Author: News_Desk

Need a Building Survey in or around Penarth?

South Wales has a brand new Chartered Surveying practice, providing a professional, independent and fast service for all residential and commercial property purchasers. Right Surveyors Glamorgan, headed by experienced Chartered Surveyor Keith Batten FRICS, can service any and all property needs, from professional work to party wall disputes, residential surveys to valuations. Click here to find the local Penarth website and see how Keith, who has lived and worked in South Wales all his life, can help you.

To find out more about the Right Surveyors, click here.

Councils detect £185m of fraud, but Audit Commission reckons ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

The organisation has just published its report ‘Protecting the Public Purse’ – billed as the country’s only annual survey of detected fraud against councils – and it shows that 121,000 scams were detected in 2010/11. The scams include false benefit claims, council tax discount cheating, unlawful use of council housing, cheating on council contracts, and also emerging trends such as criminals exploiting council’s transparency information to mislead councils.

However, councils have done better at detecting these scams over the last year, uncovering £185 million worth of scams, an improvement of 37 per cent from the previous year’s figure of £135 million. Even so, the Audit Commission estimates that councils could be losing up to £2 billion a year to fraudsters.

Read more on the Housing excellence website: http://www.housingexcellence.co.uk/news/council-detection-improves-fraudsters-are-still-raking-it-937445

Preparing for the winter – what can you do to fight rising energy prices?

The government has joined forces with energy suppliers, Citizens Advice, Consumer Focus, Age UK and Which? to offer tips and advice on how to save money on your gas and electricity bill this winter. We present the main three points to help you to keep warm for less.

To read the rest of this article, and find out how you can save money this winter, follow this link.

Co-operative Housing Tenure Bill introduced into the Commons

The Labour MP for Stalybridge & Hyde, Jonathon Reynolds, has introduced a new Co-Operative Housing Tenure Bill into the House of Commons, as of 11 October 2011. He hopes to achieve recognition for the unique status of co-operative housing and, by doing so, boost investment in housing co-operatives and combat Britain’s housing shortage.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Co-operative Housing Tenure Bill introduced into the Commons

New poll reveals 50 of life’s greatest pleasures

A survey just last week discovered that finding a £10 note in an old pair of jeans, getting into bed with freshly washed sheets and going on holiday are among life’s greatest pleasures.

The poll, carried out by Three Barrels Brandy,  took the opinion of 3,000 adults and aimed to discover what man kinds greatest pleasures are.

Sunshine was found to be a substantial cause of good moods – with examples such as waking up to a sunny day, sitting in the sun and driving with the car windows down on a sunny day all appearing in the top 20.

Other happy moments include being surprised with flowers or chocolates, getting a nice message or cuddle from a loved one, or getting a thank you card in the post.

Slightly less romanticised examples included ‘snogging’, lads nights out and winning a tenner on the lottery.

Overall, it serves as a nice reminder that simple things are what give people most pleasure.

10 Questions on….domestic wind turbines

With the introduction of various Government incentives to turn your home ‘green’, including Feed-in-Tariffs introduced on 1 April 2010 and Renewable Heat Grants on 1 August this year, we are taking a look at the different options available to homeowners to produce their own energy and reduce their bills.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

New homes constructed in England fall 6%

Government figures have been released today, indicating that the level of additional dwellings supplied in England in the year to April 2011 was 121,200, 6% down on the year before and 42% down on 2007-08.

That figure constitutes a number of new build homes provided at 117,700 compared to more than 200,000 in 2007-08 and 124,200 last year.

London saw the largest decrease in net additional homes, falling from 24,340 in 2009-10 to 17,830 in 10-11.

Net additions comprise the total of new build homes plus new home conversions plus new homes from change of use less homes lost through demolition.

A greater overview of the property market can be found on our monthly market fact file, here.