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Places for People has today announced that it has appointed Steve Ashton as its first ever Group Partnerships Director. Steve will lead Places for People’s strategy for everything related to mergers, acquisitions, contract negotiations and Group-level partnerships. Steve has over 20 years’ experience of partner management in regulated sectors and will also lead the development of best practice in partnership management, contract negotiation and contract management across the group companies. As Head of Pa

Located on the former site of an 18th-century military barracks, St Arthur Homes has acquired a new collection of one and two-bedroom homes for Shared Ownership at TopHat’s Kitchener Barracks development in Chatham, Kent. Comprising 32 apartments, St. Arthur Homes is set to deliver a selection of high-quality, sustainable homes by early 2023. With the 300-year-old Napoleonic Fortress, Fort Amherst, located at the entrance to the gated development, the site blends its historic military heritage with contem

A national property management firm specialising in retirement housing has changed its name to Churchill Estates Management, to better reflect its close link with housebuilder Churchill Retirement Living. The purpose of the name change for the company, formerly known as Millstream Management Services, is to better demonstrate its close connection with its parent company. It highlights the full suite of services the Churchill Group provides to Customers and unifies the Group under a strong brand which is w

New research produced by global property consultancy Knight Frank and law firm Irwin Mitchell reveals that over a third of councils across England are still unprepared to provide suitable housing for our aging population. Over a third (36%) of local authorities do not have clear policies in place to support housing for seniors, according to new research from Knight Frank and Irwin Mitchell. The significant shortcoming in the level of planning for seniors housing is particularly worrying given the UK’s age

A leading cloud-based software firm has said agents need to embrace the cloud and realise its full potential to thrive in an increasingly digital market.  Openview – Powered by VTUK, now part of the iamproperty Group, claims there are many benefits to the cloud, but certain misconceptions may be preventing agents from fully embracing it.  “Cloud-based working is nothing new – it’s been around for the last two decades. Since the pandemic, many agents have become more mobile – working from anywhere in some

With the Government now proposing to ban no-fault evictions, landlords would only be able to evict a tenant if they can prove one of the prescribed grounds. Campaigners who support the reform have argued that the current system is, ‘a major contributor to home insecurity and homelessness among renters in the UK’.  Lee Pearce, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution at Ellisons Solicitors, who has extensive experience in all forms of landlord and tenant disputes, provides his commentary on the matter. Impac

We are delighted to announce the winners of this year's Enfranchisement & Right to Manage Awards.  The awards were held at a glamorous awards ceremony and dinner in the beautiful ballroom of The Sheraton Grand hotel on 30th June 2022.  Congratulations to all of our finalists, highly commended and of course, this year's winners. We would like to take this opportunity to extend a huge thank you to our sponsors, and of course, our judges for all of their time and support.  If you have any feedback in regards

Landlords may soon need to review their polices about allowing pets in their rented properties in the light of forthcoming legal changes, according to experts at Principle Estate Management. The comments from Principle were made with reference to the government’s Renters’ Reform Bill which – along with various other changes – will mean that tenants may soon have a legal right to keep pets in rented homes. Rebecca Gibson, client services manager at Principle, warned tenants not to rush to pet shops without

Earl Kendrick Chartered Surveyors have launched a brand new business specialising in cost management and quantity surveying services throughout the UK. EK Cost Management Ltd will be led by Philip G Thomas MRICS as Cost Management Director. Philip has held a variety of senior management roles for a multi-national QS company, and has an excellent understanding of the current market. Earl Kendrick’s director Julian Davies said, “Phil and I go back a long way, having both held leadership positions in the RIC

The Proper Awards is an annual awards ceremony honouring the property industry’s top suppliers. Judged entirely by customer reviews, we’re rewarding the highest-scoring applicants with a proper night out, a proper celebration and a Proper Award. The Proper Awards is the only property awards dedicated to you – suppliers. Entering the awards is free, and the winner of each category is the supplier who collects the most amount of high-scoring testimonials before July 31st either by using our easy online dash

Places for People has today announced that it has appointed Steve Ashton as its first ever Group Partnerships Director. Steve will lead Places for People’s strategy for everything related to mergers, acquisitions, contract negotiations and Group-level partnerships. Steve has over 20 years’ experience of partner management in regulated sectors and will also lead the development of best practice in partnership management, contract negotiation and contract management across the group companies. As Head of Pa

Back in 2017, Mayor Sadiq Khan highlighted the housing crisis of England’s capital when he called for the pace of new home construction to increase from 29,000 homes a year to 66,000. He also reiterated, that at least 65% of these homes needed to be affordable. The fact that before this only 38% of developments were considered affordable housing may show where London developers got off on the wrong foot.  One way to combat this issue in an already built-up area of the country is to approach rooftop develo