ROOF Blog archive

Details of Gordon Brown’s plan to boost social housing were revealed in the House of Commons yesterday. He announced he would pump £2.1 billion into building affordable housing, including an extra 20,000 homes to be built in the next two years on top of the 90,000 already in the pipeline. He said he would triple the £600 million announced in the Budget to cover new council and housing association homes – with half the extra £1.5 billion coming from the Communities and Local Government budget and the other half redirected from other government departments including transport, health and schools.

John Healey is expected to announce details of a consultation to allow councils to keep the proceeds of council house sales and the revenue from rent, after revealing last night that he would ‘dismantle’ the current council housing finance system. Under the current system the money is returned to the Treasury where it is reallocated to local authorities based on housing need.

A two-year investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Local Government Association, whose conclusions will be released next week, has found that immigrants were not jumping to the front of queues for public services, although the belief was widespread. The majority of new migrants (60 per cent) tended to end up in private rented accommodation because they were not eligible for council accommodation, another 18 per cent bought their own home and only 11 per cent were in council properties, compared with 17 per cent among the general population.

A 0.9 per cent increase in house prices in June has fuelled hopes that the property market it stabilising. Figures from Nationwide Building Society show that the average house price has increased just below one per cent for the month in June, and by the same amount in the three months to June, compared to a 0.4 per cent fall in the quarter to May. The annual rate of decline stands at 9.3 per cent, down from 11.3 per cent in May.

And in further news, the Bank of England has said there were a total of 43,414 mortgages approved in May, up from 43,191 in April, but down on the expected figure of around 46,000. Mortgage landing in May rose by just £324 million, a third of the level in April and a tenth the amount loaned at the same time a year ago. It was the weakest increase since records began in April 1993.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the UK economy shrank by 2.44 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 – the fastest rate in more than 50 years, and much worse than expected. Gross domestic product has fallen 4.9 per cent in year on year figures – the largest drop on record.

In related news the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has told the government to cut its budget deficit by a larger amount than it currently intends, or it will face major problems in the coming years. The OECD said that Britain’s deficit would climb to 90 per cent of economic output – much higher than the 80 per cent projected by the Treasury in the Budget – and in order to maintain the economy the government should target ‘more ambitious’ budget cut backs, rather than raising tax.

The latest figures of those homeowners approaching the mortgage rescue scheme for help in paying mortgages have been released today. A further four households have been accepted, bringing the total to six which have benefited, but the number approaching the local authorities for help has remained steady.

Energy efficiency and environmental standards are becoming an important factor for buyers of new-built homes, a survey for New Homes Marketing Board has found. The ‘green factor’ is now one of the top three criteria for people buying a new house, overtaking traditional benefits such as location and value for money. Top of the list is the provision of a garden or outside space at 51 per cent, followed by a garage or private off-street parking at 47 per cent.

Squatters have taken over the home of married Labour MPs Ann and Alan Keen, who have recently come under fire for claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenses on a second home located a few miles away. The squatters said they moved in after a neighbour said the house had been empty for more than a year, and say they have the support of local residents. The BBC say they have obtained a letter from the local council telling the couple that ‘urgent action’ is required from them to explain why their main house is unoccupied.

Gordon Brown is expected to announce a proposal that will require councils to take account of applicants’ connections to the area when allocating homes, as part of a multi-million pound plan to build more affordable homes. The prime minister hopes the move will increase stock in both council housing and affordable private homes in the coming two years, while creating thousands of new jobs in the process. Funds will be made available to the HomeBuy Direct scheme which helps first-time buyers into the market, while councils will be given discretion to provide social housing to local people even if they are not considered priority cases.

Shelter has warned the government and mortgage lenders to start preparing for a second wave of arrears and repossessions that will hit the UK in the next two years. It says hundreds of thousands of homeowners face being repossessed or falling into arrears as the effects of rising unemployment, higher interest rates and mortgage support schemes ending start to take effect. Shelter has seen a 250 per cent increase in the number of calls to the helpline regarding mortgage arrears in the past year.

House prices remained steady in June for the second month in a row, while demand from potential buyers outstripped the supply of homes on the market, analysis from Hometrack has found. The average cost of a property remained at £155,600 for the past two months, while the average rate at which house prices are declining in year on year figures has slowed, down 8.7 per cent in June from 9.6 per cent in May. Hometrack said that rising sales, a dwindling supply of homes on the market and increasing demand were ‘underpinning’ prices at the current level.

Mental health charities warn that banks provide little support for customers with mental health issues, and in some cases exacerbate their conditions by treating debtors insensitively and selling them unsuitable products. A government thinktank Foresight suggests that debt collection agencies often ‘deliberately produce fear, anxiety and mental stress’ for debtors, and creditors needed to make stricter assessments to determine which borrowers are in a position to meet their financial obligations.

Meanwhile, debt charities have attacked high street banks for repossessing homes to recover credit card debts of just several thousand pounds. Citizens Advice has warned borrowers struggling to repay credit cards or personal loans they are at risk of losing their homes because lenders are increasing securing debts against a borrower’s property. Citizens Advice said that creditors are using the courts to ‘intimidate’ vulnerable debtors into paying unaffordable amounts. It points to research showing that since 2000 there has been a 722 per cent increase in the number of charging order applications.

Borrowers with tracker or variable rate mortgages have benefited from a 17 per cent fall in the cost of owning a home in the past year. However, everyone else including tenants and those on fixed rate deals, have faced an increase of 4.5 per cent in the cost of household expenses. Energy costs rose by 13 per cent, water by 5 per cent, council tax and domestic rates by 3 per cent and the cost of repair work by 5 per cent, but for borrowers whose mortgage repayments have fallen these increases have not be enough to offset the 47 per cent they saved on interest repayments, the average mortgage rate falling to 3.62 per cent in April this year, from 5.8 per cent at the same time last year.

Treasury figures show that welfare payments will exceed income tax receipts by almost £25 billion in 2009/10. Treasury is expecting to take in £140.5 billion on gross income tax receipts, and pay out £164.7 billion in social security benefits, growing to £170.9 billion in 2010/11, equal to government spend on the NHS, schools and universities combined. The Treasury has blamed the worsening state of public finances on the ‘global financial crisis and recession’. 

In Scotland, the government has promised to pour £9 million into a new social housing pot. Communities minister Alex Neil announced the payout at a construction conference in Edinburgh, saying that 17 Scottish local authorities will benefit, and more than 1,300 new council homes will be built this year as a result.

Stirling council has become the first local authority in Scotland to ban the practice of evicting tenants who fall behind on their rent payments. Latest figures show the authority had evicted 23 such tenants in 2008, in moves the councillors called ‘draconian’. Shelter Scotland said it was delighted with the move and called on other councils to follow Stirling’s lead, stating that more than 97 per cent of the 3,577 evictions by councils and housing associations in 2007 and 2008 were for tenants who had fallen into arrears.

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, is considering plans to stage a two-day emergency cabinet session soon after the Tories gain power, at which cabinet ministers would be collectively bound into large-scale spending cuts, according to shadow cabinet sources. The idea is modelled on some of the cabinet discussions held by the Labour government in the 1970s, and would bind high-spending department heads into an agreed decision on how spending will be brought under control. The Conservatives have said they may need to cut public spending by as much 10 per cent in the three years from 2011, excluding health and international development, to bring public debt under control.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has warned that the nation faces a ‘long hard slog’ to recovery, criticised the government for running too high a level of borrowing as the nation entered the present crisis, and called on the Chancellor to produce a ‘credible statement’ of how he plans to get the borrowing down. Mr King’s outspoken remarks, given in testimony to the Treasury Select Committee and close to breaking the convention that the bank does not become embroiled in political arguments, came as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development said that the British government’s finances were sinking into the red faster than those of any other major industrial nation. The OECD forecast that the British economy would shrink by 4.3 per cent this year, with unemployment set to approach the 10 per cent mark: ‘The financial crisis has severely impaired the supply of credit and house prices have fallen sharply, thus restraining business and household spending.’

The nationalised bank Northern Rock has set much tougher guidelines for mortgage lending, it has been revealed. Despite ministers exhorting banks to lend more to kick-start the housing market, the government-controlled bank has set a cap of 2.1 times salary for poorer workers. Wealthier people are allowed to borrow 4.5 times salary, with a maximum of 4.2 times salary for wealthy couples. The arrangements are revealed today in a report by the Commons public accounts committee into the collapse of the Newcastle-based bank nearly two years ago. The report details a memo to MPs from Sir Nick Macpherson, permanent secretary to the Treasury, showing that Northern Rock will lend a maximum of 85 per cent on properties. Although this is higher than Treasury guidelines, which recommend 70-80 per cent of property values, it is considerably lower than the 125 per cent mortgages or six times salary dished out by the bank in the run-up to its collapse nearly two years ago.

Northern cities such as Hull and Sunderland that were battered by industrial decline in the 1980s have become the blackspots for youth unemployment in this recession, according to a report that calls for the government to target financial help on the worst-hit areas. The Centre for Cities thinktank research, published today, shows where the unemployment rate among the under-25s has risen fastest. Hull comes top of the list, where almost one young person in 10 is claiming unemployment benefit, but Barnsley, Doncaster, Middlesbrough and Wigan also figure in the top 10. The only southern cities that feature are Swindon, and Hastings, where youth unemployment has now risen to more than 8 per cent.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchase rose to a 13-month high last month as buyers returned to the property market. The British Bankers Association said 31,162 loans were approved for people buying a property in May, 7 per cent up on April’s figure and 16 per cent higher than in May last year - the first annual increase since November 2006. However, the positive news was tainted by a report from ratings agency Fitch which showed the number of homes in negative equity will rise sharply as house prices continue to slide. The ongoing weakness in the remortgage market dragged down overall lending figures, with total advances of £7.7 billion the lowest since February 2001.

Concerns that Northern Rock will be able to abuse its government-owned status to beat rivals are mounting ahead of the publication next week of an EU investigation into state aid for the Newcastle-based lender. The much-anticipated document on the government’s plans to split Northern Rock into a ‘good’ bank, bolstered with £14 billion of taxpayer funds to fuel mortgage lending, and a ‘bad’ bank, containing most of the troublesome legacy loans, will be followed by a month when interested parties can lobby the European commission. The Building Societies Association is concerned that Northern Rock might be able to squeeze out its members, many of which are already struggling in the downturn in demand for home loans.

One in ten borrowers is in negative equity, a report shows. It warned that further falls in house prices could see the proportion soaring to one in three. The international ratings agency Fitch said its findings point to a surge in mortgage defaults and repossessions. It said the East Midlands – and in particular Northampton, Nottingham and Derby – had the highest concentrations of homeowners with negative equity. In Northampton, 23.6 per cent of homes are valued at less than the mortgage. But in some city centres the rate is even higher – the peak is central Birmingham with 31.2 per cent and Salford Quays, Manchester with 29.6 per cent.

Homebuyers were dealt a fresh blow when two more leading mortgage lenders raised the cost of their most popular fixed-rate home loan deals. They were the latest in a string of increases over the past few days, and tonight there were predictions of more to come. Nationwide said it was increasing the cost of some of its fixed-rate deals by up to 0.5 percentage points - 11 days after it last raised its fixed rates. And Woolwich, the mortgage arm of Barclays, is raising the cost of its five-year fixed-rate deals by a similar amount. Last week Britannia Building Society and state-owned Northern Rock increased their fixed-rates by up to 0.9 and 0.7 points respectively, despite the Bank of England leaving base rates unchanged at a record low of 0.5 per cent.

Cuts in interest rates and pressure on lenders to be lenient on people struggling with mortgages appear to have borne fruit, according to data published yesterday. The number of mortgages slipping into arrears in the first three months of the year dropped by 12 per cent from the previous quarter to just under 60,000, the Financial Services Authority reported. Most of the decline was in non-regulated mortgages, which are dominated by buy-to-let and interest-only loans, but regulated mortgages falling into arrears were also slightly lower. Repossessions rose by 13 per cent to more than 14,800 in the first three months of the year, up from 13,100 in the previous quarter. This rate of increase was significantly slower than the 20 per cent or more seen in the second and third quarters of last year.

MPs investigating the banking crisis are to examine mortgage arrears and repossessions. The Treasury committee announced yesterday that it would open a short investigation into households which were struggling with arrears or at risk of repossession. The committee will look at the number of homeowners in arrears, the type of borrower who has had their property repossessed, and the treatment by banks of customers facing repossession.

A hundred thousand people a month are being made redundant as the number out of work soars to a 13-year high. The jobless total has reached the highest since late 1996, just before Labour came to power. Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that 302,000 people were made redundant in the three months to April, 36,000 more than in the previous quarter and the most since records began in 1995. At the same time, the number of vacancies hit a record low. The number of people classed as officially out of work has soared to 2.26 million, an increase of 232,000 over the quarter and 605,000 over the past year. Britain’s unemployment rate is now 7.2 per cent, up 0.7 per cent from the previous three months.

The number of bosses who can see green shoots appearing in the economy has doubled since February, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. Some 37 per cent of business leaders now detect signs of recovery in their company’s sector – up from 32 per cent last month, 29 per cent in April and 18 per cent in February. But the survey of 203 businessmen and women suggests that the Government is getting little political credit. The ratings of both Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have dropped in the past month. Only 14 per cent of them have confidence in the Chancellor, his lowest rating since last September when the financial crisis broke out. Only 24 per cent think he understands business and only 26 per cent believe he is handling the economy responsibly.

English councils are sitting on £250 billion of property assets, but only 20 per cent of council finance directors have all the information they need to manage their estates, according to an Audit Commission report published today.The report points to the uphill struggle that local authorities will face in cutting costs as the government tries to trim ballooning public sector deficits.Bharat Shah, deputy chairman of the Audit Commission, said the simultaneous collapse of the property market and the parlous state of the public finances meant that councils were going to face years of straitened living.The Treasury wants the public sector to sell off £16 billion in assets by 2012 and to save a net £300 million by 2011 through improved management of public assets - for example, by selling or subletting surplus properties.

Tenants of landlords who bought properties during the buy-to-let boom are losing their homes in growing numbers, as exclusively revealed in the January/February issue of ROOF. Now the scale of the crisis is becoming clear as landlords find increasingly difficult to find mortgage payments. Buy-to-let properties are three times more likely to run into trouble than normal residential homes. In the first three months of this year, buy-to-let landlords lost 4,100 properties – 1,700 were repossessed and 2,400 handed to receivers to run. The problem for tenants is that they are usually unaware of the landlord’s difficulties and it’s only when the bailiffs come to evict them that they discover the property is about to be repossessed.

Cheltenham & Gloucester is repricing its entire fixed rate mortgage range offered through intermediaries from Tuesday. Halifax, which is also part of the Lloyds banking group, is raising the cost of selected fixed rate mortgages available through intermediaries from Tuesday. The two lenders declined to say by how much they were hiking their rates, but it is thought that C&G is raising its by between 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent, while Halifax is increasing its by between 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent. The move comes just days after Nationwide said it was increasing interest on all of its fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.86 per cent. Other lenders have since followed suit, including nationalised bank Northern Rock and the Chelsea Building Society, as well as a number of other smaller banks and building societies.

The burden of rising unemployment in England is falling mainly on the most deprived areas and threatens to undermine the government’s anti-poverty drive, Financial Times research has shown. An analysis of people signing on for the jobseeker’s allowance in the first four months of this year indicates nearly two-thirds of the 344,000 increase was in areas with above-average levels of deprivation. This confirms other data suggesting this downturn, far from being a mainly middle-class recession focused on south-east England, is primarily hitting low-income workers in the traditional industrial heartlands such as the Midlands and northern England. Unemployment, currently at 2.2 million, is likely to continue to rise for several months, the FT says.

The government is considering freeing up billions of pounds to build more council homes. Just 400 council homes were built in 2007, despite a waiting list which is expected to grow to five million by 2011. But the government is looking at letting councils keep profits from rents and right-to-buy schemes instead of passing them to the Treasury. This could unlock £72 billion to build 300,000 new homes over 10 years. Margaret Eaton, of the Local Government Association, said: ‘Allowing councils to keep the rent they collect and the proceeds from sales would be a huge boost to the economy. Thousands of homes could be built, improved or made more energy efficient if Government stopped taking this money.’ The LGA said 90,000 homes could be built in five years if the system was reformed. And, if councils were also freed from government debts, 300,000 homes could be built in a decade.

Almost half of all fixed rate mortgage deals now charge 5 per cent or more despite the Bank of England keeping interest rates at just 0.5 per cent, according to the Daily Telegraph. The finding comes after a week which saw several major high street lenders increase the rates on their fixed rates deals. The research by personal finance researchers Defaqto suggest that there are currently 1,096 fixed rate mortgages available, of which 576 charge 5 per cent or more. At the same time, standard variable rates (SVRs) vary upwards from the lowest offered by Cheltenham & Gloucester at 2.5 per cent. Halifax’s SVR is 3.5 per cent and HSBC’s is 3.94 per cent.

First-time buyers have been given a glimmer of hope as a couple of lenders introduced deals that will need only a 10 per cent deposit. Britannia Building Society, which is soon to merge with the Co-operative Bank, launched its product last week. The interest rate of 5.09 per cent is fixed for two years once a £599 fee is paid. The smaller Saffron Building Society also introduced a 90 per cent loan and a rate of 5.65 per cent. It is only available in Saffron’s catchment area. This is mainly East Anglia but also includes parts of east London including Hackney and Walthamstow.

The Government has missed a series of public-sector construction targets in areas such as housing, education and health, according to a report to be released this week by the Construction Products Association. The plan to upgrade 95 per cent of social housing to acceptable standards by 2010 is well behind schedule, the CPA says. More than 700,000 social homes, about 18 per cent of the stock, are not up to scratch.

One of the biggest buy-to-let landlords, Cevdet Caner,  has had his £ 20 million home, a six-storey property in Mayfair, seized in what is thought to be Britain’s biggest ever house repossession. Before going bust, Mr Caner had risen to become to a billionaire property magnate with a portfolio of nearly 30,000 properties. The repossession saga started in December last year, when administrators were appointed to oversee debts of £ 1.2 billion that Mr Caner owed various creditors following the collapse of his property empire in August. But Mr Caner, 35, fought the sale and eviction, blaming his financial woes on the banks who had pledged to loan him money but then apparently reneged on the deal, rather than on mismanagement.

The UK has ratified a United Nations convention enshrining the human rights of disabled people. The government minister for disabled people Jonathan Shaw said there are more than 10 million disabled people in the UK whose rights would be strengthened.

Latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors show that the pace of house price decline slowed in May, while sales picked up. Around 6 per cent of estate agents said property values had risen in May, while 42 per cent said prices fell. Buyer inquiries rose for the seventh consecutive month, and at the fastest rate in a decade. The number of transactions completed in the three months to May was 11.8 up from 10.6 in April, although it remained 31 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile Communities and Local Government has released figures showing the average cost of a home jumped 1.1 per cent during the month. The annual rate at which prices are declining is easing slightly to 13 per cent, down from 13.6 per cent in March. The annual average house price paid by first-time buyers in April was 16 per cent lower than a year ago, while prices paid by owner occupiers were 11.9 per cent lower.

The (RLA) is warning buy-to-let investors that lenders may try to change their borrowing rates as property values fall. The RLA says some mortgage agreements allow lenders to alter their rates if the loan to value (LTV) changes significantly. Alan Ward of the RLA said lenders may look for large repayments of capital as well as charging more expensive interest rates.

Lender Britannia has boosted the mortgage market after introducing a new home loan offering 90 per cent loan to value. Available from today, the two-year fixed rate mortgage requires only a small deposit, seen as essential to help first-time buyers into the market. Nationwide has also announced it is launching tomorrow a new two- and three-year tracker deal for existing customers who are coming to the end of their loan, at 95 per cent loan to value.

Borrowers over 45 have been hit by rising unemployment and falling house prices, and declaring themselves bankrupt at the highest rate of any other age group. Accountants Wilkins Kennedy found that 38 per cent of individuals who were declared bankrupt last year were over 45, and this figure had doubled in the past five years. The research found that as house prices fell people no longer have the equity in their homes to rely on in difficult times.

Nearly one in four people have cancelled their home insurance in a bid to save money during the recession research from the Association of British Insurers found. Around 22 per cent said they had either cancelled or not renewed their home contents cover in the past 12 months, and a further 17 per cent no longer have any cover. People living in Scotland are the most likely to cancel or not renew their cover.

The National Landlords’ Association is warning landlords on the dangers of cannabis factories in their rental properties, adding they have a responsibility to make sure they are aware of what is going on inside their property. The NLA says the damage caused to a property used as a cannabis farm can be ‘catastrophic’ with internal walls removed, and repairs running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Plans to build a 40-foot tower for animals above a Leeds canal have been unveiled. The ‘man-made tree’ will provide a habitat for bats, birds, butterflies, insects and foxes. The design was chosen in a competition held because, the organisers said: ‘birdsong had all but vanished’ from the area.

A Belfast house builder has been accused of faking a queue outside an estate agent to drum up interest in the development. A PR agency sent out a press released entitled: ‘Worth the wait’ along with photos of people sleeping and waiting in a queue outside the agents. The photos have been exposed as fake when one woman in line was recognised as a model being paid by the PR company. The developer defended the stunt saying the other people were genuine potential buyers.

Shelter has rereleased research showing that thousands of homeowners with high risk sub-prime mortgages could lose their homes before the end of summer, after a survey found that more than 22 per cent of respondents are struggling to pay their mortgage. More than 160,000 households are either struggling or falling behind on payments are resorting to borrowing from friends, using credit cards or taking out loans to pay, while more than 35 per cent – the equivalent of 260,000 households – say they would be unable to met their mortgage payments if their income dropped significantly.

Homeowners who fall victim to rogue sale and rent back companies will be able to claim compensations from July. Those who unfairly suffer loss of money or of their homes through the schemes will be able to take their cases to the Financial Ombudsman. The Financial Services Authority will be able to stop, ban or fine firms that break new rules.

Fewer young people are living independently than ten years ago, and more households in the private rented sector are headed by young people aged 16-24 than in owner occupation and social housing combined, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). Young people say that they are excluded from home ownership and shared ownership because the costs are too high for them to meet.

Moves by banks and building societies to tighten up mortgage deals and raise interest rates is hampering borrowers’ ability to re-enter the housing market. Brokers have reported a higher number of mortgage applications being turned down – as many as 30 per cent being rejected against 20 per cent a year ago. In the past three weeks, Woolwich, Lloyds and RBS have withdrawn loans for purchase and not replaced them.

Surveyors for Nationwide Building Society have decreased valuations of new-build houses. Some surveyors regularly take a minimum of 10 per cent from the asking price of new builds or they submit a market value that is below the stated purchase price. However, a spokesperson from Nationwide said that policy made sense it was ‘strange to value a new property on an as-new basis’, because when it is sold again it is not the ‘value it represents as security for the loan’.

A poll on the pressure of being a carer has found than three out of four of them have reached breaking point. The most common cause was with the bureaucracy of accessing NHS care and benefits, but the poll found that for many the burden of the carer role was so great that some people have had breakdowns and others attempted suicide.

The needs of vulnerable people will be protected in the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) regulatory framework. Speaking at the national sheltered and supported housing congress, head of the TSA Peter March said that coordination between tenant, landlords and their stakeholders is key to ensuring vulnerable tenants get the best service possible. The TSA consulted with more than 27,000 tenants to develop the standards which will apply to all social landlords from April 2010.

St Mungo’s is seeking youth workers’ views on mental health and homelessness for a report. It said the proportion of homeless people with mental health problems remain static, at around a third, despite a reduction in the number of street homeless in the past decade, and warned the government would fail to hit its target of no rough sleepers by 2012 if it didn’t focus more on the link between mental health and homelessness.

John Healey has been named new minister for housing following the resignation of Margaret Beckett. The former local government minister becomes the fourth minister in less than two years.

Around 20 per cent of people view properties they have no intention of buying or possibility of affording, just to have a look around other people’s homes a survey from propertylive.co.uk has found. People in London were the most likely to have a snoop, with 27 per cent admitting to it, while those in Liverpool were the least nosey with only 6 per cent viewing homes out of curiosity.

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed almost 30,000 social homes are being left empty for more than six months, despite the 1.77 million families waiting for social housing. The Lib Dems have been calling on the government to cut VAT on repair works to make it cheaper to bring empty homes back into use. Recent Communities and Local Government figures indicate that there are 327,857 long term empty properties in England.

Since the Labour government came to power in 1997 more than 100,000 properties have moved into a higher council tax band because of home improvements. Critics are arguing that the addition of porches, bedrooms, conservatories, parking spaces and treehouses have cost owners on average an extra £200 a year, including more than 27,000 properties mostly in the South East, being bumped up a band in the past two years. The government has said it would re-evaluate council tax after the next election.

Economists have been quick to dampen speculation that the housing market has hit the bottom after yesterday’s figures from Halifax showing house prices had increased 2.6 per cent in May. The jump in house price inflation was the third in the past 21 months, but even Halifax cautioned reading too much into the figure. Other experts called the increase a ‘pause for breath’ before further price falls, as rising unemployment and low wages stymie recovery.

Planning laws should be relaxed to make it easier for families to add accommodation to their homes for elderly relatives, Relationship Foundation, a social thinktank has said. The organisation says the rising number of pensioners, falling pensions, higher child care costs and a depressed housing market mean that more people are living with relatives than ever. It is also keen to see social housing bodies build more multi-generational homes. Recent research found that 500,000 homes in Britain are occupied by several generations of the one family.

Planning regulations designed to cut red tape and save money on planning application fees are having the opposite effect, according to research by a national loft builder, Econoloft. It argues that the easing in planning restrictions on some extensions has not clarified the rules, as every council is interpreting the guidance in a different way, with councils in the south seeming to be ‘particularly belligerent’.

An eco-village in South Gloucestershire, which has been billed as England’s first large scale zero carbon development, has been given full planning permission. Hanham Hall, a development between Barratt Developments and the Homes and Communities Agency will have 195 zero-carbon homes built to the highest level 6 standards, and will be run day to day by a community owned and run trust.

The north-south divide in the housing market will worsen this year according to house builder Bellway. The third largest house builder in the country said that its business in the south of England had become ‘marginally stronger’ with prices beginning to stabilise and predicted that by the year end its turnover in the south would be ‘much higher’ than the north. The northern market, particularly the Midlands, Yorkshire and north west England would remain fragile and the market in general would slow down over the summer.

Michael Portillo former Conservative front bencher has called for an end to security of tenure, saying there are not enough social houses to keep giving people a home for life. He wants to give property to those who have connections with their local area, over new immigrants.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has approved plans to redevelop one of the capital’s largest and most deprived estates. The Ferrier estate in Kidbrooke will be replaced with 4,000 new homes, of which 38 per cent will be affordable housing.

John Denham has been appointed secretary to the department for Communities and Local Government.

The Scottish law on homelessness that makes housing an enforceable right should be adopted across the UK, a United Nations’ report on social issues has said. The report said it is troubled by Britain’s ‘chronic shortage of housing, in particular social housing for the most disadvantaged and marginalised individuals, [such as those] with disabilities’, and singled out the Homelessness Scotland Act 2003 as ‘best practice’.

A government review of water charges has suggested that residential landlords could be made liable for unpaid water bills left by departing tenants. Water companies argue that they are vulnerable to bad debts because they are not permitted to disconnect their supply for non-payment. Landlords call the prospect ‘alarming’ and say it will increase rents.

A fully licensed national register for private rented sector landlords would cost the English government £2.5 billion. Local authorities who would be in charge of implementing the scheme would face start up costs of around £50,000 each, an assessment report has found.

The House of Lords upheld a Court of Appeal decision that a local authority’s children’s service unit had not fulfilled its duty of care to a homeless child, just by referring him to a homeless person’s unit. The claimant had presented himself to Southwark council’s children’s services department asking for urgent assessment under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and immediate accommodation under section 20(1). The assessment initially concluded that, as he was 17 and not in fulltime education, accommodation provided by the homeless person’s unit was sufficient.

A survey of more than 2,000 homeowners found that they estimated the value of their homes on average at £190,175 – an overestimation of at least £35,000 on the real average value. The difference between perceived prices and what is actually paid, based on figures from the Land Registry, are widest in the East and South East of the UK – with an average difference between asking price and actual sale price of around £50,000.

Research from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has found that brokers expect to handle an increase in the level of activity for first-time buyers. It is the first time in 18 months that IMLA has forecast positive growth for the industry. Director of IMLA Peter Williams said that while the increase is small at less than 1 per cent and more mortgage availability was required, it was an ‘important signal’ of a return to confidence.

A leading planning lawyer has attacked the failure of the government to push forward plans for eco-towns. Richard Ford from Pinsent Masons said the ‘perpetual delays’ were frustrating and it was essential for the government to make its mind.

A study found that children who had moved house were more than three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts. Usually feeling ignored during the decision to move, and losing contact with friends and uprooting them from familiar surroundings meant that they were more likely to attempt suicide than those who hadn’t moved as much. The research by the University of Aarhus, Denmark, said the findings suggested that stability was important for a child’s wellbeing.

The Policy Exchange warns the next government that it must be prepared to make ‘radical and immediate cuts’ to spending, or face a debt crisis. It said that the next government must cancel the increases in spending, because it was ‘much easier not to raise spending than it is to cut it later’. The Policy Exchange report estimated that only a third of the recent increase in government spending is allocated to measures intended to combat the recession, with the rest going on increased budgets for government departments.

The government introduced secondary legislation to parliament yesterday to bring sale and rent back agreements within the scope of the Financial Services Authority. The move follows the government’s consultation period, including a number of Office of Fair Trading’s recommendations such as compulsory regulation, increasing consumer awareness and improving information about housing benefits.

Across England the average discount on a local authority home has fallen from 27 per cent in 1997/98 to 11 per cent in 2007/08, junior housing minister Iain Wright said in response to parliamentary questions. The trend was most dramatic in London, where the average discount was worth 53 per cent of an average right-to-buy property 11 years ago, but worth just 13 per cent now, while in other regions the proportion fell from a half to a quarter.

A report looking at how asbestos is managed and removed from people’s homes has revealed major differences in how local authorities and registered social landlords notify tenants of the likely risks. The report, from construction union UCATT, recommends that all social landlords maintain an asbestos register of properties, and conduct up-to-date house surveys.

Economic gains in deprived parts of Wales in the past 10 years have been wiped out by the recession, and worse is still to come. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and New Policy Institute found that, compared with other parts of the UK, economic recovery since 1997 was slower to kick in and markedly weaker, with the danger of further deterioration as the recession continues. Unemployment stood at 6 per cent, but increased to 16 per cent among the 16- to 24-year-olds.

A website offering legal advice on environmental problems to help communities know their rights and responsibilities has been set up. It covers the main areas of environmental law and explains where to go for help.

Optimism in the construction industry is at its highest level since the start of the credit crunch in August 2007, a survey of purchasing managers has found. The index from the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply is still at an historically low level, but has been slowly rising since its trough in July 2008. An analyst said it appeared that house builders are returning to new construction as finished and part-completed stock had run out.

Hazel Blears has resigned from the Cabinet, after coming under pressure in the parliamentary expenses scandal. She says she will remain MP for Salford but wants to return to grassroots activism.

Heat generated for homes and businesses is going to waste, when it could be harnessed for use, a report by the Institution of Civil Engineers said. While traditional electricity disposes of the excess heat, the ICE suggests ‘combined heat and power’ technology would capture and reuse the waste heat produced by power plants, and transfer it back into use in the form of hot water and heating. The ICE said it had highlighted two main areas which had a number of large power plants close to urban areas where the excess heat could be piped back to homes to replace gas or electrical heating and hot water.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee has criticised the way banks were supervised by the Treasury, Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority and has called for reforms. The committee said it was unclear who was in charge, and criticised the FSA particularly for concentrating on its consumer protection role at the expense of its responsibility for maintaining financial stability. The committee added that the responsibility for supervising the banking system as a whole should be taken from the FSA and given to the Bank of England.

The proportion of prime residential mortgages three months or more in arrears has more than doubled in the past year, according to data published by Moody’s. The proportion of mortgages 90 days or more in arrears jumped from 0.74 per cent of all loans in the first quarter of 2008, to 1.66 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. Moody’s said the deterioration could partly be attributed to the slowing house market, making it difficult for borrowers to refinance or sell their property.

The Bank of England has released figures showing that the number of mortgages approved for house purchases in April rose 8 per cent. Although the number of mortgage approvals was down 21.9 per cent in year on year figures, it was the third month in a row approvals have increased, leading to hopes that activity is picking up. Of the 1,623 mortgage deals on offer, two-thirds still require a deposit of at least 25 per cent and a quarter want 40 per cent.

Yesterday data from the Land Registry showed that property prices decreased by 0.3 per cent in April, the smallest drop in price for nearly a year, bringing the annual rate down 16.2 per cent. It found that the number of properties sold between November 2008 and February 2009 was 42 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Public confidence in the housing market is higher than at any point since September 2007 and the Northern Rock bail-out, a survey from propertyfinder.com found. Around 60 per cent of respondents thought house prices would rise by May 2010, while 32.5 per cent thought prices would fall and a further 8.5 per cent said that prices would be unchanged in 12 months’ time. However, 0.7 per cent of first-time buyers expected prices to grow in the next 12 months, and only 9 per cent though mortgage are affordable. 

Housing and mortgage groups, including chairman of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association John Heron and chief executive of the National Housing Federation David Orr, spoke before a Communities and Local Government select committee on the effect of the credit crisis on the mortgage market, and said the government had missed an opportunity to boost house builders and mortgage lenders. They argued that measures introduced in the Budget were insufficient to stop the downward slide affecting the markets. Mr Heron called for more support for buy-to-let lenders, while Mr Orr called for ministers to try to keep rents high, even if deflation occurs elsewhere.

Communities minister Hazel Blears told parliament yesterday that economic recovery rested in giving local people more say in the decisions that affect them. She said it was vital that councils had the freedom, flexibility and ability to support local communities. Her comments came as she announced the release of a progress report into last July’s White Paper which aimed to give communities control over local decisions. 

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says that landlords need incentives to drive improvements in the private rented sector as thousands of tenants were living in homes that are sub-standard and in need of modernisation. ARLA wants the government to introduce incentives such as tax relief, to encourage landlords to improve their properties, arguing that 61 per cent of their members claimed they would upgrade their properties in some way if immediate tax relief was available.

Just one in six British households trusts a tradesperson’s green guidance in energy efficiency a poll from the Energy Saving Trust has found. More than half suspect tradespeople of using guidance to gain extra work. The trust is calling for new standards and training on energy efficiency and clearer guidance for tradespeople and consumers.

The Refugee Council has warned that child refugees will be wrongly denied education and given no more help than adult asylum seekers in the UK, under changes introduced by the government. The charity says its Home Office funding, to work with asylum seekers whose ages are in dispute, had been cut leaving hundreds of vulnerable children at risk of being incorrectly assessed as adults. The Refugee Council estimate that as many as half of the decisions on age-disputed asylum applicants may be wrong.

The latest government figures have revealed an increase in the use of brownfield land during 2008. London has the greatest proportion of dwellings built on previously developed land, while East Midlands has the smallest. Across the country 78 per cent of dwellings were built on previously used land, up from 77 per cent in 2007. The Campaign to Protect Rural England welcomed the rise in brownfield use saying it showed land was being used more efficiently, but it was alarmed at the level of building on greenbelt and in areas of high flood risk.

The government’s £285 million mortgage rescue scheme has helped just two families since it was launched in January. The scheme, where homeowners can sell part or all of their homes to housing associations and rent them back, was expected to help up to 6,000 households stave off repossession. A spokesperson from Communities and Local Government said the slow progress in rolling out the measures and the length of time between applications and receiving the help had meant that it was only now the first of many cases were coming through. CLG added that a further 450 applications were currently being considered.

State-owned lender Bradford & Bingley has confirmed that one in 20 of its mortgages are in default, and the rate is set to go higher. Chairman Richard Pym said the proportion of borrowers more than three months behind on their repayments had worsened since March, from a rate of 4.6 per cent to more than 5 per cent now, and estimated that loan losses this year would be between £600 million and £700 million, up from £500 million last year.

The average council home in England is more than a half a century old, junior housing minister Iain Wright has revealed. He was responding to a parliamentary question from the Conservative housing minister, and said the typical council house is 53 years old, almost a decade older that its housing association counterpart.