Monday newspaper round-up: House sales, lockdown cost, intensive care jets
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 06 Apr 2020
(Sharecast News) - The government has committed to piloting no-interest loans for people on low incomes, but is resisting calls for the support to be accelerated to tackle the coronavirus recession. The coronavirus crisis has prompted concerns that people on low incomes could fall through the gaps in the government's support, causing them to look to payday lenders and other providers of high-cost credit to pay for essential goods during the lockdown, when they are unable to look for work. - Guardian
House sales in the UK will collapse this year as the coronavirus pandemic puts the property market into deep freeze. But prices will fall by only 3% and will rebound next year, according to global consultancy Knight Frank. In the first reassessment of the property market by one of the major forecasters, Knight Frank said the number of house sales in the UK would plummet from 1,175,000 last year to just 734,000 this year. - Guardian
The Bank of England's Governor has insisted the UK will not fall into an inflationary spiral of the type seen in Zimbabwe, as Threadneedle Street prints money on a massive scale. Andrew Bailey said the Bank would "not hesitate to take all necessary actions" to support British businesses through the disruption while also ensuring inflation remained consistent with its 2pc medium-term target. - Telegraph
The coronavirus lockdown will cost the economy ?2.4 billion a day for as long as it lasts and consumer confidence has crashed to its lowest level since the financial crisis, according to two gloomy new reports about the state of the economy. Shutting down the economy will reduce Britain's gross domestic product by 31 per cent as social restrictions prevent businesses from functioning, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said. Output at hotels, restaurants, retailers, cleaning services, museums and galleries and manufacturing will more than halve. - The Times
A group of medical, technology and aviation experts has called on the government to back a plan to create hundreds, possibly thousands, of intensive care beds in grounded aircraft. It says that using aircraft is a proven concept used by the military and that there is a surfeit of wide-body aircraft, such as Boeing 747 jumbo jets or doubledecker Airbus A380s, lying idle at airports. - The Times
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