Betfair Official Blog

A-Listers from the world of business prepare for a showdown with Brown

Today Gordon Brown is meeting with chief executives from Barclays, HBOS, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. Also sat at the big table will be leaders of the City's largest investment banks. Jade Goody is still awaiting her invitation.

Whilst the PM may be expecting cunning solutions from some of Britain's sharpest business brains, the likelihood is that they will be asking him, "So Mr Brown, what are you going to do to solve our problems in the money markets? And what about the housing market in which market conditions are softer than a Labrador puppy's silky toilet roll?" Ah!

A survey of its members by The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors found that 78.5% of all men in grey suits say property values have dropped. This is apparently the most negative reading since 1978.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have kindly added to the gloom by suggesting that unless market conditions change, UK house prices are expected to lose 15% of their value over the next two years, rising to about 20% when inflation is taken into account.

Hence the Bank of England has lowered interest rates. It may do so again. Although most of the money is on rates remaining at 5.00% in May, the chance of them going down certainly exceeds that of them rising.

Tradefair currently has the BoE reducing interest rates in May to 4.75% at 47.5, and to stick on 5.00% at 84.9 per cent. Get involved!