Tag Archives: real estate
UK govt moves to end blanket licensing of landlords by councils
Local councils in England will no longer be able to licence landlords across a whole area without government approval, it has been confirmed. Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis has taken action after a rush of complaints about councils introducing compulsory licensing for landlords costing hundreds of pounds per property. Reforms to the Selective Licensing scheme will now restrict local decision making powers from 01 April. Councils will need government approval before implementing a licensing scheme if they plan to license a large area or proportion of the market, likely to be above 20% of either the geographical area covered by the council or the local private rented sector (PRS). The decision comes after sustained lobbying efforts by the National Landlord Association (NLA) since 2010 and after the NLA published its report on the state of landlord licensing across the country, in February. The report revealed a boom in the number of blanket licensing schemes since 2010 but highlighted a lack of enforcement actions being taken by local councils. It also showed a correlation between the political control of a council and their tendency to license landlords. ‘We’ve argued solidly since 2010 that councils have been abusing their power to push through blanket licensing schemes,’ said Richard Lambert, NLA chief executive officer. He explained that the announcement means that if a council intends to licence a large proportion of its housing it will first need to show the case stands up to independent scrutiny. ‘The government was the first to see a copy of our licensing report, and we’re delighted they have listened to our case because at present the driving force behind licensing landlords seems to be the political will of a given local council, regardless of the evidence,’ he pointed out. ‘Many local councils won’t like this decision one bit because until now they’ve been their own judges, and the only way for landlords to challenge them has been through the difficult and complex route of judicial review,’ he said. ‘Landlords are getting fed up with being unfairly targeted and made responsible for problems such as anti-social behaviour when in reality they have little effective control over the issue, except by eviction. Hopefully this now means that councils who are serious about tackling poor property standards and anti-social behaviour will first look to the extensive existing legal powers they already have to combat the issues,’ he added. Continue reading
More people in UK back new homes being built I their area, new survey shows
Support for new house building in the UK has almost doubled in the past four years and there is more support for aspiring home owners, new figures show. The data from the British Social Attitude survey reveals that 56% of those questioned support new home being built in their area, some 27 points higher than in 2010. Similarly, the numbers opposed to local house building have more than halved during the same period, from 46% in 2010 to just over one in five now. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis welcomed the figures and said that house building and efforts to help aspiring home owners are central to the government’s long term economic plan. He pointed out that over the past year, housing starts have increased by 10%, while the numbers of first time buyers are at their highest for seven years. ‘Since 2010 the government has scrapped top down targets that pitted neighbours against developers, and replaced them with locally led development through local and neighbourhood plans,’ said Lewis. Councils have also received over £3.4 billion in New Homes Bonus payments to reward communities for building new homes and in the year to October, planning permission has been granted on 240,000 new homes across the country,’ he added. The figures show that those strongly supporting new house building in their area has tripled, from 5% in 2010 to 16% in 2014, while strong opposition has fallen by nearly a third over the same period. The figures also show strong support for efforts to help aspiring home owners, with 38% of those surveyed citing financial support for first time buyers as the best thing the government can do to make homes more affordable. Lewis also pointed out that to date, the Help to Buy scheme has helped over 88,000 households to buy with a fraction of the deposit they would normally require and the new Starter Homes initiative will also enable young first time buyers to purchase a newly built home with a 20% discount. The survey also shows that another 27% backed moves to allocate funding to councils and housing associations to build more homes and since 2010, nearly 217,000 affordable homes have been delivered while council house building starts are at a 23 year high. Continue reading
Property prices in England and Wales up 0.5% month on month, latest index shows
Residential property prices in England and Wales are £34,000 above their pre-crisis high of February 2008, according to the latest house price index to be published. With a monthly rise of 0.5% the average prices stands at £273,528 with the annual rate of growth at 6.8% but sales have fallen, down 9% compared to a year ago, the data from Your Move and Reeds Rains shows. When London and the South East are excluded from the calculation then the average annual change is 4.6% with London still boosting overall averages, the data also shows. Adrian Gill, director of Reeds Rains and Your Move estate agents, pointed out that while average house prices are currently 6.8% or £17,340 higher than they were last year, this is the smallest annual increase witnessed for 14 months. He also said that while home sales are down 9% year on year, there is still plenty of demand and February still marks a 4% improvement on January activity levels, and in recent weeks agreed sales have climbed above 2014 levels. He also explained that market conditions have calmed in London and the South East. Their combined lead on the rest of the UK hit a summer peak in July 2014 when these areas increased the wider England and Wales annual change to 5.4% higher than it would have been otherwise. But in February this growth gap has fallen to less than half at 2.2%. ‘London has already had the first taste of added pressure placed on prime property in the form of revised Stamp Duty, and the £1.5 million to £5 million sector of the market has also been hit by cold feet in the run up to the general election with the threat of a potential mansion tax,’ said Gill. ‘This let up of high end activity has brought down the average London house price, but beneath the surface, the lower rungs of the ladder are thriving. For instance, the borough of Newham, where the typical property value currently stands at £273,727, saw an enviable 2.1% monthly price rise, more than double the overall 1% average London price jump,’ he explained. He also pointed out that in terms of annual growth, more affordable areas like Barking and Dagenham with growth of 16.5%, Bexley up 15.6% and Waltham Forest up 16.8%, are doing well, coming in ahead of the year on year improvements seen in high end areas like Kensington and Chelsea, where prices have fallen 7.4% in the past 12 months. ‘In the south of the country overall we’re seeing a very orderly market, with buyers and sellers on more of an even keel. Rates of annual growth have slowed across the board in England and Wales, but it is regions with the lowest average property prices which are dragging their feet,’ Gill added. The North saw the smallest annual uplift in January, with home values just 1.9% higher year on year, while in Yorkshire and The… Continue reading
