The death of a dream: the crisis in home ownership in the UK

Posted on: 16 November 2012
By: mackene
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The dream of home ownership is dying in Britain, undoing a century of social progress, according to a report by the HomeOwners Alliance, a new organisation championing those who own and want to own their own home.

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Building new homes for rent: Creating a tipping point

Posted on: 16 November 2012
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A new approach to increasing the supply of privately rented housing through institutional investment is proposed in this report, published by the Building and Social Housing Foundation. Drawing on experts from a range of sectors, the report discusses the current barriers to the build-to-let market in the UK and presents a model that can address these by bringing together housing associations and institutional investors to develop and manage market rented homes. This report contains a large number of useful references.

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A water blueprint: Taking stock moving forward

Posted on: 16 November 2012
By: mackene
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The European Commission has adopted a package of documents designed to ensure that a sufficient quantity of good quality water is available for people’s needs, the economy and the environment throughout the EU.

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Regional framework for achieving development resilient to climate change in the Caribbean

Posted on: 16 November 2012
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The Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change The islands of the Caribbean have come together have come together under the umbrella of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs) to implement a regional strategy to increase climate resilience. An Implementation Plan has been published which identifies priority activities, and also identifies capital and revenue costs, allocates responsibilities and outlines functional cooperation between regional and national agencies, and sets out a monitoring and evaluation process.  As part of the strategy the region’s governments are encouraged to develop a risk management approach to build climate resilience in national development plans and actions. The approach is designed to integrate risk management processes such as risk analysis, planning and monitoring into government decision making in order to ensure that climate resilience is at the heart of the regions development policy.

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Coming ready or not: Managing climate risks to Australia’s infrastructure

Posted on: 16 November 2012
By: mackene
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This report provides an analysis of Australia’s exposure to and preparation for the impacts of climate change on major infrastructure.

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Borderland: Assessing the implications of a more autonomous Scotland for the north of England

Posted on: 16 November 2012
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This report, published by the Institute for Public Policy Research aims to illuminate a neglected aspect of the Scottish devolution debate by assessing the implications of either an independent Scotland or a fiscally stronger Scottish parliament for the north of England.

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Government corporate website

Posted on: 16 November 2012
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On 15 November 2012 the Department for Transport (DFT) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), along with 3 of their public bodies became the first central government organisations to move their corporate and policy content onto the new GOV.UK website – the new single home for all government services and information. The Inside Government section on GOV.UK is designed to make it simpler, clearer and faster to find out: how government works; what the government is doing; and how you can get involved. All web addresses have been redirected, so you don’t need to update your bookmarks, but you might want to make a note of the new addresses:

www.gov.uk/dclg – Department for Communities and Local Government

www.gov.uk/dft – Department for Transport

www.gov.uk/dsa – Driving Standards Agency

www.gov.uk/brac – Building Regulations Advisory Committee

www.gov.uk/pins – The Planning Inspectorate

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Technical review of planning appeal procedures: consultation

Posted on: 16 November 2012
By: mackene
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The government is consulting on a set of proposals to make the planning appeals process faster and more transparent, improve consistency and certainty in decision taking timescales. Comments are requested by 13 December 2012.

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Social housing sales in England: 2011 to 2012

Posted on: 16 November 2012
By: mackene
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This statistical release presents official statistics on the number of sales of existing social housing stock in England for 2011 to 2012. Social housing sales include sales under right to buy, preserved right to buy, right to acquire, social homebuy, other outright or shared equity sales to tenants, and sales of existing stock to the private sector.

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Use of planning obligations in the funding of Crossrail, and the Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy: draft SPG

Posted on: 16 November 2012
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The Mayor has issued for public consultation draft supplementary planning guidance on ‘Use of planning obligations in the funding of Crossrail, and the Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy’. This provides guidance on implementation of London Plan policies on the funding of Crossrail, planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy. Comments are requested by 15 January 2013.

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