better informed personal financial decisions. the econome lessons are designed for 11 - 16 year olds and cover : - the economic factors that influence personal decisions ; - how to make informed decisions ; and - how such decisions collectively influence the economy. an array of econome resources, designed in close collaboration with teachers and education specialists, support these classes. the materials include lesson plans, presentations, videos, activities and real life case studies. and they can be used by non - specialists with no prior economics training. our aim is to convince 400 schools across the country to download and teach the econome materials in the first year rising to about 1500 schools over three years. already during the trial period over the past four months, almost 300 schools have downloaded the resources, 250 of which were state schools. we have also started discussing with examination bodies about how to develop resources similar to econome to support the gcse and a - level economics syllabus by 2020. and we intend to develop resources, including games, activity sheets and videos for primary school children over the next two years. the second motivation of the bank ’ s efforts is to help young people understand the bank ’ s role in managing the economy and hold us to account. the bank ’ s decisions affect every uk citizen whatever their age and wherever they live. we know that for our policies to be effective, the bank needs to be understood, credible and trusted. the challenge is that the bank ’ s work often requires deep technical skills and arcane knowledge, but not surprisingly, not everyone wants to be steeped in fan charts, capital modelling and stress testing. so recognising that we need to make our communications more accessible to the people we serve and in order to connect with both the city and the country, the salon and the suburb ; we are creating content that engages different audiences through different channels. of course, these efforts will be more effective if people understand the basics of the bank ’ s responsibilities. and that ’ s part of what the econome materials will teach young people. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches to really bring the bank ’ s work to life and give students a chance to hold us to account, colleagues below director level from around the bank are heading into classrooms across the country. these bank ambassadors will visit over 200 state schools over the next twelve months. the feedback from the first 30 visits to state schools has been terrific. central

their capital base further. for example, large international banks will be subject to new internationally - agreed requirements for systemically - important firms. other uk - focussed retail banks will need to meet the requirements set by the vickers commission for “ ringfenced ” banks. our task will be to manage the transition from the threshold to the end point in a gradual way that supports continued confidence in growth. using all the bank of england ’ s tools to secure a sustainable recovery a recovering banking sector, coupled with persistently low interest rates and new government programmes, may lead to concern that the seeds are being sown for a new cycle in the housing market. the number of mortgage approvals for house purchase is up by 20 % on a year ago, while house prices have risen by 5 % over the same period – and by more than that in some parts of the country. that must be kept in perspective, however. mortgage approvals are currently running at only a little more than half, and transactions a little more than two - thirds, of pre - crisis levels. households ’ debt servicing costs relative to income are below their 20 - year average, and houses cost the same relative to earnings as they did in 2003. nevertheless, the bank of england is acutely aware of the risk of unsustainable credit and house price growth and will be monitoring it closely. the important thing to recognise is that we now have tools other than interest rates that can be used to contain risks in the property and financial sectors. these so - called macroprudential tools were not available to us before the crisis and we are now fully prepared to deploy them if that were needed. the bank of england is now in a position, for example, to supervise lending to specific sectors more intensively, to make recommendations to banks and building societies to restrict the terms on which new credit is provided, or even to raise capital requirements on mortgage or other types of lending. in june 2013 the financial policy committee concluded that there was scope for banks to reduce their holdings of liquid assets in the near term, and recommended a relaxation in liquidity requirements in order to strike the appropriate balance between achieving resilience and reducing possible impediments to the supply of credit to the economy. that relaxation was subject both to banks meeting the minimum capital threshold, and to additional firm - specific considerations. today the prudential regulation authority ( pra ) has agreed with that recommendation, and is announcing how it will be implemented. the pr