Landscope 061014

06/10/2014

Headlines

6 October 2014

Residential: Housing is ‘top Tory achievement’, according to Pickles Eric Pickles has said that he is most proud of what the government has achieved in housing. He claimed 230,000 homes received consent in England in 2013 (he did not say that only 129,000 actually started on site (Barbour ABI)), that 200,000 affordable homes have been ‘delivered’ under this government (what does that mean? And the social housing waiting list is still growing), and that Help to Buy has supported 53,000 homes.

UK election 2015: Labour in mansion tax revolt Members of the Labour Party, and senior Labour MPs in London in particular, are already arguing that the Party’s plans to impose an annual tax on homes worth more than £2m are flawed. The concerns are mainly that it will unfairly hit the ‘asset rich but cash poor’ and be seen as a ‘punishment tax’. Embarrassingly, the Sunday Times reports that Labour peer Lord Allen has sold his London home to save himself the tax. An alternative, for new council bands on recently built properties, has been mooted.

UK election 2015: Labour warned tinkering won't solve homes crisis Labour has been accused of "fiddling while Rome burns” after a raft of new housing policies were unveiled by the party at its conference. The policies include: expanding shared ownership; rent-to-buy schemes; creating a waiting list to prioritise first-time buyers ahead of investors; prioritising garden cities; brownfield sites; a New Homes Commission with the power to CPO development land banked by housebuilders and other owners.

Residential: Immigration Act requires landlords to check all occupiers’ immigration status This wide ranging Act imposes a new duty on private landlords to check all occupiers’ immigration status. It is being piloted in the West Midlands from 1st December 2014 and is likely to be rolled out across the UK in early 2015, prior to the General Election. It applies when a property is someone’s main home and a rent is being paid. It does not apply to social housing, student accommodation, mobile homes (unless sublet) and long leases over 7 years. It is not retrospective and only applies to new tenancies entered into after the Act comes into force. It applies to occupiers, not simply tenants, so controlling subletting and assignation is important.

Landlords must carry out an identity check (there are two types), in the presence of the tenant, to verify the occupiers’ likeness to their identity documents. The copy of their documents must then be held for 12 months after the end of the lease. Your local Smiths Gore contacts have been fully briefed on the Act so please speak to them for further details.

Farming CAP Basic Payment Scheme: payment rates for 2014/15 set by 30 September exchange rate The exchange rate for 2014/15 Basic Payment Scheme payments is €1 = £0.77730, which is 7% lower than last year and the least favourable rate since 2007.

Dairy: downards pressure on EU farmgate dairy prices Average EU farmgate prices have fallen circa 12% between January and July after reductions in wholesale prices; prices for EU butter, SMP and WMP fell by a similar amount (13%), highlighting the link between wholesale market performance and farmgate milk prices.

Dairy: how buyers set milk prices There are three main ways, according to the ADHB and Dairy Co. The price of 12% of milk (by volume) is based on market prices and/or input costs, 16% on the basis of costs of production but the vast majority (72%) is based on the buyers’ discretion.

Dairy: English dairy herd returns to growth The English dairy breeding herd grew for the first time in 15 years, in the year to June 2014 (+2.6%). There is increased confidence in the future of the industry, with around 25% of GB dairy farmers planning to take on more cows in 2014 – 16, according to the AHDB/DairyCo Farmer Intentions Survey 2014.

Sustainable food production: scientists back agro-ecology over sustainable intensification Nearly 70 scientists have called on the UN’s Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) to back agro-ecological farm practices as the best way to meet world food demands, rather than ‘sustainable intensification’. Agroecology is a ‘science, a set of practices and a social movement for distributive and procedural justice’. The scientists claim the approach can reduce inputs such as fertiliser, improve nutrition and boost yields over the long-term. ‘Sustainable intensification’ has long struggled to be clearly defined – just what does it mean?

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Sustainable food production: Compassion in World Farming fills European Commission silence on sustainable food The European Commission still has not published its paper on how best to limit waste and lower environmental impacts throughout the food supply chain, including farming and consumption. To fill the gap, the animal welfare organisation CIWF has published a report on its view on what the EC should be saying. It argues that industrial livestock production is resource-inefficient, harmful to human health, damaging to land, soils, water and biodiversity and responsible for very poor animal welfare.

Property Issues Insurance: further arguments between the property industry and UK Government on Flood Re Flood Re is the new Government agreement with the insurance industry to reduce the cost of flood risk insurance for the riskiest properties. The argument is escalating on the exclusion of commercial property and some types of residential property, most notably let properties. The Government excluded the properties partly on the grounds that there is limited evidence these groups have difficulty buying insurance. However research by insurance brokers suggests otherwise and shows large increases in premiums and excess levels. The property industry has also criticised the lack of a clear mechanism to allow the scheme to be amended. The insurers have also said that elements of the scheme are ‘unworkable’. Leaks from the Government suggest that some leasehold properties may not be excluded from the scheme – buildings of less than three flats, provided the owner lived in one, or insurance was bought by a leaseholder who also owned part of the freehold.

What a confused mess!

Wages: National Minimum Wage National Minimum Wage rates will increase from 1 October as follows: Adult hourly rate: Youth / 18-20 yr olds: 16-17 year old rate: Apprentices:

to £6.50 £5.13 £3.79 £2.73

from £6.31 £5.03 £3.72 £2.68

UK economy: lending to businesses Demand for business credit rose in August, the first increase since September 2013, although it is probably too early to say that demand is on a firm upward trend. The annual growth rate is -3%, and -1.8% excluding the real estate sector.

Scotland: Local Housing Strategy New Local Housing Strategy (LHS) guidance for local authorities was published in August, which covers new topics, such as the integration of health and social care and welfare reform.

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While the total value of mortgage lending continues to rise in line with increased house prices, the number of loan approvals faltered in August, possibly due to seasonal changes and / or the Mortgage Market Review changes, which are expected to cut mortgage lending (Mortgage Advice Bureau) Residential rents have risen 2.4% in the year to August (YourMove / Reeds Rains) and are now 1% higher in real terms than in 2010 (LSL), although there is significant variation between regions.

The Government has launched the Rent-to-Buy scheme, which offers up to £400m of low cost loans to housing associations and providers to encourage the construction of up to 10,000 affordable rent homes around the country between 2015 and 2018. The homes must remain ‘affordable’ for seven years, after which they can be sold with the tenant having first right of refusal.

The Government has given grants to 11 councils to encourage self-build in their areas, under its Right to Build plan, announced earlier this year.

The proportion of £2m+ plus properties in London withdrawn from sale has risen from 20-30% to more than 50% since the 7% stamp duty was introduced in April 2012. The threat of a Mansion Tax has also created the sticking point in the market The purchase of expensive houses by foreign buyers has slowed down – some say ground to a halt since early August when a tax change means buyers must pay up to 45% tax when they use overseas assets as collateral in Britain. The change is retrospective and so applies to people who have bought houses in the past

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Scotland: land and buildings transactions tax proposals to be announced on 9 October LBTT will replace the current stamp duty land tax and this will be effective from 1 April 2015, applying to the purchase or lease of land and buildings. It will apply different rates of tax to different parts of the consideration paid, rather like the way income tax is applied.

Planning: Town and Country Planning Association calls for Garden Cities manifesto commitment The TCPA is calling for all the main political parties to make a firm manifesto commitment to deliver new garden cities, which it claims produce beautiful, high quality and climate resilient places.

UK election 2015: Labour mandates to close local plan loophole A Labour government would make it illegal for local authorities to operate without a local plan, in a bid to close a loophole which has seen 20,000 “inappropriate” new homes approved since the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. A review period of one to two years is expected for councils to implement the plans, while neighbourhood planning is worked into local plans. Around half of English local authorities still have not adopted a local plan, with a quarter not even having a plan being processed. Councils that fail to comply will be penalised.

Forestry UK Forestry Statistics 2014 The key points are: 13,000 hectares of new woodland were created in 2013-14; 7% more roundwood was delivered to primary wood processors in 2013, compared with 2012; 201 projects are now registered under the Woodland Carbon Code, covering 15,400 hectares and projected to sequester 5.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Environment Carbon: UK cuts carbon intensity The UK has risen to second place in PwC’s annual ranking of the carbon intensity of countries, which measures the amount of CO2 emitted for every pound of GDP a country produces. The rise is due to a 34% jump in UK renewable energy generation. 15% of UK electricity is now from renewables, so it is rising but still below German and Spanish levels. Globally, carbon intensity was cut by 1.2%, way short of the 6% needed to avoid 2oC warming compared with pre-industrial times.

And finally…

A British solution to a very British problem A man from Hertfordshire has invented the ‘Cookie Catcher’ to catch any bits of biscuit which may float off when dunking a biscuit in tea. Once the drinker has finished dunking, they can lift the pouch out by its string and continue drinking their brew. The idea came to him after his brother, who had drunk too much at lunch, kept over-dunking his biscuits.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this briefing, its information may not be comprehensive and recipients should not act upon it without seeking full professional advice.

If you have queries regarding any of the articles, please contact jason.beedell@smithsgore.co.uk (01733 866562) or andrew.teanby@smithsgore.co.uk (01522 507310)

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