RLA : RPI : In brief

News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members

other artilces from the April / May 1999 issue

In brief - April / May 1999

Changes designed to deliver 'real reductions in the overall time taken to handle appeals' are to be made to the planning appeal procedures. These will take the form of statutory instruments (currently being prepared) and follow announcement from Government of its 'final conclusions' following consultation on its paper Improving planning appeal procedures.

Problems with leasehold tenure are more often to do with poor management than problems inherent in the nature of the tenure, the British Property Federation has told the Government. Its comments came in response to consultative proposals for Residential leasehold reform which were open for comment until last month. 'The Federation does not accept the assertion in the consultative paper that leasehold is a "fundamentally unsatisfactory tenure"', it said.

£21.1m has been allocated from the Government's Estates Renewal Challenge Fund to help modernise six housing estates in East Wythenshawe, Manchester. Transferred from council ownership to the Willow Park Housing Trust following a 1998 ballot of tenants, the estates will also benefit from a £35m privately funded investment. Since 1988 83 local authorities have transferred all or part of their housing stock to new landlords. Only last month a further 25 local authorities received permission to transfer housing stock, subject to tenant approval, to Registered Social Landlords. In all some 140,000 dwellings are affected including properties in Manchester (646 houses on the Colshaw Farm estate), Liverpool, and Preston.

An updated version of the Manual to the Building Regulations has been published by DETR. Costing £14.99 it is available from HMSO - telephone 0161 834 7201.

Average council tax increases this year are just short of 7 per cent nationally, according to the DETR. It based its calculations on 'band D' – that applicable to houses whose estimated 1991 value was between £68,000 and £88,000 occupied by two people. In such circumstances the occupiers can expect to pay £798 this year - £51 up on 1998/99. Band D rates in metropolitan areas are generally higher, averaging £878.

Major legislative developments since 1995, including the Housing Act 1996, have been incorporated into the latest edition of Butterworths Residential Landlord and Tenant Handbook. Covering statutes and statutory instruments going back to 1925, the comprehensive tome costs £42.

Butterworths can be reached on 0171 400 2874.

There were 13,700 fewer vacant dwellings in England at the end of April last year than at the same point in 1997. Vacancies in the private sector fell from 640,000 to 623,200, according to figures released by the DETR.

'Early signs of a Spring upturn in the housing market' have been detected by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Mortgage rates continue to fall, with an average interest rate in February of 6.32 per cent, compared with 6.48 per cent in January, it reported. Mortgage lending in February totalled an estimated £6.4bn, compared with £6.1bn in January.

other artilces from the April / May 1999 issue