The interim report was published of an official review of the potential for greater development of the long-term fixed-rate mortgages in the United Kingdom housing market. It found 'undesirable' cross-subsidisation by homeowners of cut-price deals offered to first-time buyers and people remortgaging.
Source: David Miles, The UK Mortgage Market: Taking a Longer-Term View - Interim report, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: Report (pdf links) | HMT press release | CML press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
The Scottish Executive announced (in response to an earlier taskforce report) that it would publish a Private Sector Housing (Scotland) Bill within the lifetime of the existing Parliament, with the main purpose of giving local authorities new powers to encourage home-owners and private landlords to repair and maintain their properties and ultimately to oblige home owners to meet their responsibilities. Key features of the Bill would include modernising the powers available to local authorities to tackle house condition problems in the private sector; extending the existing 'tolerable standard; and reserve powers to allow the Executive to introduce a statutory system of single surveys (pending the outcome of a pilot scheme).
Source: Press release 16 December 2003, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: SE press release | CIH press release
Date: 2003-Dec
The government began consultation on whether the sale of home reversion plans should be regulated by the Financial Services Authority. It said the target market for home reversion plans tended to be elderly people who had paid off their mortgage: although informal discussions with stakeholders had provided no evidence of consumer detriment, the market was growing rapidly. (Home reversion plans involve the partial or full sale of the property, usually to a financial services company, under an arrangement allowing the homeowner to retain rights of occupation until their death.)
Source: Regulating Home Reversion Plans: Consultation document, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | HMT press release
Date: 2003-Nov
A government task force evaluated existing low-cost home ownership programmes, and recommended a reform strategy designed to make schemes simpler and more cost effective. It called for discounts for council tenants buying their homes to be phased out, and the suspension of sales in areas such as London where low-cost homes were in short supply.
Source: A Home of My Own: Report of the government's home ownership task force, Housing Corporation (020 7393 2000)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | CML press release | NHF press release (pdf) | Shelter press release | LGA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
Research examined the process of 'gentrification' by interviewing those involved in it before and after they moved. As well as traditional key motivators such as better schools or more living space, other factors were important to gentrifiers such as working as a freelancer or working remotely using internet technologies. The November 2003 issue of Urban Studies was devoted to a series of articles on gentrification.
Source: Gay Bridge, Housing Taste and Place : The housing histories of gentrifiers, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000) | Urban Studies, Volume 40 Number 12
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | ESRC press release | Urban Studies webpage
Date: 2003-Nov
Mortgage lenders said the amount of tax paid by home-owners had increased sharply, and the government should ensure that it did not rise further. They said total stamp duty paid by home-owners had more than quadrupled in the previous five years to more than 3.5 billion annually. The decision by the Government not to raise the 60,000 stamp duty threshold since it came to power meant that an extra 138,000 home-buyers would be liable to pay the tax in 2003-04. They argued that, in future, tax allowances and thresholds should rise automatically in line with house price inflation, unless the Treasury specifically decided that they should not do so.
Source: Pre-Budget Statement: Response, Council of Mortgage Lenders (020 7437 0075)
Links: Report | CML press release
Date: 2003-Oct
A study (based on the Reading area) found that the cost of moving to the best possible secondary school catchment area would be an increase of 23,750 - or 18 per cent - in house prices. Moving from the worst to the best possible primary school area would have increased the house price by 42,550 or 33 per cent. But there were no real price differences for houses in the catchment areas of average schools compared to those assigned to the very worst schools.
Source: Paul Cheshire and Stephen Sheppard, Capitalised in the Housing Market or How We Pay for Free Schools: The impact of supply constraints and uncertainty, Royal Geographical Society (020 7591 3000)
Links: RGS press release (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
The government published a new experimental index of 'mix-adjusted' average house prices (adjusted for size of dwelling).
Source: Press releases 12 and 15 September 2003, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000)
Links: ODPM press release 15/9 | ODPM press release 12/9 | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
The government published an analysis of responses to a consultation paper on the setting-up, running and ending of 'commonhold', a new form of tenure designed to solve problems associated with long leasehold on property. It also issued regulations bringing into force (mostly from 30 September 2003) various provisions of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 in relation to England, including a new right for long leaseholders of flats to collectively manage their building subject to complying with certain qualifying rules.
Source: Commonhold: Analysis of the responses to an LCD consultation paper 'Proposals for Commonhold Regulations', Lord Chancellor s Department (020 7210 8500) | The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (Commencement No. 2 and Savings) (England) Order 2003, Statutory Instrument 2003/1986, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | Consultation paper | ODPM press release | Statutory Instrument
Date: 2003-Aug
An audit report reviewed the new arrangements (from July 2003) for renewal of private housing in Wales - involving greater powers for local authorities and the abolition of most mandatory grants. It identified a number of risks, including the fact that by giving more power to local authorities, the Assembly's own housing objectives might not be met; that local authorities' housing renewal policies might not be of sufficiently high quality; that fraud could continue to be a problem or even increase; and that the public might not perceive a system that varied between local authorities as fair.
Source: Renewal of Private Sector Housing in Wales, Auditor General for Wales (029 2067 8500)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | AGW press release
Date: 2003-Jun
The financial services regulator published revised proposals for the regulation of mortgages and general insurance products. It said that income protection insurance and critical illness insurance should not (as previously proposed) be categorised as 'higher risk' products.
Source: Insurance Selling and Administration & Other Miscellaneous Amendments, Consultation Paper 187, Financial Services Authority (0845 608 2372) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 5.6.03, columns 32-35WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Consultation Paper (pdf) | FSA press release | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
A systematic review sought to collate and synthesise evidence relating to interventions intended to support mortgagors in financial difficulties, and to determine which methods of support were most effective.
Source: Karen Croucher, Deborah Quilgars, Alison Wallace, Sally Baldwin and Lisa Mather, Paying the Mortgage?: Systematic literature review of safety nets for homeowners, Department of Social Policy and Social Work/University of York (01904 433691)
Links: Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
The government announced proposals for a 'home information pack' to make buying and selling houses quicker and cheaper. It began consultation on whether there should be an exemption in areas of low demand.
Source: Housing Bill: Draft legislation for consultation, Cm 5793, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522) | The Home Information Pack in Low Demand, Low Value Areas: Consultation paper, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000)
Links: Housing Bill consultation paper (pdf) | Information pack consultation paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
An official Home Ownership Task Force met for the first time. It will consider a variety of schemes currently available to potential homeowners on low or modest incomes, and identify the most effective ways of promoting sustainable home ownership.
Source: Press release 18.3.03, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000)
Links: Press release | Hansard
Date: 2003-Mar
A report examined the issue of dealing with communal repairs in the private housing sector in Scotland. (Around 400,000 households live in tenement or flatted properties where it can be difficult to get agreement to repair and maintain the common parts including external walls, stairwells and roofs.)
Source: Ann Flint & Associates, Common Property, Common Poverty, Chartered Institute of Housing (020 7833 9712)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Mar
Detailed results from the 2001 Census of England and Wales showed only a small rise, from 67.6 per cent in 1991
to 68.2 per cent in 2001, in the proportion of homes owned by their occupier.
Source: Press release 13.2.03, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: Census website | Press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
Research found that although the poverty rate in the owner-occupied sector is far lower than in other tenures, the size of the sector (68 per cent of all households) means that 50 per cent of people living in poverty are either outright owners (18 per cent) or people paying a mortgage (32 per cent). Poor people in rented accommodation tend to live in unhealthy neighbourhoods, have poorer physical health, and be more socially excluded than home-owners. Poor home-owners, on the other hand, tend to suffer more from physical accommodation problems and poor mental health. Campaigners called for an urgent review of benefit support for home-owners, particularly for mortgage holders who become unemployed.
Source: Roger Burrows, Poverty and Home Ownership in Contemporary Britain, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500) | Press release 8.1.03, Child Poverty Action Group (020 7837 7979)
Links: JRF Findings 113 | JRF press release | CPAG press release
Date: 2003-Jan
Mortgage arrears and possessions fell to their lowest levels for 20 years. 11,970 properties were repossessed by mortgage lenders during 2002 - 0.11 per cent of all mortgages. This compared with 18,280 (0.16 per cent) in 2001. 50,510 mortgages - fewer than one in 200 - were in arrears of more than six months.
Source: Press release 29.1.03, Council of Mortgage Lenders (020 7437 0075)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Jan
