Money, in brief

More than 2.3 million UK households reach the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals in 2027. [1] Many face a sharp rise in monthly payments. [1]

UK Finance, a banking industry body, counted the 2.3 million. [1]

Another 700,000 deals were forecast to end between July and December this year. [1]

The Bank of England is widely expected to raise its rate from 3.75% to 4% on Thursday. [1]

UK mortgage approvals fell to a near 3-year low in September. [1] Buyers were put off by higher borrowing costs. [1]

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK's official forecaster, expects income after prices to fall 0.6% next year. [1]

Energy bills may rise too. [1] EDF, an energy supplier, forecasts the cap on household energy prices will rise by more than £400 in January. [1]

About 1.8 million fixed deals were due to end in 2026. [10] The 2.3 million ending in 2027 is a bigger wave. [1]

Economists call the path from a central bank's rate to people's spending monetary policy transmission. [6] Mortgages play a central role in it. [6]

More than 8 in 10 UK mortgage customers have fixed-rate deals. [3] Each one meets a new rate only when its deal ends. [5]

A Bank of England study says mortgages reset rarely, so rates reach spending with "long and variable lags". [5]

The study used 6 million UK deals that ended between 2015 and 2024. [5] A 1-point fall in mortgage rates raised spending by about £950 in 6 months. [5]

A phone contract keeps its price until the contract ends, and only then does a new price reach you.

The 2.3 million counts deals that end, as gathered by UK Finance, a banking industry body. [1]

The Bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee announces its decision on Thursday 5 November. [1]

Most of the rise in UK mortgage costs has not reached homeowners yet.

More than 8 in 10 are on fixed deals, so 2.3 million households will meet today's higher rates only when their deals end in 2027. [1][3]

Their rate stays the same until the deal ends, so a rise on Thursday does not touch their payment yet. [5]

Each must take a new deal at the rates lenders charge on the day, not the rate they signed years ago. [1][5]

Whether the Bank of England raises its rate to 4% on Thursday.

Markets expect it, but the nine-member committee has not voted, and the Bank has not changed its rate since December last year. [1]

How much more each of the 2.3 million households will pay.

It depends on what lenders charge on the day each deal ends, and lenders set that from swap rates, which move with every new expectation. [1][4]

Ofgem, Britain's energy regulator, has let British Gas force-fit prepay meters again in homes that owe it money. [12] The ban lasted almost 4 years. [12]

A prepay meter makes a home pay in advance for gas and electricity, by topping up credit. [13]

About 4 million homes in England, Scotland and Wales already have pay-as-you-go meters. [13]

In 2023, the Times found British Gas debt agents had fitted meters in the homes of vulnerable people. [12] British Gas later paid a settlement of more than £100 million. [12]

Ofgem's rules require at least 10 attempts to contact a customer, and a welfare visit, before a fitting. [12]

Meters must never be forced on homes with someone over 75, under 2, or using medical equipment. [12]

British Gas says unpaid household energy debt is forecast to pass £7 billion. [12] That adds more than £80 to the average bill. [12]

Suppliers can switch a home to prepay to manage long-running debts, Which? says. [13] The home then pays before it uses any energy. [13]

Suppliers must offer emergency credit to people who cannot top up. [13] British Gas gives £10 per fuel. [13]

A school canteen card works only once money is loaded, so a pupil with no credit gets no lunch.

Campaigners say magistrates still approve forced-fitting applications in bulk batches. [12]

From this winter it can again collect unpaid bills by making homes pay before they use energy. [12][13]

They may have a meter fitted under a court warrant, and must then top up before using any gas or electricity. [12][13]

How many homes British Gas will force-fit with prepay meters this winter.

Neither British Gas nor Ofgem has given a number for the fittings it expects. [12]

The FCA, the UK's financial regulator, says people are being sent demands to repay loans from disguised remuneration schemes. [14]

In those schemes, contractors were paid through loans instead of a salary, as a way to avoid tax. [14]

HMRC, the UK tax office, has chased that tax through what is called the loan charge. [14] In 2019, about 50,000 people faced it, Which? said. [15]

Now firms that bought the loans from the original providers are sending legal letters. [14] Some threaten court and ask for immediate repayment. [14]

The FCA says people should not be put under undue pressure about a debt. [14]

The FCA says those chasing these loans may need a validation order, its formal permission, before they can be enforced. [14]

If the FCA refuses one, the debt stays unenforceable. [14] Then nobody can force repayment or seize the borrower's things without a specific order. [14]

A teacher can give detention because the school rules allow it, but a note from another pupil cannot.

Some of those affected dispute that they owe the money at all. [14]

If the FCA grants a validation order, the loans they bought from the original lenders become enforceable. [14]

Whether the old disguised remuneration loans can be enforced at all.

The firms chasing them may need a validation order, and the FCA says its agreement is by no means guaranteed. [14]

A US federal judge ruled the US Education Department exceeded its authority in capping loans for some graduate degrees. [16]

It is the 3rd court ruling to block the department's plan. [16]

A 2025 US law ends Grad PLUS, open-ended federal loans for graduate study, for new borrowers from July 2026. [17]

Students on 'professional' degrees can borrow up to $200,000 in all. [16] Most other graduate students can borrow $100,000. [16]

The department's list named 11 professional degrees, including medicine and dentistry, but not nursing or social work. [16]

Judge Michael Simon ordered that naturopathic medicine qualify for the higher limit. [16]

Students left out may turn to private loans, which often charge more and cannot be forgiven under federal programmes. [16]

The law set two limits. [17] The department chose which degrees count as 'professional', and the judge said that choice went too far. [16][17]

A referee applies the rulebook, but cannot add a new rule halfway through the match.

Why a rate rise takes years to reach every UK mortgage

The Bank of England changes its rate

Swap rates move first, so new fixed deals get dearer within days

Homes already on a fixed deal keep their old rate

Each home meets the new rate only when its deal ends

Deals end in waves: about 1.8 million in 2026, 2.3 million in 2027

So the full effect on family spending arrives over years

A rate rise reaches a fixed-rate home on the day its deal ends, not on the day the Bank decides.

UK fixed-rate deals due to end. Each one is a home meeting the new rates for the first time.

A US 30-year loan keeps its rate for its whole life, so this week's fall reaches only people buying now or refinancing.

The new federal limits apply when a student borrows, so they reach each student as they take out a new loan, not all students at once.

Not every borrower waits: tracker and variable-rate loans move with the Bank at once, and lenders can raise new fixed deals before the Bank moves at all.

A decision made on Thursday will reach one family next spring and the family next door in 2029, depending only on when each signed its deal.

They can borrow federally up to the higher limit instead of turning to dearer private loans. [16]

Above $100,000 they must find private loans, which often cost more and cannot be forgiven. [16]

Whether the US limits on graduate student loans survive in court.

Three judges have now blocked parts of the plan, and the US Education Department has said it will keep defending its narrower list. [16]

Students of naturopathic medicine in the US now qualify for the higher $200,000 federal borrowing limit after a judge's order.

Pakistan's government cut diesel by Rs7.76 a litre and petrol by Rs3.40, from Tuesday. [18]

Petrol now costs Rs374.51 a litre and diesel Rs395.20. [18]

Diesel cost Rs281 a litre before the US-Iran war began on 28 February. [18] It peaked at Rs520.35 on 3 April. [18]

Oil refineries agreed to carry part of a fuel tax, worth Rs15 billion a month, Pakistan's government says. [18]

Yearly price rises in Pakistan slowed to 9.6% in October, from 10.3% in September. [19]

But electricity charges rose 8.5% in October alone. [19] Transport costs were 28.61% higher than a year before. [19]

Pakistan's government still takes Rs114 in taxes and duties on each litre of petrol. [18] It is a fixed sum per litre, so it stays the same when oil falls. [18]

A bus fare with a fixed booking fee falls less than the fare itself when the fare is cut.

Jamaat-i-Islami, an opposition party, says it will march on Islamabad in mid-November unless the fuel tax is cut. [18]

Refineries now carry part of the fuel tax, so less of it is passed on at the pump. [18]

Their power bills kept rising in October even as pump prices came down. [18][19]

Pakistan cut diesel by Rs7.76 a litre and petrol by Rs3.40 from Tuesday, and yearly price rises there slowed to 9.6% in October.

Asking prices for homes in Portugal rose 7.5% in a year, to a record in October. [20] The figures come from the idealista price index. [20]

The median asking price reached 3,249 euros a square metre. [20]

Prices rose 1.2% in the 3 months to October. [20]

Lisbon is the dearest city at 6,248 euros a square metre. [20] Castelo Branco is the cheapest, at 1,119. [20]

Vila Real rose most, by 20.3% in a year, then Guarda, by 18.4%. [20]

The rise lands on buyers across the country. [20] Prices went up in all 20 district capitals and regions, not only in Lisbon. [20]

The figure is a median, the middle asking price. [20] It is counted per square metre, so homes of any size can be compared. [20]

Line up a class by height and the middle pupil's height is the median, however tall the tallest is.

These are asking prices on listings, not the prices homes actually sold for. [20]

The average US 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 7.07% on Monday, on Zillow figures given to NerdWallet. [21]

That is 13 basis points lower than a week before. [21] A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point. [21]

Rates have fallen about 30 to 40 basis points since their peak at the end of September, Redfin says. [22]

The US central bank raised its main rate in September and held it in October. [21][22]

Redfin says the US central bank signalled a December rise is more likely than not. [22]

A 30-year fixed loan keeps the same rate for its whole life. [21] So a fall like this reaches only people buying now or refinancing. [21]

NerdWallet says refinancing usually pays only if the new rate is 0.5 to 0.75 points below the old one. [21] Few owners pay 7.57% or more. [21]

The October jobs report comes out on Friday 6 November. [21] The US central bank next meets on 8 and 9 December. [21]

A US 30-year loan keeps its rate for its whole life, so this week's fall reaches only people buying now or refinancing.

Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates 500,000 fewer US households form each year because of immigration policy. [23] That runs from 2024 to 2027. [23]

Those 2 million missing households are mostly renters. [23] Over time, many renters become home buyers. [23]

Immigrants who arrived from 2022 to 2024 formed 571,000 new renter households, says Harvard researcher Daniel McCue. [23] He projects immigrants will form just 132,000 new households by 2027. [23]

The share of US rented homes standing empty rose from 7.1% to 7.6% in a year, Census figures show. [23]

McCue says this may be a sign that lower immigration has begun to cut "demand for rental units". [23]

Each new household needs somewhere to live. [23] So when fewer households form, fewer people are looking for a home to rent. [23]

A school that takes fewer new pupils needs fewer new desks, even if every class is still full.

Harvard's figures are estimates built on a Census survey, not counts of households. [23]

Whether fewer new renters will bring US rents down.

Harvard's estimate is about how many households form, and the report gives no figure for rents. [23]

A Philadelphia judge approved a settlement giving tenants at Bentley Manor $141,891 in relief from their landlord, Odin Properties. [24]

It cancels $66,891 of unpaid rent and fees, and pays $75,000 in cash refunds. [24]

Tenants will get about $1,200 each on average. [24] The building has about 71 households. [24]

The city declared the building an unsafe structure in November 2024, over loose bricks and a leaning parapet. [24]

The tenants' lawyer says the case shows tenants can make a large landlord follow the city's housing law. [24]

Philadelphia law bars a landlord from collecting rent if a serious safety breach is not fixed within 30 days. [24]

Odin kept collecting rent from December 2024 to March 2025, the tenants said. [24] So 3 of them sued for everyone, in a class action. [24]

A cafe that cannot serve your meal cannot charge you for it.

Odin settled without admitting wrongdoing, and did not answer Realtor.com. [24]

Tenants at Bentley Manor in Philadelphia will get rent refunds averaging about $1,200, and the landlord has made the repairs the city demanded.

Two executives of Cash4Keys, a South Florida property company, face 6 criminal charges each over a 71-year-old man's home. [25]

Investigators say they got Thomas Hegarty, who has severe dementia, to sign a deed and a power of attorney. [25]

His home, worth about $300,000, passed to their company for $191,000. [25] Officials say he got none of the money. [25]

A property agent is accused of driving him to a run-down rooming house and leaving him there. [25]

He thought he was signing papers to refinance, his sister-in-law told CBS News. [25]

Cash4Keys still controls the house, and his family has hired a lawyer to get it back. [25]

Investigators say his dementia left him unable to understand the papers or what they would do. [25] A signed and filed deed moves a home to a new owner. [25]

A pupil who signs a form without knowing what it says has not really agreed to anything.

Investigators suspect there may be more victims and more homes. [25]

Whether Thomas Hegarty gets his home back.

Cash4Keys did not answer Realtor.com, and the criminal case has not yet been heard in court. [25]

Charities giving Christmas presents in Somerset say more children need help this year, but donations are down. [26]

Christmas Sparkle, in Taunton, gave out 500 gifts in 2015 and about 10,000 last year. [26]

In Staffordshire, the charity World Give has started a shoebox appeal for local children. [27]

A Family Action survey of 2,000 parents found 1 in 5 had thought of cancelling Christmas. [27] They could not afford it. [27]

One in 9 said they could not afford a present for their child. [27]

The Chard appeal gets no funding and relies wholly on donations. [26]

Families short of money are asking for more help. [26] Donors short of money are giving less, so the gap grows from both sides. [26]

In a hard month, more pupils want a cake from the bake sale, and fewer parents can afford to bake.

The trustee gave his 1 in 7 figure for children with no wrapped present as 'apparently', naming no study. [27]

Surrey County Council has opened its Warm Welcome scheme in more than 100 venues. [28]

Libraries and community halls offer free hot drinks, company and advice on energy. [28]

The scheme has run every winter since 2022. [28] This year it stays open until 31 March 2027. [28]

It is paid for by the Crisis and Resilience Fund, a government scheme for people on low incomes. [28]

"Keeping warm at home has become a challenge," said Mark Nuti, the council's cabinet member for health. [28]

More than 100 libraries and halls across Surrey are offering free hot drinks and a warm room until the end of March.

Steve Smith, who founded Poundland in 1990, says he wants to put money into the chain to help save it. [29]

Poundland has until Thursday to find a rescue deal. [29] Up to 12,000 jobs are at risk. [29]

Poundland has 600 shops in the UK and Ireland. [29] Smith says it serves 4 to 5 million customers a week. [29]

Gordon Brothers, a US investment group, bought Poundland for £1 last year and has stopped funding it. [29] It turned down an offer from Ireland's Martin Property Group. [29]

Business minister Kate Dearden will meet Poundland's bosses this week. [29]

Smith says sales were 11.2% up on last year as recently as last week. [29]

Critics say Gordon Brothers turned that buyer down to make sure a £30 million loan it inherited is repaid. [29]

Their jobs and orders depend on a buyer being found by Thursday. [29]

Whether Poundland finds a rescue deal by Thursday.

Gordon Brothers says it is weighing other bids, but has named no buyer. [29]

A lawyer for Woodland Hills Country Club gave Los Angeles 60 days to approve 398 homes, or face a lawsuit. [30]

The city blocked the plan over concerns about a mountain lion. [30]

Glendale, another California city, reversed a similar refusal this year after a warning of fines up to $34 million. [30]

California's Housing Accountability Act lets a court fine a city for each home it wrongly blocks. [30]

A city that has already lost such a case pays $50,000 a home. [30] So 398 homes come to $19.9 million. [30]

A library fine charged per book adds up fast when a whole shelf comes back late.

The $19.9 million is the club's own lawyer's figure, set out in his letter. [30]

California's housing department gave Los Angeles until 25 November to answer its own letter. [30]