Labour party members are calling for an independent review of the legal aid system, following fears from lawyers that the changes will rob vulnerable tenants of housing advice. The Labour group of the Local Government Association wants the changes put to a vote at the Labour party conference next month after they said that the new fixed fees for civil legal aid cases do not cover complex and time-consuming cases. Housing is one of the areas where vulnerable people are particularly at risk if they can’t get good advice.
For the first time the UK has more people of pensionable age than under 16 year olds. Men over 65 and women over 60 account for 19 per cent of the population or 11.58 million, just overtaking the 11.5 million children under the age of 16. And the over-80s are the fastest growing age group, accounting for more than 5 per cent of the population, a figure which has doubled in less than 30 years. The implications of an ageing population had the greatest consequences on housing and in the community.
According to Moneyfacts, the price comparison website, mortgage rates are back to the level they were at in August 2007, at the start of the credit crunch. However, the better rates are only available to those with big deposits, while mortgage costs remain high and there are 10,000 less financial products available in the past year.
However, some borrowers are having to apply four times to get credit, a recent survey has shown. Nearly half a million mortgage or loan customers had to apply more than four times, while just over 400,000 people could not get a mortgage or loan at all.
And councils are also seeing their finances stretched lately – some councils have seen demand for discretionary payments double. The payments are made to make up the difference between rent and housing benefit, and new rule changes on determining benefits’ values introduced in April have left many tenants with a shortfall. At the same time councils are clubbing together to fight a campaign by umbrella groups who want to stop the government pooling tenants’ rents for redistribution. The councils are worried that losing the rent subsidy which helps them repair homes and keep rents down will threaten their tenants’ quality of life. The Chartered Institute of Housing, the Local Government Association and London Councils have all said the redistribution is unfair and should be abolished.
Shelter yesterday called on the government inject £8 billion into building new homes immediately, to kick-start the housebuilding industry. With the government’s figures showing an 18 per cent fall in the number of new social homes and a nine per cent drop in the number of new houses being built overall, Shelter says the £8 billion that has been earmarked for homes over the next three years would have more of an effect if spent now, with Adam Sampson saying: ‘the government simply cannot stand by and watch the industry collapse…’
A house has been discovered in a cliffside in Angus, Scotland. Lifeboat crews were called to reports of cries for help coming from a cliff, when they spotted a rope ladder leading to the cave house built about halfway up the 120 foot cliffs. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it would not say where the cave was due to public safety.