With Tony Blair’s departure from number 10 imminent, the Mirror reports that Gordon Brown will launch a new era of council house building when he takes over as prime minister. HIPS come in for flak from a number of papers, including the Guardian, which all cover a critical House of Lords committee report claiming that
The property Ombudsman has said that the number of disputes it decided on had fallen by 38 per cent in the first three months of the year, compared with the previous quarter. The Ombudsman opened 102 new cases this year in regards to sales, down from 162 the previous quarter. However the number of complaints
Papers including the Mail interpret comments by Mervyn King yesterday as a signal that the property boom may be over – though the Bank of England governor also said inflation is set to fall. But leading buy-to-let lender Bradford and Bingley sees no signs of a slowdown thanks to immigration and students, reports the Financial
The Tenant Services Authority, the new social housing regulator will consult with councils and arms-length management organisation (ALMO) tenants and landlords, bringing them under its remit, alongside housing associations and other for-profit providers, as recommended by the Cave report. The TSA goes live in December and will spend its first eight months in informal consultation
Insurance giant Legal & General is in talks with the government about investing in the residential housing sector. It is looking into so-called ‘build to let’ opportunities to develop homes from scratch to take advantage of increasing rental returns.
NEW GOVERNMENT RESEARCH has confirmed private renting’s status as the tenure of the noughties. Housing in England 2004/05 shows a rise of 20% in the number of households renting privately between 2000 and 2005 – from 2 million to 2.4 million. The number of households buying with a mortgage fell by 2.3% to 8.3 million
A million tenants living in private rented housing are living with the fear of eviction if they complain about poor conditions, according to a report today by Citizens Advice. The report calls for protection against retaliatory eviction. More details are in the next issue of ROOF, published next week. House prices have already reached 10
The chief executive of Paragon has said the government must extend financial support to specialist buy-to-let lenders or the sector will be ‘crippled’. Nigel Terrington said that the rescue package, such as the credit guarantee scheme, is only available to deposit taking institutions. According to research the number of available loan products has been reduced
The lobbying campaign for reform of stamp duty is gathering pace ahead of the pre-Budget report in November. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) published figures today showing that the proportion of first-time buyers paying stamp duty has risen from 48% to 56% in the last year. The CML did not say what action it
North London residents have reacted angrily over proposals to rent out council housing on the private market. Camden council, which has 17,000 people on the housing waiting list, says it wants to renovate up to 500 homes but locals warn that families could miss out on a flat if it is rented to people who