UK housing market 'improving'

Taylor Wimpey, Britain's second-largest builder by market value, said the UK housing market has shown "measurable improvement" for the first time since the downturn following the 2008 financial crisis.

They built 5,192 homes in the first part of the year, that was two per cent more than last year and prices are up by eight per cent.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at independent mortgage broker John Charcol, told the Today programme: "If you look at the Nationwide house price index for the first 6 months of this year, it actually shows a rise of 4.1 per cent.

"And I think now by the end of the year we'll see house prices up about six per cent or so."

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 4 July 2013.