2011 was a fairly dreary year in the world of property, but it wasn’t all bad news. We have compiled a list of 10 of the most interesting property stories to come of the UK last year as part of our monthly “10 questions on…†section.
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nottinghamsurveyors.co.uk – Building Surveyors covering the whole of the Nottingham area.
Phil Routledge MRICS is the local Director, providing an excellent and competetively priced service for all types of clients; residential or commercial, private or corporate.
Also covering Derby (derbysurveyors.co.uk). Providing building surveys, house purchase survey reports, homebuyers, schedules and all types of valuation.
The Government has released a consultation concerning new draft statutory guidance on social housing allocations for local authorities in England. Grant Shapps MP, Minister for Housing, hopes the guidance will help do away with the ‘injustice’ associated with the social housing system.
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A new case provides an excellent example and warning to landlords and solicitors that when issuing notices to tenants, strict procedures and checks must be in place to eliminate the risk of crucial errors.
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The recent release of Halifax’s annual quality of life (QOL) survey has highlighted what some are calling a widening of the north south divide. In a thorough ranking of all 405 local authority districts, just 8 areas of the top ranked 50 locales can be found outside the southern and eastern regions of England.
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Two prominent MPs, David Davis (Conservative) and Frank Field (Labour), have put together a report suggesting that the Government go further with their proposed changes to the Right-to-Buy scheme – providing the opportunity for potentially another 1 million tenants to get on the property ladder.
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The Housing Act 2004, and more specifically Chapter 4 of the Act, sections 212 – 215 and Schedule 10, requires that deposits for all assured shorthold tenancy (AST) agreements created on or after 6th April 2007 be protected under a Tenancy Deposit Scheme. We provide a guide to what is required and why landlords and agents should be careful when handling tenant’s deposits.
Find the whole guide here.
PropertySurveying.co.uk – With the Government currently consulting on proposals to increase the maximum discount under Right to Buy (RTB) to £50,000, fears are growing around local authorities that new homes will not be assured as a result.
The consultation’s wording reiterates the Government’s commitment to replacing every social housing unit sold with another affordable home. Some councils, however, are arguing that the borrowing caps their financial resources are governed by restrict them from being able to raise the necessary capital for this goal. With unit values as low as £70,000 in some areas, some councils could be looking at receipts as low as £20,000 to build a new affordable house – something which the Communities and Local Government Department itself believes will cost £40,000 – £50,000 per unit.
surveyorsbarnet.co.uk – The Council for Barnet in London has put forward plans to restrict tenants aged 18-25 to just two year tenancies as part of a shake up of its housing allocation policies.
The tenancy agreements would also be conditional upon unemployed tenants taking part in skills development, training or education which could lead to employment. They would, of course, be reviewed every two years; allowing the council to reallocate housing away from those, for example, not deemed to be trying hard enough to find gainful employment, and towards those deemed to deserve greater support.
Additionally, new tenants over the age of 25 would be offered a five year tenancy agreement, the minimum outlined by the Government.
Both measures are part of a wider exploitation of the powers gained through the recent Localism Act, with additional moves towards prioritising social housing for servicemen and women and towards tackling under occupation.
More information on under occupation and underused homes can be found here.
At nearly twenty six years old, the Lloyd’s building is now one of the youngest listed buildings in the country and joins just a handful of post war structures to receive the accolade.
The listing was carried out by the Minister for Tourism and Heritage, John Penrose, on the advice of English Heritage.
English Heritage’s Designation Director Roger Bowdler said: “We are delighted that the Minister has endorsed our advice to list the landmark Lloyd’s building at Grade l. Its listing at the highest grade is fitting recognition of the sheer splendour of Richard Rogers’s heroic design. Its dramatic scale and visual dazzle, housing a hyper-efficient commercial complex, is universally recognised as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch.”
It is a world renowned structure and a building that has been described as “heroic and Cathedral like”.
To read more on listed buildings and how they affect you, click here.
For further information on VAT and listed buildings, click here.
