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May 17, 2012 1 Comment
image: london2012
With (a somewhat random) 71 days to go until the start of the Olympics, how about a few housing and infrastructure related facts to pique your interest?
Want to read more from PRSupdate about the Olympics?
May 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
David Cameron is currently being bashed for focusing too much on austerity and not enough on growth.
Francois Hollande, the new French President, came to power with a promise to focus more on growth than austerity.
FTSE 100 companies are being criticised for hording cash and not investing for future growth.
There is a clear theme here, do you cost-cut, sit tight, and hope all is well. Or, try and grow your way out of an economic slowdown? Read more of this post
May 12, 2012 Leave a Comment
Clean House Worksheet
If you have read our PRSupdate blog before, you may have come across the spring cleaning tips that we posted last month. Hopefully you found it an easy way to break up your cleaning into manageable (and possibly even enjoyable?!) chunks.
That said, there were plenty of one-off incidents not mentioned in that post. From children drawing on walls to spillages, unexpected accidents need to be cleaned up – and usually right away. Today we hope to let you in on a few tips and tricks to keep your home in tip top condition. Read more of this post
May 11, 2012 1 Comment
The general comment is we must look after the planet, and therefore be as ‘green’ as possible. In the recent London Mayoral election the Green Party came third, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Before the credit crunch, green issues were at the top of the development agenda, these days it seems to be further down the list. The government’s Green Deal is trying to move it back up the agenda once more – let’s see.
Sustainability used to be associated with environmental issues (just look at the language relating to the Olympic Park), but now it seems more about the financial sustainability of a business. Read more of this post
May 10, 2012 1 Comment
High Speed FTTP Broadband
Infrastructure’s not just about roads and rail links these days. Equally important, especially to businesses and residents, is telecoms infrastructure.
With the Olympic countdown continuing, we take a quick look at the legacy that the herculean telecoms infrastructure project will leave to the future residents of Stratford’s East Village.
During the Games BT, the official communications partner, will be running a high speed broadband and wireless network across 94 locations expected to handle four times the amount of traffic as during the Beijing Games. Read more of this post
May 9, 2012 2 Comments
Good news at last regarding UK Mortgage lenders’ attitudes to new build property.
HSBC, a big-name lender with around 15% of the mortgage market, has confirmed that they believe the perceived risk in the new build market has stabilised and receded. HSBC has shown its confidence by increasing the loan to value criteria on new build residential property purchases from 75% to 85%. Read more of this post
May 8, 2012 2 Comments
Continuing our Why Live In… series, we turn to Kings Cross
Where: King’s Cross is divided between two London boroughs; Camden and Islington.
Transport: One of the best transport hubs in the country. The underground station is on the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, Circle, Northern, Victoria and Piccadilly lines and a wealth of bus routes serve the area. National Rail services can take you as far as Inverness on the East Coast route, and First Capital Connect, First Hull Trains and Grand Central also operate from the station. International services on the Eurostar to France and Belgium depart from St Pancras International. A fast service to Hogwarts also departs from Platform 93⁄4. Read more of this post
May 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
Polling Closes at 10pm tonight
Well, today’s the day that London decides and, for anyone who’s calling into their polling station on the way home from work, now is the ideal time to do some last minute swotting up on the candidates’ housing policies.
Only Ken and Jenny have specific pages dedicated to housing on their websites. Boris and Brian do cover their housing policy though online, as you would expect, so we have provided links to the pages it is mentioned on:
Ken – http://www.kenlivingstone.com/housing
Boris – http://www.backboris2012.com/economy
Jenny – http://www.jennyforlondon.org/fresh-ideas/housing/
Brian – http://www.brianpaddick.com/Ideas
In addition, the candidates have been vocal on housing when talking to the press. Here are our ‘quick links’ to the most useful resources:
Ken – http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/2532/interview-ken-livingstone
Boris – http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/2540/interview-boris-johnson
Brian – http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/2533/interview-brian-paddick
Quick sticks, polling closes tonight at 10pm.
April 25, 2012 1 Comment
Get Ahead of the Games
There are 93 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympic games, and with up to 15 million to travel on London transport during the games we thought a round-up of the latest travel information was needed. Ticket holders are actively being encouraged to use public transport to get to all events; there is no parking available at the Olympic Park (disabled parking must be pre-arranged) and ticket holders will receive a Games Travelcard giving them free travel within Zones 1-9.
Travel times are expected to take a lot longer, and all underground lines will be ‘busier than usual’, with the Central, Jubilee and Docklands Light Railway ‘exceptionally busy’. The earliest events are scheduled to begin at 9am and the latest to finish at 11pm, but ticket holders have been advised to arrive at venues at least two hours prior to the start of their event to get through security. This means people will start arriving at main stations before 7am. Read more of this post
April 24, 2012 2 Comments
The European parliament will hear the first reading of the Credit Agreements Relating to Residential Property (CARRP) on 25 April 2012 and the proposed changes to the mortgage regime could be in force as early as the end of this year.
Despite the Treasury deciding more than two years ago that no further intervention in the housing market is justified, it could be railroaded by the EU into enforcing a new policy which says Buy-to-Let lending should be regulated in the same way as residential mortgages for owner occupation.
Once in place, the legislation could mean that banks and building societies would be forced to evaluate BTL mortgage applications based upon the owner’s other income, without taking account of the rental income generated by the property. Read more of this post
