John Healey MP
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Latest property news
Housing Minister savaged for “another consultation on a proposal”
Housing Minister Alok Sharma (pictured, right) was roundly savaged in Parliament yesterday when it fell to him to make the announcement on a ‘fairer property management system’ four hours after it had been announced on his department’s website. His speech, which detailed the upcoming consultation on reform of the property management sector, said that management agents overcharge by £1.4 billion a year and pointed out that agents in the sector “do not need any qualifications, training or experience to call themselves an agent. They do not need a criminal records check. They do not even have to know what a managing agent does”. But shadow Housing Minister John Healey (pictured, left) heavily criticised Alok Sharma for “time wasting” with the call for evidence and that the desire to regulate the property management sector was a “feeble effort”. “It is not even a commitment to act; it is a commitment to ask some questions,” he said. “Can he confirm that this “call for evidence” today will not delay still further the announcement the Government made a year ago to ban letting agents’ fees? “When will that legislation be introduced, and when will it come into force? As a result of today’s announcement,…
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Latest property news
Scarborough landlord licensing scheme launched
Town is latest of over 35 selective licensing schemes to be introduced over past two years.
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Housing Market
Shadow Housing Minister vows to boost homeownership
Labour’s new Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, John Healey (right), has said that halting the decline in homeownership levels in this country is a major priority for the Labour party. Fresh Government data shows that despite the introduction of various housing schemes, such as Help to Buy, the level of homeownership has fallen from 67.4 per cent to 63.3 per cent over the last five years, while the number of families living in the private rented sector has risen by 2.5 million. Research by the Labour Party, based on official Government statistics, suggests that under the Coalition Government there was a 50 per cent decline in the number of young people owning their own property, with just 800,000 people under the age of 34 now owning their own home. This is owed in part to tougher mortgage lending conditions, a lack of house building and high property prices in some parts of the country. Speaking to the press ahead of Labour’s annual conference in Brighton this week, Healey said, “Homeownership has declined each and every year since 2010 and the number of people getting mortgages and buying homes is 10 per cent less than it was in 2010. There…
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