Lunchtime news 8 August 2023

The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) published new research today showing how the 2012 Olympic games in London will add almost £4 billion to construction costs in London and the South East over the next five years. Construction costs for the games will account for over half of the total £9.35 billion bill for the event and TPA suggests that costs will increase by an extra £921 billion for private housing, £640 million for public housing, and £444 million for infrastructure such as public transport.

The government’s beleagured home information packs have come under fire today, after a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) attacked ministers for hiring consultants to develop the packs who had a financial interest in a company involved in the scheme. The report, prompted by a complaint from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) concluded that there was a ‘clear conflict of interest’ and that Communities and Local Government ‘fell far short of the appropriate practice’ in developing the standards of the certification scheme. The NAO says it will shortly conduct a more thorough investigation of HIPs.

Most papers are commentating on the effects of yesterday’s Band of England quarterly inflation report which projected that inflation would fall to the 2 per cent target in two years, as long as interest rates rise by a further quarter point. Most experts accepted that interest rates almost certainly will increase to six per cent some time later this year, even though the Bank has acknoweldeged that families are already spending more of their incomes on mortgage payments than at any time since the housing crash in the early 1990s.

And finally, a Dolly Parton fan, who regularly and loudly played Dolly Parton music at home from 11 in the morning until early the following day, is facing eviction, after ignoring repeated council anti-noise orders. On 27 July police and council officials raided the home and seized stereos, CDs and televisions before bringing legal action of an asbo and possible eviction.