US homebuyers seek UK haven to escape ‘Trump effect'
The number of inquiries from the United States about UK homes advertised on the property website Rightmove is 19 per cent higher than in the first four months of 2024 and makes up the largest number since 2017.
Scotland has overtaken London as the most popular single region of inquiry by Americans, at 28 per cent, compared with 26 per cent in the Greater London area. Edinburgh is the most popular destination for all American inquiries about the UK, at 8 per cent, followed by various London locations.
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Daily Mail
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Government plans for the potential collapse of Thames Water
Ministers have reportedly appointed advisers to prepare for the potential collapse of Thames Water. Environment Secretary Steve Reed has lined up FTI Consulting to advise on contingency plans which would involve Thames Water being placed into a special administration regime, according to Sky News. The embattled water company has been at threat of both nationalisation and collapse as its investors and creditors scramble to keep the group afloat. It has been in talks with its largest group of creditors and the water regulator Ofwat over a rescue plan that would see lenders inject £5billion of new capital. However, its creditors warned it has a 'very short and closing window' to ensure its survival as a private business. If the utility giant were to be placed into a special administration regime, customers would continue to receive water and sewage services, but it would be paid for by taxpayers.
Telegraph
a few seconds ago
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‘My flat's lift is permanently broken. Can I get compensation as a wheelchair user?'
Do you have a legal question to put to Gary? Email askalawyer@ or use the form at the bottom of the page. Dear Gary, I own a flat on the second floor of a block in south west London. The block has a lift, which is invaluable because I have a spinal cord injury and use a wheelchair for daily living. However, the lift has been out of action for six months now, and I have received a letter from the management company stating they are about to issue a further Section 20 notice to initiate repairs. The first repair has been unsuccessful, and once a new repairer has been identified, I suspect it will take another 30 to 45 days to complete. This is really impacting my quality of living, as I cannot get to my flat in my chair. I am relying on a rented chair in my flat while I leave my own chair downstairs to use when I go out. I can just about manage to use stairs, but it takes about 20 minutes to go up and down. I cannot carry anything, so am reliant on others helping me. Do I have any recourse against the landlord or management company, and can I deduct anything from the service charge to compensate for this significant inconvenience and difficulty? I would really appreciate understanding if I have any rights in this matter. – Pete, by email Dear Pete, You certainly do have legal rights in this situation, and they are being breached. Indeed, forgive me for saying this, but I cannot help wondering if it was the lift in the office building occupied by the management company that had broken down, it may have been repaired much sooner than six months. You should not have to put up with this, so let me help get a plan of action sorted, backed up with some legal clout. In legal terms, the starting point is your lease. As a leaseholder, you will have a lease for your flat carved out of the freehold. This should include terms which require the freeholder (aka landlord) or management company acting on behalf of the landlord to keep common parts of the block of flats (such as the lift) in good and proper working order. Six months of inaction and a failed repair attempt suggests they are falling short of this duty. In that sense, you have clear legal rights which have been breached. A further significant legal issue in this case is your disability. You are a protected person under the Equality Act 2010. This imposes a duty on service providers (including landlords and managing agents) to make reasonable adjustments to avoid putting disabled people at a substantial disadvantage. We must acknowledge replacing a lift is not exactly like replacing a broken light bulb, in that it takes a certain amount of logistics to organise a lift engineer and time to carry out the repair. But given the length of the delay and the severe impact on your daily life, I say you can reasonably argue that they have not done enough quickly enough. As such, there is on the face of it a case of indirect discrimination and breach of the Equality Act. Indirect discrimination occurs when a policy which applies in the same way to everyone (here, no lift available) has an impact which particularly disadvantages people with a protected characteristic. It can lead to a compensation claim, particularly if you have repeatedly made the managing agents aware of your needs and they have consistently failed to respond adequately. If you have not done so already, I would therefore urge you to write to the managing agent formally, outlining the impact of the ongoing situation on your quality of life, referencing your rights under the Equality Act, and asking for compensation and a firm timeline for repair. You also ask whether these breaches of your legal rights mean you can withhold the service charge, including the additional payment being sought under the Section 20 notice. For readers not familiar with leasehold living, a Section 20 notice is when a landlord has an extraordinary expense (like a lift repair), and is seeking extra payment on top of the usual service charge to cover it. I would actually tread carefully about not paying your service charge. You certainly cannot unilaterally decide to reduce or withhold payments. Doing so could leave you exposed to legal action for arrears with the ultimate sanction for that being forfeiture of the lease which would in effect mean you losing your flat. So, let's not go there. However, you may well be able to challenge part of the service charge on the basis that you are not receiving the services you are paying for – namely, lift maintenance. I would also ask for an explanation as to why the first lift repair did not work, and what has been paid out for the failed repair. In other words, scrutinise whether the management company are acting diligently in their role. Any challenge to the service charge being demanded would need to go through the First-tier Tribunal (property chamber), which deals with leasehold disputes. It is not necessarily quick, but it is designed to be accessible without the need for a solicitor. It seems to me you have been incredibly patient to date, and it is now time to take action. You should not be inconvenienced like this any longer, so let us hope the management company gets things moving soon. And in the right direction, namely up and down in the lift. And to be pragmatic, a claim for compensation under the Equality Act may well offset the service charge you are (understandably) reluctant to pay.
Reuters
a few seconds ago
- Reuters
Dubai developers bring construction in-house as demand surges
DUBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - In a city famed for transforming desert into skyline, developers are taking the building process into their own hands as they seek to turbo-charge a property boom and maximise cash flow. A growing number of major UAE developers are setting up in-house contracting firms, after long relying on third-party contractors. The move is aimed at increasing control over construction timelines, costs and quality standards, and ultimately, securing a larger share of profits, though it could also carry risks. In a previously unreported sign of the trend, Emaar Properties ( opens new tab, which developed the Burj Khalifa, has established Rukn Mirage under its subsidiary Mirage, a spokesperson told Reuters. Emaar joins developers such as Samana Developers, Ellington, and Azizi, all of which have launched in-house contracting units in the past two years. Arada, the developer co-founded by Saudi Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, also confirmed in a statement to Reuters that they acquired part of an Australian contractor this year and plan to integrate it into UAE operations by 2027. The shift comes as Dubai's real estate surges, with prices up 70% over four years to December 2024 and a government plan to double the population to 7.8 million by 2040. Property launches rose 83% in 2024, though completions fell 23%, industry data shows. The boom has fuelled a new influx of workers, including migrant labourers mainly from South Asia, with high rates of turnover among expatriate staff. It has also led to fears of a downturn in a sector that remains crucial to the UAE economy. Developers have been struggling to attract bids from outside contractors, amid stiff competition. Samana Developers had initially planned to allocate 20% of its projects to its new in-house arm, launched in September. Now 80-90% of its new projects are being handled internally, Chief Executive Imran Farooq told Reuters. "We used to get 25 or 30 contractors bidding for a project. Today you get hardly two or three," Farooq said. Emaar, meanwhile, is taking a hybrid approach. While some projects — such as a recently announced residential development — will be executed by their in-house construction arm Rukn Mirage, they will continue to outsource others, founder and Managing Director Mohamed Alabbar said. Developers are also tapping debt markets to fund land purchases and operations, as billions of dirhams in buyer payments remain in escrow until handover. Funds are released only after final inspections, with a one-year delivery grace period before buyers can claim refunds. Developers, whose ownership varies and includes founding families, public investors and Emirati sovereign wealth funds, want to complete projects on time to unlock cash needed for shareholder distributions and to pay for expansion in the UAE and beyond. Developers also want to avoid penalties for delays, which are not disclosed publicly but occasionally reported by local media. In March, a Dubai court ordered a developer to repay 12.4 million dirhams ($3.38 million) plus interest over an undelivered floating villa, Al Khaleej reported, opens new tab. Developers say owning the full pipeline — from land acquisition to handover — provides greater certainty in an unpredictable market and aligns with the UAE's push for self-reliance in strategic sectors. But bringing construction in-house may also carry risks. "When developers try to become builders, they start splitting focus — and that's when things can get muddy," said Gordon Rodger, founder and managing partner at construction consultancy Stonehaven. "They end up with teams stretched between land acquisition, sales, marketing, events, PR, funding… and now also procurement, site logistics, health and safety, and huge amounts of sub-contractor management." Rodger also cautioned that developers could be left with idle construction capacity in a downturn. "You've got a big factory, a pre-cast yard, a huge joinery division, in-house plant, in-house equipment all sitting idle and you've got no work because your master developer can't sell any real estate," he said. As a result of the shift, independent contractors may seek more work outside real estate in sectors such as in government infrastructure, manufacturing or oil and gas, industry sources said. ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)
