justine greening
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Latest property news
Legislation to help renters get on property ladder dies a quiet death in parliament
A small announcement on the Commons website confirms that a Bill that would force lenders to include rent payments in their mortgage decision making will not become law.
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Latest property news
Ground-breaking legislation to help tenants onto property ladder enters Commons
New legislation designed to force lenders to take rent and council tax payments into account when assessing tenants for mortgages has begun its journey through the House of Commons, sponsored by former government minister and MP Justine Greening. Introduced into parliament in June last year by Big Issue founder Lord Bird, it is now likely to get Royal Assent and become law next year; its passage through the Lords was unopposed and supported enthusiastically by all parties. “Thanks to Justine Greening plus [other] MPs from every party for sponsoring the Creditworthiness Assessment Bill in the House of Commons – it’s an historic moment in our campaign,” Lord Bird said. The bill will force a subtle but important change within the lending industry. Currently, credit reference agencies and lenders can opt to factor a borrower’s rental payment record into their lending decision, but it’s not an approach adopted uniformly. To date take-up of the ideas has been relatively slow – only Experian adds tenant rent payment records to people’s credit files while its two competing reference agencies do not. Royal assent When the Creditworthiness Assessment Bill does become law, lenders will be compelled by the Financial Conduct Authority to include rent…
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Latest property news
Larger agencies to report on gender pay gap by April 2018
Estate agency firms with more than 250 employees must publish detailed data about their gender pay gap by April 2018, the government has announced. The new rules will ask companies to look at their workforce from several points of view to ensure men and women are paid the same for doing the same job. This includes details of the median male and female earners within the company, and also taking into account the pay gap within different pay levels within the business, important the government says because many women tend to do lower paid jobs within companies. Agents will also have to publish details of the proportion of male and female earners across an organisation, to pin point where women’s progress may have “stalled”. The new regulations also cover bonuses, as well as salary. “We have more women in work, more women-led businesses than ever before and the highest proportion of women on the boards of our biggest companies,” says Justine Greening, Minister for Women and Equalities (pictured, left). “This has helped us to narrow the gender pay gap to a record 18.1 per cent – but we want to eliminate it completely. “Helping women to reach their full potential…
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Latest property news
Gender pay gap narrows among estate agency employees
The gender pay gap between men and women’s pay within the property industry has narrowed significantly to 14.3%, down from 18.1% a year ago and 27.5% in 1997 when the government first started collecting figures. Out of the main 20 employment sectors property now possesses the 13th lowest gender pay gap. The three worst sectors are financial and insurance services (37.4%), energy workers (28.1%) and teachers (26.7%). Overall the UK gender pay gap is now 18.1%, the lowest on record and down from an average of 27.5% in 1997. “No woman should be held back just because of her gender,” says Justine Greening, Minister for Women and Equalities (pictured, left). “The changes we’ve made so that men and women can share their parental leave, the support we’re giving to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies and our drive to get more girls taking STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects at school are all helping to reduce this gap.” But the figures for the property industry mask one uncomfortable truth – the gender gap is worse among part-time workers, who are a significant part of the workforce for many agents. The government figures show that…
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