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Morning Briefing: London housing market hit by ‘prolonged downturn’
London housing market hit by downturn, national house prices decline, gender pay gap report inaccuracies go unpunished, and all of your other major housing news stories
A number of papers report this morning on a £17m loss for major London estate agent Foxtons, with the company blaming a “prolonged downturn” in the London housing market for the difficulties.
Papers and websites, including the BBC, have run stories on the estate agent which has turned a £6.5m profit last year into a £17.2m loss this year.
The loss was partly blamed on the closure of six offices in the capital, but the company also said it had been adversely impacted by decreasing consumer confidence created by Brexit uncertainty.
It was the first loss by the company since it debuted on the London stock market six years ago.
It comes after Inside Housing ran several stories on London based housing associations such as Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) struggling to sell its private sale homes.
In a piece published yesterday, John Hughes, development director at NHG, said transaction levels had dropped by “a third if not more” and it was crucial the government increased grant sooner rather than later.
The news of Foxton’s results came as Nationwide, the country’s biggest building society, published a grim outlook on the country’s housing market.
Month-on-month house prices, reported in The Guardian, slumped by 0.1% across the UK, while annual house price growth edged up to 0.4% from 0.1% last month.
Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said that after grinding to a complete halt in January, house price growth remained subdued while consumer confidence remained weak and new buyer enquiries continued to fall.
The BBC has a piece this morning that reports on four local authorities in Lancashire which have asked the government for advice to become one unitary power.
According to the website, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale council leaders have made enquiries about pooling resources to create efficiencies.
In a letter to housing secretary James Brokenshire, the leaders said that it would “give real strength to the area” and allow the councils to have a “big voice in the Northern Powerhouse”.
Analysis by The Guardian this morning has concluded that inaccurate figures and a lack of sanctions has made a mockery of the gender pay gap reporting system introduced by the government last year.
The paper found that a number of companies had filed mathematically incorrect gender pay gap that had yet to be corrected.
It also found that despite these inaccuracies being known by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, it has yet to fine any company for failing to comply with the legislation.
The deadline for public bodies to submit gender pay gap figures this year is 30 March and 4 April for private companies. Inside Housing’s analysis last year found a number of major housing associations had gender pay gaps of more than 25%.
Dozens of homeless families in Southwark living in temporary housing have staged a protest at having to travel more than four hours a day to take their children to school in the borough.
Southwark News reported that more than 50 members of the activist group Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth staged protests at the council’s offices in London Bridge to protest against the long journeys.
On social media
MP Helen Hayes introduced her new bill aimed at changing the definition of affordable housing:
Snippet from yesterday’s speech introducing the Planning (Affordable Housing & Land Compensation) Bill in Parliament. A Bill to reform our planning system to deliver more genuinely affordable social housing #socialhousing #housingcrisis #planning pic.twitter.com/uP1dNKOcil
— Helen Hayes (@helenhayes_)Snippet from yesterday’s speech introducing the Planning (Affordable Housing & Land Compensation) Bill in Parliament. A Bill to reform our planning system to deliver more genuinely affordable social housing #socialhousing #housingcrisis #planning pic.twitter.com/uP1dNKOcil
— Helen Hayes (@helenhayes_) February 28, 2019
It’s fair to say that Liverpool City Council is quite happy about its new funding from Homes England:
The funding boost from @HomesEngland for our #FestivalGardens and its transformation will be a game-changer for this city’s economy in terms of new homes, construction jobs and growth. - @Mayor_Anderson #MakingHomesHappen pic.twitter.com/eoLZ1rhzkF
— Liverpool City Council (@lpoolcouncil)The funding boost from @HomesEngland for our #FestivalGardens and its transformation will be a game-changer for this city’s economy in terms of new homes, construction jobs and growth. - @Mayor_Anderson #MakingHomesHappen pic.twitter.com/eoLZ1rhzkF
— Liverpool City Council (@lpoolcouncil) February 28, 2019
The big issues that impact the regeneration and delivery of social housingSPONSORED ARTICLE
