’s shares fell 1.5p to 291.5p.. He said the company might make an acquisition to boost its 45-strong Sainsbury’s Local chain or pick-up stores from the T&S deal if Tesco is forced to make disposals by the competition authorities.In the six months to 12 October Sainsbury’s reported pre-tax profits of £320m against £277m in the same period the previous year Underlying profits rose 10.7 per cent to £342m. Sir Peter said Sainsbury’s had looked at buying T&S Stores, the convenience store retailer recently acquired by Tesco, “but we weren’t interested”. “With hindsight I wish I hadn’t been so specific with a specific time set,” he conceded.Sainsbury’s achieved £90m of cost savings in the period, helped by smaller sheets of own-brand loo rolls, cheaper olive oil bottles and smaller labels on packaging. I think we have got some momentum.”However, he warned that Sainsbury’s faced a tough challenge trying to drive sales and profits while also investing £1bn a year in the business and battling against rivals with bigger buying power.

However, the group declined to say what affect the scheme was having on sales.Sir Peter said: “This is the fourth consecutive half year of improved underlying profits, a clear reversal after two years of decline. Yesterday, the company modified its stance: “Our customers are clear that we should be first for food but also want us to enhance our non-food offer.”Sir Peter Davis, the chief executive, said Sainsbury’s would not be “dumping a load of televisions in the middle of the food offer as was happening when I arrived here,” but said the investment in non-food would be increased.The comments came as Sainsbury’s reported a 11 per cent jump in its underlying pre-tax profitsat the half-year stage and said the Nectar loyalty card was now being used by a third of UK households just weeks after its launch.The company said there were already 11 million active users of Nectar, a scheme which also includes BP, Debenhams and Barclaycard. But others believe that deregulation will lead to an increase in the number of pharmacies, leading in turn to higher pay.Pharmacies in key locations such as rural areas would be protected under the Essential Small Pharmacies Scheme.. J Sainsbury, Britain’s second-largest supermarket group, is to increase its investment in non-food products in an attempt to fight back against the relentless advance of Tesco and Asda. Asda says it would add pharmacies to all its 246 stores at the rate of 50 a year.Lucy Neville-Rolfe at Tesco says it would be in consumers’ interests to see the market liberalised: “Customers tell us they want easy access to pharmacies that offer opening hours in tune with people’s lives, convenient parking and a wide range of products and services.