100,000 HOUSE SALES AT RISK IF STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY ENDS

The chancellor Rishi Sunak is being urged to consider prolonging the stamp duty holiday and slashing taxes to promote the government's levelling up agenda in his forthcoming Budget on 3 March (The Telegraph, £, B1).

It comes as the estate agency website Rightmove warned that 100,000 house sales could risk falling through by the end of the stamp duty holiday at the start of April (The Guardian, p27). In its latest analysis, house sales were taking 126 days - or just over four months - from the time an offer was accepted until legal completion. It also estimated that 613,000 house sales agreed in 2020 are currently awaiting legal completion.

Meanwhile, according to Nationwide's house price index affordability report, about 70 per cent of first-time buyers last year took out a mortgage with an initial term of more than 25 years (The Times, £, p12). Ten years ago, 45 per cent of first-time buyers took out long-term mortgages, typically for 35 years.

BUSINESS CHIEFS WARN AGAINST POST-BREXIT DEREGULATION

Business chiefs are warning the government to carefully review post-Brexit regulatory changes, calling on them to introduce new flexible rules to support the economy rather than wholesale deregulation (Financial Times, £, p3). It comes as the prime minister Boris Johnson asked the chancellor Rishi Sunak to head a new committee known as the Better Regulation Committee (Mail on Sunday, p10) which is due to meet today for the first time.

In the meeting the prime minister will speak to 30 business leaders from companies including BT, BP, Tesco, Unilever and Jaguar Land Rover, about reforming EU rules (The Times, £, p4). The Committee's aim is to drive a programme of regulatory reform, help struggling small businesses hit by the pandemic, and focus on developing infrastructure, science, and technology projects (City AM, online only). On Saturday, Mr Sunak said that we now ?have an opportunity to do things differently? and that the government is ?committed to making the most of the freedoms that Brexit affords us? without lowering standards.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Through its annual Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process, the European Central Bank (ECB) is reviewing whether to impose additional capital requirements on banks that incur risks in leveraged lending (Financial Times, £, p8).

Corporate insolvencies increased sharply, by 37.8 per cent to 1,228 in December 2020 compared to 891 in November 2020 (The Independent, p50).

The chancellor is reportedly considering increasing corporation tax in his March budget, to control the UK's current level of debt according to The Times (£, p4).

The government may introduce a levy for building firms on all high rise flats, which could raise up to £200 million a year to help remove dangerous cladding on properties (Daily Mail, p16).

According to jobs site Broadbean Technology, the number of people applying for jobs last month was the lowest it has been in five years, at just 2.2 million job applications - down by more than a third when compared to December 2019 (City AM, online only).

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