A report provided an overview of flexible tenure housing schemes, including a range of low-cost homeownership models. No one scheme provided a complete cradle to grave approach for flexible tenure: schemes tended to operate in isolation, servicing only part of the overall need for assistance. The shared-ownership model had been the most successful in securing both access to, and the sustainability of, homeownership: but limited public funding had restricted its application within the market place.
Source: Fiona Hoyle, Improving Flexibility in Housing Markets: A review of current schemes, Council of Mortgage Lenders (020 7437 0075)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Dec
A report on international trends in housing tenure and mortgage finance said that the proportion of first-time buyers in the United Kingdom had fallen more rapidly than in the rest of Europe, the United States and Australia. Only the United States showed a significant increase in homeownership among young people.
Source: Kathleen Scanlon and Christine Whitehead, International Trends in Housing Tenure and Mortgage Finance, Council of Mortgage Lenders (020 7437 0075)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Nov
A study analysed the difficulties faced by working households aged 20-39 in accessing home ownership in every area of England at the end of 2003.
Source: Steve Wilcox, Affordability Differences by Area for Working Households Buying their Homes: 2003 update, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Findings 024 | JRF press release
Date: 2004-Oct
A report examined the extent and characteristics of low-income home-owner households in Wales. It showed that low-income home-ownership was more widespread in Wales than elsewhere in Britain - including two-thirds of all low-income pensioner households in Wales, and two-fifths of all children living in low-income households.
Source: Roger Burrows and Steve Wilcox, Low-income Homeowners in Wales, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report (Welsh) (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2004-Oct
A report said found that, in areas of the North and Midlands where the housing market was under stress, mortgage borrowing and lending were operating normally; mortgage finance was readily available and not a constraint on demand in areas experiencing low demand. But there were opportunities for the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders and mortgage lenders to work together to make financial products and services more widely available.
Source: Home Ownership Solutions for Low Demand Areas, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236) and Council of Mortgage Lenders
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | ODPM press release
Date: 2004-Sep
The government announced a plan to regulate estate agents. It called on the industry to set up a compulsory independent redress scheme, backed by the government, which all estate agents would have to join.
Source: Government Response to the Office of Fair Trading Report on Estate Agents, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 22 July 2004, columns 87-92WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Hansard | DTI press release | Consumers' Association press release
Date: 2004-Jul
The Scottish Executive began consultation on options for action to improve the quality of private sector housing, and give local authorities powers to intervene to stop properties falling into disrepair. Local authorities would get the power to step in against negligent owners, repairing their property and billing them for the work; while area-based powers would mean action could be taken to improve entire neighbourhoods where standards had fallen below acceptable levels.
Source: Maintaining Houses, Preserving Homes, Scottish Executive, TSO (0870 606 5566)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | Consultation document Maintaining Houses - Preserving Homes Consultation: contents page | SE press release | Shelter Scotland press release | CIH press release
Date: 2004-Jul
A survey found that parents of would-be homeowners expected they would have to contribute an average 17,000 of their own money so that their adult children could gain a foothold on the increasingly expensive housing ladder.
Source: MORI Social Research Institute, Homeowners: Sons and Daughters, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF press release
Date: 2004-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on mis-selling of endowment mortgages. It said that it supported moves by the financial services regulator to carry out research into the size and extent of the shortfalls facing consumers.
Source: Responses to the Committee's Fifth Report: Restoring confidence in long term savings - Endowment mortgages (HC 394), Fifth Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 655, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report | Consumers' Association press release
Date: 2004-Jun
Housing campaigners warned of an 'affordability crisis' in the homes market throughout southern Britain, as average mortgage payments rose towards an unsustainably high proportion of average household incomes.
Source: Press release 15 June 2004, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Shelter press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jun
The government published its response to a Home Ownership Task Force report (published in November 2003). It accepted most of the 45 recommendations. The Task Force looked at ways of helping social tenants and others in housing need into home ownership, while minimising the loss of social housing.
Source: The Government's Response to the Recommendations of the Home Ownership Task Force, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report (pdf) | ODPM press release | Task Force report (pdf) | CML press release
Date: 2004-May
A report said that consideration should be given to simplifying the current system of safety-net provision for mortgage holders, and to ways of increasing borrowers' knowledge of risks and safety-net options.
Source: Centre for Housing Policy, Homeowners Risk and Safety-Nets: Mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) and beyond, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report (pdf) | CML press release
Date: 2004-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs said the sale of endowment mortgages had damaged public trust in the financial services industry. Insurers had comprehensively failed homebuyers, with firms guilty of a catalogue of failings.
Source: Restoring Confidence in Long-term Savings: Endowment mortgages, Fifth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 394, House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Mar
The final report was published of an official review of the mortgage market. The author said that if his recommendations were implemented they would improve the mortgage market by getting better information and advice to customers, making the pricing of mortgages more transparent, removing potential obstacles to the emergence of new products, and improving the ways in which fixed-rate mortgages could be funded.
Source: David Miles, The UK Mortgage Market: Taking a longer-term view, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report | HMT press release | CML press release | RICS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Mar
The Office of Fair Trading said that more vigorous price competition was needed in the estate agency market. It recommended more effective enforcement of consumer protection legislation to drive out those unfit to practise and to combat bad conduct. The industry was urged to raise standards of customer service through better and more widespread self-regulation. A consumer group described the report as 'woefully inadequate'.
Source: Estate Agency Market in England and Wales, OFT 693, Office of Fair Trading (0870 606 0321) | Press release 23 March 2004, Consumers' Association (020 7770 7000)
Links: Report (pdf) | OFT press release | Consumers' Association press release
Date: 2004-Mar
Mortgage lenders argued that home-ownership made an 'enormous contribution' to the social fabric, the well-being of individual households, and the policy objective of self-provision.
Source: Sue Anderson (ed.), The CML Mortgage Market Manifesto: Taking the past into the future, Council of Mortgage Lenders (020 7437 0075)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2004-Feb
A study looked at what influenced people's decision to buy a newly built home. The researchers suggested that more larger properties could be built at higher densities. The challenge for the government and the house building industry was to create the conditions in which fewer buyers tended towards a suburban, rather than an urban, housing choice.
Source: Chris Leishman, Peter Aspinall, Moira Munro and Fran Warren, Preferences, Quality and Choice in New-build Housing, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 114
Date: 2004-Jan
