Housing, whiplash claims, Tesco and rail compensation

The number of homes coming on to the property market has slipped further as demand climbed in September after a slow summer selling season, according to The Telegraph. The residential market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found that the number of new instructions to sell fell for the seventh consecutive month. Meanwhile, demand from buyers climbed for the first time since February, albeit modestly. Rics’ survey found that 8 per cent more respondents reported an increase than a decrease in the amount of new buyers, although there was a lot of variation across the country behind the headline number. This cocktail of a continually falling number of homes for sale and increasing number of potential buyers is helping to underpin high house prices. Whiplash claims George Osborne’s reforms to how the insurance industry deals with claims for whiplash injuries have been set aside by the Government, increasing costs for motorists. According to The Times, ministers are understood to have told insurers that they are unenthusiastic about the proposals, leading the industry to conclude that they will never emerge.