Does it matter that Britain is in recession – and are things getting better yet? This is the Money podcast

It finally happened. After months of speculation about will we, won’t we, the British economy has finally fallen prey to a recession.

The ONS revealed this week that a fall in GDP in the last three months of 2023 meant Britain had posted negative growth twice in a row – and so the dreaded R-word is here.

But is this a bad thing? Why is the term ‘technical recession’ kept being thrown around and are these backward-looking numbers masking things that are already improving?

On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert look at what the recession means for Britain and for you.

And who are the villains among the big banks and building societies when it comes to the sky-high standard variable interest rates for mortgage borrowers, and is it they or the customers themselves who are to blame when someone ends up paying almost 10 percent interest?

Also on the show, the customer refused a switching bonus from HSBC because he had a Midland account 21 years ago.

And finally, electric car sales are not growing as fast as the government or car manufacturers want. Does this mean it’s time to make a bargain?