WOOLWICH has trimmed mortgage rates by up to 0.5 per cent on new two, three, five-year and buy-to-let mortgages, its fourth reduction in two months.

● Families taking a half-term break in the sun have been hit by soaring prices, according to a survey by Santander Cards, which reckons half-term breaks are 104 per cent more expensive, on average, than holidays taken a week earlier.

Looking at prices facing a family of four in five autumn sun destinations – Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Florida, Sharm El Sheikh and Crete – Santander said a Lanzarotebound family leaving Gatwick in half-term could pay £5,486, against £1,572 a week earlier.

● With nobody really knowing where world stock markets are going, Nigel Callaghan, a financial advisor at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that any worker nearing retirement might be welladvised to reduce the equities in their pension and get into cash instead, following jumps in the value of UK Equity and Managed funds of 47 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

● Where can savers be certain to get a decent return on their money if UK interest rates stay at rock-bottom for the next couple of years? One answer might be the F&C Managed Portfolio Trust, where the big advantage is that trusts have a pot of cash to pay income even at times when the underlying holdings might be trimming dividends.