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Whilst awareness and popularity of alternative options for further education, such as apprenticeships and vocational courses, has increased in recent years, so too have the number of university applications. Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) revealed a new record for English UCAS applications last year, with 39.5% of 18-year-olds applying. Closely matched […]

New calculations from the Office for National Statistics have lowered life expectancies.  Every two years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recalculates its national population projections (NPP). As part of the exercise, the ONS reviews and updates its assumptions about future mortality, which in turn will have an impact on population size. The latest figures, […]

How will the new government affect your financial planning?  December’s general election delivered a Conservative government with the sort of majority which consigns the knife-edge parliamentary battles of recent years to the past. So what will the new government do, apart from “get Brexit done”? A look at the Conservative manifesto, easily the shortest of […]

The latest statistics from HMRC show the inflows to venture capital trusts (VCTs) have more than doubled since 2009/10. At the end of last year, HMRC published details of how much money was raised by VCTs in 2018/19. At £716m, the figure was the highest since 2005/06, when a temporarily higher rate of tax relief […]

The Lifetime ISA is now on its own as the ISA option for first time buyers.       At the start of December, the Help-to-Buy ISA was withdrawn for new investments. Its disappearance means that the Lifetime ISA (LISA) is now the only ISA plan that offers incentives for those savings towards their first […]

The world’s share markets enjoyed strong rises in 2019.       Index 2019 Change FTSE 100 +12.1% FTSE All-Share +14.2% Dow Jones Industrial +22.3% Standard & Poor’s 500 +28.88% Nikkei 225 +18.2% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) +24.8% Shanghai Composite +22.3% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) +11.0% 2019 was a very different year for investors from […]