Signs of recovery

I have always said that recovery from this financial crisis was always going to be slow, and I don't mean months, but years maybe 5 or 6 realistically - and that's just an indication, not a prediction. So I don't take too much regard of the 0.5% growth predicted in the UK economy, to be fair 0.5% is better than -0.5%, but equally it's not a lot to get excited about. having said that, the evidence of building work going on around us at the moment is encouraging. I walked to work four times this week, and was struck by the amount of construction work that is going on. On the other hand, I walked through some flats that had been built in the last 6 or 7 years that were intended for the upwardly mobile - however they have seemingly now become part of a large social housing project, and starting to look a little less cared for.
Savings are down, which is no great surprise seeing as there is little available in the way of return for your investment, but inflation seems to push on regardless as wages are more or less static and therefore the nett result is that we are a little worse off year on year. The way that energy prices have risen over the recession is quite unbelievable, energy companies it seems, are determined NOT to be affected by the financial crisis and continue to hold us all to ransom, squeezing every last penny out of it's 'customers' or more accurately 'victims'.
We will come out of this, but it will take time, thankfully the lower interest rates are still keeping the mortgage payments low, so I am still able to overpay my mortgage - as with most people who have a mortgage, as a nett borrower, I am happy for interest rates to be low. In the long term however, investments such as pensions are also squeezed to pitiful growth figures.