Latest news with #AutumnBudget2024
Daily Mirror
04-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Huge change for anyone living in council houses announced by Govt
The changes could make it much harder for people to buy their home - with new houses protected for 35 years People who live in a council house are set to see a big change if proposed legislation is adopted. This week Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government) Matthew Pennycook made a written statement to Parliament where he laid out plans which will make it much harder for people to buy their homes. In a bid to try to keep social housing stock the plan will see a much longer period before people will be able to buy their homes - in fact tripling. Also any new homes will be exempt from right to buy for 35 years. Mr Pennycock said: ' To better protect much-needed social housing stock, boost councils' capacity, and enable them to once again build social homes at scale, we need to further reform Right to Buy. Following the reduction in maximum Right to Buy cash discounts announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and our decision to allow councils to keep 100% of Right to Buy receipts, we consulted late last year on reforms to deliver a fairer and more sustainable scheme.' Planned reforms to the Right to Buy: increasing the length of time someone needs to have been a public sector tenant to qualify for Right to Buy from 3 to 10 years; reforming discounts so they start at 5% of the property value, rising by 1% for every extra year an individual is a secure tenant up to the maximum of 15% of the property value or the cash discount cap (whichever is lower); and exempting newly built social homes from Right to Buy for 35 years, ensuring councils are not losing homes before they have recovered the costs of building them. Mr Pennycock added: ' We will legislate when parliamentary time allows to bring these reforms into force. More immediately, we will reform the receipts regime and extend existing flexibilities on spending Right to Buy receipts indefinitely. Councils will also continue to be able to retain the share of the receipts that was previously returned to HM Treasury. In addition, from 2026-27, we will permit councils to combine receipts with grant funding for affordable housing to accelerate council delivery of new homes.' He said a new Council Housebuilding Skills & Capacity Programme, by £12 million of funding in 2025/26 would encourage local authorities to train staff to build their own homes. He added: 'The Programme will enable the Local Government Association to provide centralised training and guidance to councils to upskill their existing workforces and to expand its successful Pathways to Planning programme to help recruit graduates ready to undertake training to become qualified surveyors and project managers. The Department will also work with Homes England to support councils to boost their engagement with the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme.' BBC Money Box presenter Paul Lewis said on X: 'Major reforms to the right to buy council housing planned by govt 'when parliamentary time allows', Housing Minister announces in a written statement to Parliament. It will reduce discounts, protect new builds for 35 years, and more freedom for councils to use sales receipts.' And his followers said it made sense for councils be able to hang onto the homes they build for longer. Joy Brookes said: 'No public sector housing shd ever have been sold off or be sold off now but doesn't this new proposal about new builds create a two tier system - a tenant can buy existing stock but not a new-build built after a certain date? Does it take 35 years to recover cost of building?' Peter added: 'Right to buy was the biggest mistake ever made. It reduced the council-owned housing stock significantly & this is why social housing has never recovered & is in the crisis it is at the moment because governments have failed to rebuild stock levels to meet the needs.'
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Sunderland and South Tyneside hospitals gets £9.2m for repairs
A hospital trust is set to receive a £9.2m government investment for Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) hospitals will be given the money to carry out essential upgrades, such as improvements to electrics and fixing trust's sites include South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital and details of how the funding will be distributed are yet to be has been approached for a comment. The funding boost forms part of a £750m national package to upgrade more than 400 NHS sites, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.A statement on the government's website said the Estates Safety Fund was announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 and included "capital funding for 2025 to 2026 to address critical infrastructure and safety risks in NHS hospital buildings".The fund's purpose is to "invest in relatively small scale but important building safety works", it included fixing leaking roofs, upgrading faulty electrical wiring and addressing fire safety requirements, as well as other schemes identified government statement added the national funding would "support works in a range of different types of facility, including maternity and mental health". Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Business News Wales
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
MPs Call for Delay to Inheritance Tax Reforms until 2027
The cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee is calling on the UK Government to delay announcing its final agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) reforms until October 2026, to come into effect in April 2027. In a report, the Committee says a pause in the implementation of the reforms 'would allow for better formulation of tax policy and provide the Government with an opportunity to convey a positive long-term vision for farming'. It would also protect vulnerable farmers who would have 'more time to seek appropriate professional advice'. In the report MPs note the difficult economic and geopolitical circumstances and praise the UK Government's commitments to backing British produce and supporting farmers, but are concerned that 'high-profile policies have been announced prior to the completion and publication of the strategies and reviews that Defra says will inform and guide its vision'. They raise concerns that changes announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 were made without adequate consultation, impact assessment or affordability assessment. This means that the impact of the changes 'on family farms, land values, tenant farmers, food security and farmers in the devolved administrations' is 'disputed and unclear' with a risk of producing unintended consequences. MPs say that 'reforms threaten to affect the most vulnerable.' They want the UK Government to consider alternative reforms before justifying its final approach. The report refers to a March 2025 survey of UK farmers that found that before the Autumn Budget 70% felt optimistic about the future of their rural businesses, but that number fell to 12% after the Budget. The survey also said that 84% of farmers sampled feel that their mental health has been affected by the Autumn Budget with farmers citing the Sustainable Farming Incentive closure and changes to inheritance tax reliefs as the common areas creating concern. The Committee said it supports the Government's aim of reforming APR and BPR to close the loophole which allows wealthy investors to buy agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax, but notes that stakeholders and experts have proposed several alternative ways to reform these taxes so as to achieve this objective without harming small family farms, and asks the UK Government to consult on these proposals before publishing its Finance Bill in 2026. The EFRA Committee calls on the UK Government to publish its evaluation of and rationale for following or not following alternative policy measures presented by stakeholders such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the National Farmers Union. The Committee warns that the Government's sudden closing of the SFI 'affected trust in the Government' and 'left many farmers without the funding they expected and at risk of becoming unviable in the period before the next scheme is introduced'. The Government has since announced it will allow SFI applications that were in progress within two months of 11 March to progress with restrictions. The Committee calls for an alternative funding mechanism to be put in place no later than September 2025, to fill the gap in funding for those who missed out on the SFI24. MPs say the UK Government should set out, in their response to this report, what the next iteration of SFI will look like and the date it will be open for applications. In January, Defra announced its plans to publish a 25-year Farming Roadmap. MPs say that in this, 'the Government should urgently set out its vision for the farming sector, achieving food security and the future of the Farming and Countryside Programme'. The report states that 'the 25-year Farming Roadmap should bring together Defra farming policy and programmes into a single vision outlining how they will work together to achieve measurable outcomes for food security and the environment'. The report is critical of Defra's communications and says there is 'a pattern within Defra of poor communication and last-minute decision-making following rumours and Departmental leaks'. MPs say the 'sudden closure' of the Capital Grants scheme in November 2024, which was subsequently reopened, and the ending of SFI 2024 'with no specific warning', have 'been perceived by the sector as a breach of trust'. The Committee urges that 'lessons must be learned from this failure of communication', saying that 'a restoration of trust is urgently required'. The Chair of the EFRA Committee, Alistair Carmichael MP, said: 'The Committee has taken its work extremely seriously in developing this report and in agreeing our findings. There is an opportunity here to rebuild trust and confidence in the farming sector and I hope that the Government will take our recommendations seriously. 'The way in which the Government has behaved over recent months has clearly negatively affected the confidence and wellbeing of farmers. Changes to APR and BPR in the Autumn Budget, the sudden closure of the Capital Grants scheme in November 2024, and the abrupt ending of SFI applications in March have all led farmers to feel that they cannot rely on the Government to live up to its commitments. The Government, however, seems to be dismissing farmers' concerns and ignoring the strength of feeling evidenced in the months of protests that saw tractors converge on Westminster and up and down the country. 'We have seen that Defra's communications with farmers have been poor, with confusing and sometimes contradictory messaging. There has been a lack of adequate consultation. Policies affecting farmers have been announced without due consideration or explanation of their impact or their rationale. 'Farmers ought to be the essential element in the Government's plans both to achieve food security and to restore and protect the environment. When they make decisions for their businesses, farmers have to plan for the long term – but the landscape they are operating in currently is unclear. Farmers urgently need clarity, certainty and advance notice of changes – they cannot be expected to rethink their businesses on a whim. It is essential that Defra focuses on rebuilding trust through good-faith communications with the sector.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US tariffs prompt BBB to expand Growth Guarantee Scheme
The Chancellor has announced an additional £500 million in lending capacity under the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) to support smaller UK businesses dealing with cashflow difficulties linked to recent changes in global tariff rates. Delivered through the British Business Bank (BBB) and around 50 accredited lenders, the scheme has already enabled £2.1 billion in finance via 13,447 facilities. The new funding will be channelled into term loans, overdrafts and similar financial products to support smaller businesses affected by global trade disruptions. The scheme offers facilities of up to £2 million per business group for firms outside the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and up to £1 million for businesses within it. Each facility is backed by a 70% government guarantee, though borrowers remain fully liable for the debt. Businesses must demonstrate they can afford the additional finance, which can be used for a range of purposes including working capital and cashflow management. Lenders retain discretion over loan approvals and will apply their usual credit and fraud checks. Interest rates and fees will vary based on the specific terms offered by each lender and will reflect the benefit of the government-backed guarantee. Reinald de Monchy, Co-Chief Banking Officer at the British Business Bank, stated that the scheme has historically supported smaller firms during periods of economic uncertainty and that the new funding would help maintain access to finance at a time of global market disruption. The additional capacity follows the Autumn Budget 2024, in which the government confirmed more than £1 billion in funding for the British Business Bank's initiatives through 2025/26. This included continued support for Start Up Loans, the ENABLE Build programme for smaller housebuilders, and equity programmes targeted at high-growth sectors such as life sciences. Information about accredited lenders is available on the British Business Bank website. Businesses are encouraged to first contact their current finance provider or explore alternative lenders if necessary. "US tariffs prompt BBB to expand Growth Guarantee Scheme" was originally created and published by Leasing Life, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
