Gordon Brown has announced a £1 billion package to help households cut their energy bills. Up to 11 million households will be offered free loft and cavity wall insulation while other households will receive a 50 per cent grant to cover the cost. Six hundred thousand of the poorestRead More →
Middle class homebuyers are downsizing their properties because of the mortgage drought, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has said. Housebuyers who would normally have looked for a four-bedroom property are being forced to seek out three-bedroom properties because they are unable to raise large enough mortgages. TheRead More →
The UNICEF report on child poverty that puts Britain bottom of a league table of industrialised nations dominates many of today’s papers. A gifthorse of a story for the Mail, while the Mirror highlights homelessness among children. The ‘right to own’ [see yesterday] gets short shrift in theRead More →
Which? magazine has called for the Financial Services Authority to ‘name and shame’ lenders charging customers with exorbitant mortgage arrears charges. Which? wants the list submitted to judges hearing repossession cases and the culprits fined, with the revenue going to help borrowers access independent debt advice, and it hasRead More →
HHSE has been investigating sale and rent back companies who take out adverts in national and regional newspapers to check whether the companies that are advertising are signed up to the FSA’s tough new regulations. Results show that out of the 18 main companies that advertise regularly in theRead More →
A RARE international perspective on the housing boom comes in today’s Financial Times. An analysis starts with the problems in the market in the United States, where prices are falling in many areas and sales of new homes have slumped, and then looks at the situation around the world. ItRead More →
More estates in Sheffield have voted in favour of stock transfer. More than 70% of tenants on the Hyde Park Walk & Terrace and Richmond Park, Birklands & Athelstan estates said yes to transferring their 596 homes to Sacntuary and Manchester Methodist housing associations. These were the last inRead More →
A £22 million investment package aimed at renovating empty buildings across London has been unveiled by Boris Johnson. The London mayor had pledged to ensure that no more than 1 per cent of London’s housing stock is empty for more than six months, and has committed £39 million, withRead More →
A NORFOLK local authority is considering following the lead of the Yorkshire Dales and banning the building of new second homes. More than 40 per cent of homes in some towns and villages in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and the council says local shops and schools are being undermined.Read More →
The Government announced yesterday that it will reform the ’16-hour rule’, which limits claimants to 16 hours of study a week before losing some or all of their benefits. Secretary of State, Peter Hain said that the government recognised that some vulnerable groups would require housing benefit while undertakingRead More →