Financial News from Sasha Twining

Here is this week'financial news from BigFish Media Voiceover Artist Sasha Twining:


THORPE PERK
If there was ever a case of referring to the recession as a ‘rollercoaster ride’, this would be it. Owners of theme parks will be looping-the-loop in glee at visitor numbers. 1.2million people visited a UK theme park for the first time in 2009 - and a quarter of the entire population rolled up for a thrill.

AGA CAN’T
They may be the choice of traditional cooks and country kitchen magazines, but AGA’s profits have tumbled. In 2008, 15,500 of the cookers were sold, whereas last year, the figure was just over 12,000. Not only are we tightening our belts when it comes to re-designing our kitchens, we’re also not moving house so much.

DEAL UP IN THE AIR
We finally got to hear the dates for the British Airways cabin crew strike this week. The two sides had kept us on the edge of our pre-booked seat for days, as a deal seemed tantalizingly close. In the end though, it was a case of locating the emergency exit and inflating the life vest as passengers started consulting their travel insurance.

BUY BUY
I don’t think there will ever be a day without new figures on the housing market. Reports this week suggest that instead of a lack of supply in London, we now have more sellers than buyers entering the market. The property website Rightmove also suggests only a quarter of those looking are first time buyers, whereas a healthy market needs at least 40% of newbies pounding the streets.

BRAD-AFFORD
Staying with the housing market, If you’re trying to buy, the best advice may be to head for Bradford. New figures pinpointed the areas where homes were the most affordable. In the Yorkshire city, 82% of people who work there can afford to buy in the vicinity, whereas in the capital, only a third of us are on salaries that will even get us close to being homeowners.

Sasha Twining is LBC 97.3's Business Correspondent. You can hear her Monday-Friday between 4 and 7pm on the James Whale Programme.