‘The bad’ - house prices in Britain fell by a bigger-than-expected 1.7 percent in April and by 17.7 % in the three months to April compared with a year earlier, the Halifax house price survey showed last Wednesday. Economists had expected a fall of 1 percent on the month and a three-month annual decline of 17.7 percent. The mortgage lender said house prices were also 17.7 percent lower than in April last year and that prices have now fallen by 22 percent from their peak in August 2007. The figures suggest the housing market is still a long way from recovery, despite some signs that activity levels may be stabilising, and Halifax said prices were likely to keep falling for some time. Falling prices combined with record low interest rates have improved conditions for people who are able to invest in property. Halifax said the house price to earnings ratio, a key measure of affordability, fell to 4.26 in April, the lowest since September 2002. ‘The good’ - Despite the House Price Figures hopes that Britain may have come through the worst of its recession rose after data showed the decline in services activity slowed markedly, consumer confidence picked up and the jobs market decline eased. The latest PMI survey by CIPS/Markit showed activity in the services sector, which accounts for three-quarters of Britain's economy, shrank at its slowest pace since last August. The headline activity index rose to 48.7 in April from 45.5 in March, the biggest one-month rise in a decade, leaving it only a tad below the 50-mark that would indicate growth. Crucially, new business levels also contracted at a much slower pace and companies were their most upbeat in almost a year about the business outlook. On Thursday The Bank of England left interest rates at a record low 0.5 percent for a second month running and said it would increase the size of its asset purchase programme by 50 billion pounds. The announcement raises its quantitative easing programme to 125 billion pounds. The central bank has cut interest rates by a total of 4.5 percentage points since October as Britain's economy plunged into its first recession since the early 1990s. The BoE signalled in early March that conventional monetary policy had reached its limits and embarked on a 75 billion pound programme to buy assets with newly-created money to boost the supply of credit. So far it had bought more than 50 billion pounds of assets, mainly government bonds, putting it on track to complete the original programme by early June. Finally it’s ‘the ugly’…and that has to be Gordon Brown’s appearance on You Tube!...how cheesy!