Lunchtime news Thursday 6th August 2007

Commentators have been busy following yesterday’s announcement from the Bank of England that interest rates are staying put. The Times contacted a number of economists and estate agents to get their take. Nationwide thinks demand is cooling and this will be reflected in the moderating of house-price growth. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has a more pessimistic outlook, expecting the number of repossessions to continue to rise by over 50 per cent from the current level to more than 45,000 over the next year. An economist at Capital Economics thinks interest rates will rise to six per cent this year, but that any forced sales will not be large enough to trigger falls across the country as a whole. Most agree that the first time buyer market has slowed down.

English Partnerships has announced its shortlist of five housebuilders to build Britain’s first carbon-neutral village. Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey – Britain’s two largest builders; Places for People – a housing association; and MJ Gleesons and Edward Ware, two private firms, are vying to build 150 energy efficient houses on former state-owned land outside Bristol, six years ahead of the government’s deadline for ensuring that all new homes are carbon-neutral. It is believed that some of the bidders may plan to build the homes at a loss, absorbing the extra costs, as a marketing tool for what is expected to be a fast growing sector over the next few years.

A series of eight reports into the experiences and attitudes of children by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found the gap between outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from advantaged backgrounds is wider in the UK than in most other similar countries, with one in four children affected. The research also shows that children in poverty believe themselves that they face reduced educational prospects and future life chances.

And finally, a Labour MP has been accused of hypocrisy after buying a housing association property which she had vowed to help save. Emily Thornberry was approached by several tenants from the Ujima Housing Association which specialises in homes for black and asian families, after they were advised that the properties were being sold. The MP denies the claim that she was approached by the tenants before the sales went through. The £572,000 property is now being rented out as ‘cheap accommodation for youngsters’ that the MP and her husband know, and who would not be ‘able to afford to live in Islington otherwise’.