Banks may use the small print in mortgage contracts to prevent borrowers benefiting from future interest rate cuts by the Bank of England. Experts warned yesterday that little-known clauses mean the interest rate paid by borrowers may not fall when the Bank’s rate drops. Last week the Bank cutRead More →
Today’s housing Green Paper is expected to be the most interventionist attempt for two generations to tackle the UK’s housing crisis. It is expected that the government will announce that it wants to build at least 70,000 more affordable homes a year and at least 45,000 social homes byRead More →
The chancellor Alistair Darling has urged mortgage lenders to pass the recent interest rate cuts on to homeowners, saying it was time lenders ‘played their part’ after the Bank of England injected £15 billion into the financial system. After conceding on Friday that the present financial troubles are theRead More →
The monthly Halifax house price index shows that house prices jumped by a bigger than expected 1.4 per cent in November, spurred on by higher demand and a shortage of properties for sale. The increase was the fifth successive monthly rise with prices more than fourRead More →
Margaret Beckett has announced a proposed amendment to the law that would give tenants whose landlords are facing repossession more time to find somewhere else to live. Under the new proposals tenants will be given two months’ notice by mortgage lenders who have taken possession of the landlord’s home.Read More →
Businesses are more pessimistic about the economy than any time in the past five years, and threaten to ‘talk the country into a recession‘ according to accountants Grant Thornton. Only 14 per cent of the businesses are optimistic about the economy, compared to 43 per cent for the sameRead More →
The new HomeBuy Direct scheme – allowing buyers earning less than £60,000 to take out a mortgage for 70 per cent of the cost of a property and an interest-free loan for the remaining 30 per cent – has been so successful that developers say they are in dangerRead More →
A consultation into the Town and Country Planning Act concerning homes in multiple occupancy (HMOs) was launched yesterday. The department for Communities and Local Government wants to identify ways of improving the problems occurring in areas with a high density of HMOs, such as antisocial behaviour and litter. TheRead More →
FRANK, the national drugs information service, has launched a real-time text messaging service for young people where they can get advice and information from trained personnel on drugs and drug-related issues. It has scope to reach more than 6.5 million 11- to 18-year-olds across the country. Read More →
Councils across England are facing a huge drop in cash as right-to-buy sales fail. A snapshot across 10 councils has revealed that receipts from right to buy fell 89 per cent in the last year, from 380 homes in the third quarter of 07/08 to 40 for the sameRead More →