Britain booms again: Wages rise, jobs up and cheapest ever mortgages

Britain is powering out of recession with employment soaring, wages rising and the cheapest ever home loans.

David Cameron and George Osborne hailed official figures yesterday as proof that their plans are working. The figures show that unemployment has fallen by 167,000 – the biggest reduction since 1997. Average earnings are rising while inflation drops and Government borrowing is down by £2.1billion.

The Bank of England, meanwhile, said it saw “no immediate need” to raise interest rates. In the Commons, a delighted Prime Minister taunted Ed Miliband that Labour was miserable about the upturn and that most people were better off this year thanks to Coalition tax cuts boosting take-home pay.

The positive data came a day after the International Monetary Fund sharply raised its growth forecasts for Britain in 2014 to 2.4 per cent, outpacing European rivals including Germany and France. The Government hopes Office for National Statistics figures next week will confirm that our economy maintained its momentum throughout the final three months of 2013.

Yesterday it announced that after a 167,000 fall in the three months to November, unemployment stands at a near five-year low of 2.32 million.