HOUSE PRICES COULD FALL BY 6.2 PER CENT UNDER ?NO-DEAL? BREXIT

UK house prices could fall by between 5.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent next year in the event of a ?no-deal? Brexit, with the biggest decreases in London and Northern Ireland, according to research by KPMG (BBC News). However, if the UK leaves the EU with a deal, KPMG predicts that house prices will rise by 1.3 per cent in 2020 (CityAM, p5).

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has announced that the Labour Party could bring in a ?right to buy? scheme enabling private tenants to buy their rented homes at a discounted price, as well as increased taxes on landlords (Daily Mail, p8). It comes amid separate analysis by the Financial Times (£, p1) and Clifford Chance which estimates that a Labour government would confiscate around £300 billion of shares in 7,000 large companies and hand them to workers.

MILLENNIALS MORE LIKELY TO FALL VICTIM TO BANKING FRAUD

Millennials are falling victim to scams involving handing money to fraudsters more frequently than any other age group, according to research by Lloyds Bank (The Guardian, p35). New data from the bank shows that victims aged 18 to 34 are losing an average of £2,630 to frauds, which typically involve scammers impersonating banking staff, the police or HM Revenue and Customs.

Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday (p98) reports on the introduction of Strong Customer Authentication, the new EU-wide rules aimed aim at tackling online fraud that will require shoppers to authenticate certain online card payments. Eric Leenders, Managing Director of Personal Finance at UK Finance, comments: 'We would encourage anyone concerned about their ability to verify online payments to speak with their bank or provider, to discuss what alternatives may be available.? Politico (£) reports that Luxembourg is the latest country to allow firms more time to introduce the rules beyond the initial deadline of 14 September 14 2019, following the example of France, Germany and the UK.

NEWS IN BRIEF

The government has launched a £100 million ?Get Ready for Brexit? information campaign, including a new websiteencouraging individuals and businesses to check what they need to do to prepare for the UK's departure from the EU (Sky News). Earlier this year, UK Finance launched its Let's Talk Business campaign, which provides guidance to help small businesses prepare for Brexit and consider any financing needs.

The government's ?Help to Save Scheme? - aimed at encouraging low-income households to set money aside - has seen only one person in 27 of those eligible apply for the scheme (The Times, £, p39).

Firms are facing an increase of more than £660 million to their business rate bills next year, in line with predicted inflation, according to real estate firm Altus Group (Daily Express, p49, paper only).

New figures reveal that HM Treasury's ?bank referral scheme? - an initiative to boost competition by linking small companies turned down for bank finance with alternative lenders - helped 800 companies in the year to June 2019  (The Times, £, p41).

The US and China's trade war tensions are set to escalate following a fresh round of tit-for-tat tariffs over the weekend on goods including consumer imports and crude oil, reports CityAM (p5).

Britain's biggest charities and environmental groups have written to the chancellor Sajid Javid calling on him to double the funding available to tackle climate change over the next three years, reports The Guardian (online only).

WHAT THE COMMENTATORS SAY

Economics editor Richard Partington comments in The Guardian (p35) on this week's? spending review in which the chancellor Sajid Javid is expected to announce £6 billion of extra funding for public services. He remarks that the chancellor is bound by the rules to keep public debt falling as a percentage of GDP and bring the public finances into balance by mid-2020. Partington concludes that either way the public finances will look very different by the end of the year given the current uncertainty around Brexit, making this week's spending review a short-term project rather than a long-term strategy.

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