Tory party pledges 3% surcharge for overseas buyers of English homes

Election promise effectively blames foreign buyers for inflating property prices

The Conservatives would force overseas homebuyers to pay extra stamp duty in an election pledge that effectively blames foreign purchasers for inflating property prices.

The party has unveiled plans for a 3% stamp duty surcharge for non-UK tax residents which would apply to companies as well as individuals – and also to expats wanting to move back home. It said as many as one in eight new London homes were bought by non-residents in 2014-16.

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'Downward mobility' a reality for many British youngsters today

Social policy experts call for educational, tax and pay reforms to beat economic slide

Downward mobility – the phenomenon of children doing less well than their parents – will become a reality for young people today unless society makes dramatic changes, according to two of the UK’s leading experts on social policy.

The UK is among the worst of the developed countries for social mobility. It appears increasingly unlikely that people will be able to escape economic disadvantages linked to their background.

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Using OnTheMarket.com to find your next home Nottingham Estate Agents

To make sure you don’t miss out, you can search OnTheMarket.com in a number of ways to create free property alerts or to gain valuable market data. OnTheMarket.com features thousands of new properties each month, 24 hours or more before they are advertised on Rightmove or Zoopla.* Here, we show you how best to search the […]

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Labour targets renters with pledge of 100,000 council houses a year

Plan to borrow £75bn to fund affordable homes may appeal to those in private rental sector

Danielle Morey, 28, has a problem in common with millions of other voters in Britain today: she can’t afford to buy a home and doesn’t qualify for oversubscribed social housing for which over a million people are waiting. So her only option is to rent privately. In a parallel reality, that is where this story would end. Morey would find a place and settle down with her fiance, young son and 11-month old daughter. Instead, her family has been forced to move nine times in the past decade because of problems such as mould or being evicted through no fault of their own. Her four-year old boy, who is starting school, has already lived in four different homes.

“I am really interested in what the parties say on social housing,” she said. “We have been looking at who to vote for, but it seems hardly anyone is interested in getting younger families into affordable housing, and I mean actually affordable [cheaper than 80% of market rent, which is a common definition of affordable].”

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Legal & General to build 3,000 affordable homes per year

UK insurer agrees tie-up with 14 housing associations in attempt to ease property crisis

The UK insurer Legal & General has teamed up with 14 housing associations to build 3,000 affordable homes annually, as official figures show a 22% rise in the number of affordable homes delivered in England in the past year.

The insurance and pensions firm set up an affordable housing business in April 2018 and has built up a pipeline of 3,500 homes to be constructed over several years.

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Housebuilding data shows dearth of homes for affordable renting

Only 37,825 new homes built to be let at discounted rents last year, despite waiting list of 1.1m

England’s shortage of affordable rented housing shows no sign of ending, as official figures revealed on Wednesday that only 37,825 new homes were built to be let at discounted rents last year, despite a national housing waiting list of more than 1.1 million households.

The number of new homes classed as social housing and available at the cheapest rents from councils remained historically low at a mere 6,287, the second-lowest level since council house building began in earnest in 1921.

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Property problems – and why preparation can help to prevent them Nottingham Estate Agents

The processes of buying, selling, letting or renting a home look straightforward on paper but can in practice sometimes become taxing and emotional experiences. Good estate and letting agents do their utmost to keep problems to a minimum by working in a professional manner to strict codes of conduct and striving to maintain high levels […]

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