Housing, mobile phone charges, motorists and executive pay

There was some surprising news over the weekend concerning the Government’s policy on home-ownership. Ahead of the publication of a long-delayed white paper this week, Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, said the Government intended to encourage more housebuilding of all kinds, including more social housing. According to The Independent, this represents a ‘major shift in housing policy by placing greater emphasis on renters with plans to deliver more affordable rental properties’. In today’s Telegraph, house-building sources say they are worried at proposed Government plans to give developers a timetable to build homes, or risk losing their planning permission. And The Times reports that action to help more people move from large, under-occupied homes as their children move out will be laid out in tomorrow’s white paper. Meanwhile, The Guardian claims that NHBC, the standard-setting body and main home construction warranty provider for new builds in the UK, ‘is paying millions of pounds to leading house-builders every year, raising questions about its independence and credibility amid a wave of complaints about the quality of new-build properties’.

In other housing news, millions of people who rent their homes from private landlords are putting themselves and their families at risk of eviction and financial hardship due to lack of a financial back-up plan, according to research from Scottish Widows.

Mobile phone charges

Some bad news for people wanting to use their phones abroad after The Guardian reported that ‘British tourists will have to pay mobile phone operators’ roaming charges when they travel in the EU after Brexit, according to the European parliament committee that helped pioneer the legislation.