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Total Search Results: 1272
Eco-towns announced
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
The locations of four new eco-towns were announced yesterday – Rackheath, Norfolk; north west Bicester, Oxfordshire; Whitehall Bordon, east Hampshire; and China Clay near St Austell in Cornwall. Communities and Local Government said the government would provide £60 million in funding to provide infrastructure to support the towns and a…
Developers ‘pressured’ to withdraw planning applications
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Commercial law firm EMW Picton Howell has said that the number of planning applications withdrawn by developers has increased dramatically in the past year as local planning authorities put pressure on developers to withdraw so they can meet government time limits for determining applications. The percentage of planning applications being…
Thinktank calls for lump sum housing benefit
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Housing benefit should be converted to a £17,000 lump sum grant to enable poorer people to put down a deposit on a home, think-tank Demos has suggested. In a report, Recapitalising the poor, it argues that it this would help end the ‘culture of dependency’ that dominate poor communities. It…
Tenants struggling to pay rent
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Recent figures from the Association of Residential Lettings Agents and National Landlord Association have found 65 per cent of estate agents experiencing an increase in the number of tenants struggling to pay their rent, and as many as one in three landlords have tenants in arrears.
First-time buyers are taking out personal loans
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Research out today has found first-time buyers are taking out loans to afford the deposit. Thirteen per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds are considering buying a property for the first time in the next year, but of those, 16 per cent say they will consider taking out a loan to…
Lenders under pressure to cut rates
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Banks and building societies are under pressure to cut their mortgage rates, after the Libor rate fell to its lowest level in more than 20 years. Conversely the average two-year tracker rate mortgage increased from 3.73 per cent a month ago to 3.77 per cent this week, and lenders have…
Government encouraged credit ‘binge’
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
Meanwhile a book from the University of Warwick has found the UK’s housing market was ‘encouraged’ by the government. The investigation said the government wanted to meet the cost of support an ageing population by encouraging people to invest in housing assets as a way of accumulating wealth and making…
Homelessness strategy for Wales unveiled
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 17 July 2023
A strategy to avoid people becoming homeless by providing earlier intervention has been unveiled by the Welsh Assembly. The 10-year homelessness plan will change the way housing services are delivered so they can respond faster to people in need – to stop them from losing their homes and for those…
£20,000 bill for old age
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
A government Green Paper on care for the elderly suggests that people may have to pay up to £20,000 to insure themselves against the cost of being cared for at the end of their lives. The number of old people requiring care will be swelled by another 1.7 million by…
Going green to cost households £230
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Energy secretary Ed Miliband is to announce new legislation to meet UK targets on energy emissions. The biggest investment is expected to be in renewable energy – wind farms and nuclear power stations – but energy companies will pass on the cost which is estimated to add £230 to household…
Scotland will be fossil fuel free by 2030
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Meanwhile, Scotland would be 100 per cent renewable in the 20 years, according to a report The power of Scotland renewed. Renewable energy could meet between 60 and 143 per cent of Scotland’s annual electricity demand by 2030 by investing in grid upgrades, interconnections and electricity storage, the report says.
Mortgage market needs more support, MPs argue
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
A Communities and Local Government select committee has reported that if the government is to meet its house building targets it must bring in new measures to support the mortgage market. The committee warned that the Treasury’s asset-backed guarantee scheme was not enough to kick start the housing market, and…
Shortage will push up house prices…
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has found that estate agents believe house prices will rise in the coming three months to counteract a drop in supply. It was the first time since May 2007 that agents predicted an increase in house prices. RICS also found signs of…
…But prices were down in May
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Figures from Communities and Local Government show that house prices fell 12.5 per cent in May. London saw the biggest decline in England with prices falling 16.3 per cent, while Northern Ireland suffered the largest drop with prices down 23.2 per cent between April and May. Howard Archer, an economist…
Four antisocial incidents a minute
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Government figures obtained by the Conservatives show that there were 3.9 million cases of antisocial behaviour last year – or nearly 11,000 a day in England and Wales. The majority – 2.3 million cases – were reports of ‘rowdy or inconsiderate behaviour’, with 254,000 reports of nuisance neighbours. The Conservatives…
Early intervention curbs anti-social behaviour
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
Early intervention resolves more than three-quarters of antisocial behaviour cases, whereas using anti-social behaviour orders resolved just 0.1 per cent of cases, according to research by Housemark. Top performing landlords also took just 45 days to resolve antisocial behaviour cases, compared with an average of 61 days.
Failed asylum seekers swell homeless numbers
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 15 July 2023
More than a third of refused asylum seekers have been destitute for more than a year and two-thirds of these came from countries with ongoing unrest and would find it difficult to return, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has found. The research recorded 273 destitute people during…
Tories accused of ‘social cleansing’
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
A freedom of information request by Andrew Slaughter, London MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush, has found presentations made by the Conservative leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council to senior Tory figures calling for limiting social housing to the old, infirm and disabled in a bid to solve the…
MRS could be extended
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
Housing minister John Healey has told a Common’s Treasury select committee that he would consider extending the homeowner mortgage rescue scheme beyond its current two-year limit, if the economy continues to struggle beyond 2010. He also rejected accusations that the government had been ‘complacent’ with its support for those at…
PM reiterates his commitment to housing
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
The prime minister has written to housing professionals to reiterate his commitment to housing as one of his top priorities. He said that it was the right time to commit an additional £1.5 billion to build an extra 20,000 affordable new homes in the next two years, and by making…
Government will miss affordable homes target
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
However, the government has confirmed it has dropped its affordable house building target from 70,000 to 55,000 a year in the next two years, despite the additional funding, as it is now paying ‘more of the cost per house’ due to the huge reduction in section 106 agreements and other…
Communities get help with migration
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
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…
House builders blame banks for crisis
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
Redrow and Barratt Developments accused the banks of downgrading valuations on new properties to restrict lending. Redrow said the practice of down valuation by surveyors representing mortgage lenders was ‘widespread’ and posed a ‘major obstacle’ in the recovery of the housing market. It blamed the gap in valuation for about…
Eco-towns should be inclusive
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has claimed that designing eco-towns to be more inclusive would cost no more if it was factored into the planning process early on, and has produced guidance on how to it. It says that eco-towns should provide for all inhabitants regardless of age,…
Social housing at 50-year low
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
The number of council and housing association homes for rent is at its lowest in 50 years, a Shelter Scotland report has found. Building pressure warns of a ‘growing chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available’. It estimated there were 142,000 households on the waiting list…
Housing leader on fourth plinth in London
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Friday 10 July 2023
Great Places housing group manager Jon Snape will be on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London on Sunday morning with a message about affordable housing. He was picked at random to take part in Anthony Gormley’s One & Other project and plans to dress in pyjamas, and give away…
Sale and rent back victory
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
In the first court ruling of its kind a vulnerable family has been told they can stay in their home as owner occupiers or rent it for life, after almost losing it in a repossession sale and rent back scam. The case, bought before the court with Shelter’s help, saw…
BoE keeps interest rates on hold
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
The Bank of England (BoE) has kept the cost of borrowing unchanged at 0.5 per cent for the fourth month in a row. It added it was not planning to extend its quantitative easing scheme.
Nationwide brings back the 125% mortgage
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
Nationwide has launched a new 125 per cent mortgage, for those in negative equity and wanting to move house. The building society described the product as a ‘niche’ offer and said that the new mortgage would only be available to existing mortgage holders and would allow homeowners to ‘carry over’…
One in four unable to get mortgage…
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
Research from the National Association of Estate Agents has revealed that nearly one in four people claim they are unable to get a mortgage due to the tighter lending criteria being used by banks and building societies. More than half of those asked believed that they would have more change…
… But CML claims lending is on the rise
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said lending has started to pick up again after the number of home loans for house buyers rose by 4 per cent in May. In year on year figures this is still 28 per cent lower than a year ago. The CML said that…
Builders warn of lack of mortgages
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
Two of the UK’s largest house builders Redrow and Barratt Developments have said that the continuing lack of mortgage availability is hampering the recovery of the housing market. They said that while the market has stabilised too many would-be buyers are struggling to get the finance needed, and the drought…
Improving land management would boost affordable housing
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has said private developers, local councils and housing associations must work better together to manage land supply more efficiently to boost the supply of affordable housing. It argues that a poor grasp of land economics, an over reliance on section 106 agreements and an…
Johnson sets out minimum standards for capital’s houses
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
New publicly funded homes built in the London will have to comply with minimum internal space standard major Boris Johnson said. The London housing design guide established six key areas of design that new development will have to incorporate from 2011, including minimum space standards around 10 per cent higher…
New panel on housing needs of older people
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
A panel has been set up to ensure that new homes meet the needs of an increasingly ageing population. The housing our ageing population panel for innovation comprises of architects and specialists who will research good practice across Europe that will create housing for older people and improve the availability…
Housing development go ahead on green belt land
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Thursday 9 July 2023
A recent decision by Rushcliffe borough council to refuse planning permission for a 1,200 home development on green belt land has been overturned by communities secretary John Denham. The local authority had thrown out the scheme on the grounds that it would have created traffic and resulted in a loss…
Country ‘in denial’ over housing supply
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
According to the latest National Housing Planning and Advice Unit’s survey on housing, attitudes to new housing developments need to change ‘as a matter of urgency’. More than half of current homeowners (51 per cent) would object to new housing being built in their area, despite continuing home affordability issues…
Drip feeding the housing market
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
House builders are drip feeding homes on to the market so they don’t flood the market and cause further price falls industry experts warned yesterday. The practice is ‘widespread’ among large scale builders such as Barratt, and they blamed a lack of competition between developers of large sites for the…
Mortgage and bank account health warnings
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
Consumers could face having their mortgage and bank accounts branded with a health warning system, similar to the traffic lights system for food, in the government’s expected response to the financial crisis to be laid out today. Under the proposals the riskiest products, such as mortgages with ‘teaser rates’ which…
OECD calls for tougher mortgage lending
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said yesterday that financial service firms must make sure their customers understand what they are letting themselves in for when signing up for mortgages, consider loans and other products. The OECD has just released new guidelines designed to avoid a repeat of…
Shelter promotes house building alternatives
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
Shelter has published a report promoting different ways to increase the development of affordable housing. A range of contributors cover a number of subjects including how to attract development finance to the industry, flexible tenure and the private rented sector.
Help yourself to housing
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
A new website has launched showing how people can work together to legally borrow empty properties from their owners and return them to use. The site shows how to get hold of and borrow the empty properties from the owners, and where to go for funding, how to arrange repairs…
Tories: Developers running scared on eco-towns
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
The Conservatives have called for the eco-town programme to be scrapped saying that developers are running scared from the plans. Shadow housing minister Grant Schapps said the ‘small print’ of the draft legislation published last week reveal that plans for the eco-towns had now been pushed back to 2020, but…
Big rise in rough sleeping numbers
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
The number of rough sleepers in London has risen by 15 per cent in the last year, fuelled by an increase in Eastern Europeans who have lost their jobs and now make up one in seven of those living on the street. According to the figures from Broadway more than…
Single homeless are being failed
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Wednesday 8 July 2023
Homeless charity, Crisis, has been investigating the experience single rough sleepers face when seeking help from local councils. Most were discouraged from filing in formal applications to register as homeless, and many were deterred from even seeing a housing officer. A spokesperson from the charity said that there was widespread…
Struggling homeowners failing to ask for help
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Tuesday 7 July 2023
Nearly half of people having difficulties paying their mortgage do not seek advice, often because they feel their problems are not serious enough or they do not know where to go for help. Of those who sought advice, two-thirds went to their mortgage lender, while one in four got help…
Housing support saves other services billions
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Tuesday 7 July 2023
An independent report has found that a government programme providing housing support to vulnerable and homeless people has resulted in ‘significant’ savings in the cost of other services. The report said the £1.6 billion invested through Supporting People has saved other services more than £3.4 billion through reduced costs in…
Council house building gets started
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Tuesday 7 July 2023
For the first time in nearly 20 years English local councils are to begin constructing homes, following last week’s announcement by John Healey allowing town halls to retain rent from council housing and receipts from the right-to-buy scheme. Analysts predict that nearly 140,000 homes will be built in the next…
Rural northern communities deprived
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Tuesday 7 July 2023
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…
FSA fines to double
Location: ROOF Blog
Published: Tuesday 7 July 2023
City regulator the Financial Services Authority announced a sharp increase in penalties to come in from February 2010. Under the new rules individuals will face a minimum fine of £100,000 while companies will be hit with penalties worth up to £50 million. An insider said that the FSA had to…
