Commenting in the Evening Standard, Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson warns that homes in London costing less than £100,000 could soon be a thing of the past. An increasingly detached underclass are the real victims of our dysfunctional housing market argues the author Mark Braund in today’s Guardian. Making affordable housing a central part of
New research for the DCLG into loans for vulnerable home owners concludes there is room for expansion if more choices are developed. Councils will be allowed to build and deliver their own housing under a plan to be put to the Labour party conference in the autumn, reports Inside Housing. The compromise plan follows conference
House prices have almost trebled during the Blair decade, according to the FT house price index. The paper also predicts another interest rate rise this year. The Independent reports that more than one in seven people will now struggle to pay their mortgage following last week’s hike in interest rates. According to The Times, the
A CONTROVERSIAL NEW LAW in Scotland that could see people lose their homes over £3,001 worth of unsecured debt was passed in the Scottish Parliament yesterday after the executive ignored last-minute pleas from opposition MSPs and charities. Go here or here for more details. The Bankruptcy & Diligence Etc (Scotland) Bill means creditors can apply
Hazel Blears will be the new secretary of state for Communities and Local Government. The former minister of state at the Home Office, who came sixth in the contest for the deputy Labour leadership, will replace Ruth Kelly, who moves to Transport. An ex Old Labour firebrand who opposed the abolition of Clause 4 –
Details of Gordon Brown’s plan to boost social housing were revealed in the House of Commons yesterday. He announced he would pump £2.1 billion into building affordable housing, including an extra 20,000 homes to be built in the next two years on top of the 90,000 already in the pipeline. He said he would triple
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) released data yesterday showing that lending fell to £30.7 billion in November, down 8 per cent from the same time last year. It is the first year-on-year fall since 2005 that clearly ‘demonstrates the market slowdown has started’. CML expect the downward trend to continue next year and called
Low cost homes to be built in rural areas are the latest proposals from Gordon Brown to meet his target of three million extra homes. The scheme would be the biggest building programme in the countryside for a generation and would attempt to create thousands of affordable homes in rural areas. Many market towns would
Despite falling house prices research from Circle Anglia has found that a third of Britons believe that home ownership is still out of reach to them. People living in the South West are the most pessimistic with 46 per cent saying they will not be able to own a house and 42 per cent in
The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee met this morning and cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent from 5.5 per cent to 5.25 per cent, in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Shelter chief executive, Adam Sampson, has urged lenders to make sure cash-strapped homeowners benefit. ‘It will mean nothing if mortgage lenders fail