Featured Articles

In their general election manifestos published this week, each of the three main parties made a commitment to leasehold reform. Mark Chick, director of ALEP (the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners) and a Partner at Bishop & Sewell LLP commented: “Whichever party forms the next government, leasehold reform is far from over. “We know that the Conservatives would renew their commitment to cap all ground rents at £250 and to phase them out over 20 years, this does potentially put the ‘writ

Rendesco, the leading clean heat network developer and owner-operator, has raised £6m to rapidly expand its operations and further develop its solutions in the UK and European energy markets.  The new investment has been led by Clean Growth Fund, Eurazeo’s Smart City fund, and Aviva Ventures. They join existing investor Copley Point Capital. The funding will accelerate Rendesco’s ambitious growth and innovation plans to reduce consumer energy bills, decarbonise heat at scale, and provide a low-carbon alte

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, said: “Propertymark has long said that Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) could be better utilised through the introduction of a Property Passport to increase the uptake of energy efficiency improvements. This would enable information to be transferable across building owners and help maintain a long-term decarbonisation goal for the building. “The process would not replace EPCs, but enhance them, creating an opportunity to capture EPC dat

Bellway Homes has appointed Principle Estate Management to look after a new development of 125 homes in Devon. The site known as Fox Mill Gardens includes a mixture of three, four and five-bedroomed family homes which sit in landscaped grounds including a play area in the village of Willand, near Tiverton. Principle already acts for Bellway Homes across a number of regions, although this is the first instruction in the house builder’s south-west region. The development will feature 81 houses for private s

Issue 131 of News on the Block has now been published and is available for subscribers to read online. This issue of News on the Block includes a special feature to celebrate our 21st Birthday, including some of your memories and a photo gallery from our 21st Birthday Celebration in May.  Some of the articles in this issue include:  Timescale demand over new ‘piecemeal’ laws Elevating expectations Building intelligent AI for your business Have you a plan to manage asbestos? How service charges and res

Leading property technology provider Reapit has launched a new feature to help agents comply with the latest material information guidelines from the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Team (NTSELAT). First introduced in May 2022 and expanded at the end of 2023, the guidance from NTSELAT is designed to ensure UK agencies’ property adverts are consistently declaring all the information the average consumer needs to decide whether to enquire about and ultimately purchase or rent a property. Upfr

A planning application has been submitted for the regeneration of the Teviot Estate in Poplar, East London. The £800 million redevelopment by The Hill Group and Poplar HARCA will provide around 1,900 new homes with 35% affordable, over four phases. This will be complemented by new open green and play spaces, shops, community and faith facilities, alongside improved infrastructure. As one of the largest estate regenerations in London, the redevelopment of Teviot will transform the area with upgraded design

In a significant legal victory, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has successfully challenged freeholder Grey GR, compelling the company to address serious safety issues at Vista Tower in Stevenage. Grey GR, owned by the multibillion-pound railway pension fund Railpen, faced legal action after repeated delays in rectifying fire safety problems identified in 2019. The court's decision mandates Grey GR to complete the necessary safety repairs within a specified timeframe, providing mu

Almost 100% of property investors surveyed by property business expert Handelsbanken have received requests from tenants for some form of sustainable feature in the past 12 months*. According to the bank’s latest annual Property Investor Report, based on exclusive insights from UK property investors with an average of 35 properties each, 92% of investors report tenants asking for sustainable features such as heat pumps, solar generation or EV chargers – with over a quarter (28%) requesting the latter. Fur

The industry event of the year is back for its 15th year!  The Property Management Awards, in association with I will be back on the 21st November 2024 at City Central, at the HAC and we cannot wait to celebrate all of the industry's achievements with you all. This is a special year for News on the Block as we celebrate our 21st Birthday and 15 years of the Property Management Awards!  We are excited to announce that entries for this year's awards have opened slightly earlier than usual, to allow more tim

The Property Institute (TPI), the professional body for the residential property management sector, has published its agenda for change in a manifesto for the new Government – with a continued focus on policy change to protect people living in multi-occupancy buildings leveraging recent leasehold reform in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, and the Building Safety Act 2022. In England, an estimated 3.5 million leasehold flats, representing 14% of all residential homes, are managed by residential

A staggering 37% of buyers are being gazumped. What is more shocking, is that the figure has grown by 6% in the last two years. The HomeOwners Alliance as part of its campaign to reform the buying and selling process is calling for an end to the practice of gazumping and recommends that buyers take out Home Buyers Protection Insurance to mitigate the financial loss. Recent research from MFS group highlights the risks of gazumping: 37% of homebuyers are now being gazumped - up from just over a third