Goodman and Uniliver given clearance to go ahead with Bedfordshire Science Park

Goodman and Uniliver won their battle with the Bedford Borough Council over development of Colworth Science Park in Bedfordshire. Bedford Borough Council had barred development of Science Park in the area located within 1,200 acre park. Goodman and Unliver filed an appeal with the government inspector who overruled council’s decision and granted permission to Goodman and Uniliver for development of park.

The Science Park will be spread over an area of 500,000 sq ft and will comprise of a Knowledge Hub, a conference centre and an Innovation Centre for use by small commercial organisations. The development of Science Park got active support from Bedford and Luton Economic Partnership, English Heritage and the East of England Development Agency.

Commenting on the government inspector’s decision in favour of Science Park, director of Colworth Science Park, Dr. Sally Ann Forsyth said it would be most welcome in Bedfordshire. He acknowledged the overwhelming support lent to the scheme by the local people and different organisations and was confident that the local area will derive huge benefits from the Science Park where world class partners would be brought for scientific research and more opportunities would be created for high quality jobs for the local people.

Code for protection of sale-and-rent-back consumers being drafted

In order to protect vulnerable consumers from selling their homes at throwaway prices before renting the same back, the National Landlords Association of the UK has drafted a code of practices to be followed in sale-and-rent-back schemes. It has sought feedback from people on this code.

Sale-and-rent-back schemes study of the scheme undertaken by the Office of Fair Trading revealed that homes of many consumers are being repossessed by the landlords due to economic downturn.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) chairman, David Salisbury appealed to the interested people to submit their suggestions and views for incorporating improvements in the proposed draft. The NLA draft contains following codes:
● Mention of discount over market price in the offer to the consumer
● Cooling off period of 5 days to be given to consumer
● Fixing rent in advance for minimum one year
● No increase in rent to be made significantly above the retail price

Chief executive of Shelter, Adam Sampson, welcomed the move within the industry to provide protection to the vulnerable consumers, but warned that code was not stringent enough to deal with rogue landlords.

Alarming rise in home repossessions

Home repossession has reached highest level of past 12 years as more than 100 borrowers are losing their homes in repossession each day. The number is up by 48% in last 6 months. Experts are worried that rising cost of living is likely to hit more families. The situation is getting worse and more number of borrowers is failing in making payment of mortgage.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), 18,900 homes were repossessed in the last six months which is 48% more than in the same period last year. The borrowers who had re-mortgaged their homes to manage payments are the hardest hit due to dearth of affordable mortgage and the credit crunch.

The number of borrowers with arrears of more than three months rose from 120,800 in June 2007 to 155,600 in June 2008. According to director general CML, Michael Coogan, the situation is worse compared with the past decade and borrowers would face more trouble in the coming months. He claims that lenders also suffer loss on account of repossession.

Ideas you can implement for seeking cheaper Home Insurance

You can sure successfully cut down on your hefty premium on your Home Insurance policy by taking some simple steps as suggested below:

To start with, spend some money to get a quality home security system in place. Check whether there are specific alarm systems or security systems that are preferred by your insurer. For instance, installing the NACOSS standard alarm can help to cut down on your premium with some insurance firms.

Another way of ensuring cheaper Home Insurance for yourself is to add to your ‘voluntary excess’. We shall elaborate on this point for your benefit. Basically, the amount of excess is the sum you are willing to pay on your claims. So, if you had a £50 excess and a £100 claim, you would pay half and the insurer (would pay) the remaining half. The higher the excess that you are willing to pay, the lesser would be your premium. This can be as much as 20 per cent with some insurance firms for as little as £250 excess.

Another suggestion is to look out for subsidence. A rather common problem affecting the property, it is generally covered as part of the building insurance policy.

Points to keep in mind while seeking insurance cover for your property

All budding buy to let investors often do not understand the importance of seeking insurance cover for their property. According to experts, cover for your precious asset is a must in case anything untoward happens. Here are some quick suggestions for going about the task:

First of all, work out exact areas for which you need insurance. Accordingly, look for various plans on offer from different companies. Seek their details; evaluate various plans. Take into account the add-ons required, if any, when seeking cover. For instance, check whether accidental damage cover is really essential for your property.

By not opting for accidental damage cover, you can cut down on your premium outgo significantly. Instead ask your tenant to take greater precautions against fire hazards. Simple things like not smoking when in bed and throwing away half-burnt cigarettes can avoid potential fire mishaps.

Also, do not claim unless you have to! Avoid making claims for routine issues which you can manage at your end. Lesser the number of claims you make, bigger your ‘no claims’ discount. Think twice before going for an apparently unnecessary claim.

Will BoE take measures to help first-time home buyers?

Some economists think that inflation could top 5 per cent before the end of 2008.The economy grew just 0.2 per cent in the second quarter.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) once more has revised down its forecast for the UK’s economic growth for this and next year. It now expects growth of just 1.4 per cent this year and 1.1 per cent in 2009, although the government is still expecting the figures for both years to be 2 per cent or above.

Given the increasing inflationary pressures, the IMF stated there was hardly any scope for the Bank of England (BoE) to ease up borrowing costs at this time, in spite of calls for measures aimed at stimulating the British economy and help first-time home buyers. The chief economist at Global Insight, Howard Archer, stated: “It is not really inconceivable that rates could well be either raised or less likely cut.”

In their deliberations, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee members will be carrying the latest forecasts for growth and inflation to be released as part of the Bank’s quarterly inflation report.

Downward house prices coupled with tight credit conditions

The Bank of England (BoE) is likely to keep interest rates on hold at per cent after what experts state will be one of the toughest decisions of recent times.

With inflation rising sharply and growth slowing markedly, opinion is sharply divided on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee about how to respond to the situation. Although last month the bulk of members opted to vote in favour of holding rates, one of them supported a cut, whereas another backed a hike.

The Monetary Policy Committee is going to study the latest growth and inflation data before arriving at a decision. No doubt that slowing economy is currently a worry! Most evidence points to the fact that annual consumer price inflation will rise above 4 per cent when July’s figure is released next week.

Soaring fuel bills and food prices drove inflation to 3.8 per cent in June, well above the government’s 2 per cent target. At the same time, activity is markedly slowing in a majority of key sectors of the British economy; business confidence is falling and downward house prices coupled with tight credit conditions have severely dented consumer spending.

CIH urges improvements in energy efficiency of the UK homes

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has urged the government to initiate concrete measures for improvement of energy efficiency of the UK homes. It expects the government to develop a far reaching long-term plan which could bring relief for number of Brits from paying spiralling energy bills.

Noting the impact of 35 per cent increase by the British Gas and unabated rise in the fuel prices, CIH wants government to act on reduction of carbon footprint of the UK housing stock.

CIH claims that energy efficiency of the existing stock is so poor that steps for sustained improvements must be taken urgently in order to minimise energy consumption and simultaneously reduce burden on consumers.

According to CIH chief executive, Sarah Webb, improvements in energy efficiency of homes and lessening adverse impact on environment will help not only the UK in achieving target of minimum 60 per cent reduction in carbon emission by the year 2050, but also protect those vulnerable Brits who are finding extremely difficult to pay energy bills.

Ms. Webb urged the government to set a green home target for the UK’s existing housing stock and launch a programme similar to the Decent Homes initiative, instead of spending money on fuel subsidy, which would certainly fail in addressing problem of high consumption and rising carbon emission.

Decline in construction activity could increase house prices

The decline in house building in the UK is likely to increase the house prices which were going down due to the financial crunch. According to a report published this week, undersupply of housing would lead to inflation in house prices by 2010.

The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) predicts that falling output from the builders would cause escalation of 30 per cent in prices between 2009 and 2012. While making this prediction, CEBR is presuming that mortgage market would get normalised by the second half of 2009. The CEBR report mentions that housing market has badly suffered due to declining confidence of the UK buyers, which led to a fall of 20 per cent in completions. The fall would cause shortage of housing subsequently contributing to recovery of prices.

Contrary to the CEBR report, the consumer and housing prospect report warns of fall of 8 per cent in the housing prices during current year and further 4 per cent slump next year.  CEBR is not expecting any rise in interest rates and employment as witnessed in early 1990s, but it apprehends that negative house price growth would double up home repossessions and lead to rise in mortgage interest rates.

The UK’s NHHO launched Keyworker’s Initiative-property at half the price

London’s keyworkers have got a life time opportunity to buy property at half the price. On the last Sunday, 20 July, the UK’s largest housing association Notting Hill Home Ownership (NHHO) launched Key Worker’s Initiative (KWI). Under the scheme teachers, nurses, social workers and police officials are offered flats at half the price.

On Sunday, 11 a.m. onwards, 50 flats were sold on first-come first-served basis. As per the scheme keyworkers are not required to pay monthly rent on the part of the property not owned by them. The lucky keyworkers could get a flat worth £280,000 for half the value without paying extra rent, except the mortgage payment.

NHHO’s Mark Vaughan was surprised to see people camping out at Parkside in Wandsworth, south London 3 days in advance in the July rain. He said that despite pessimism in the housing market, a good deal still attracts people to buy the property.

As per the information, the cheapest one-bed flat worth £222,500 at Parkside is costing £91,225 to the keyworker, while the two-bed flat worth £272,500 is priced at £122,625. The buyer would pay only monthly service charge of £150. The scheme is meant for the keyworkers who reside in London and earn less than £60,000 a year.