HOW LONG before the government works out that the housing boom might be caused by demand as well as supply? The officlal solution is to build more homes in the long term and subsidise first-time buyers in the short term. In the meantime overpaid City bankers and traders have fatRead More →
The Court of Appeal has decided that failure to follow informal advice to go to a local housing authority’s homeless person unit when threatened with eviction did not make an applicant intentionally homeless. The judges said that the claimant’s failure to go to the homeless persons unit could beRead More →
Following a ruling by the Employment Tribunal yesterday, millions of carers will have the right to claim against employers who discriminate against them in refusing to offer flexible working. The worker was forced to resign because she wanted to spend more time to care for her disabled son andRead More →
Savers are being offered rates of almost 5 per cent above the Bank of England base rate as banks and building societies compete to raise cash to fund new mortgages and pay off wholesale borrowing they secured before the credit crunch. Interest rates paid on fixed-term savings accounts haveRead More →
The Liberal Democrats today downgraded one of their highest-profile policies of the last year, announcing they would double the value of properties they would tax if in power from a threshold of £1m to £2m. The new £2m threshold could hit 35,000 homes in London andRead More →
A member of the Bank of England’s interest rate setting committee has called for the introduction of a tax on housing that would act as an ‘automatic stabiliser’ to help avoid real estate bubbles like the one that helped to cause the financial crisis. Adam Posen,Read More →
The cul-de-sac used for the TV soap Brookside is up for sale with a credit crunch guide price of £550,000. The 13 properties were bought by the producers of the TV show to cover production costs and to provide a more realistic set than some rival soaps. Since finishingRead More →
In the first court ruling of its kind a vulnerable family has been told they can stay in their home as owner occupiers or rent it for life, after almost losing it in a repossession sale and rent back scam. The case, bought before the court with HHSE’s help,Read More →
House builders are likely to become more conservative and turn their backs on major regeneration schemes in response to the recession, according to research by Knight Frank. House builders and developers will look to smaller scale and lower density developments, particularly on greenfield sites. And with values dropping byRead More →
Millions of pounds of bridge and road repair funding was announced yesterday for Cumbria, as residents picked their way back into soaked and stinking properties for the first time. Work will start as soon as is practicable on temporary crossings at the site of wrecked bridges,Read More →