The housing minister will attend Cabinet meetings, Gordon Brown confirmed in his acceptance speech as the new Labour leader yesterday, while housing will be a priority alongside health and education. The speech is covered in today’s papers including the Financial Times and Independent. Government plans to build 200,000 homes a year display a ‘poverty of
The number of new homes being built in England in 2009/10 could slump to its lowest level since 1921 with two-thirds of all new properties being supplied through housing associations, research from the National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned. The NHF predicts the number of new homes built next financial year will be half this
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.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has ordered an investigation into a legal loophole that allows lenders to repossess a home without a court order. The inquiry was announced in response to a High Court ruling that supported a decision by GMAC-RFC, the General Motors mortgage lender, to sell the property of a borrower who was
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
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
Ken Livingstone has published his climate change action plan for London. A green homes programme proposes a cut of 7.7m tonnes in carbon emissions from homes by 2025. Meanwhile housebuilder Stewart Milne Group has unveiled designs for what it says is ‘one of the first five-star near zero carbon homes’. The council tax is overdue
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is calling for a change in stamp duty laws that will benefit first-time buyers and poorer pensioners. Homebuyers have paid £31.5 billion in stamp duty tax during the past 10 years and experts say that neither of these groups should pay a penny more in a long overdue shake
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
Welcome to 2008. And it’s already another year of statistics, forecasts, and surveys, as the pundits ask – will house prices go up or down? Most experts predict that prices will remain flat, or may only rise a little during the next 12 months. December house price figures from Nationwide came out over the break