The saga of MPs’ expenses rolls on – Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond says that Westminster should use the Scottish parliament allowance scheme as a model to reform the system in the Commons. In Scotland members’ expenses are published every three months and the practice where some MSPs can claim interest on mortgages for second
Official Home Office figures show that the number of eastern European migrants and asylum seekers may have peaked. The number of people coming from Poland and other eastern European countries has fallen by almost 20 per cent, to the lowest level in five years. Acceptances of asylum seekers this year are at their lowest since
Plans to overhaul MPs’ expenses have broken down after the opposition parties decided they would not back the alternative – daily payments of £150 for turning up to Westminster. The decision has left hopes of a cross party deal in tatters, although Downing Street said a vote would still go ahead. The Tories wants MPs
A NORFOLK local authority is considering following the lead of the Yorkshire Dales and banning the building of new second homes. More than 40 per cent of homes in some towns and villages in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and the council says local shops and schools are being undermined. The modest move is about
The downturn in property sales is having a positive affect on buy to let according to a survey of residential lettings by the Royal Institution of Surveyors (RICS). It appears that weaker demand to buy houses has forced would-be sellers back to the rental market where yields are rising. RICS is reporting a rise of
As many as 20 per cent of homeowners with a second property could be forced to sell their homes after Mr Darling abolished tax breaks on furnished holiday lets, accountants warn. Changes to the rules come into effect in April 2010 and will stop owners of properties offsetting the costs of renting out their second
Nationwide building society has joined Abbey National in raising the price of its fixed-price mortgages. Increasing two- and three-year fixed rate deals by 0.3 per cent, while demanding a minimum of at least a 10 per cent deposit, Nationwide blamed the rising cost of inter-bank lending for the rises. However, Halifax announced that it would
Halifax’s annual county house price survey revealed over the weekend that all the UK’s 104 counties and authorities have recorded at least a doubling in their average house prices during the past decade. Five of the 10 counties to have delivered the biggest house price rises were in Northern Ireland, which has become the second
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
People are to be asked questions about their citizenship, national identity and understanding of English for the first time as part of the national census. In an effort to gain more comprehensive information on immigration, people will also be asked when they entered the UK and their intended length of stay. Other changes include questions