A Member of Parliament introduced a Bill designed to amend the law relating to long leaseholders; to confer further powers on leaseholders; to make provision in relation to leaseholders in local council-owned property and property owned by other social landlords; to confer powers on landlords to create sinking funds; and to make requirements of landlords relating to the management of property.
Source: Leasehold Reform Bill, Simon Hughes MP, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard
Date: 2007-Dec
A report said that the regulation of mortgage lending was failing to protect vulnerable borrowers. Dubious advice from brokers, irresponsible lending decisions, and aggressive arrears management by 'sub-prime' lenders were driving an increase in mortgage arrears, court action, and repossessions.
Source: Peter Tutton and Sue Edwards, Set Up To Fail: CAB clients' experience of mortgage and secured loan arrears problems, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181)
Links: Report | Summary | Citizens Advice press release
Date: 2007-Dec
A discussion paper examined trends in mortgage lending and their implications for affordability and the supply of housing.
Source: Christine Whitehead and Katrina Gaus, At Any Cost? Access to housing in a changing financial marketplace, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Sep
An article examined the relationship between household income and property values. There was a strong positive relationship between property values and income among higher-income households, but not among lower-income households.
Source: Rhys Davies, Michael Orton and Derek Bosworth, 'Local taxation and the relationship between incomes and property values', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Volume 25 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Sep
An audit report said that the government had employed consultants to help develop the home information packs scheme who had a clear conflict of interest; and had then failed to investigate adequately or act on complaints about this. It criticized the government for falling 'far short of appropriate practice' in setting accreditation standards for the scheme.
Source: Note to RICS About the Implementation of Home Information Packs, National Audit Office (020 7798 7400)
Links: Report | FT report | BBC report | Guardian report | Letting News report
Date: 2007-Aug
The financial services regulator examined the behaviour of intermediaries and lenders within the 'sub-prime' mortgage market, servicing consumers with impaired credit histories. It said that there were weaknesses in responsible lending practices and in firms? assessments of a consumer?s ability to afford a mortgage. As a result the regulator had started enforcement action.
Source: Press release 4 July 2007, Financial Services Authority (0845 608 2372)
Links: FSA press release | CML press release | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Jul
The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill was given a third reading, and the resulting Act was given Royal assent. The Act required estate agents to join a redress scheme; strengthened the regulation of estate agents by requiring them to keep records, and by allowing trading standards officers to inspect those records; strengthened and streamlined consumer representation by bringing together the National Consumer Council, Energywatch, and Postwatch; and enabled the government to require suppliers or service providers in the energy and postal services sectors to belong to redress schemes.
Source: Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 5 July 2007, columns 1125-1163, TSO
Links: Text of Act | Hansard (third reading) | DBERR press release
Date: 2007-Jul
The government began consultation on proposed changes to shared-ownership laws. People would be barred from purchasing 100 per cent of their homes in areas with severe housing problems. Shared owners would also be unable to enfranchise (buy their freehold) before they had bought 100 per cent of a property under the terms of their shared-ownership lease.
Source: Shared Ownership and Leasehold Enfranchisement, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation document | Inside Housing report
Date: 2007-Jul
A report examined the increasing role of housing associations as agents of low-cost home ownership. Home-ownership schemes had a positive impact on housing associations? business plans – adding to the balance sheet and to borrowing capacity, and improving cash flow. This had increased their capability to cross-subsidize, to pursue a policy of mixed-tenure development, and to provide rented housing.
Source: Stephen Hills and Angela Lomax, Whose House Is It Anyway? Housing associations and home ownership, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Jul
A report said that rapid growth in house prices in Scotland had made buying a home increasingly difficult for many first-time buyers. In some areas up to 30 per cent of working households were unable to afford the cheapest properties available.
Source: Scottish Housing Market Review: Evidence and analysis 2007, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: Report | SE press release
Date: 2007-Jun
A report (by a new official advisory body) said that low-income workers would find it progressively harder to buy homes, even if government house-building plans were fulfilled. The average house price would be 10 times the annual income of the poorest quarter of society in 2026, compared to 4 times in 2000.
Source: Affordability Matters, National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (023 9295 8152)
Links: Report | RTPI press release | Regeneration & Renewal report | Telegraph report
Date: 2007-Jun
The government announced that it would delay the introduction of home information packs, following a legal challenge by critics of the scheme. The scheme (requiring vendors to provide information about their property to potential buyers) would be delayed by two months until 1 August 2007, and would initially only apply to larger properties.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 22 May 2007, columns 1107-1118, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DCLG press release | Friends of the Earth press release | CML press release | Conservative Party press release | Guardian report | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2007-May
A report provided an analysis of housing market affordability in Northern Ireland in 2005. Affordability had continued to worsen: but the ratio of mortgage costs to incomes remained some way below the level seen in 1989, the peak year of the previous housing market boom.
Source: Steve Wilcox, Housing Market Affordability in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Housing Executive (028 9024 0588) and Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A survey found that nearly one-third of potential first-time house buyers (31 per cent) anticipated receiving financial help from their parents.
Source: 'Affordability - are parents helping?', Housing Finance, Issue 3/2007 Links: Article | CML press release | Shelter press release
Date: 2007-May
A report by a committee of peers described opposition to the introduction of home information packs (requiring vendors to provide information about their property to potential buyers) as 'striking' and 'widespread'.
Source: 18th Report (Session 2006-07), HL 92, House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Consumer Association press release | BBC report
Date: 2007-May
Researchers examined the suitability and likely take-up of loans and equity release packages for the purposes of house repairs, maintenance, and improvement in order to reduce the proportion of vulnerable private sector households living in non-decent homes. The loan types that appeared to offer attainable and relatively attractive solutions were those that required no monthly payment and could be carried on until sale or death ? provided that the home-owner was willing to take out a loan in the first place, and had sufficient equity in their home.
Source: DTZ, Loan Finance to Improve Housing Conditions for Vulnerable Owner-occupiers: Evaluation of new forms of finance to meet the PSA7 private sector target for decent homes, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Apr
A report evaluated a project in Scotland designed to help first-time buyers, and some other groups who were unable to afford to buy a home, in the form of an equity stake provided by a registered social landlord.
Source: Glen Bramley, James Morgan and Mandy Littlewood, Initial Evaluation of the Open Market Homestake Pilot, Report 87, Communities Scotland (0131 313 0044)
Date: 2007-Mar
An article examined the impacts of policy designed to increase rates of owner-occupation, primarily the 'right to buy' and low-cost home-ownership initiatives. The right-to-buy policy had been a success in its own terms: but there were clear arguments for reforming it.
Source: Moira Munro, 'Evaluating policy towards increasing owner occupation', Housing Studies, Volume 22 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Mar
The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to: require estate agents to join a redress scheme; strengthen the regulation of estate agents by requiring them to keep records, and by allowing trading standards officers to inspect those records; strengthen and streamline consumer representation by bringing together the National Consumer Council, Energywatch and Postwatch; and enable the government to require suppliers or service providers in the energy and postal services sectors to belong to redress schemes.
Source: Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL], Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 19 March 2007, columns 589-642, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory Notes | Hansard | Consumer Association press release
Date: 2007-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that a government programme designed to help council tenants and people on low incomes into property ownership wasted money and did not help enough people.
Source: A Foot on the Ladder: Low cost home ownership assistance, Nineteenth Report (Session 2006-07), HC 134, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report | Regeneration & Renewal report | FT report
Date: 2007-Mar
The government announced a lowering of the minimum share that tenants in social housing could buy under the 'Social Homebuy' scheme, from 25 per cent to 10 per cent. It also set out plans to allocate more than £400 million to help improve housing conditions for elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people.
Source: Speech by Ruth Kelly MP (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government), 13 February 2007
Links: Text of speech | Transact press release | LGA press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Regeneration & Renewal report
Date: 2007-Feb
A report explored housing demand by examining the aspirations, attitudes, and wants of households - focusing on 'rising' markets. The reasons people moved were highly complex. There was no 'magic ingredient' that caused some markets to rise more quickly than others.
Source: Paul Hickman, David Robinson, Rionach Casey, Stephen Green and Ryan Powell, Understanding Housing Demand: Learning from rising markets in Yorkshire and the Humber, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700) for Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | Findings | Inside Housing report
Date: 2007-Feb
An article examined new, developer-led, residential development in the context of non-metropolitan urban areas. The extension of the term ?gentrification? to embrace such forms of development stretched it beyond the point at which it retained utility or meaning.
Source: Martin Boddy, 'Designer neighbourhoods: new-build residential development in nonmetropolitan UK cities - the case of Bristol', Environment and Planning A, Volume 39 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Jan
