Will the government’s £2bn affordable housing top-up make a difference? March 25, 2025 The government has ploughed a ‘top-up’ investment of £2bn into the UK’s affordable housing sector as part of its pledge to revitalise residential construction. Officials say it will get working people and families into secure homes, while detractors say it doesn’t go far enough and might even be less money than the sector had anticipated. [...]
Property and the Spring Statement: Is anything going to change? March 24, 2025 Labour faces some tough choices with its Spring Statement: after increasing business taxes and public spending last autumn, the government now has to grapple with unhappy companies and a maxed-out credit card. The last budget was a mixed bag for the property market: there was widespread concern amongst landlords that the government would hike up [...]
Rightmove: 74,000 house buyers to narrowly miss stamp duty deadline March 17, 2025 Rightmove’s stamp duty report has identified an estimated 74,000 moves, which includes 25,000 first-time buyers, that will just miss the March 31 deadline and complete in April. They form the unlucky section of a “massive log-jam” of 575,000 movers hoping to complete ahead of the tax change, Rightmove said. Collectively, the buyers are set to [...]
Berkeley warns planning reform won’t solve overregulation of housebuilding March 14, 2025 Housebuilder Berkeley has warned that continued incremental regulatory changes will continue to place significant pressure on the delivery of new homes, despite the recently-announced planning reforms. Regulation on the construction of homes has increased recently, particularly in light of the Grenfell tragedy. The Building Safety regulator, which sets out rules to protect the design and [...]
‘A good first step’: Construction industry largely in support of the planning bill March 12, 2025 The government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill entered Parliament yesterday, March 11, and has already provoked strong responses from the construction industry. So far, these responses have been largely positive, with praise for the government’s efforts to streamline the UK’s overstretched and over-regulated planning system. Stuart Evans, partner and head of planning at Anthony Collins, said there [...]
Five reasons the UK has a housing crisis March 12, 2025 Britain's housing crisis is acute: the nation today has a backlog of 4.3m homes. Here's why.
What’s in the government’s new planning reform bill? March 10, 2025 The government has promised to unleash the biggest building boom in a generation through its wide-ranging planning reform bill, which will head into parliament today. Drafted in response to a crisis which has seen a massive shortage of affordable housing, as well as rising house prices and rents to due undersupply, the bill intends to [...]
Ban on new leasehold flats ‘doesn’t go far enough’ March 3, 2025 The government’s newly released whitepaper promises to ban the sale of new leasehold flats, but campaigners say the policy will not provide enough relief for current leaseholders. Labour said the plans mark the start of commonhold, rather than leasehold, being the “default tenure” in the UK. “These reforms mark the beginning of the end for [...]
Criticising ‘wealth hoarding boomers’ is ageist stereotype, MPs warn February 19, 2025 Criticism of older people as “wealth hoarding boomers” is a form of ageist stereotyping, a report by MPs has warned. Ageism is “widespread and culturally embedded” in the UK and discrimination laws are currently “failing” older people, the MPs have said. The Women and Equalities Committee of MPs concluded the UK has a “pervasively ageist [...]
Value of UK housing stock hits £9 trillion for the first time February 17, 2025 The total value of all homes across the UK has passed £9 trillion for the first time, according to new research by property firm Savills. After a brief slump in 2023, the UK’s housing stock grew by £346bn last year – meaning it is now more than 3.5 times the annual GDP of the UK. [...]