Rate more than doubles to 1.3% in May and average property price rises to £264,249, Nationwide says

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UK house prices returned to growth in May amid signs of market “resilience” after two months of falls, according to a building society.

The average property price in Britain rose 0.4% month on month to £264,249, after a similar-sized fall of 0.4% in April, Nationwide said.

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Nationwide have also dug into their data, and found that past general elections do not appear to have generated volatility in house prices or resulted in a significant change in house price trends.

Their chief economist Robert Gardner says:

“On the whole, prevailing trends have been maintained just before, during and after UK general elections. Broader economic trends appear to dominate any immediate election-related impacts.

Angela Rayner to promise party will build homes on sites by end of its first term and support private developers

A Labour government would aim to announce the sites for a series of new towns within a year of taking office, with the promise that homes would be built in them by the end of a first term, Angela Rayner is to say in a speech.

Giving more detail to a plan first outlined in Keir Starmer’s party conference speech in October, Rayner will tell a housing conference that Labour will strongly support private developers who create high-quality and affordable housing.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as deputy governor Ben Broadbent gives his final speech at the BoE

The UK and its financial services sector cannot afford to give the “cold shoulder” to China, the City minister has warned.

Speaking at the CityWeek conference in London this morning, Bim Afolami told attendees that it was “crucial” to engage with strategic competitors like China.

“Like with any bilateral relationship, we don’t agree on everything.

We are very clear that you simply cannot give the cold shoulder to an economy that is home to a fifth of the world’s globally systemically important banks, four of the world’s largest banks, and almost a third of the world’s leading global financial centres.

“There is no point in us having the safest graveyard.”