Government

Want to know shat’s going on with the housing market?  We take a brief look into the housing market to help you decide whether to ...

How will the budget changes affect home owners and house prices? Here's what has been announced. Since the announcement of the new government’s first budget ...

The initial recommendations of a report on the state of the housing market has been submitted to the housing minister, Matthew Pennycook by Dame Kate ...

Leading economists have suggested that the government should make pensioners exempt from stamp duty. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been advised that the move would ...

He may have to vacate Downing Street and Chequers, but don't be too concerned that the former Prime Minister might be homeless. In a television debate ...

Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) has been abolished as of 1st June 2024. MDR was a relief from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) that came into ...

The next great scandal for the housing market is fleeceholds, warns Conservative member Lord Moylan. The term "fleecehold" is used to describe properties that are ...

Following a market survey in February 2024, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has reported an increasing number of property complaints from home owners over ...

At this time of year, most of us will have the heating on and the windows and doors tightly shut against the UK’s chilly outside ...

Each year, ahead of the Autumn Statement, parliament is opened by the monarch who gives a speech outlining the government's priorities for the year ahead ...

The arrest and imprisonment of former Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, sparked unrest - not only in Islamabad but also on the streets of London ...

Amid criticism from developers, proposals to unveil plans for constructing additional homes in cities are set to be revealed. Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove have ...

The plans to abolish the leasehold system in England and Wales have been abandoned following disagreements between Downing Street and Housing Secretary Michael Gove. Instead, ...

The 2023 Demographia International Housing Affordability report has been published for the third quarter of 2022. The report measures housing affordability (house prices in relation ...

If the Labour party is elected into office next year, it plans to give local authorities the right to buy land at a fraction of ...

The government has reported an increase of around 24% in the number of estates paying inheritance tax over the last year, largely thanks to rising ...

Has Michael Gove gone too far in his war on landlords? His Renters' Reform Bill has caused Conservatives to fear an exodus of buy to ...

The government’s new Older People’s Housing Taskforce has been unveiled as part of its Adult Social Care Implementation Plan. It will be led by professor ...

Citizens Advice estimates that 3.2 million people in Britain ran out of credit on their prepayment meter last year, the equivalent of one every 10 ...

Nineteen local plans have been delayed or withdrawn since planning reforms were announced in December 2022. The Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, put forward his new ...

The number of mortgage and landlord repossessions for the quarter July to September 2022 have been published by the Ministry of Justice. Despite the fact ...

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his Autumn Statement on 17th November 2022. Home owners and movers may well be breathing a sigh of relief that ...

A new "creative" type of mortgage is being discussed by the government, that could result in children inheriting their parents' debts. New, ultra-long mortgages could ...

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is raising the minimum accessibility standards for new properties in England. Current basic standards for accessibility, known ...

The Commons Environmental Audit Committee has said that demolition and rebuilding adds to climate change and that the emissions created must be reduced to meet ...

The announcements made by Prince Charles in the Queen's Speech this month included several matters that will affect the property market. Planning The government has ...

New funding has been introduced by the government through the Build Back Better scheme, which will give home owners the opportunity to claim additional money ...

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been accused of failing to tackle the ‘cost of living crisis’, as the property market begins to react to the ...

Levelling-up and housing secretary, Michael Gove, is unpopular with many of the UK's major house builders after describing them as a 'cartel'. In his address ...

The head of the UK's Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, says we must do more to improve the insulation of our homes. In 2008, just ...

The London Fire Brigade has described the lack of progress on dealing with potentially unsafe buildings, due to the building materials used in their construction, ...

The housing secretary, Michael Gove, has confirmed that firms have until March to agree how they will help leaseholders living in buildings higher than 11 ...

The government's First Homes scheme is being used to offer a discount to first time buyers in England, to help them get on the property ...

One of the pressures on local housing stock is the lack of incentive for people living in larger homes to move into a smaller property ...

In his recent budget, the Chancellor announced investment in housing of almost £24 billion, to be released over a period of several years. Here are ...

The proposed planning reforms announced a year ago are officially being reviewed. In his speech to the Conservative party conference in October, the Prime Minister ...

Warrington Borough Council's audit and finance committee reported in July that it had advanced over £150 million to an investment company, and was five times ...

An investigation began in 2019 to investigate leaseholds, after millions of leaseholders faced massive increases in ground rents and the cost of buying the freehold ...

The elitest of England’s public schools has sparked outrage by proposing to build 3,000 houses in rural East Sussex. Eton’s propaganda eulogises a new town ...

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has stopped work being carried out on 69 bridges along disused railway lines, having learned of plans to block dozens ...

Some of the key factors of recent elections have been making home ownership more affordable for more people, particularly those wanting to purchase first homes, ...

The cost of building affordable homes in London has tripled, according to the mayor's office, which blamed Brexit and the cladding crisis for the failing ...

An attempt by the House of Lords to force the government to pay for fire safety work on buildings with unsafe cladding before reclaiming the ...

Thanks to the coronavirus, no budget was delivered in the autumn but it is hoped that on 3rd March 2021 the Chancellor might deliver a ...

Wales has been operating a pilot scheme of empty property grants for home buyers. The scheme  promises to help tackle some of the problems associate ...

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has recommended changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) that could result in costly implications for buy to let property ...

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has published a summary of responses to its consultation on the delivery of the proposed First Homes ...

In April 2018, housing reforms were announced that would crack down on rogue estate agents and leave greater transparency. However, these reforms are yet to ...

In October 2019, mortgage affordability rules were reformed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to enable mortgage lenders to help mortgage prisoners, by allowing them ...

The government's Covid-19 small business grants, in which businesses have been able to claim a £10,000 government grant, is being exploited by greedy second home ...

Homes England has demanded £750 from a couple living in the town of Redditch in Worcestershire, to formally procure their garden hedge and part of ...

The Scottish government has announced a new First Home Fund shared equity scheme. The pilot scheme will release £150 million for first time buyers in ...

Two thirds of the households in England that are headed by someone aged 65 or over are owned outright, that is 6.5 million homes, and ...

Boris's government has in recent months announced a number of housing policies designed to help home buyers and renters. So, now he can act, who ...

The Flood Reinsurance Scheme known as 'Flood Re' began in 2016 and is designed to ensure that households in areas at high risk of flooding ...

A report from Parliament has said the government must 'embrace modern methods of construction or risk missing its target of building 300,000 new homes in ...

The government's apparent focus on increasing the level of property ownership without consideration of the resulting squeeze in the lettings market is likely to raise ...

The government has published its proposals for a new independent regulatory body with mandatory qualifications and a code of practice, to oversee estate and letting ...

There are growing demands across the country to slash stamp duty charges in order to free up the stagnant housing market. New prime minister, Boris ...

The Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed that the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act has led to more people being placed in temporary and ...

How has the SDLT rate hike affected the property market? An Inflation Report from the Bank of England says that recent increases in Stamp Duty ...