Nine new locations have been given permission to proceed with developing plans for new settlements which meet environmentally-friendly standards, and will receive a share of £5 million in Government funds. To qualify to become an eco-town a development must have 5,000 homes, at least 30 perRead More →
Councils will be allowed to keep their rents and the proceeds from the sale of homes under an overhaul of local authority financing that reverses reforms from the Thatcher era. Along with borrowing freedoms that were recently introduced, this could lead to up to 10,000 extra council houses beingRead More →
A property recovery company has estimated that the number of homes being repossessed by the end of the year could be as high as 82,000. PPR reported more than 2,900 enquiries by distressed sellers in the fourth quarter of 2015, which suggests that the number of mortgage possessions willRead More →
Michael Portillo former Conservative front bencher has called for an end to security of tenure, saying there are not enough social houses to keep giving people a home for life. He wants to give property to those who have connections with their local area, over new immigrants. Read More →
Northern Rock has had its busiest quarter as a mortgage lender since the credit crunch two years ago, lending £1bn in the three months to the end of September. But the nationalised lender, which is to be split into a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bank before beingRead More →
The Homes and Communities Agency is in talks with groups such as Legal & General about the way for institutional investors to build social housing. Gordon Brown is keen to find ways to increase the amount of housing, and a new public-private fund with the HCA putting equity intoRead More →
More than £800 million has been deposited in the tenancy deposit schemes, an increase of a quarter of a billion pounds in less than 12 months, covering more than 800,000 tenancies and 1.25 million tenants. The number of disputes has also risen, with 6,000 handled in 2015/9. It hasRead More →
Most Britons believe that house prices will rise this year as the country awaits official confirmation that the worst peacetime recession is finally over. A survey by Rightmove found that 53 per cent of those in the UK believe house prices will rise over the next 12 months, comparedRead More →
The Bank of England has released figures showing that the number of mortgages approved for house purchases in April rose 8 per cent. Although the number of mortgage approvals was down 21.9 per cent in year on year figures, it was the third month in a row approvals haveRead More →
The average cost of Band D council tax bills in England for 2017/11 is set to increase by the lowest percentage since the tax was introduced in 1993. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and local authorities predict rises of below 2%. A CIPFA survey suggestsRead More →