As we sign off this November edition the overnight news is that the UK economy experienced a very welcome, large ‘bounce back’ in GDP in the third quarter this year, with 15.5% growth in the period July-September. And yet, according to the Office of National Statistics this still means that our economy is 8.2% worse off than before the impact of the Coronavirus led to Lockdown 1.

It’s fair to say that with England at least now experiencing Lockdown 2, with much of the hospitality and leisure sectors again mainly mothballed, that this upturn in economic activity will likely be stalled or possibly even go into a reverse gear.

So this roller-coaster year of fear, uncertainty and doubt is continuing, but at least the government has not put the shutters up this time on the housing and property sector and day to day activity is continuing, in what has become the new normal. This week we had some positive news on housing sales trends from Taylor Wimpey and alongside the much publicised and hugely encouraging vaccine announcement from Pfizer, this led to a resurgence in the global stock markets and sharp increases in the share prices of the UK house builders.