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The chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to follow chief executive Stephen Hester to the exit in the next twist in the Government-led boardroom putsch at the taxpayer-backed bank. Sir Philip Hampton told Bloomberg TV yesterday that ‘when we have a new CEO, other aspects of boardroom succession will be addressed’, implying that he may leave once a replacement for Hester is found. And the troubled banking giant - the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 yesterday, initially losing more than 6 per cent - will be ordered to lend billions more to struggling businesses. rallied later - ending the day 10.6p or 3.26 per cent lower at 315p - but £650million was wiped off the bank's value, and City concern has been stoked by speculation over Hampton's possible exit. Boardroom coup: Sir Philip Hampton could also go in a clear out that has wiped 3 per cent off the shares The Treasury denied Labour claims that Hester had been removed - after George Osborne staged a ‘coup’ - to

Savings woe: As savings rates tumble, Premium Bonds look increasingly attractive It's been a terrible past year for savers. Rates have plummeted ever since the Funding for Lending scheme was launched last August leaving it nigh-on impossible for savers to get an inflation-beating return. National Savings & Investments, currently top a number of the This is Money savings tables  and beloved of savers, announced a savage cuts to its savings rates yesterday, to take effect from September. Its Direct ISA has been slashed from 2.25 per cent to 1.75 per cent, Direct Saver from 1.5 per cent to 1.1 per cent and Income Bond from 1.75 per cent to 1.25 per cent. Strict rules on how the Government-backed saving vehicle is run mean that it has been forced to lower rates. Cuts to rival accounts  left NS&I at the top of the best-buys in several categories and cash flowed in from savers. NS&I has a target deposit level set at the start of each financial year: It must raise or l

The fallout from the financial crisis has delivered a fatal blow to a generation of aspiring homeowners, with just a third of young households likely to be owner-occupiers by the end of the decade. That amounts to little more than half the number of those aged 25 to 34 who owned their homes in 1993, according to a report. The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association also warned that the peaks of mortgage lending seen before the credit crunch will not be revisited. Rather than the £360billion lent in 2007, the report suggests the 'new normal' would be less than around £200billion annually. Young couples: Far fewer young households ¿ aged 25 to 34 ¿ are likely to be owner-occupied by the end of the decade The IMLA, which represents mortgage lenders operating through brokers, said that homeownership levels will continue to fall if policies and regulation that impact on the mortgage market are not reformed.   More... Mortgages for first-time buyers fall in April bu

NatWest has been voted Britain’s ‘most trusted high street bank’, despite an IT glitch which left customers locked out of their accounts for several days occurring twice in a year. The bank was awarded the accolade following an annual survey of 20,000 savers and borrowers for the personal finance magazine, Moneywise. It comes just 24 hours after the resignation of Stephen Hester, chief executive of NatWest’s parent company, state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland. Difficulties: NatWest customers have had problems using the banking app in recent weeks as well as having been locked out of their accounts twice in the last year because of an IT glitch The award came as a surprise to some given the bank is currently the subject of investigation by City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, over the IT glitches that prevented people from access money in their current accounts, paying bills or transferring money.    More... NatWest banking app fails again... and this time on payd

> The new boiler kept failing but, to be fair, British Gas sent someone out promptly. Eventually, an engineer from manufacturer Worcester Bosch fixed the problem. British Gas paid £400 compensation. Now my mother has been advised that the guarantee on her new boiler expired in April and she must pay £136.38 cover in addition to the £12.33 a month she pays to cover plumbing and electrics. However, Worcester Bosch says it provides a two-year guarantee. Mrs J. C., via email. I, too, gasped when I saw how much your mother had been charged — and immediately contacted British Gas for an explanation. It says that her existing boiler was 37-years-old and was beyond repair. Because of its age, work was needed to bring the system up to specification. The cost of the new heating system was actually £5,211.56. This included a Worcester Greenstar efficiency boiler, pipework, thermostat, upgrades to the flue, a radiator flush and installing a new electric fire.   More... 'I do regul

17.30 (CLOSE): A cautious reaction to downbeat economic data from the United States held back progress on the London market today as investor nerves continued to weigh on blue chips. A weak report on US consumer confidence and worse-than-expected industrial production data saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street fall into the red in early trading, losing much of the 1 per cent gain seen the previous session. The FTSE 100 Index in London narrowly held firm in positive territory, up 3.6 points at 6308.3, but eased back from earlier gains after the disappointing US figures, combined with concern over America's asset-buying programme ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. Drop: in Next fell by 35p to 4553p. Speculation over the Fed meeting dominated the thoughts of traders amid questions about when policymakers will start to taper the central bank's quantitative easing programme. Analysts think this may happen in September, but until then markets will

We are thinking of buying our first home in London and have a deposit which will probably be 15-20 per cent of the property value. But we are restricted in terms of what we can afford by salaries. Will the forthcoming Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme enable us to take on a larger mortgage than a lender might allow us at the moment? It looks like we will not qualify for any of the Government help for first-time buyers because we have already have a sizeable deposit? We want to borrow as much as possible - which mortgage lenders currently offer the highest income multiples? We heard that West Bromwich had just increased its to 4.75x? Via e-mail. Mortgage restriction: How can we maximise the amount we can borrow? Lee Boyce, from This is Money, says: According to recent Council of Mortgage Lenders figures, loans to first-time buyers in the first four months of this year are 11 per cent higher than for the same period last year. It comes after government schemes – such as Help t