The UK Housing Crisis: A Disaster Of Our Own Making

House prices have been a staple of the national conversation for years, a largely rising tide that has fuelled many a self-congratulatory chat across the dinner table or over the garden fence. But in recent times the tenor of those conversations has switched from satisfaction to alarm, as post-war dreams of a property-owning democracy have crumbled into a nightmare of skyrocketing prices, unsustainable debt and disappointed aspirations. The average UK house price has risen by two and a half times since 1997 and is now £186,000 – over £500,000 in the capital. Many millennials are now resigned to never being able to afford to buy their own home. And as the children of homeowning parents are priced out of the market, the tide of home ownership has turned. From a high in 2001 of 69%, by 2011 the figure had fallen to 64% (ONS data). The last time that happened was in 1918, and it’s still going down. Read more on Management Today.

Universal Credit: New Benefit Rolled Out To Families

The government's flagship welfare reform programme Universal Credit is being extended, with parents able to claim it for the first time. The change will initially apply to parents in parts of north-west England. The credit, which merges six working-age benefits into a single payment, had previously been available only to single people and couples. Read more on the BBC website.