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Green deal

The Green Deal scheme aims to encourage people to install insulation or other home improvement measures to cut their energy usage. The policy originally offered loans for homeowners to fund the work but after low take-up ministers began offering cash grants, which have proved hugely popular.

Proposals to create the first state of the art Dementia Centres of Excellence in Staffordshire reached a major milestone today (Thursday) as plans to develop them were formally agreed.

The multi-million pound flagship centres will be developed by partner Symphony – a consortium made up of the Accord Group, Keepmoat and Quattro Architects, in Lichfield and Burton and promise to transform care and support for residents and their families throughout their condition.

Social housing campaign group Generation Rent suggest that Britain’s Houses of Parliament should be converted into affordable flats to save taxpayer money and tackle the housing shortage.

Located in the centre of the UK capital, a riverside one bedroom flat in the historic building could cost as little as £258 per week, according to the activists.

200,000 homes will be made available to first-time buyers in England by 2020 if the Tories win the election – according to David Cameron of course!

The ambitious claim follows the coalition government’s previous announcement to provide 100,000 cut-price homes for people under the age of 40. The PM says the Tories will double that if they gain power, to give more people the security of owning their own home.

British housebuilding company Persimmon have announced that they have amassed enough land to build more than 100,000 homes over the coming years; now all they need is policy certainty!

In their latest full year report, Persimmon said that their land holdings now total 17,000 acres, on which it can build over 100,000 homes.

Their output increased last year, with legal completions up from 11,528 in 2013 to 13,509 in 2014 (a 17% increase.) They intend to keep the growth going into this year, with plans to begin construction on 400 active sites throughout 2015.

The Scottish Government’s new £30 million ‘Small Developers Scheme,’ which will form part of Help to Buy (Scotland), will increase growth in the small house building sector, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Gordon Nelson, Director of FMB Scotland, said “Like the Scottish Government we want Help to Buy (Scotland) to stimulate sales of new homes across both urban and rural Scotland, thereby helping more people across the whole country to buy new homes. This is only achievable with the participation of smaller local building firms and we therefore welcome the move to ring-fence £30 million specifically for buyers who want a new property built by one of these companies.”