ROOF Blog archive

It is D-Day for Home Information Packs (HIPs) as they finally become law today, although many concerns still persist over their introduction. Fears remain that there is still a shortage of inspectors, particularly of energy assessors, which delayed the original May start date. Local authorities say they will face difficulties in ensuring compliance, especially if ‘rogue’ estate agents say they have commissioned a HIP but haven’t. Critics have pointed out that the £200 penalty for those who do not obtain a pack is less than the actual cost of a pack – expected to be anything from £350 to £500. The government has said that HIPs should cover all homes by the end of the year if today’s initial roll-out proves ‘trouble free’.

A landmark court ruling in the Court of Appeal testing the Disability Discrimination Act against existing housing law ruled that councils and housing associations could be breaking the law if they evict disabled tenants – even if they are months behind on their rent. The court found that the tenant, a schizophrenic who was not taking this medication when he let his flat while waiting for a right to buy claim to be processed, could not have been sufficiently aware of the nature or consequence of his action because of his disability.

An application by the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association to turn a six-bedroom house in a leafy suburb of Surrey into accommodation for families of service personnel who have lost limbs while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has come up against serious NIMBY opposition. More than 100 residents of Ashtead have complained to their council saying that the presence of service families will increase traffic and may lead to terrorist activities in the area. The attitude of the objectors has angered military personnel nationwide and a petition to Downing Street has collected more than 33,000 signatures.

A village in the Peak District has become a battleground between the UK’s modern legal system and ancient feudal laws. The title ‘lord of the manor’ can be purchased for as little as several thousands of pounds at auction, and the purchase of one title – Lord of the Manor of Alstonefield by a business in Wales has provoked a dispute over the ownership of the village greens and grass verges. The lack of certainty in rights of way and who owns what has unintentionally lead to reducing house sales in the area, and resulted in a £16,000 public inquiry which resolved less than half the disputed land. The Law Commission in England and Wales is considering a project to abolish feudal land law.

HIPs are back. On Wednesday 1 August, Home Information Packs for houses of four bedrooms or more will be (re)introduced. But the Conservative shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, Eric Pickles believes that HIPs could be used to surrepitiously raise council tax. The Tories believe that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), the body responsible for deciding a property’s council tax band, has applied for access to the information contained in the HIPs which they could then use to assess tax rates. The government denies that information will be made availabe to the VOA.

This news comes hot on the heels of a report by credit ratings agency, Fitch, that the UK housing market is the world’s second most overvalued market after France. The report found that UK house prices are at least 20 per cent overvalued compared with the long-run trend, with household incomes, and with rents. Along with high consumer debt the UK’s economy is seen as vulnerable to a rise in interest rates.

The government-approved count of the number of homeless has again been criticised. Manchester-based drugs charity, Lifeline, has disputed government calculations that there were seven people sleeping rough in Manchester, claiming that there are between 230 and 400 homeless people in the area. The charity says that the count was carried out over one night only, with counters told they were to avoid entering areas regarded as dangerous, and to only include those people who were ‘bedded down’ for the night. The system for a counting rough sleepers in England has remained the same for the past ten years.

Glasgow Housing Association, has finally appointed a new chief executive - Taroub Zahran. Ms Zahran has been Acting Chief Exccutive of the GHA since February of this year, after joining the organisation in November 2002. The post has been vacant since Michael Lennon quit in January.

A new survey from insurer Scottish Widows shows that graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to get on the housing ladder. Nearly 60 per cent of people who have graduated in the past 10 years have been unable to buy their own home.

Following the announcement two days ago that US housing sales suffered their worst fall in nearly five months, it appears that the rest of the world has the financial jitters. Panic selling and big falls were the order of the day on the world’s stock markets yesterday.

In the UK, the effect of interest rate rises is starting to kick in. According to the British Bankers’ Association, last month’s gross mortgage lending amount of £21.5 billion was only 5 percent higher than the same time last year, suggesting in real terms that lending is decreasing. There were 8 per cent fewer mortgages approved in June 07 than than a year earlier, although the average loan approved was 16 per cent higher, at £159,600.

Also yesterday, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced its shortlist for the Stirling Prize, the £20,000 award to the designers of the building that makes the greatest contribution to British architecture. Of the six buildings nominated, only two are actually in the UK. Is it a coincidence that just a few weeks ago RIBA announced a new policy document calling for an introduction of minimum space standards for all new homes, saying ‘No more shoddy ‘Noddy’ boxes’?

A report out today by the Prudential has found that the cost of living for the elderly has risen much faster than the national average. According to the report, annual expenditure of people aged between 65 and 74 increased by 9 per cent as opposed to the national average of 4 per cent.

Nationwide Building Society today announced that house prices stalled in July. House price inflation rates returned to single figures, rising at an annual rate of 9.9 per cent, slower than the 10.6 per cent rate predicted, and less than the 11.1 per cent rate a month earlier in June.

The floods that have brought chaos throughout the UK continue to make news, as authorities realise they are dealing with one of the biggest public health crisis in decades. More than 350,000 people need to rely on bottled water for all their cooking and drinking needs and around 10,000 people have been removed from their homes for their own safety. Good news for Severn Trent though. As the water supplier to Gloucestershire, one of the worst affected areas, the company expects to remain on course to make profits of nearly £300 million this year.

As insurance claims look likely to top £3 billion from flood damage, insurance companies have warned that premiums are set to increase possibly 15 to 20 per cent, and that they may withdraw cover for some of the 2.2 million properties built on flood plains.

Click on this link for a short summary of the Green Paper launched yesterday. The full document and supporting papers can be downlodaded here.

A full transcript of Yvette Cooper’s speech and the responses from the opposition parties and individual MPs can be downloaded here.

Jack Dromey of union Unite said: “Gordon Brown has listened to the millions struggling to buy or rent a home. This is a recognition of the key strategic role of councils as a builder and provider of affordable homes for rent.”

But Jill Craig, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said housebuilding targets would be futile without changes to the planning system to release land.

And Tory Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: “The PM’s higher taxes have made it harder to get on the housing ladder. First time buyers pay an average of £1,500 in stamp duty, in 1997 it was nothing.”

The National Housing Federation claimed the government had got its maths wrong: “They need to invest £11.6bn, not the £8bn proposed in the green paper,” said David Orr, the federation’s chief executive. Attempting to squeeze 70,000 homes out of £8bn “could bankrupt the housing association sector within five years”, as it would not be able to support the borrowing needed to build them.

Roof editorial board member, Steve Wilcox warned that the focus on first time buyers is overlooking the problem of older single person households who cannot afford to move into supported housing as they age. “There needs to be more thought about shared ownership for older households, not just for first-time buyers,” said Wilcox in the FT.

The Local Government Association said moves to allow local authorities to build council houses again “would represent an historic break with the past”. But it, too, queried whether the £8bn investment in affordable housing was sufficient to hit the homes target.

But the most disapproval to the Green Paper, perhaps not unsurprisingly given the weather, is against the decision to build new houses on flood plains. Again the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors commented saying that housebuilding targets would prove futile unless the infrastructure to support them was put in place, adding a warning that any use of flood plains would bring a big bill for flood defences.

The Green Party’s Darren Johnson said: “Our dash for homes could create streets of flood victims in the future.” And the Association of British Insurers warned planners to think carefully about the siting of developments.

Fortunately we had the Daily Mail to hand to keep our eyes on the true issues in the housing crisis, and it hasn’t anything to do with weather!

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 by 2010 – a 50 per cent increase in three years, and a 130 per cent increase since 2004.

The highlights of the paper are expected to include:

The government plans to spend £6.5bn on social housing and at least £8bn in affordable homes over the next three years.

A target of 25,000 shared equity and shared ownership homes to be funded by the Housing Corporation.

In expanding the existing Open Market HomeBuy scheme, the government is set to launch a 17.5 per cent equity loan product.

Building up to 100,000 homes in at least five ‘eco-towns’.

A ‘housing and planning delivery grant’ to direct extra resources to councils who build the most houses, while penalising those who have not identified at least five years’ worth of sites ready for development. And if local councils fail to bid for cash to build the new homes, ministers will use compulsory purchase orders under the New Towns Act 1981 to force the developments to go ahead.

Somewhat controversially, especially with today’s reports of looting and panic buying throughout the areas affected by the current wet weather, the paper is also expected to encourage the government to give the go-ahead for thousands of new homes to be built in areas at risk of flooding. Already 10 per cent of England’s housing and population is already living in ‘at risk’ areas, and the past few weeks has shown just how susceptible some areas of the country are to flooding.

Several newspapers have been looking at yesterday’s Court of Appeal ruling where an ex-wife who received a share in her marital home after her divorce 20 years ago now faces being evicted from her home as her former husband faces bankruptcy. The judge ruled that regardless of the terms of the couple’s divorce agreement, the husband’s creditors can demand the sale of the home they once shared to recoup what they are owed.

Britain’s largest mortgage lender Halifax said today the average price of a property in London was now £313,122. At the same time average house prices in the South East breached the £250,000 mark to stand at £259,904. However some regions saw modest falls during the second quarter of the year, with prices dropping by 2.8 per cent in Wales, 1.1 per cent in the West Midlands and 0.4 per cent in the South West.

And yet, the Commission for Rural Communities ’state of the Countryside’ report released today, show that throughout England there has been an exodus of young people out of the countryside and into cities. Nearly 400,000 fewer young people aged 15-29 now live in rural areas compared to twenty years ago.

Perhaps they are all moving to Manchester. The city appears to be reversing the so-called ‘doughnut’ effect – the theory used to describe the depopulation of city centres where residential, business and retail activity is pushed to the outer suburbs and the inner city is left to rot.

Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, has raised its house price inflation forecast for the year from 4 per cent to 6 per cent, despite higher interest rates. The bank made the change after house prices rose faster in the first six months of the year than it had expected because of a stronger economy and shortage of new home construction.

Research suggests a third of UK homeowners now have difficulties with their finances. The housing charity Shelter has been contacted by 10,000 people so far this year asking for advice on repossession.

The Consumers Association magazine, Which?, says some banks are charging up to four times the originally-agreed amount to close down a home loan.

A National Audit Office report shows six million Britons are living in households where nobody works – costing the taxpayer almost £13 billion a year in benefits alone.

Single parents will have to seek work to get benefits once their youngest child is seven from 2010, under welfare changes announced today. Peter Hain said there was a need to “re-ignite the jobs crusade” from when Labour came to power in 1997.

The proposals come the day after JRF research found the gap between rich and poor was wider than ever. Peter Hain claimed the new plan was at the forefront of the government’s drive to eradicate child poverty and “in reaching out to the hardest to help, aims to offer true social mobility”. The Guardian leader says Brown must make the argument for redistribution of wealth to tackle inequality – and mentions housing as a key cause of growing economic division.

Economist and so-called ‘architect of Gordon Brown’s housing policy’, Kate Barker has repeated her view that it is okay to build homes on the greenbelt. Her rationale, described in the Guardian, is that it is far better to consider slight incursions into the green belt than building new communities further afield in the countryside and encouraging more commuting, and car use.

MPs have recommended a new hurdle to housebuilding. A Commons committee has recommended that new homes and schools should not be built within 60 metres of high voltage power lines until the link with childhood cancers is better understood by scientists. They said buyers should be provided with information on the level of electromagnetic fields within homes before they buy.

The wealth gap is at its widest for more than 40 years, creating ghettoes of the richest and the poorest that have virtually nothing to do with each other, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report finds today. In parts of the South-East the ‘average’ family is an endangered species and ‘urban clusters’ of poor people in city centres are surrounded by wealthy households concentrated on the outskirts. Since 1970 the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen, but those below the poverty line have risen. Meanwhile, the number of ‘asset-wealthy households’ rose dramatically between 1999 and 2003 with nearly one in four of families in this category because of rising house prices.

A second report by the foundation said the public felt uncomfortable about the big gap between rich and poor. During the past 20 years, a ‘large and enduring’ majority of people – 73 per cent – felt this way.

A report by the Commission for Rural Communities shows there are 400,000 fewer young people aged 15-29 in rural areas than 20 years ago, contributing significantly to a rural demographic which is both older – and ageing faster – than urban areas.

The Daily Mail reports that some leading lenders have increased their arrangement fees by more than 600 per cent in the last two years.

Gordon Brown’s promise to release surplus public sector land is most welcome, it would account for at most 5 per cent of the total new homes we need to meet the three million target by 2020, says a sceptical Homebuilders Federation boss, Stewart Baseley, writing to The Times.

ROOF has confirmed with the CLG that the housing green paper announced last week by Gordon Brown has been postponed until 23rd or 24th July – a week later than expected.

Yvette Cooper has specifically promised more council homes, saying: ‘There are certain difficulties around the way that the housing revenue account works and the way that technical rules work and we are looking at greater flexibility for councils… [they] should be able to build council housing.’

Business comment in the Telegraph says delivering on these big promises is all about land and planning. (NB: the next edition of ROOF magazine will concentrate on the land question. To subscribe go to www.roofmag.org.uk)

Simon Jenkins blames ‘stark raving’ housing lobbyists for promoting panic about housing. ‘There is no housing crisis. There is just a housing market. There is no housing “need”, unless you are sleeping in the street. There is just housing demand and housing supply.’

Sun readers comment on new house building. Many say the rate of immigration, rather than lack of housing, is the key issue.

Elsewhere, http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb/Campaigns/News/news_housing_120707.htm">Help the Aged urged government to ensure new homes and neighbourhoods were geared towards our ageing population.

Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth, will chair the group that will write the housing section of Labour’s next manifesto.

Two weeks after Gordon Brown called low-cost housing ‘one of the great causes of our time’, Society Guardian looks at how housing has shot up the political ladder.

The prime minister is expected to break with tradition and set out his parliamentary priorities for next year ahead of November’s Queen’s speech. Housing will be at the heart of the programme, Brown told the BBC, with a range of measures including simplification of planning rules to make it easier to build more homes, and measures to help lenders offer more long-term fixed deals.

The Telegraph reports that homebuyers are being charged mortgage arrangement fees up to 10 times higher than four years ago by banks and building societies.

Rising house prices, interest rates and tax mean that homes are less affordable than ever, according to figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears comment on Tuesday that house building took ‘priority’ over environmental concerns has prompted fiery responses from Neil Sindon, CPRE policy director and shadow planning minister Jacqui Lait.

Kate Barker will be taking questions from members of the London Assembly planning and spatial development committee tomorrow at 10am at City Hall. The meeting can be viewed as a live webcast.

£14million package of support for the areas worst hit by the recent flooding.

Shelter. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has calculated that the estimated 7,000 flooded households not covered by contents insurance could lose up to £30,000, reports the Telegraph.

First-time buyers are paying an average of £1,458 in stamp duty to get on the property ladder, according research from the think tank Policy Exchange.

inaugural speech as President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), American Author Bill Bryson warns of the need to safeguard the ‘miracle’ of the British countryside. ‘Something I have often wondered is why we don’t make the whole of England a National Park,’ said Bryson.With consumer debt hitting record levels, teenagers will be given formal lessons in how to manage their spending. A new subject – economic wellbeing and financial capability – is to be introduced to the curriculum for all 11 to 16-year-olds.

Nearly half a million mortgage holders have missed monthly repayments in the last six months, according to new research from moneyexpert.com.The Observer reproduces Howard Springett’s research for ROOF showing that, between 2003 and 2006, reposessions at Kingston-upon-Thames County Court almost doubled, with more than 50 per cent of clients holding mortgage contracts with sub-prime lenders.

The Times offers advice to a young couple hoping to take advantage of the Social HomeBuy scheme.

The latest hike in interest rates could cost homeowners in Scotland an extra £100 a month warns Shelter Scotland. Home owners in London could have to shell out an extra £130 on a typical £125,000 mortgage, warns thisislondon.

And things look set to get worse says the FT. Interest rates are all but certain to hit 6 per cent by the end of the year reports the paper.

The Conservative social justice policy group, chaired by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, will unveil a report on personal debt next Tuesday. The survey warns that personal debts have reached the equivalent of an average £54,452 per household. It also found that up to nine million Britons confessed to having a serious debt problem and calls for radical steps to curb high street lending.

Yvette Cooper has told ministerial colleagues that the new housing green paper will allow councils to build more homes suitable for families – not herald a return to the council estates of the 1950s.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has produced a new consumer factsheet to help borrowers avoid saddling themselves with unamangeble debts when taking out a sub-prime mortgage. The move follows yesterday’s announcement that the Financial Services Authority has started enforcement action against five sub-prime mortgage firms.

The goverenment is set to announce a housing consultation green paper on 12 July.

Citizens Advice has warned that today’s expected rate rise increase could tip already stretched borrowers over the edge. ‘We’re seeing more and more people coming in for help with motgage or secured loan arrears, Sue Edwards from Citizens Advice told the BBC.

New research from the Woolwich says first-time buyers are paying close to a third of their income in mortgage charges, rising to almost 50% for people in their 20s in some parts of London.

Families in Yorkshire, forced out by the floods, may be homeless until Christmas says the Express.

People are more frequently using their housing equity to fund spending, according to new figures from the Bank of England.

The ultimate eco home - a cave in Worcester - has been sold for £100,000

Tax dodgers could have their homes seized by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) without a court order, under new proposals.

Planning bosses in Powys, Wales, have held talks with 40 small councils to try and address the chronic shortage of affordable housing in the county.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has started enforcement action against five sub-prime mortgage firms. The action comes after the regulator found weaknesses in responsible lending practices in its latest review of the behaviour of lenders within the sub-prime mortgage market.

A new report from the Young Foundation – Good Neighbours - has called for housing associations to work more closely with local authorities to give their residents a louder voice in local communities.

Islington Council has withdrawn its draft housing strategy following repeated warnings from the London Mayor that it failed to meet agreed targets on building affordable homes in the borough.

A 13 metre by six metre mobile home, parked in North Wales, has gone on sale for £500,000.

Supermarket chain Tesco has launched a new online home selling service much to the chagrin of estate agents.

Members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee are expected to raise rates by a quarter-point to 5.75% tomorrow.

Latest figures from the Land Registry reveal that the prices of flats in most parts of England and Wales are not keeping up with those of houses.

A report by consultancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers has found that average monthly mortgage repayments in Northern Ireland are now 150% of average weekly take-home pay – almost twice the level of a decade ago.

A new report from the Young Foundation – Good Neighbours – calls for Housing associations to work more closely with local authorities to give their residents a louder voice in local communities.

A London branch of the Mears Group is under investigation by the Housing Corporation after a BBC investigation uncovered evidence that suggested the branch was falsely signing off repairs when they were incomplete.

An alliance of homelessness charities in Ireland is seeking a meeting with environment, heritage and local government minister John Gormley to push for more action in meeting pre-election pledges to end homelessness by the 2010 general election.

The Jersey Homeless Outreach Group says the number of islanders sleeping rough fell from 84 to 50 last year. The group says the people are spending an average of six days sleeping rough, though one person spent more than 100 nights sleeping outdoors.

Both the Mail and the Telegraph are up in arms over government figures that show 200,000 social homes in the UK – five per cent of the total – were given to immigrants last year.

The Daily Telegraph’s affordability index, calculated by Lombard Street Research, claims that house prices are now the most overvalued for 15 years. The index, which compares prices and mortgage costs with incomes, has dropped by 7 per cent over the past 12 months.