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Council unveils five-year plan to bring 1,000 empty homes back into use
February 12, 2025

An English council is focusing on empty homes as a key part of its strategy to reduce housing waiting lists. Cumbrian local authority Westmorland and Furness, which is partly located in the Lake District National Park, currently has in excess of 3,500 empty properties, despite there being more than 8,000 people on the council’s housing […]

Pensioner numbers predicted to rise by 14 per cent by 2032
February 4, 2025

The number of people over state pension age is projected to increase from 12 million in 2022 to 13.7 million by 2032, according to figures released last month by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). This 14 per cent rise is predicted despite the UK state pension age rising to 67 from 2028. Meanwhile, the […]

New lease of life for historic cemetery after lottery grant
January 28, 2025

Plans are in place to restore one of Britain’s oldest Jewish cemeteries, after it received a £190,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Balls Pond Cemetery in Dalston, east London, first opened in 1843 with the last burial taking place there in 1951. It is one of the most important cemeteries for the Jewish […]

Inheritance tax on pensions could add to probate delays
January 22, 2025

The number of families waiting over a year for a grant of probate more than doubled over the past three years, and that figure could surge once pensions become liable to inheritance tax (IHT). In 2023, 1,371 probate cases took more than a year, with 10,103 lasting more than six months. This was a significant […]

MPs and campaigners call on government to do more on empty homes
January 14, 2025

Parliamentarians have joined forces with housing campaigners to write to the government calling on it to do more to bring empty homes back into use. The group, which includes MPs, peers, the Empty Homes Network and Action on Empty Homes, highlighted the 265,000 homes in England that have been vacant for more than six months […]

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