A banker was only given permission for converting a former hotel, bought for £18 million, into a home on condition that he paid £500,000 towards low-cost housing. The scale of his plans – including a 16ft diving pool underneath the house and gardens – meant that the council allowed the 168-page application after imposing the
The housebuilding sector suffered another blow yesterday when Taylor Wimpey debt was downgraded to junk status. The downgrade, by credit-rating agency Fitch Ratings, comes amid an unprecedented decline in the housing market, with home sales plummeting, mortgage lending squeezed and new housing starts at their lowest in more than half a century. Fitch raised concerns
Meanwhile, research from the Building Societies Association shows that 46 per cent of people now believe it is a good time to buy a property, up from 34 per cent in September and 27 per cent in July. There is a perception that mortgages are now more affordable, with just 37 per cent of people
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
Squatters have taken over the home of married Labour MPs Ann and Alan Keen, who have recently come under fire for claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenses on a second home located a few miles away. The squatters said they moved in after a neighbour said the house had been empty for more
Cuts in interest rates and pressure on lenders to be lenient on people struggling with mortgages appear to have borne fruit, according to data published yesterday. The number of mortgages slipping into arrears in the first three months of the year dropped by 12 per cent from the previous quarter to just under 60,000, the
Communities and Local Government has confirmed that proposed legislation on home information packs (Hips) due to come into effect from 6 April will go ahead. The main change is that the temporary first day marketing exemption will be removed, meaning that a Hip must be available on the first day a property is marketed. The
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised its population projections yesterday. The population in Britain is set to pass 70 million within 25 years, or a net increase of 400,000 a year. The rise has been put down to an increase in family size, greater life expectancy, and higher-than-expected migration levels in recent years. The
Citizens Advice (CAB) has said they are seeing a big increase in the number of white collar workers seeking advice from them. Its latest figures show a 17 per cent increase in the number of inquiries overall, between April 2008 and the end of January 2009. However, redundancy related queries were up 153 per cent,
Information from a survey of local authorities by the Care Leavers’ Association has found as many as 389 young people have gone missing from care since 2000. The majority of them are believed to be asylum seekers targeted by traffickers after arriving in the UK who were in the South of England. While the survey