Property, pensions and home insurance

Britain’s obsession with property has propelled the country’s net worth to an estimated £8.8 trillion, an increase of 6 per cent (£493 billion) compared with the end of 2014, The Guardian reports. A surge in house prices in 2015 offset the UK’s decline in savings, the slow recovery of the banking sector and the Government’s growing debt mountain. Overall, house prices increased by 7 per cent in 2015 to add a further £355 billion to the already huge value locked up in Britain’s homes. The Office for National Statistics said in its annual assessment of Britain’s assets and liabilities that the value of dwellings was estimated at £5.5 trillion at the end of 2015, more than four times their estimated value in 1995, when the figure touched £1.2 trillion. Pensions Britain’s largest brickmaker is to cap the liabilities of its pension fund and block present members from making fresh contributions, according to The Times.