Lunchtime news Friday 12 September 2023

Bank of England governor Mervyn King ruled out an extension to the special liquidity scheme and warned the government not to try to offset the mortgage lending drought by bankrolling the market. He said any public sector funding would ‘severely undermine’ attempts by banks to balance their books. Speaking at a Treasury select committee he added that the UK faced a ‘difficult, but temporary period’ where inflation will remain high and growth weak.

Caroline Flint has announced a £200,000 initiative to encourage homeless charities to employ former rough sleepers. The government hopes to encourage around 800 people to find work in the sector during the coming two years. Focusing on the 46 largest homeless organisations initially before moving to smaller charities, the money will be used to set up training course in areas such as IT, finance and client counselling.

The latest figures for statutory homelessness came out yesterday. In the second quarter of 2008 a total of 22,170 households were found to be homeless, of which 15,690 households were accepted as homeless and in priority need in the second quarter of 2008. This is 1.6 per cent higher than the previous quarter, but 1.8 per cent lower than in the same period the previous year. Overall the number of households accepted as homeless by local authorities in England has been decreasing since the fourth quarter of 2004.

Houses in the UK are the most cramped in Europe. The curator of the British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale who made the claims added the cause for why the quality was falling is that England and Wales are the only parts of Europe where house building is unregulated by a minimum space standard. Floor space is on average almost a quarter smaller than in Denmark which has the most spacious living accommodation. London mayor Boris Johnson is introducing a minimum standard on all publicly funded housing in London in November. However, house builders have warned that introducing standards would increase costs and slow down house building.

The future of eco-towns is in jeopardy after a judge ruled the programme should be brought before the High Court. The judgment follows an application by the lobby group BARD (better accessible responsible development). It claims the eco-town programme is unlawful because the public was not consulted properly about the ‘location and principle’ of eco-towns. If the claim is successful the Government may have to start again with proper consultation.

Home information packs are back in the news as the government changes the length of validity of a key part of the package – the energy performance certificate. Originally planned to be valid for one year, the government announced that it would now be valid for three years. It is believed the government is worried that as the housing market slows down to a near standstill homeowners may need to outlay for two or three certificates if the house remains stuck on the market.