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HOUSING MARKET SLOWS IN DECEMBER AS SUPPLY

CRUNCH CONTINUES

By Julia Bradshaw

19 JANUARY 2017 • 12:01AM

The UK’s housing market showed signs of weakness in December, as the Сnumber of property sales fell as uncertainty and a shortage of supply kept

potential buyers at bay.

House price growth also appeared to slow, according to the data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which polls its members for

the monthly survey.

иdisconnect between supply and demand in the housing market. This has resulted in a shortage of choice, leading to fewer sales, despite the number of new house buyers rising marginally in December.

Regionally, central London was the only area where prices actually fell in the last month of the year, while the North West enjoyed the strongest pace

of growth.

“A familiar story relating to supply continues to drive both the sales and lettings markets impacting on activity, prices and rents," he explained.

SimonбАRubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, highlighted the continuing

"The eagerly awaited housing white paper should help to create a more

positive framework for new build delivery but with the best will in the world, it is going to take time before the resulting uplift in the development pipeline begins to impact on the opportunities for either homebuyers or tenants."

The nation's surveyors were also gloomier about the prospects for sales and pricing over the next three months, although over the long-term, they

expect conditions to pick up, particularly in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

On the lettings side, rents continued to pick up across the country, apart from in London, where demand fell for the fourth month in a row and prices are cooling.

Rics expects that, in the next three months, rents will fall in the capital, but remain flat over the whole year.

Brian Murphy, head of lending at the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said the figures from Rics provided a valuable "view from the coalface" of the industry.

He said: "Rics members observed that the paucity of stock, seen across many parts of the UK throughout 2016, continued in December for the tenth month in a row and also suggest that this could be a trend which continues for the foreseeable future, which may help to maintain current prices."

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He added that stricter criteria on buy-to-let mortgages and higher taxes on landlords could push rental prices up this year.

From “The Telegraph” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/19/housing-market-slows-

december-supply-crunch-continues/

С Appendix III.

Science-oriented texts

CHECK OR CHEQUE

иPayment is made from those funds of the maker or drawer that are in a primary demand deposit account (checking account) with the drawee.

Check or cheque, bill of exchange drawn upon a bank or trust company

or broker connected with a clearinghouse. Upon presentation of a check, the

embossed.бА

bank or other drawee pays cash to the bearer or to a specified person.

The check is intended for prompt presentation, rather than for use as a

continuing currency. When the check is presented, the drawee pays the designated sum to the holder and cancels the check, which is then returned to the drawer as his receipt. To prevent fraud, checks are usually of tinted paper and are filled in with ink; the figures may be punched out of the paper or

Many checks also have Дidentifying code numbers that have been printed with magnetically active ink. The numbers enable banks to clear

checks mechanically and thereby speed up operations. Whether or not the check will be paid by the bank depends upon its recognition of the drawer's

signature and upon the bank's confidence in the person presenting the check for payment. A bank becomes primarily liableИfor payment only when it

"certifies" on a check that the necessary funds are in the bank to the credit of the drawer.

However, a bank is usually responsible to its depositor for paying forged checks. All local checks accepted by a bank are turned over daily to a clearinghouse, which cancels checks due from and to all banks of a given neighborhood, the balances alone being paid in cash. Banks settle out-of- town checking claims by means of entries made in the books of the appropriate Federal Reserve banks.

Checks were probably used in Italy in the 15th cent. and in Holland in the 16th, from where their use spread to England and the American colonies in the 17th cent. Their rise to first place as a medium of exchange in industrialized nations took place in the 19th cent., their importance varying

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with differences in banking facilities, the density of population, and commercial activity.

About 90% of all transactions in the United States are said to be effected by checks.

http://www.homeenglish.ru/ArticlesCheck.htm

С

CREDIT CARD

Credit card device used to obtain consumer credit at the time of purchasing an article or service. Credit cards may be issued by a business,

such as a department store or an oil company, to make it easier for consumers

иpurchases with an interest charge on the unpaid balance. Charge cards, such as American Express, require the consumer to pay for all purchases at the end

to buy their products. Alternatively credit cards may be issued by third

parties, such as a bank or a financial services company, and used by

consumers to purchase goods and services from other companies. There are

two types of cards — credit cards and charge cards. Credit cards such as Visa

DinersбАClub became the first credit card company in 1950, when it issued a card allowing members to charge meals at 27 New York City restaurants. In 1958, Bank of America issued the BankAmericard (now Visa), the first bank credit card. In 1965, only 5 million cards were in circulation; by 1996, U.S. consumers had nearly 1.4 billion cards, which they used to charge

and MasterCard allow the consumer to pay a monthly minimum on their

of the billing period. Consumers may also use bank cards to obtain short-term personal loans (including "cash advances" through automated teller machines). Credit card issuers receive revenue from fees paid by stores that accept their cards and by consumers that use the cards, and from interest charged consumers on unpaid balances.

$991 billion in goods annually.

Д The growth of credit cards has hadИan enormous impact on the

economy —changing buying habits by making it much easier for consumers to finance purchases and by lowering savings rates (because consumers do not need to save money for larger purchases). Oil companies, car makers, and retailers have also used the cards to market their goods and services, using credit as a way of encouraging consumers to buy. Concern has been voiced over widespread distribution of bank credit cards to consumers who may not be able to pay their bills; costly losses and theft of cards; inaccurate (and damaging) credit records; high interest rates on unpaid balances; and excessive encouragement of consumer debt that has cut savings in the United States.

Technology advances have facilitated the use of credit cards. Merchants are now connected to banks by modem, so purchases are approved rapidly; on-line shopping on the Internet is possible with credit card payment.

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Credit card companies are also experimenting with smart cards that would act like a small computer, storing account and other information necessary for its use. An alternative to credit cards is the debit card, which is used to deduct the price of goods and service directly from customers' bank balances.

www.homeenglish.ru/ArticlesCreditCard.htm

СA newly completed track from one of the UK’s biggest new factories links rail transport in the 21st century to the industrial revolution of the 19th.

HITACHI TO OPEN £82M TRAIN PLANT

IN DURHAM THIS YEAR

Hitachi Rail Europe has won a £5.7bn contract to supply the intercity

иThe same branch carried the first paying passenger train as it began its journey in 1825 on the Stockton and Darlington line.

express programme.

The track connects Hitachi Rail Europe’s new County Durham plant to

a nearby branch line it will use to deliver its trains into the intercity network.

A strong regional engineering tradition was one of the reasons that Hitachi chose the Newton Aycliffe site in 2012 from 40 potential UK locations. Darren Cumner, manager of the manufacturing plant, is focused on the future. “We have to be very careful with playing the heritage card,” he said.

The £82m plant, which will open this year, will be one of northeast

industry. It is the first train manufacturingДplant built in the UK for decades,

The industry that pioneered the steam train almost 200 years ago has been laid low by years of neglect and under-investment. It came close to extinction three years ago when the Bombardier plant in Derby lost out on a large contract to Siemens of Germany.

bringing hope that one of the country’s oldest industries can be revived. И

Bombardier’s Derby train plant can also trace its roots back to the early days of rail. The plant was established in 1839 as the Derby Midland Railway Workshops just around the corner from where it stands today. But after being privatised as part of British Rail in 1989, the site has passed between various overseas owners before being bought by Bombardier of Canada.

After coming under heavy criticism for selecting Siemens to build trains for Thameslink, ministers have tried to develop a strong UK-based rail manufacturing industry to maximise the benefit to the economy of the huge expansion taking place in the network, such as Crossrail, Thameslink and the High Speed 2 project.

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The government in 2013 launched a rail industry supply chain forum to support UK small and medium enterprises. Last year it awarded Bombardier a £1bn contract to supply Crossrail trains.

Hitachi’s decision last year to make London the headquarters of its global train business bolstered hopes that the UK was at the start of a new rail

industry boom.

Сgeneration of trains for the East Coast and Great Western main lines. Under this £5.7bn contract, which includes maintenance and runs for 27.5 years, Hitachi will build 122 trains comprising 866 carriages. Twelve trains are being manufactured at its Kasado works in Japan and the rest at Newton

The Newton Aycliffe site, the Japanese company’s first European train

factory, was given the go-ahead after the government awarded Hitachi Rail Europe the contract to supply the intercity express programme, the next

иThis month sees the start of recruiting of technicians, craftsmen and engineers who will fill most of the 730 jobs being created at the plant, ready for production to begin in January 2016.

Aycliffe. Hitachi has also been named by Abellio, an arm of the Dutch state rail operator, as preferred bidder for 70 trains for ScotRail.

6,000 jobs.бАHitachi has used a number of UK companies for its key systems and is now looking for tier-two suppliers, a key moment for companies hoping to enter the rail sector. More than 1,000 businesses attended one Durham supply chain event early in the project.

We aren’t going to rely on the Japanese supplier base for components. We are going to Europeanise as much of this plant as we can

- Jamie Foster, Hitachi Rail Europe procurement director

Champions of the plant estimate the supply chain could support another

“We had an overwhelming, huge, response,” said Jamie Foster, procurement director. “The rail industry is a new opportunity for many tier-

announcement that Hitachi Rail Europe would open its design office at Newton Aycliffe, a clear signal that this is not merely an assembly plant.

“We aren’t going to rely on the Japanese supplier base for components. We are going to Europeanise as much of this plant as we can,” Mr Foster said. The company said it was working with 56 suppliers in Europe, 32 of them based in the UK.

In contrast to Nissan’s high-volume, “just in time” Sunderland operation, which requires some suppliers to be located next to, or even in, the plant, Hitachi, with its longer manufacturing timescales, does not need them on the doorstep.

“We aren’t stipulating it as a requirement”, Mr Foster said.

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