Housing, mobile phone charges, motorists and executive pay

There was some surprising news over the weekend concerning the Government’s policy on home-ownership. Ahead of the publication of a long-delayed white paper this week, Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, said the Government intended to encourage more housebuilding of all kinds, including more social housing. According to The Independent, this represents a ‘major shift in housing policy by placing greater emphasis on renters with plans to deliver more affordable rental properties’. In today’s Telegraph, house-building sources say they are worried at proposed Government plans to give developers a timetable to build homes, or risk losing their planning permission. And The Times reports that action to help more people move from large, under-occupied homes as their children move out will be laid out in tomorrow’s white paper. Meanwhile, The Guardian claims that NHBC, the standard-setting body and main home construction warranty provider for new builds in the UK, ‘is paying millions of pounds to leading house-builders every year, raising questions about its independence and credibility amid a wave of complaints about the quality of new-build properties’.

In other housing news, millions of people who rent their homes from private landlords are putting themselves and their families at risk of eviction and financial hardship due to lack of a financial back-up plan, according to research from Scottish Widows.

Mobile phone charges

Some bad news for people wanting to use their phones abroad after The Guardian reported that ‘British tourists will have to pay mobile phone operators’ roaming charges when they travel in the EU after Brexit, according to the European parliament committee that helped pioneer the legislation.’

Executive pay

Investors are poised to take a tough line with companies that plan to boost bosses’s pay, the BBC reports. David Cumming, head of equities at Standard Life, said his firm ‘could not justify’ pay going any higher.

Motorists

Drivers are being saddled with unnecessary fines because councils are failing to explain their right to challenge parking tickets, ThisisMoney reports.

The Local Government Ombudsman for England said: ‘Our work investigating these cases suggests that sometimes motorists may be paying more than they need to because they have not been given the correct advice about how to challenge their tickets. Councils should do more to inform motorists of their rights when issuing parking and traffic penalties.’

First-time buyers

Parents and grandparents are increasingly teaming up to help first-time buyers on to the mortgage ladder, research for equity release referral service Key Partnerships shows.

Its nationwide study among estate agents found nearly half have seen a rise in first-time buyers relying on financial support from their parents and their grandparents. Parents are slightly more likely than grandparents to be the sole financial backer for first-time buyers, the research found. Around 35 per cent of estate agents have seen a rise in parental help while 32 per cent report an increase in grandparents providing financial support.

Benefits

The BBC reports that thousands more families who were wrongly stripped of their tax credits by the US contractor Concentrix are to have their cases reviewed. The Work and Pensions Committee said up to 23,000 new cases will be looked at. Concentrix was sacked by HMRC last year after many people were left without credits.