Castle Mortgage Services

15/07/2025

Its about time Estate Agents were properly regulated. All Mortgage Adviser should be independent and not be associated with, or receive introductions from Estate Agents.

I am independent, and do not have any connection with an Estate Agent which means I work for you.

Please watch.

Reporter Lucy Vallance goes undercover at one of the UK’s biggest estate agencies to investigate claims it’s not acting in the best interests of customers.

07/01/2025

30/10/2024

BUDGET

As you know, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made her Budget Statement to the House a short time ago. She said that every measure announced would be aimed at achieving long term economic growth. It is being reported as the biggest tax raising Budget in modern history.

The key announcements were:
• This budget will raise taxes by £40bn;
• The minimum wage will be increasing by 6.7% to £12.21, while for those aged 18-20 will get a 16.3% bump to £10 an hour;
• National Insurance contributions for employers will increase from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025; This is slightly higher than had been expected
• The threshold at which businesses start paying NI on workers' earnings will be lowered from £9,100 to £5,000;
• Increasing the lower rate for capital gains tax from 10% to 18%, with higher rate going from 20% to 24%;
• £22.6bn increase in day-to-day health budget and £3.1bn increase in capital budget in this year and next;
• VAT introduced on private school fees from January 2025;
• No extension on the freeze in income tax and NI thresholds;
• Extra £3.4bn for the Scottish government, an extra £1.7bn for the Welsh government and an extra £1.5bn for Northern Ireland;
• £6.7bn of capital investment into the Department for Education, including £1.4bn to rebuild over 500 schools;
• £5bn of investment on housing, including £3.1bn in increases to the Affordable Homes Programme;
• Non-dom tax regime abolished;
• Fuel duty will be frozen next year;
• Inheritance tax thresholds will be frozen for a further two years until 2030; Pension pots will be brought into the scope of Inheritance Tax for the first time
• Increasing core schools budget by £2.3bn;
• Tripling investment in school breakfast clubs;
• £11.8bn will be provided to compensate those infected and affected by the infected blood scandal;
• £1.8bn will be provided to compensate the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal;
• £1bn provided from next year to extend the Household Support Fund;
• £500m increase in road maintenance to tackle potholes;
• Windfall tax on oil and gas profits to increase to 38%;
• £2.9bn added to the Ministry of Defence budget;
• Draught duty cut by 1.7%, taking a penny off pints in pubs;
• Renew the to***co duty escalator at RPI +2%, increase duty by 10% on hand-rolled to***co this year;
• Introduce a flat-rate duty on all va**ng liquid from 2026, and a one-off increase in to***co duty;
• Labour changes debt rules, to allow govt borrowing to invest in capital projects such as infrastructure spending;
• Increasing the rate of air passenger duty by 50% for private jets; and
• Weekly earnings limit for Carer's Allowance raised to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage per week.
I must emphasise that this is not an exhaustive list of everything listed in the Budget Book.

29/10/2024

Buyers will have to pay stamp duty on 93% of properties for sale in England if thee Chancellor does not extend current thresholds in tomorrow’s Budget, research by Leeds Building Society suggests.

Rachel Reeves is expected to allow the more generous thresholds for buyers to lapse at the end of March next year, meaning a far greater number of purchases will be caught by the tax.

The tax-free threshold for all homebuyers is set to return to £125,000 from £250,000 and for first-time buyers to £300,000 from £425,000.

In Yorkshire, buyers currently pay stamp duty on 49% of houses on the market.
However, if the thresholds revert back to previous levels, this will increase to 86% of homes.

Leeds estimates that the average first-time buyer renting privately in London would need to save for an extra 12 months to afford their own property if current threshold lapse, on top of the 25.8 years it would likely take them to save the initial average deposit.

The lender says that house prices paid by first-time buyers were 16 times higher in 2022 than in 1982, whilst gross earnings were just seven times higher.

22/10/2024

If your home, or estate, is worth more than £325000, then you children may have to pay IHT. Give me a call.

IHT jumps 10% to £4.3bn amid Budget focus: HMRC

Inheritance tax receipts for the six months to September came in at £4.3bn, up some £400m on a year ago, according to HMRC figures.

The higher figure is attributed to a mix of “higher volumes of wealth transfers” and rising property prices, the customs department says.

The data comes amid intense speculation that next week’s budget could include changes to inheritance tax designed close exemptions around business and agricultural relief in a bid to raise billions of pounds.

Inheritance tax is not liable on estates worth less than £325,000.

But after this, the standard rate above this threshold is 40%, although there are exemptions for agricultural land, businesses, some shares and pensions.

Last year this tax raised £7.5bn and affected 4.4% of estates on death in the 2021-22 tax year.

However, tax experts say that because this threshold has been frozen since 2009, while property prices have risen over that period, more people have been drawn into the tax.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to deliver Labour’s first Budget for 14 years on 30 October.

Evelyn Partners tax partner Laura Hayward says: “The steady annual rise in inheritance tax receipts has been ingrained in recent years as inflation has dragged more assets and more estates over the frozen nil-rate bands.

“Any changes aimed at increasing the inheritance tax take beyond this fiscal drag effect are likely to reap outsize results over the coming years as the baby boomer generation reaches average mortality.

“So it’s no surprise inheritance tax is at the centre of Budget speculation again, with firm reports claiming business and agricultural property reliefs will be reformed and the gifting rules revamped.

“We have spoken to many people this summer who were bringing forward plans to gift substantial assets, not just to start the seven-year clock ticking, but also to pre-empt an expected capital gains tax rise.”

Quilter Cheviot technical consultant David Denton adds: “The reform or even closure of several tax reliefs such as agricultural and business relief, which were touted when the first rumours of potential budget changes broke, could have the knock-on effect of Aim shares losing their inheritance tax break — a move that would seem entirely at odds with a government looking to drive growth and investment in UK assets.

“Historically, inheritance tax has been viewed as a tax on the wealthy, but this is simply no longer the case.

“Inheritance tax is one of the most hated taxes in Britain and can be incredibly polarising given the rich can often avoid it by employing expertise to help them navigate the complexities of the tax and the available reliefs, while those without such resource can be disadvantaged.

“According to the government, the average UK house price now sits at £293,000, rising significantly in certain areas of the country such as London and the South East.

“This leaves just £32,000 before the full nil rate band is exhausted and someone’s estate becomes exposed.

“However, given just yesterday Rightmove reported that the average new seller asking price is now £371,958, this could automatically make £46,958 of someone’s home taxable if they are not entitled to use the complex residence nil rate band.”

18/10/2024

And now Ms Thieves is attacking Home Ownership.

Reeves to ditch lower stamp duty thresholds for FTBs

The chancellor is set to scrap the lower stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers set out in the Liz Truss mini-Budget.

Rachel Reeves is expected to lay out the policy in her 30 October Budget, which will cost housebuyers up to £2,500, according to a report in the Times.

She will confirm that the government will not extend the increase to the threshold, which will end next March, at which these buyers start paying stamp duty.

Under temporary measures, first-time buyers currently pay no stamp duty tax for home purchases under £425,000, this was raised from £300,000 as part of the mini-Budget in September 2022. It is one of the few measures that remains from that fiscal event.

The move is expected to raise £1.8bn a year by 2029-30.

The approach will particularly affect buyers in London and the South East, where the average price of a home is £694,906 and £483,780, respectively, according to the latest Rightmove data.

Stamp duty is not liable for any home under £250,000.

The typical cost of a FTB home across the country is £226,868.

The measure will disappoint the homebuying industry.

16/10/2024

House prices rise for sixth month in a row to £293,000: ONS

Average UK house prices lifted by 2.8% to £293,000 in the year to August, up from 1.8% in July, according to official data.

This is the sixth month in a row of annual increases after eight months of falls, reports estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Typical home prices in England increased 2.3% to £310,000, up from 1.3% the previous month.

In Wales, prices rose 3.5% to £223,000, up from 1.5%, and in Scotland they lifted 5.4% to £200,000, up from 5%, over the same period.

The average house price for Northern Ireland rose 6.4% to £185,000 in the second quarter of the year from 12 months ago.

The data comes as inflation fell to its lowest level for three years to 1.7%, according to ONS data, heightening market expectations of a November base rate cut from the Bank of England.

16/10/2024

Inflation falls to lowest level in three years at 1.7%: ONS

UK inflation has fallen to the lowest level since April 2021 to 1.7% in September, the latest Office for National Statistics data shows.

The decline is lower than forecast as economists had predicted it to be around 1.9%.

Last month, inflation remained at 2.2% after it went up by 0.2% in July.

The largest downward contribution came from transport, with larger negative contributions from air fares and motor fuels while the largest offsetting upward contribution came from food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The latest data also shows that services inflation, a key measure that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is looking for before further rate cuts, fell from 5.6% to 4.9%.

The Bank has long said it wants to see services and wage growth fall below 5% before it embarks on a sustained period of rate cuts.

Based on forecasts before today’s figures were released, markets expected the Bank’s rate-setting MPC to cut the base rate by 0.25% to 4.75% at its 7 November meeting.

This would be the central bank’s second rate cut this year after it lowered rates in August, its first reduction in four years.

14/10/2024

This is not good news.

Starmer tells summit he will ‘get rid’ of planning rules that block investment

The Prime Minister vowed that the government and its regulators will “get rid” of planning rules that slow investment in housing and other areas at the UK’s inaugural International Investment Summit.

“We’ve got to look at regulation where it is needlessly holding back the investment, to take our country forward, said Keir Starmer in a speech to global business leaders that included Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and GSK at the Guildhall in London.

He added: “We’ve got to look at regulation where it is needlessly holding back the investment, to take our country forward.

“Where it is stopping us building the homes, the data centres, warehouses, grid connectors, roads, trainlines, you name it then mark my words – we will get rid of it.”

The government plans to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, compared to around 1 million homes over the last parliament.

To aid this, it will add 300 planning officers around the country to speed up developments, at a cost of £20m.

Starmer said that the government will ask the Competition and Markets Authority to prioritise growth, investment, and innovation and will review the focus of other major regulators.

The summit, which also includes leaders from, Alphabet, Google and Eli Lilly, comes after last week the government announced over £24bn of investments in clean energy projects over the next four years.

A raft of new deals are expected to be announced at this one-day summit.

11/10/2024

If would like to know whether Shared Ownership is right for you then contact me.

Can the Budget provide a positive boost for industry?

What positives might we see in the final quarter of what has been a very challenging year for the sector?

This question was put to the panel at the Residential Mortgages; Affordability seminar at the Mortgage Business Expo 2024.

Pepper Money intermediary relationship director Rob Barnard said he hoped to see a stamp duty rebate in the October Budget for those downsizing, with the measure also providing greater options for families looking to size up but experiencing supply issues.

Nationwide director of intermediary relationships Ian Andrew insisted the sector needs clarity and direction and had not been helped by an interminable wait between the new government being elected and its first Budget.

“If we get through the Budget largely unscathed and see another interest rate cut before the end of the year; then there could be a lot of positivity going into 2025.”

Though not necessarily Budget related, The Mortgage Lender distribution director Sarah Palmer said she wanted to see more done to help first-time buyers. She pointed out that while there was little point in a return to Help to Buy, Shared Ownership had, so far at least, nowhere near the same level of publicity as Help to Buy.

“There is a real need for people to be educated about Shared Ownership – it has nowhere the same level of visibility as Help to Buy and potential borrowers are just not coming forward to ask about the option.”

As one broker delegate told the seminar, the general understanding of what shared ownership is was often worryingly off-kilter. “I have had clients tell me they thought shared ownership was borrowing with a stranger.”

Bank of Ireland national account manager Louise Weiss agreed that while shared ownership was not ideal for every client it was a great option for some and there was a real educational issue getting the message out there.