People moving to the UK for work or study from outside the EU will have to pay an extra £50 on top of the visa fee. The two-year scheme, which will raise £70 million to fund more police support and translators, was announced by communities secretary Hazel Blears yesterday. She acknowledged that migrants already contributed
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
London’s suburbs are in danger of becoming dormitories with no jobs as they gear up for more new homes, according to a report by the London Assembly. Housing associations will be able to take greater risks in the financial markets under new treasury management rules, according to Inside Housing. The Housing Corporation has published a
Papers including the Daily Mail cover research from the Halifax showing average house prices are now more than £100,000 even in the cheapest towns in England. The Mail also reports a forecast from the respected Ernst & Young Item Club that interest rates will stay ‘painfully high’ until at least 2011. Young people leaving care
A 17-year-old student who became an orphan has been told that the only way she can get financial help to continue her A-levels is to become pregnant. A spokesperson with the Department of Work and Pensions said that a girl aged 17 who has a child and was not working would be eligible to claim
The first 15 Wimpey homes designed by star architect Richard Rogers have been unveiled in Milton Keynes. The development includes two, three, four and five-bedroom homes in ten different designs. Prices range from £199,500 to £450,000. Built with sustainable materials and fitted with energy-saving gadgets, they are reported to be among the most eco-friendly mass-market
Businesses are more pessimistic about the economy than any time in the past five years, and threaten to ‘talk the country into a recession’ according to accountants Grant Thornton. Only 14 per cent of the businesses are optimistic about the economy, compared to 43 per cent for the same time last year. In a separate
The rate of housebuilding in the Thames Gateway needs to double if the government is to meet its target of 160,000 homes by 2016, according to a critical report by the National Audit Office. The NAO says building rates are rising more slowly than in the rest of the South East and that ministers have
A new study by the Institute of Public Policy Research has found that there is no evidence to suggest that large-scale migration from eastern Europe since 2004 has had a negative impact on wages or unemployment. Figures out this week from the Homes Office found a 47 per cent drop in the number of migrants
Rural communities are struggling to adapt to the ‘unprecedented’ level of migration of non-UK workers into their areas, says charity Business in the Community.While migrants had brought a number of benefits, helped boost the economy and filled gaps left by Britons who ‘prefered to remain jobless’ there had been an increase of 186 per cent