Buy-to-let mortgage demand fell during the first half of 2008 by 18 per cent compared with the previous six months. Although it was the first fall in buy-to-let mortgage figures for three years, the Council of Mortgage Lenders does not think that rents will fall, as demand remains high for rental properties. However, the decline was not as steep as that in the wider mortgage market, which saw a 28 per cent drop in home loans in the first half of 2008 compared with the previous six months. The average loan has an 83 per cent loan-to-value ratio.

Buy-to-let repossessions have increased twice as fast as all other mortgages. Between the first half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 the number of buy-to-let mortgages ending in repossession rose by 100 per cent, compared with 48 per cent across the mortgage market as a whole. Shelter is calling on the government to protect renters from homelessness if their landlord is repossessed.

Meanwhile as banks tighten their lending criteria, borrowers now need a 43 per cent larger deposit than before the credit crunch. The cheapest mortgage deals are now only available to people with large deposits, around 20 per cent or more of the property’s value. A typical homebuyer in England or Wales needs to come up with an average deposit of £37,119. In London, the average deposit needed is £71,616, up 81 per cent from a year ago, and while homes in the North East need the smallest deposit, the amount is an 84 per cent increase on a year ago.

Energy firms hit back at reports that the government is thinking of imposing a windfall tax, by threatening to pass the increase on to consumers. The industry said that a windfall tax would lead to more ‘inflation-busting increases’ as companies struggle to find the money to invest in ageing power stations and networks. Gordon Brown is said to be against the idea of a windfall tax, preferring to force energy companies to pay more for pollution permits issued under the EU’s carbon-trading scheme.

But councils are calling on the government to charge energy companies with an annual levy to fund a national home insulation programme to help lift 500,000 people out of fuel poverty instead. The Local Government Association believes this would be more effective than a one-off payment for the hardest hit. It could also cut £200 off energy bills and help reduce carbon emissions by 20 per cent.

Britain will overtake Germany and France to become the most populus country in Europe in 50 years time. The positive birth rate and younger average age in the UK contrasts strongly with most other large European countries. It will result in less problems for pensions, health and welfare systems in the UK said the Eurostat report.

Social housing is not a disincentive to work and there is no evidence of cultures of worklessness in deprived areas, according to new research by the Department for Work and Pensions. The research, which sought to explain why there are high levels of worklessness amongst social housing tenants, did find that the tax and benefit system acts as a disincentive and that many people are unable to get a grip on the interaction between earnings, tax credits and housing benefit.

A petition calling for a windfall tax, signed by 70 Labour MPs, is splitting the government. Those in favour of a windfall tax on energy companies are arguing that Britain’s worsening economy will cause ‘difficult social issues’ and say that at least one ministerial aid is ready to quit unless a levy is imposed.

But another tax - intended to regenerate empty commercial buildings - is threatening to leave parts of the country looking like ‘bomb sites’ as owners demolish buildings to avoid paying the tax according to the chair of a regeneration group. Until the last election, vacant offices and shops received a rate relief of 50 per cent, while industrial units gained full relief. Now all unused commercial property has to pay full business rates after a three- or six-month grace period. 

The chancellor’s ‘dithering’ over stamp duty has ’paralysed’ the housing market, and led to a 20 per cent fall in prospective buyers, estate agents claim. The National Association of Estate Agents said that the fall in new buyers, estimated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, was in line with reports from its members that more than a quarter had seen sales fall as a result of the uncertainty over stamp duty.

The NAEA has also called on the government to take action on home information packs, saying they are not fit for purpose and will not simplify the house buying process. Chief executive of NAEA believes the slower housing market is making the situation worse, and the majority of property searches are out of date by the time the property is sold.

The latest mortgage figures, from the British Bankers’ Association, are out today and indicate that the number of mortgages approved for house purchases stabilised in July, but was still two-thirds lower than a year earlier. There were 65 per cent fewer loans than July 2007, but the figure was mostly unchanged from June 2008’s record low, and statistician with the BBA said that they it would be premature to think that they housing market is starting to recover as overall activity was ‘very low’. There has also been an 11.0 per cent drop in the average loan value.

Overdue mortgages are on the rise says Standard & Poor’s, the credit ratings agency. A report into nonconforming mortgages has shown the delinquency rate for sub-prime mortgages rose to a record 23.31 per cent high by June 2008, while the rate at which borrowers are pre-paying mortgages fell during the first quarter from 24.75 per cent to 23.98 per cent. For prime mortgages, the delinquency rate also rose. Northern Rock accounted for one in every 13 repossessions in the UK during this period.

Labour party members are calling for an independent review of the legal aid system, following fears from lawyers that the changes will rob vulnerable tenants of housing advice. The Labour group of the Local Government Association wants the changes put to a vote at the Labour party conference next month after they said that the new fixed fees for civil legal aid cases do not cover complex and time-consuming cases. Housing is one of the areas where vulnerable people are particularly at risk if they can’t get good advice.

For the first time the UK has more people of pensionable age than under 16 year olds. Men over 65 and women over 60 account for 19 per cent of the population or 11.58 million, just overtaking the 11.5 million children under the age of 16. And the over-80s are the fastest growing age group, accounting for more than 5 per cent of the population, a figure which has doubled in less than 30 years. The implications of an ageing population had the greatest consequences on housing and in the community.

According to Moneyfacts, the price comparison website, mortgage rates are back to the level they were at in August 2007, at the start of the credit crunch. However, the better rates are only available to those with big deposits, while mortgage costs remain high and there are 10,000 less financial products available in the past year.

However, some borrowers are having to apply four times to get credit, a recent survey has shown. Nearly half a million mortgage or loan customers had to apply more than four times, while just over 400,000 people could not get a mortgage or loan at all.

And councils are also seeing their finances stretched lately - some councils have seen demand for discretionary payments double. The payments are made to make up the difference between rent and housing benefit, and new rule changes on determining benefits’ values introduced in April have left many tenants with a shortfall. At the same time councils are clubbing together to fight a campaign by umbrella groups who want to stop the government pooling tenants’ rents for redistribution. The councils are worried that losing the rent subsidy which helps them repair homes and keep rents down will threaten their tenants’ quality of life. The Chartered Institute of Housing, the Local Government Association and London Councils have all said the redistribution is unfair and should be abolished.

Shelter yesterday called on the government inject £8 billion into building new homes immediately, to kick-start the housebuilding industry. With the government’s figures showing an 18 per cent fall in the number of new social homes and a nine per cent drop in the number of new houses being built overall, Shelter says the £8 billion that has been earmarked for homes over the next three years would have more of an effect if spent now, with Adam Sampson saying: ‘the government simply cannot stand by and watch the industry collapse…’ 

A house has been discovered in a cliffside in Angus, Scotland. Lifeboat crews were called to reports of cries for help coming from a cliff, when they spotted a rope ladder leading to the cave house built about halfway up the 120 foot cliffs. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it would not say where the cave was due to public safety.

Council leaders are asking to be allowed to offer mortgages in an attempt to get the housing market moving. In a letter to the Times they argue that the public sector should be able to help first-time buyers and those unable to secure a home loan, and they are calling for an extra £2 billion from the public works loan board, an agency that allocates funding for capital public sector projects, to provide cheaper mortgages than the private sector.

Meanwhile the latest figures for gross mortgage lending from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that while lending is up 5 per cent in July, the total is 27 per cent lower than a year ago. So far during 2008 only 29 per cent of mortgage lending has been to housebuyers, the rest has been to people staying in their homes but remortgaging.

And according to government figures the number of new homes being built in England during the past 12 months has dropped 19 per cent. Only 33,400 new properties were started during the three months to the end of June,  a 2 per cent increase on the previous quarter. But there was a massive 27 per cent drop in the number of private sector properties built in the past year, compared to a 56 per cent rise in new homes built by registered social landlords, the highest quarterly level for 11 years.

Buyers are demanding discounts of up to 20 per cent according to the Bank of England’s summary for July. The new home market is also facing difficulties as a growing number of buyers are sacrificing deposits rather than go through with a sale.

Thousands of pensioners will lose out on backdated benefits as reforms to housing benefit and council tax benefits come into effect. From 6 October pensioners will only be able to claim backdated benefits for the previous three months rather than the 12 months currently allowed. The changes are part of a plan to allow pensioners to apply for all three benefits in a single phone call. The reforms are estimated to save the government £100 million.

Just days after the Scottish government unveiled a £100 million rescue package for social landlords to buy up unsold homes and land, first minister Alex Salmond has come under fire from one of Scotland’s largest estate agents, for repeatedly claiming that house prices in Scotland are still rising. The package is part of a £1.5 billion affordable housing investment programme and has the support of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Homes for Scotland and is aimed at keeping struggling homeowners in their homes. However, estate agent Slater Hogg & Howison says that the government is using out-of-date figures and that Scotland is following the same trend as England with falling house prices.

Inequality is damaging children’s health, education and general well-being, and the growing divide between rich and poor is undermining work to bring down the number of children living in poverty, the TUC says. Its report found the class divide between the top and bottom tenth of the population has more than doubled since 1979.

In an article for the Guardian, shadow chancellor George Osborne has delivered a blunt assessment of the government’s policy on child poverty. Mr Osborne says the government has failed in redistributing wealth, with life expectancy gap between rich and poor at its widest since the Victorian era. The time has come to end the target driven top down approach, he said, adding that the free market provides the fairest way of rewarding people.

Empty homes are increasing in England for the first time in nine years, according to the Empty Homes Agency. An increase of almost 10,000 brought the overall figure of empty homes to 672,924, with the biggest increases in cities such as Liverpool, Leeds and Oldham. A spokesperson for EHA said it expects the number to continue to rise.

Homeowners may soon be able to claim a cash refund if their local council fails to deliver services such as emptying rubbish bins or if street repairs are not carried out in time. Communities secretary Hazel Blears is to set out the details of the ‘right to redress’ next week as part of the autumn government fightback planned by Downing Street. However council leaders complain that the new scheme will land them with ‘pointless bureaucracy’ that will cost them more than the level of compensation.

The UK mortgage market is likely to shrink by almost 20 per cent this year, followed by a further drop of three per cent next year,  research from data analysts Datamonitor indicates. Fewer lenders operating, a shrinking number of products, higher prices and more people being refused credit mean the outlook is very different from the 19.3 per cent growth in 2006. But there are signs that competition is slowly returning to the market as lenders have started cutting their interest rates during the past weeks.

Meanwhile the latest figures from the National Association of Estate Agents reveal that the number of househunters dropped sharply in July to an average of 192 per agent, down from 226 in June. The percentage of first-time buyers in the market has also dropped - more than 1 per cent to stand at 10.7 per cent of buyers. President of the NAEA blames the chancellor’s indecision regarding a stamp duty holiday, however he argues that the market is levelling out as reflected in the stable figures for the number of sales agreed.

However, if you have purchased a student buy-to-let then you are unlikely to be too troubled. The latest research found that rental yields for student accommodation in the best performing towns is more than 10 per cent, with Nottingham the best student town to buy in, followed by Durham. The average rental yield is 7.9 per cent for the top ten university towns, which far outstrips the UK average of 6.4 per cent.