George Osbourne’s ‘Emergency Budget’ has been delivered.

Councils that can keep their Council Tax bills down, by means of saving on expenses, will be subsidised as a reward for so doing. This will mean council tax bills can be frozen for the year 2011/12 for hard-hit householders.

The top rate of Capital Gains Tax is to be increased to 28% from midnight. This will only affect higher-rate tax payers. This is lower than the 40% rumoured.

22nd June 2010

Gardens will be given greenfield status, rather than brownfield, the government will announce today, to end “Garden-Grabbing”, where developers buy up a garden and build several houses on it. Greg Clark, Communities Minister, is to say that the reclassification will give local councils the power to reject housing developments within urban and suburban areas.

To read the whole article, click here.

The British Bankers Organisation has reported on 26^th May, that “Overall lending to companies remains subdued, although the annual rate of contraction appears to have bottomed out.”

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The monthly property market survey fact file from the Propertysurveying.co.uk team collating survey data from the building and property market. To read click here.

The Coalition Government has issued a list of things they plan to do while in Parliament.
Some of this agenda will directly affect property, for example lifting the ban on tenants running businesses from home, and the installation of smart meters in homes.
To read the whole article, click here.

The government has today announced that Home Information Packs are to be suspended from 21st May 2010.  This confirms the Conservative Party’s intention stated prior to the election. The Energy Performance Certificates will continue, as they are a European Union directive, and will be valid for 10 years.

From January, 2010, there has been a reshaping of the law forcing Local Authorities to carry out a risk assessment and to test all Private Water Supplies in England and Wales.

This will affect every property with a private water supply, except an individual (non commercial) property where the owner has not requested an assessment.     To read more click here.

The rate of the recovery appears to have stalled according to figures released by the Bank of England for March 2010.

The net lending secured on dwellings increased by £0.3 billion, well below the February increase of £1.8 billion and the previous six-month average of £1.5 billion.  The twelve-month growth rate was unchanged, at 1.0%.

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The Council of Mortgage Lenders have published survey data which shows that gross mortgage lending on buildings, property and land in the UK was approx.£11.5 billion in March, up by 24% on February (£9.3 billion). To read more, click here.

Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders. 19/4/10