Sajid Javid
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Latest property news
Who is James Brokenshire, the new Secretary of State for Housing?
A quick guide to the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and his property experience to date.
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Estate agents to face mandatory qualifications and referral fee transparency
Government outlines aggressive new measures to put "consumer in the driving seat" says Housing Secretary Sajid Javid.
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Government starts consultation on single housing ombudsman for whole sector
The government is to introduce a single ombudsman to cover the whole of the property industry including for the first time both new homes and rented property, and has announced a consultation. There are currently four different complaints bodies in housing and not all those operating within the industry must join them, a ‘gap’ that the government says it wants to close. The private treaty and lettings sectors have three ombudsman – although one of the recently said it was withdrawing from the market – plus there’s an additional ombudsman for the social housing sector. But private landlords are not currently compelled by law to join a redress scheme or be accountable to an ombudsman. Eight weeks The proposed initiative kicks off with an eight-week consultation which the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) says will help “shape a simpler and better complaints system” and that in future disputes will be “resolved faster” and homebuyers and tenants will be able to access compensation. The MHCLG consultation will look at various aspects of the property market including whether or not a ‘whole industry’ ombudsman is really needed, but also look at whether builders should be included in the scheme; how…
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Sajid Javid launches new house building agency
A new national homes building agency has been launched to get more new builds off the ground in the UK, it has been revealed. Originally announced in the Autumn 2017 budget, the new agency is now up and running and busy on several fronts, including lending £45 million through the Home Building Fund to create 4,500 homes. Yesterday Housing Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured, below) visited Alconbury in Cambridgeshire, where the government is helping fund 5,000 homes on the 1,420 acre site. “This government is determined to build the homes our country needs and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England will be at the heart of leading this effort,” he said. The agency will have new land buying powers and will focus on acquiring plots in areas where people want to live, support smaller and more innovative builders and bring more brownfield land on stream among the 16,000 unused sites recently identified by local authorities. The new agency, which will replace the former Homes & Communities Agency, is a key plank in the government’s plans to build on average 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. Nick Walkley (pictured, right) will head up the new agency. He…
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Tenant fees ban WILL drive up rents and lower property standards, MPs are told
MPs put the new housing minister Sajid Javid’s tenant fees ban legislation under scrutiny last night, and it was proven to be lacking on several fronts. Landlords are likely to increase their rents across the tenancy to pay the extra costs of running a tenancy, something the new law can’t stop, and that there is a substantial risk local councils will impose unjustifiably high fines on agents and landlords to finance enforcement, in the absence of government support, it was claimed. The other key criticism made during the session was that the draft bill is likely to be self-defeating – lower fees will mean letting agents are less incentivised to help landlords run their properties professionally. These views were all the more surprising given they came from experts from the policy end of the sector, not agents. The two-hour long session was held by the parliamentary committee that oversees Sajid’s department, the Select Committee that oversees the newly renamed Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Tenant fees ban Headed up by MP Clive Betts plus 11 other MPs, it quizzed three experts in the field about how effective the bill will be. These were Shelter’s Head of Policy Kate…
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Sajid Javid heads up the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Housing has been put at the heart of the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) after Sajid Javid was today given the title of Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Until now Sajid has been simply the Communities Secretary but, it is believed, PM Theresa May wants to raise housing up the political agenda and be seen to be doing something about the ongoing supply crisis. It’s not clear how his role will work with the new Housing Minister, Dominic Raab, and who will be responsible for what within the newly-named government department. The cabinet reshuffle comes at a perilous time for Sajid Javid – who must now steer the tenant fees ban through parliament following a debate on the subject this afternoon in Parliament. “We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement today. Housing strategy should be at the forefront of the Government’s thinking,” says Richard Lambert, CEO at the National Landlords Association (NLA). “However, we hope that this works out to be more than just rebranding exercise, and that Mr Javid and his department will look to address the housing crisis by genuinely working across all tenures, not by fixating on building more homes.”
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Sweeping reform of ‘unfair’ leasehold system to go ahead, says Minister
A promised leasehold reform programme is to go ahead following a consultation process that launched in July. Communities minister Sajid Javid’s new measures to tackle unfair and abusive practices within the leasehold system will see almost all leaseholds banned for new-build houses – except when a property is in shared ownership – and that ground rents for new leases will have to be at zero for both apartments and houses. Sajid (pictured, below) has also revealed that he is to make it much cheaper and easier for the UK’s 1.4 million leaseholders to buy-out their freehold. “It’s unacceptable for home buyers to be exploited through unnecessary leaseholds, unjustifiable charges and onerous ground rent terms,” the minister says. “It’s clear from the overwhelming response from the public that real action is needed to end these feudal practices. “That’s why the measures this government is now putting in place will help create a system that actually works for consumers.” Also, Sajid’s department is to work with the Law Commission to help leaseholders win redress for existing onerous terms and conditions within their leaseholder – which will hearten the many vendors and agents trying to sell properties crippled by such clauses. Grant Lipton…
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Draft Tenant Fees Bill is published
The government has this morning introduced its draft Tenant Fees Bill in parliament, which reveals the full details of its plans to make the charging of fees to tenants an offence, and to make it compulsory for agents to be a member of a client money protection scheme. The announcement comes after nearly seven months of waiting for agents during which a three-month industry consultation has been completed, and the draft bill will be the government’s initial framing of the bill following that. “The ban will make renting fairer and easier for tenants by allowing them to see upfront what a given property will cost them – the rent that is advertised will be what you are expected to pay, nothing more,” says Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (pictured, left). “It will also sharpen and increase letting agents’ incentives to compete for landlords’ business, resulting in a better and more transparent service for everyone.” The bill applies to both landlords and their agents and bans all fees or prohibited payments as a condition of arranging the grant, renewal or continuance of a tenancy in England. It puts payment by tenants to landlords or agents into…
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Outdated house moving process to blame for sluggish sales, says NAEA
National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) Chief Executive Mark Hayward says the creaking house moving process is one reason of the key reasons why sales volumes remains low “despite the fact that the supply of housing is up”. The comments follow NAEA research revealing that 80% percent of estate agents canvassed by the say the house moving process is out of date and just a week after the government announced it wants to reform the home buying and selling process and began a consultation process. Sajid Javid says he wants to hear from estate agents, solicitors and mortgage brokers on a wide range of issues but in particular about how to stop gazumping, reduce time wasting and preventing buyers from pulling out of deals before exchanging contracts. “The Government’s announcement last weekend that it will consult to reform the home-buying process couldn’t come soon enough, and we welcome it,” says NAEA Chief Executive Mark Hayward. “Our findings show that estate agents agree, and would welcome changes to ensure the process for buying and selling is brought into the twenty first century. “The current prolonged process means sales are stagnating despite the fact that the supply of housing is up, and there is…
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Want to stop gazumping, Sajid Javid?
When Communities Secretary Sajid Javid earlier this week asked the industry for evidence on how to stop gazumping, reduce time wasting and increase commitment, little did he realise there is already a proptech start-up that says it is the answer. Gazeal, a platform that binds both vendor and buyer together when they are ready to agree a deal, prevents either side “walking away or moving the goalposts”, it says. Gazeal says it believes the fall-through for UK property sales is even higher than the government research published by Sajid Javid on Sunday, which pointed to between a quarter and a third of all sales falling through. Stop gazumping The government research said nearly 40% of buyers who withdraw do so for personal reasons, while 13% do so because they have been gazumped, 10% becaues the vendor withdrew without explanation and 9% because the chain collapsed elsewhere. But sellers have a different view. The government research revealed that they said of sales that do collapse, 35% did so after the buyer withdrew for personal reasons, while 28% fell apart because the buyer didn’t have sufficient funds lined up. Duncan Samuel, Managing Director of Gazeal (pictured, below), says that gazumping is on…
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