Lunchtime news Tuesday 4 December 2023

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 should be refused insurance to stamp out the threat of a million more flats and houses being erected in high-risk areas, according to the Environment Agency. Last year 13 major developments including housing estates and holiday parks were given building permission against agency advice. The agency also described a further 5,000 sites of ‘critical infrastructure’ as at risk of flooding.

A poll by the Guardian newspaper has found that Britons live in fear of growing old in a society that fails to ‘respect the over-65s or provide adequate support for those in need’. The number of older people is set to increase by more than 60 per cent during the next 25 years, and the poll found that 40 per cent of Britons fear being lonely; 66 per cent are ‘frightened’ by the prospect of moving into a care home; more than 90 per cent did not think they could live on the state pension but would need to use savings.

A cross party group of MPs is expected to introduce a private member’s bill this week in a bid to prevent the government backpedalling on rules that require construction companies to fit renewable energy sources to new buildings. The bill will aim to stop the building industry from using ‘off-site renewables’ as part of the 10 per cent contribution.

The subprime buy to let mortgage market in the UK has virtually collapsed as lenders have withdrawn almost 90 per cent of deals. Since July the number of subprime deals has fallen from more than 1,300 to less than 150 today. More than half of buy-to-let landlords with bad credit histories have also disappeared in the past month, as investors needing to remortgage are no longer offered favourable rates.

While over in the States, mortgages lenders and regulators are close to finalising an aid deal for homeowners hit by the credit crunch. As hundreds of thousands of sub prime mortgage holders could default on repayments, it is thought that mortgage rates will be temporarily frozen.

Momentum is apparently building for a new EU-wide ’super regulator’ to oversee financial markets and clamp down on speculators. Italy’s finance minister, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, has sent a letter to EU colleagues calling for the plan to be discussed urgently at today’s finance ministers meeting. One spokesperson said that ‘pressure is mounting… Financial institutions should be subject to essentially the same rules irrespective of where they operate in the Single Market’. It is expected that Alistair Darling will oppose the plans.

And finally, the Welsh Assembly is looking to suspend the right to buy council homes in a bid to tackle the shortfall of affordable housing. The assembly wants to apply for powers from to suspend tenants’ right to buy in some areas of Wales, particularly in rural areas. The number of council homes in Wales has halved since the scheme was introduced in the 1980s, and more than 80,000 people are currently on the waiting list for social housing.