Boris slams plans for property tax as stamp duty hits market November 19, 2012 BORIS JOHNSON yesterday slammed Liberal Democrat politicians who are calling for property tax hikes, while urging Google and other companies criticised for tax avoidance to do more to benefit the UK. “It is absurd to be suddenly whacking up taxes on cash-poor people who happen to inhabit expensive houses in London when firms like Google [...]
It is shocking just how much tax most workers have to pay November 19, 2012 ONCE again, Boris Johnson is making sense on tax. He is right to be calling for a lower tax economy and to oppose increasing the tax on homeowners – while simultaneously demanding the elimination of the loopholes that mean that the current system is riddled with problems, especially when it comes to corporation tax. The [...]
London houses withstand UK asking price collapse November 18, 2012 LONDON’S resilient housing market defied a UK-wide fall in asking prices going into November, data revealed this morning, driven by the top end of the market. The UK’s average property asking prices fell 2.6 per cent in just a month to hit £236,761, according to the Rightmove house price index, a sharp turnaround from the [...]
UK placed on flood alert November 5, 2012 Homeowners across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are being urged to prepare for flooding with between 15-20mm of rain expected to fall between last night and this morning. Last night there were 30 flood alerts across the south east. The Environment Agency has mobilised teams across south Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, [...]
Rapid responses October 11, 2012 Domestic security [Re: Should home owners have the right to use disproportionate force against intruders? Wednesday] The current law provides homeowners with more than enough protection, and genuine mistakes about the need to use force are allowed for. A threat to property cannot outweigh the value of human life, but the burglary situation is different, as [...]
Surveyors predict green shoots for housing market by year end October 8, 2012 SURVEYORS expect the housing market to pick up towards the end of the year, according to a leading survey released this morning. Sales expectations have jumped to their highest level since May 2010, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) announced today. The net balance of surveyors expecting a higher number of home sales in the [...]
Gove’s reforms will help better equip young people for life September 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S poor educational standards are a national scandal and a key reason why the UK’s productivity continues to lag. The problem is not with graduates of our top universities, though even they could do better. The real crisis is that thousands of school leavers and even, in some cases, graduates from other universities, end up [...]
Capco gets the green light for Earls Court plan September 13, 2012 CAPITAL & Counties (Capco) has been given the nod for its £8bn regeneration plans at Earls Court. Hammersmith & Fulham Council yesterday approved planning permission for the Sir Terry Farrell-designed scheme, which will see the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and several housing estates demolished. Capco intends to replace the estates with 7,500 new homes, around [...]
Londoners upbeat as the city again defies housing downturn September 10, 2012 LONDON bucked a national downward housing trend once again in August, according to a report released today by RICS. The rosy figures appear to justify Londoners’ optimism, compared to the gloom in the rest of the country, which was recorded yesterday by a YouGov poll. The net house price balance was -19 in August, up [...]
Maybe it’s because you’re a Londoner: The capital is optimistic about prices September 9, 2012 Take a step back before deciding if your glass is half full or empty IT IS often hard to move for the number of property analysts discussing price movements in the housing market. But what do UK households think? The Knight Frank/Markit House Price Sentiment index sets out to answer that question. Every month, we [...]