From the archive - week of 27 February

25 years ago

More than two-thirds of housing authorities in Wales were facing the prospect of being merged into larger unitary authorities, according to Welsh secretary David Hunt (pictured)

The Conservative frontbencher told the House of Commons that its 37 districts and eight counties would be reduced to 23 unitary authorities if the Tories were to win the 1992 general election. Labour accused the government of gerrymandering and said it would introduce its own plans under a Welsh Assembly should it win April’s general election.

The proposal would affect 26 district housing departments, particularly in the Southern Valleys. Departments in the more urban districts of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport would be retained and possibly expanded.

Mr Hunt said the new authorities could be operating by April 1995.

15 years ago

Local authorities in the North West were examining radical proposals to underpin an £8bn housing market renewal plan designed to stem decline in low-demand areas.

Under the proposal, being looked at by Manchester Council among others, buyers would be offered a guarantee that they would not lose money if they bought a home in a run-down area. The insurance product, based on a model trialled in the US, was one of a raft of measures under discussion to support a move to revive the market in key areas of the North and Midlands.

Manchester Council was understood to be looking to pilot the scheme in east Manchester, where large swathes of homes had been abandoned by owners. Steve Rumbelow, the council’s director of housing, told Inside Housing that the plan had been discussed with the Council of Mortgage Lenders and insurer Lloyd’s of London, which would need to underwrite the guarantees.

Jim Battle, head of North regions at the National Housing Federation, said: “People feel they are taking a risk by investing in an area that has a bad reputation. This ensures that the risk is underwritten.”

Five years ago

An Inside Housing investigation found hundreds of homeowners in England who had bought properties under the Right to Buy had been bailed out by the government’s mortgage rescue scheme, introduced in the wake of 2008’s financial crisis.

In parts of Yorkshire and the Humber, at least half of all mortgage rescue applications were for Right to Buy properties.

The news prompted fears that the additional discounts on Right to Buy proposed by the coalition government could lead to more financial trouble for prospective homeowners. Sally Lynch, head of development at Yorkshire Housing, which acted as the mortgage rescue agent for the region, said: “If people are buying at a heavy discount, it could happen again.”