Repossessions rise by 12 per cent 

The number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders rose by 12 per cent to 11,300 in the third quarter of the year according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The number of borrowers in arrears also increased by 8 per cent from the previous quarter, while the number of repossession orders issued by the courts went up 3 per cent for the same period. The data indicated that 1.44 per cent of mortgages were at least three months in arrears by the end of September, up from 1.33 per cent at the end of June. The CML said its forecast had not changed in light of the figures but that it would be ‘premature’ to predict what might happen in 2009.

Mortgage debt forces homeowners to sell

According to research by the Times more than one in five homes have been put on the market because their owners cannot afford the mortgage repayments. A survey by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) for the Times said that at least 5,000 properties a week are being put up for sale by ‘forced downsizers’, or people who are forced to move to smaller properties because of financial difficulties. Many estate agents said that at least 20 per cent of their sellers were having difficulties paying their mortgages. The number of househunters has also fallen, down 211 to 196 on average a month per agent. 

Rural communities struggling with migration levels 

Rural communities are struggling to adapt to the ‘unprecendeted’ level of migration of non-UK workers into their areas, says charity Business in the Community. While migrants had brought a number of benefits, helped boost the economy and filled gaps left by Britons who ‘prefered to remain jobless’ there had been an increase of 186 per cent in their numbers in rural communities between 2003 and 2007, which was leading to tensions breaking out and posed challenges to community cohesion and in the provision of adequate housing and services.

Empty Homes Agency calls for public action

To mark next week’s national empty homes week, the Empty Homes Agency (EHA) has launched a new website and called on the public to report run-down and empty homes, to help bring them back to use. There are enough vacant homes in England to house almost two million people and the EHA wants to make it easier to for people to report homes affecting their local area and encourages the public to report the homes to ’send a huge message to the government and councils’ that action is needed now.

Elderly denied access to proper housing choice

A growing number of older people are being denied proper access to housing choice according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF). Housing minister Margaret Beckett has been urged to ensure that older people are not forgotten in favour of first-time buyers and homeowners as the housing market crisis continues. The HBF said that significant social and economic benefits come from the provision of good quality specialist  housing - not least that retirement housing frees up under-occupied family sized housing - with beneficial results to the whole housing chain.

House building target faces 1 million shortfall

A new report by Shelter has suggested that the rise in the number of couples who choose to live apart is contributing to the housing shortage and will cause a shortfall of one million houses. The recent collapse in house building will mean at least 500,000 fewer homes being built by the government’s 2020 deadline, a target which Shelter argues already underestimates the number of new homes needed. Added to this is an increase in the projected number of one-person households - rising from 6.8 million in 2006 to 9.9 million by 2026.

Huge drop in social housing predicted

Housing associations have warned that without urgent government intervention there will be a ‘catastrophic’ collapse in the provision of new social housing. The 1,900 social landlords have urged ministers to change the way they are funded in order to prevent the supply of new, affordable housing drying up completely. They particularly want the limit on how much central funding can be used for development schemes relaxed, as it currently only allows the Housing Corporation to provide only 40 per cent of the cost, with the balance coming from borrowing or sales of private housing.

New guidelines for repossessions now in force

New guidelines that state that lenders must only use repossession as a last resort came into effect yesterday. The Civil Justice Council has drawn up a pre-action protocol, encouraging households and lenders to settle problems before they go to court, and which give struggling homeowners stronger legal support. The guidelines also urge borrowers and lenders to take reasonable steps to communicate at an earlier stage and discuss issues as they come up.

Gypsies and Travellers in £97 million housing plan

The government is set to announce a new scheme aimed at addressing the housing crisis among the Gypsies and Traveller communities. Grants totalling £97 million, to be allocated during the next three years, are aimed to create homes for up to 25,000 people. About a third of the money is expected to go to the East of England where around a quarter of the country’s travelling families live but where there are only 16 per cent of the official sites. People on the sites will pay rent and council tax and in return the local authorities will provide rubbish collection, running water, electricity and other services. Communities and Local Government said that a ‘good supply of authorised sites can break the vicious circle of evictions that is costly in terms of both taxpayers’ money and the quality of life for Gypsies, Travellers and the settled communities’.

London’s mayor to ‘jump start’ the housing market

Boris Johnson has pledged to help Londoners needing affordable housing and cut social housing waiting lists, in his £5 billion draft housing strategy being unveiled today. He said he would identify land belonging to the Greater London authority on which to build new houses, increase shared ownership schemes to help more people get on the property ladder and keep the target set out by Ken Livingstone to build 50,000 affordable homes within three years. Talking on Radio 4 he said that he wanted to remove the target that 50 per cent of all new developments built should be affordable, saying he wanted a more collaborative approach to working with the boroughs.

Mortgage lending up 

Mortgage lending rose 7 per cent in October according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The figure is 44 per cent lower than in October 2007 and the CML said lending would remain weak over the next few months despite the recent interest rate cuts as consumer confidence has been affected. It also warned against placing too much significance on the October rise saying figures had not yet reached the bottom. This year is set to be known as the year which saw the biggest slump in house sales and prices on record.

Figures spark immigration debate

New immigration figures being published by the Goverment today will confirm that levels of immigration are continuing at about 200,000 a year, says immigration campaigner Sir Andrew Green. The Government’s own projections show that the UK population will reach 70 million in 20 years’ time.
Of the extra ten million, seven million will be due to immigration, Sir Andrew says. That is equivalent to seven times the population of our second largest city, Birmingham. Almost all the increase will be in England  -  much of it in the South-East. Sir Andrew welcomed the parliamentary cross-party group on balanced migration led by Frank Field and Nicholas Soames. It is calling for  immigration to be brought down to roughly the level of emigration, currently about 120,000 a year. That would stabilise the population of the UK at about 65 million by mid-century, Sir Andrew says.

Interest-only loan danger

Borrowers with interest-only mortgages could be faced with crippling debts and negative equity in the falling property market, according to new research. Figures from insurer LV show about 41 per cent of homeowners with such loans — about 530,000, owing £30 billion — gambled on rising property values and cashing in equity to pay off loans. But with recent falls in house prices and further declines predicted, the loans are a serious risk. Mike Rogers, chief executive at LV, said: ‘Almost half a million interest-only borrowers could be in negative equity by the end of 2009. The worst-affected will be those who bought close to the peak of the housing boom in the second half of 2007.’

Charities call for support package

Ahead of next week’s charities’ financial crisis summit with third sector minister Kevin Brennan, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) has issued a 16-point plan to kickstart the debate about how government can best support the sector. In addition to a £500 million emergency aid package to help charities weather the recession, Acevo’s proposals include suggestions for developing the sector after the economic crisis. It is calling for ringfenced funding to make it easier for cash-strapped local authorities to fund a thriving third sector, the creation of a £250 million social investment bank to provide charities with easier access to money, and for government to further encourage third sector delivery of public services by producing a new action plan.

Asylum-seeker charities ‘playing the system’

Immigration minister Phil Woolas has attacked lawyers and charities working on behalf of asylum seekers, accusing them of undermining the law and ‘playing the system’. Woolas described the legal professionals and NGO workers as ‘an industry’, and said most asylum seekers were not fleeing persecution but were economic migrants. ‘The system is played by migration lawyers and NGOs to the nth degree,’ Woolas said. ‘By giving false hope and by undermining the legal system, they cause more harm than they do good.’ But Sophie Brown, chair of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association,  said: ‘Lawyers can only work with the law. To say they are undermining the law is an extraordinary comment to make.’

Record inflation fall to 4.5 per cent

Inflation tumbled at a record pace in October to 4.5 per cent, down from the 16-year peak of 5.2 per cent in September, official figures show. A sharp fall in transport costs, coupled with lower fuel and food prices, helped to push down the Consumer Price Index to the lowest rate since July.  Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, also fell, from 2.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent. The bigger-than-expected fall helps to explain the Bank of England’s dramatic 1.5 per cent rate cut earlier this month as, until now, the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee has been concerned about entrenching inflation in the economy if it cuts rates too swiftly.  Analysts say that the figure paves the way for more rate cuts.

Rents forced down by glut of homes

A flood of unsellable homes has forced down rental prices as homeowners instead turn to renting their properties, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. The number of housing transactions is at the lowest level since records began as banks limit the availability of finance to buyers. Some 50 per cent more surveyors reported an increase rather than a decrease in the number of flats to let in the third quarter of 2008, rising to 68 per cent for houses. Rent prices in London and the Southeast were the worst hit, with the net balance of surveyors reporting rises or falls in rents for London houses falling from a stable zero per cent in the second quarter to minus 53 per cent in the third quarter, while flats fell from a positive 5 per cent to minus 33 per cent.

£200 million drive to eradicate rough sleeping

Ministers will today commit the government to eradicating rough sleeping throughout England by 2012, the first firm deadline for dealing with the most acute manifestation of homelessness since Tony Blair promised in 1997 to reduce the number of rough sleepers to ‘as close as possible to zero’. The official headcount fell from 1,850 in 1997 to about 500 in 2003, when progress stalled. Iain Wright, the homelessness minister, will tell the Crisis annual conference of plans to spend £200 million on schemes to encourage rough sleepers into housing and employment.

South to bear brunt of job losses

Workers in London and the South East are likely to be worst hit by the recession, with one in 12 jobs being cut in the next 18 months, according to an analysis today. The warning by the Local Government Association  came as Britain’s biggest employers’ organisation downgraded its forecast for the economy, saying that the recession would drag on until October next year, pushing unemployment to nearly 2.9 million. The capital is tipped to be worst hit because of its dependence on the financial sector, where banks are expected to shed tens of thousands more jobs. Many construction firms, already hit hard by the housing downturn, are also based in and around London. Manufacturing districts in the North and the West Midlands, such as Hull, Bradford, Coventry and Birmingham, are also likely to be badly hit, according to the LGA analysis.

Crisis warns of rising homelessness

The UK is facing a ‘homelessness timebomb’ as a third of people would lose their homes within three months if they lost their job, a survey said. The poll commissioned by the charity Crisis revealed 33 per cent of the working population could face homelessness in as little as three months if they were to join the increasing numbers of unemployed people. Last week the British Chambers of Commerce warned that unemployment could peak at 3.25 million - more than 10 per cent of the workforce - if Government bids to kick start the economy were inadequate. Crisis said: ‘If unemployment continues to rise, the knock-on effect of a rise in homelessness could occur very soon.’

Gordon Brown’s £1,000 present for families

Gordon Brown is preparing to rush through plans for a huge programme of public spending and tax cuts before Christmas. The Prime Minister will claim that world leaders’ agreement with his ‘fiscal stimulus’ plan is proof that this is the way to kickstart the British economy. Mr Brown has come under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to bring forward a programme worth about £30 billion - or £1,000 for every family.

Miliband to press energy firms for price cuts

Energy companies will be urged to pass on savings to their customers in the wake of massive falls in oil and gas prices when Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, meets leaders of the big six providers today. The minister will also ask them what progress they have made in ending unjustifiable premiums demanded from people with pre-payment meters, who are among the poorest and most vulnerable customers. Ofgem, the energy regulator, has given the companies until December 1 to draft firm proposals, or Miliband has said he will consider legislation.