Stephen Murphy

Great article… Terrace houses (a typical second step after first step Flat buyers) were typically 10-20% premium to London Flats, it’s now 50%.

🚨NEW HISTORIC LOW 🚨 Net economic optimism in Britain has fallen to the lowest levels ever recorded since Ipsos began collecting this data in 1978. 78% of Brits expect the economy to get worse over the next 12 months, 12% think it will stay the same, and just 6% think it will improve – giving a net Ipsos economic optimism index score of -72.

Whilst well intentioned, regulation of managing agents in the form proposed will not do anything to drive up standards. Regulating managing agents without regulating landlords is also going to leave a glaring gap in any system. Agents will still be able to get out of jail free by saying they are following their landlord client’s instructions. Landlords like the idea of regulating managing agents, but why have they done nothing to improve the quality of these agents where they control the appointment? How will a regulator succeed where they have failed? The most effective form of regulation is to give leaseholders control of their service charges and to appoint their own managing agents. For example, sites that qualify for but have not yet exercised it should be subject to regular trigger ballots to take control away from landlords. The model of regulation proposed is only going to achieve higher costs for leaseholders. The regulator itself will have to be paid for. Its enforcement activity will have to paid for. The cost of obtaining the qualifications will have to be paid for. All of those costs will fall on leaseholders, most likely through increased management fees. This is the pattern already seen with the Building Safety Regulator, which has imposed costs of thousands on leaseholders for all the paperwork, surveys and reports required. The TPI model of regulation by qualification is designed to benefit TPI members by driving out smaller agents so they can reduce competition and raise prices. The TPI also boosts its income by providing all these new qualifications. Most TPI qualifications fall out of a box of cornflakes. Giving rogue operators like FirstPort a pass on years of misconduct simply because they become registered and their staff have qualifications will not change anything. Any regulatory system fails the moment it admits the likes of FirstPort. The TPI is no friend of leaseholders. All the big name managing agents are members. Many so-called professional freeholders are associate members. FirstPort remains a member despite its appalling practices. The TPI has intervened to make arguments in support of landlords in both the recent cases heard by the Supreme Court which have reduced leaseholders’ rights over service charges and made it harder to obtain the right to manage. The TPI and its preferred solution for regulation should not be held up as something good for leaseholders.

Shared Ownership need be scrapped and be investigated by an arbitrator. It’s the biggest property scam there is

Labour is changing the country but people aren’t feeling it yet. We will keep working hard until they do.

There's only one party currently in power so you're also; Missing your own housing targets Dragging your feet on leasehold reform Failing to deal with cladding problems Not building new social housing Not being bold enough on infrastructure required. Thank you for your attention.

Share prices of UK major housebuilders and developers (Berkeley) are in decline principally due to major structural issues in the English housing market. Developers will not build if they cannot sell, if they don't build ultimately it has an impact on profits.

🏡 Shared ownership is the main type of publicly subsidised house building under the Conservatives. But the scheme is “desperately failing” according to a recent report by a cross-parliamentary group of MPs, as residents face soaring costs 👇