The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday, a 9 per cent fall in the number of home loans taken out in July, from the same month last year – 93,700 compared to 103,000. Even on a month-by-month basis the figures drops by more than 5 per cent. TheRead More →
Government spending cuts on construction risk deepening the recession and making it harder for the economy to recover in future, the CBI employers’ organisation have warned. Every £1 spent on construction generates a £2.84 increase in national income according to a report by the CBI’s UK Contractors’Read More →
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has recorded its highest ever level of arrears in sub-prime mortgages. The ratings agency said that arrears have increased by 24 per cent year on year as a result of house price decline, refinancing problems, and a lack of affordability. Mortgages taken out in 2005Read More →
More gloom today about the future of Britain’s house price boom. In Birmingham, for example, prices have fallen by 1.5 per cent since July. A similar picture can be seen in other parts of the country. Buyers, sellers, analysts and estate agents are all trying to predict where theRead More →
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has ordered an investigation into a legal loophole that allows lenders to repossess a home without a court order. The inquiry was announced in response to a High Court ruling that supported a decision by GMAC-RFC, the General Motors mortgage lender, to sellRead More →
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) released data yesterday showing that lending fell to £30.7 billion in November, down 8 per cent from the same time last year. It is the first year-on-year fall since 2005 that clearly ‘demonstrates the market slowdown has started’. CML expect the downward trendRead More →
Record numbers of homeowners are letting out properties after failing to sell them, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. New instructions to let houses and flats increased at the fastest ever pace – and the flood of properties is expected to depress rental levels in the comingRead More →
Anyone who starts work after six months on benefit will be at least £40 a week better off, under a guarantee yesterday by Yvette Cooper, the work and pensions secretary. Other proposed changes to housing benefit aim to cut some of the highest rents the stateRead More →
No surprises as the Queen’s Speech laid out the Government’s plans for the year ahead, including several changes to housing policy. Three million new homes are to be built by 2020 (as outlined in the green paper in July). The Housing and Regeneration Bill establishes a new agency toRead More →
More than one million children in Britain live in poverty despite having at least one parent in work, says a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The IPPR argues a raft of measures are required to lift the ‘forgotten million’ out of poverty, including: introducingRead More →