Town Hall Halt Right To Buy Council Home Deals

Fourteen Right to Buy deals for Camden Council homes have been halted by fraud investigators amid suspicions they were set up by people looking to cheat the system. The cases were revealed in a new report circulated at the Town Hall, which also shows that the council has seen an increase in potential fraudulent applications over the last financial year. The rise matches a trend that has seen local authorities across the country report more fraud cases than ever before, and coincides with the increased discounts made available by the government to tenants looking to buy ownership of their council homes. Read more on the Camden New Journal website.

Home Ownership: The Lowest In A Generation?

63% of English households own the home they live in. The last time the proportion was lower than this was in 1984, according to government statistics. The rest rent privately (19%) or from a social housing provider like a council or housing association (17%). The number of owner-occupiers has fallen every year since peaking in 2005. The English Housing Survey notes that trends in home ownership have changed “radically” over the past century. Most households seem to have rented until the early 1970s. Since then, home ownership has become the norm, but peaked in 2003 when almost 71% of households owned their property. Young people in particular are increasingly unlikely to own a home. Read more on the Full Fact website.

Survey Finds More People Living Alone and Renting

The housing market in the UK is experiencing a number of key trend changes which mean the more people are living along and more are renting a home for the long term, new research has found. Of the 43% of those taking part in the Housing Futures Survey who are single and planning to move in the next five years, some 75% expect to be living alone and 45% of those aged 18 to 29 indicated they would consider living in a professionally managed private rental unit. The research suggests that future housing types and location decisions are being altered by access to technology. Nearly 36% of the respondents who were intending to move listed broadband connectivity as important or very important in their motivations for moving, and nearly 20% listed mobile coverage. Read more on the Property Wire website.