Housing, energy prices, current accounts and spending

The housing market is ‘broken’, ministers have conceded, as they unveiled the Government’s revised housing strategy. Under the plans, councils will be ordered to build thousands more homes, with an emphasis on high-rise blocks and city centre developments, The Guardian reports. The Government believes that too few councils have plans to meet England’s housing demand. It says that two fifths of local planning authorities lack an adequate plan for building new homes to keep pace with demand. Ministers say a minimum of 250,000 new homes are needed each year. New centralised standards will be set for local councils to project their future housing needs, with the expectation that the plans will be reviewed every five years. However, it is unclear how councils will afford all this. Meanwhile, ThisisMoney reports that house prices dropped by almost £2,000 on average in January. According to the Halifax House Price Index, property values fell for the first time since the middle of last year.