Reaction to yesterday’s independent report into housebuilding in the south east, which recommended building 32,000 new homes annually in the area over the next two decades, has been strong. Much is being made of the report’s recommendation that leaving the green belt untouched ‘cannot be consistent with government policy’. Tory shadow planning minister Jacqui Lait
The number of people defaulting on loans has risen and are expected to increase in the coming months, a Bank of England survey has uncovered. A poll of banks and building societies found more people unable to repay mortgages and other debts because of rising unemployment. However, financial institutions expect the availability of credit to
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says the government is losing momentum in tackling child poverty, with little progress in the past three years and one in three UK children still living in poverty. A treasury select committee said Tony Blair’s 1999 pledge to halve child poverty by 2010 is in doubt. Homes built on flood plains
To mark next week’s national empty homes week, the Empty Homes Agency (EHA) has launched a new website and called on the public to report run-down and empty homes, to help bring them back to use. There are enough vacant homes in England to house almost two million people and the EHA wants to make
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says that landlords need incentives to drive improvements in the private rented sector as thousands of tenants were living in homes that are sub-standard and in need of modernisation. ARLA wants the government to introduce incentives such as tax relief, to encourage landlords to improve their properties, arguing
The government should consider imposing caps on the amount mortgage companies can lend to homebuyers, the deputy governor of the Bank of England has suggested. Sir John Gieve, who is stepping down at the end of the month, said that in theory, a ceiling on loan-to-income and loan-to-value ratios could have provided an effective brake
House prices have recorded their largest monthly fall since 1992, says Nationwide building society. Prices fell 2.5 per cent during May according to its latest monthly survey, bringing the year on year figure down 4.4 per cent. Nationwide said that it was the seventh consecutive month of falling prices, and price falls were now accelerating.
Chancellor Alistair Darling has unveiled plans to convert Northern Rock’s £25 billion Bank of England loan into bonds before selling them to investors. The bonds would be guaranteed by the government until a private buyer is found, in a bid to avoid full public ownership. The scheme is supported by Goldman Sachs, and potential buyers
Housing associations are to stop building mixed estates of privately owned and social rented homes because of the credit crunch, leading to fears of a return to ‘council ghettos’ says The Times. Bob Kerslake, head of Homes and Community Agency (HCA) said that during the past 20 years housing developments had a mix of 30
Commenting in the Evening Standard, Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson warns that homes in London costing less than £100,000 could soon be a thing of the past. An increasingly detached underclass are the real victims of our dysfunctional housing market argues the author Mark Braund in today’s Guardian. Making affordable housing a central part of