Birmingham Surveyors – Birmingham Council has become the third local authority, and the first outside of London, to sign on to the Communities and Local Government’s £1.8bn affordable housing scheme.
The council will receive £6.7m in funding to help them deliver 305 affordable homes for rent. That equates to a substantial subsidy of almost £22,000 per home. In total, the plan hopes to create 80,000 new homes by 2015.
York Surveyors – The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust is looking for a developer to build up to 130 homes in Derwenthorpe,York. The development will consist of private and affordable housing which will be purchased and managed by the trust, and a requirement will be in place for the additional construction of major infrastructure works.
Exeter Surveyors – One of the largest surveying companies in the country has recently added a waterfront specialist to their Exeter team.
It has been commented that the experienced surveyor brings contacts and knowledge of buyers from the capital, who form a key market for the sale of prime properties in the region.
The company has reported that sales are already up this year, with a 17 per cent increase in new instructions that might indicate a slow, but steady nationwide housing recovery.
Salford Surveyors – A large scale development in the Salford area of Greater Manchester which seemed to have stalled after concerns were raised over vandalism of an empty building on the site, has sparked back in to life with the demolishment of that building.
The scheme at Middlewood locks has outline planning consent for a large, mixed use site of residential, commercial, retail and leisure facilities. They have stated that they plan to moderate their original plans in light of the current climate and present a scheme suitable for Salford’s current needs.
London Surveyors – Two tenants from Hanshaw Drive, Edgeware in the London Borough of Barnet have claimed that their local authority is in breach of its tenancy agreements by introducing plans to introduce a floating warden for sheltered accomodation.
The campaigners believe that the new service would put the lives of tenants and pensioners at risk and a judge in Barnet County Court has order a delay whilst court proceedings continue.
Manchester Building Surveyors – Manchester is set to become the first city to be handed the freedom to reinvest its own national tax revenues under the Government’s latest proposed ‘City Deal’.
The deal will include the creation of a ‘revolving Infrastructure Fund’. This will allow Greater Manchester to ‘earn back’ a portion of the tax it generates by investing £1.2bn in infrastructure, on a payment-by-results basis. The Government estimates that up to £30m could be earned back in this way.
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Bristol Building Surveyors – Bristol City Council has recently released a map which you can use to check your property’s suitability for solar panels. A user can simply type in their address and see a graphic of their property and the surrounding area, revealing an estimated potential for solar generation between ‘limited’ and ‘very good’.
Further details are listed, including estimated system size, electricity generation and CO2 savings.
bristolbuildingsurveyors.co.uk -The landlord of a pub, the Black Swan in Easton, Bristol, has been fined £11,000 for ‘flyposting’.
The punishment is for putting up posters on lamposts, street hoardings and other items of street furniture without permission. The council reputedly removes thousands of posters every year, and had highlighted the areas the landlord, Mr Melford, had illegally installed the posters, giving him an opportunity to take them down. Having been ignored, court proceedings were brought. Mr Melford did not attend the hearing.
bristolbuildingsurveyors.co.uk -One of the www.propertysurveying.co.uk network’s newest members is in Bristol, providing building surveys, Homebuyers surveys, valuations and schedules, as well as various other forms of survey work.
Contact Colin Nuttall MRICS by clicking on the link above to find out how he can help you.
Spa towns like Ilkley in West Yorkshire, which boasted the highest premium of all, Boston Spa in Lincolnshire and Bath in North Somerset, have been shown to have signficantly higher house prices.
The report by Lloyds TSB indicated the spa town house prices were around 27% or £48,123 higher than neighbouring towns, averaging at £275,397 last year. Spa town homes now cost typically 8.3 times gross annual earnings.
