Lunchtime news Monday 6 October 2023

The South West has become a ‘hotbed’ of repossession according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Justice. The number of repossession claims issued in Devon and Cornwall were up by 41 per cent this spring compared with a year ago, as hundreds of people are being forced out of their homes and into temporary accommodation, including caravan parks, each month. One court in Penzance saw 50 repossession cases in a morning. Citizens Advice said the problem is that there are lower than average wages and higher than average house prices in the South West - in some areas house prices are 23 times the average wage. Experts think the numbers will get worse in autumn.

More and more mortgage deals are disappearing – according to Moneyfacts there are now only 60 deals available for borrowers with a 5 per cent deposit, down from 384 at the start of April and from 860 a year ago. Even if borrowers can find a 95 per cent home loan they are being asked to pay interest rates of 7 per cent or more, ‘noticeably higher’ than mortgages with a larger deposit which are at around 6 per cent or less, or charged with higher up-front ‘higher lending charges’. Mortgages for 100 per cent or more of a property’s value disappeared at the start of the year.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has however, dismissed claims that buy-to-let is dead. Since the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley analysts have feared the market had ‘come off the rails’. But the NLA has said that this is fundamentally not the case, and that only 25 to 30 per cent of landlords use buy-to-let mortgages, meaning that the majority were untouched by the situation at Bradford & Bingley. A spokesperson from the NLA said it was simply not true that the nation’s landlords are ‘now facing some sort of crisis’.

Meanwhile a number of leading registered social landlords (RSLs) including the Guinness Partnership, William Sutton Homes and Genesis Homes have joined together to create a new property marketing service for shared ownership properties. It aims to provide a more professional and cost-effective solution to the nationwide marketing of affordable housing. Guinness partnership said that RSLs spend millions annually marketing their properties through companies like Rightmove and Primelocation, so it made sense to do what ‘estate agents did years ago when they worked together to set up the likes of Rightmove…’

In response to the regulator’s initial report on the energy market, the National Housing Federation (NHF) has slammed Ofgem saying it failed some of the poorest customers in the country and should be scrapped. Ofgem demanded that big energy companies should stop charging poor people on prepayment meters a higher rate for gas and electricity, but favoured a voluntary scheme to tackle the problem.

Westminster City Council has counted its lowest number of rough sleepers ever. The number of rough sleepers has decreased by more than 20 per cent – from 89 to 69 since March this year, and is the fourth count in a row to show a decline. Three years ago Westminster became the first council in the country to move the core part of its outreach services for homeless people from the street and into buildings allowing for extended and rapid assessment, and last year the council said it helped 750 people off the street and into accommodation.