ROOF Blog

Communities secretary John Denham has announced a £70 million migration impact fund, funded by a levy on migrants, that will be used to tackle illegal working practices and reduce local pressure on public services. Nearly 200 projects will receive funding with every region benefitting, but the amounts each receives will be weighted towards areas where migrants have had the greatest short-term impact. Funding in housing is being targeted on cracking down on rogue landlords.

New research from the National Housing Federation reveals north England’s rural population has been ‘overlooked’ by policy makers, while facing the dual challenge of ‘staggeringly’ high house prices and ‘crippling’ low incomes. The research found that 86 per cent of the north’s most expensive house price districts are predominantly rural and almost 66 per cent of England’s most deprived rural areas are in the north. The federation has called for the government to create a ‘northern rural way initiative’ to combat the current economic crisis.

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.

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.

Despite falling house prices research from Circle Anglia has found that a third of Britons believe that home ownership is still out of reach to them. People living in the South West are the most pessimistic with 46 per cent saying they will not be able to own a house and 42 per cent in Wales feeling the same way. London had the lowest figure with only one in five worrying they will never be able to afford their own place.

The average monthly rental bill in the UK increased 1 per cent in March, to £638. However, compared to the peak in July 2008 rents are down £85, or 12 per cent, and are down 6 per cent in year on year figures. The cheapest rent is in Yorkshire and Humber, averaging £491 a month, whereas rents in London – the most expensive in the country – average £850 a month. The largest falls were in the East of England, down 10 per cent in the past year, while the North West saw the largest increase, up 8 per cent.

Cities with large numbers of flats bought for the buy-to-let market are facing a huge rise in evictions. In some of these areas there has been a 20 per cent rise in the number of instructions from landlords wanting to get rid of tenants who are not paying their rent. The length of time landlords are prepared to wait before commencing action is also decreasing. Cities affected include Manchester, London, Liverpool and Birmingham.

The South East plan was revealed yesterday. The government cut the housing target by 1 per cent until 2026, setting a final figure of 654,000 new homes in the region, or 32,700 homes a year. At least 60 per cent of all the houses will be built on brownfield land and 35 per cent will be affordable.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears has unveiled plans to support communities during the recession and recycle public buildings. There will be a range of options for local councils to give buildings to the community, including handing them over as a gift or selling at below market price.

Research from uSwitch.com has found that the recession is hitting towns across the UK with growing unemployment, falling property prices, and rising council tax. Swindon in Wiltshire has been the hardest hit as unemployment soars 197 per cent while house prices fell 16 per cent and the number of people collecting jobseeker’s allowance rose from just under 2,000 to more than 5,700 in two years. Brent in west London was the most ‘recession-proof’ area, with a 12 per cent increase in earnings, and below-average increase in jobseeker’s allowance claims.