- Previews of the Freud report on Welfare reform – due later this month – appear in several of today’s papers. The Mail predicts that people who are long-term unemployed and refuse to look for work will have their benefits stopped, while Peter Riddell in the Times focuses on plans to introduce work tests for lone parents.
- In a similar vein, the Telegraph reports on a new report by right-wing think tank Civitas that says a third of households are dependent on benefits for at least half their income.
- Defend Council Housing has published a new pamphlet making the case for a fourth option for council housing. Dear Gordon [downloads PDF] will be officially launched next week. More later.
- The DCLG reported accelerating house price inflation in its December index, with London leading the way.
- More warning signals from the American market, where Money Week reports that 18 sub-prime lenders have gone bust in the wake of the housing market problems that embarrassed HSBC last week. Guess what form of lending has grown spectacularly in the UK?
- The Housing Corporation and Audit Commission have signed a memorandum of understanding setting out how they will work together on regulation and inspection.
- Are you listening Gordon? Socialist French presidential candidate Segolene Royal pledged to fund 120,000 new social housing units a year in a manifesto launched at the weekend.
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