New train station to open after £218 million build
Operated by Greater Anglia, the station will facilitate a 40-minute commute to London Liverpool Street.
This marks the first new station on the Great Eastern Main Line in over 100 years, featuring three platforms, two car parks, and a taxi rank.
The project secured £218 million in government funding, obtained by Essex County Council, Chelmsford City Council, and Network Rail.
Beaulieu Park Station is intended to alleviate pressure on the existing Chelmsford station, reduce car journeys, and support the new Chelmsford Garden Community.
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Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The UK's least affordable cities to live revealed as renters hand over more than a THIRD of their wages to landlords every month
The UK's least affordable cities have been revealed, with renters now handing over more than a third of their wages to landlords every month. Individuals renting across England were forking out up to 36.3 per cent of their income on rent alone in 2024, new data has revealed. This marks an increase of more than 33.1 per cent compared to 2023, with rent prices now officially above the 30 per cent threshold that the ONS deems affordable. The significant new findings have prompted calls for rent regulation across the UK, as tenants desperately struggle to match the unprecedented rise in rent prices. London has taken the top spot as England's most expensive city, with average rents of a whopping £1,957 per month seen across the capital. This equates to roughly 41.6 per cent of a typical renter's income, setting tenants back hugely. Meanwhile, in the affluent London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, average renters were spending a whopping 74.3 per cent of their gross earnings on rent. Other notably unaffordable London boroughs included Westminster (55. 8 per cent), Wandsworth (54 per cent), and Camden (51.7 per cent). All of the 32 council areas across London have been above the 30 per cent affordability threshold for eight of the nine financial years ending 2016 to 2024. The picture looked similarly bleak for prospective renters in large cities such as Bristol, Bath and Brighton. In Bristol, renters were forking out 44.6 per cent of their income on rent each month, while in Bath and North East Somerset tenants were paying up to 42.7 per cent and in the popular seaside hub of Brighton this figure stood at 42.6 per cent. Meanwhile, those in popular commuter towns such as Sevenoaks and Watford have also seen their average rent rise above the 30 per cent threshold. Monthly rents across England averaged at £1,232, compared with £3,396 of monthly household incomes, representing a stark difference. In other areas of the UK, rental affordability seemed to be slightly less of a distant dream, with rents found to be below the 30 per cent threshold in Wales and Northern Ireland last year. Indeed, affordability increased in Wales, from 26.3 per cent of an average renter's income in 2023 to 25.9 per cent in 2024. In Northern Ireland, rental prices remained relatively unchanged, having increased slightly from 25.1 per cent to 25.3 per cent in the span of a year. were relatively flat with the ratio ticking up to 25.3% from 25.1%. Affordability also improved in the North East, North West, East Midlands and South East. The North East of England was found to be England's most affordable region, with average rents at £641 per month, amounting to 19.8 per cent of income. Explaining the findings, Sarah Coles, head of personal finance for Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Renters faced a horrible squeeze on their incomes, and there's every sign it has got worse since. 'Landlords are continuing to sell up - concerned about higher costs from more regulation and more tax. 'It means more tenants chasing dwindling numbers of properties, so rents are continuing to rise.' Ms Coles added that any wage increases have been 'consistently outpaced' by a growth in the private rental market. 'At the same time, although wages have risen impressively, they have been consistently outpaced by private rental increases.' Meanwhile, Joseph Elliott, lead analyst at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the data indicates an urgent need for the government to 'tackle unaffordable rents, frozen housing support, and a chronic shortage of social housing.' He told The Guardian: 'High rents are locking people out of their homes and driving poverty and homelessness.' Labour's Renters' Rights Bill, set to become law next year, plans to prohibit landlords from relisting a property with higher rent until at least six months after tenants have moved out - where they have ended a tenancy in order to sell a property. The Government previously said the end of a private rental contract is 'one of the leading causes of homelessness'. But Labour's homelessness minister was forced to resign earlier this month after she was accused of 'staggering hypocrisy' amid claims she ejected tenants from one of her homes, before putting it back on the market for an extra £700 a month rent. Rushanara Ali, who had championed the bill, which is currently going through Parliament, hiked rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds just weeks after the previous tenants' contract ended. Ms Ali, 50, has repeatedly cast herself as a voice for hard-up tenants, and spoke out against private renters 'being exploited and discriminated against'. Her actions would have been illegal under this proposed law. The new ONS figures also come amid a rise in the number of Gen z students giving up the chaotic joys of student digs at university to instead live with their mum and dad due to rising rent costs. Nearly a third of 18-year-old applicants in the UK for the academic year 2024-25 planned to stay at home, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said earlier this month. This some 30 per cent figure is more than double that seen around 20 years ago, the Times reports - and also the highest recorded in this same timeframe. In 2007, only 14 per cent of teens said they would not be moving out during their studies - and even more recently, in 2015, this figure had only risen to 21 per cent. Stay-at-home student living started to peak sharply after the Covid pandemic, which saw families get used to rubbing along together at home during lockdowns. It came after a similar rise after the 2008 financial crash, after which family budgets suddenly became tight. Passing on student accommodation is particularly common in London, where rents are famously high, and Scotland, where students go tuition fee-free. Meanwhile, applicants in Wales, the south east and throughout the south west seem largely to stick with a traditional student room. The most common reasons mentioned for living with the parents were saving money (64 per cent) and being near family (46 per cent), as per a survey of 1,000 UK students by Leeds Beckett University. More than half (53 per cent), meanwhile, said it motivated them to consistently attend classes - perhaps with mum and dad there to keep them in line. Ucas chief executive Jo Saxton pointed out some students stay at home as it is close to the best course or university for them or to caring and family responsibilities. But the former school leader emphasised, generally speaking: 'More needs to be done to ensure the cost of living doesn't become a limit on young people's ambition.'
BBC News
29 minutes ago
- BBC News
Rotherham man mistaken for fraudster by AI software
A man who was wrongly accused of fraud after AI facial recognition software flagged his image has said he will "never step foot" in a Sports Direct store again.A staff member at the Parkgate Shopping Centre in Rotherham had identified Craig Hadley to the programme a few weeks earlier after mistaking him for another "bald-headed, bearded" customer who had defrauded the Direct apologised for the incident, saying it was "genuine mistake", and added that a formal investigation and further staff training would be Hadley said: "At first, I thought it was a joke, but then it became clear it was quite serious, and they escorted me out of the shop." He said he had been "really anxious" in the weeks it took to resolve the issue."There was a fear of my photo being in other shops where they might throw me out," he added."It caused embarrassment, it could cause reputational damage." The software company, Facewatch, deleted Mr Hadley's image from its database after he had proven his identity to the company and the CCTV had been checked Hadley agreed the fraudster, who had been at the till at the same time he had been paying, "looked very similar" to him."I get it was a human error and people make mistakes," he said."But, when those mistakes can result in people who have done nothing wrong being put on a national database, there needs to be some more checks and balances."Madeleine Stone, from the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said using software like Facewatch to deal with shoplifting was a "recipe for disaster"."You could be blacklisted from your local shops, placed on a secret watchlist, and that information is shared in all the shops in your area," she said."There is not necessarily any evidence of wrongdoing and there is no due process."Many people have been really impacted by this."A Facewatch representative told Mr Hadley that avoiding wrongly including individuals on its database was "of the highest importance" to the company. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
Homeowners could pay new property tax instead of stamp duty
Homeowners with properties worth more than £500,000 could have to pay annual property taxes under radical plans to replace stamp duty. The Treasury is reportedly considering a proportional property tax in the budget this autumn, according to The Guardian. Rather than paying stamp duty (which ranges from 2 per cent on the purchase price between £125,000 and £250,000, through to 12 per cent on the portion of the price above £1.5 million) anyone buying a home worth more than £500,000 would face an annual tax. For years there have been calls to overhaul stamp duty, which raised £13.8 billion for the Treasury in the 2024-25 tax year but has been criticised for putting homeowners off moving. There are no firm details to the proposal, but it was reported that the Treasury was looking at suggestions from the centre-right think tank Onward, which would involve homeowners with properties worth more than £500,000 paying a 0.54 per cent annual tax on any value above £500,000. Professor Tim Leunig from the London School of Economics, who came up with the proposals last August, said: 'The way Britain taxes households is both impractical and unfair. Stamp duty raises transaction costs, preventing people from moving for new job opportunities, and undermines growth.' Any home worth more than £1 million would pay 0.81 per cent on the portion of its value over that threshold. Onward's proposals were that the new tax would not be applied retrospectively but would be paid by anyone who bought a home after it was introduced. The 5 per cent stamp duty surcharge for additional homes would remain and those owners would not pay annual levies. Leunig also proposed scrapping council tax and replacing it with a 0.44 per cent annual property tax levied by local authorities on house value between £800 and £500,000 (a maximum of £2,196 a year). Then you would pay 0.54 per cent on the portion above £500,000 to the government, instead of stamp duty. Someone with a £650,000 home would pay £3,006 a year — 0.44 per cent of £499,200 (the maximum £2,196) to their council and then another £810 a year to the government. • Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts Treasury officials are reportedly considering a local property tax 'in the medium term' according to the Guardian, while replacing stamp duty could come earlier. The campaign group Fairer Share is calling for the abolition of stamp duty and council tax and for them to be replaced with a flat 0.48 per cent annual property tax. Andrew Dixon from Fairer Share said the reported plans would be a 'step in the right direction'. 'We look forward to working closely with the government to deliver long-overdue reform — creating a modern property tax system that supports local services, reflects real property values, and shares the burden more fairly across homeowners,' he said. The Times reported in May that 83 per cent of homeowners in England would pay less under a 0.48 per cent annual property tax than they did under the council tax system. The biggest losers would be those in London and the south east according to the estate agency Hamptons. House prices in those areas have gone up the most since April 1991, when council tax bands were set based on property values. Dixon said: 'By taxing property transactions, stamp duty discourages homeowners from moving — be it an older couple downsizing or a growing family upsizing. Removing it would lead to a more effective use of housing.' Some 85 per cent of homeowners in England and Wales were 'under-occupiers' with one or more spare bedrooms, according to a survey of more than 4,300 by Barclays. Of those, 73 per cent were over 45, and 37 per cent were over 65. The proportion of homebuyers who were 45 or older has fallen from 45 per cent in the 2015-16 tax year to 39 per cent in 2023-24, according to the estate agency Savills. Some 41 per cent of 2,000 homeowners aged over 55 polled by the estate agency Jackson-Stops said they would downsize within two years if stamp duty was reduced or removed. David Fell from Hamptons said: 'Who is better off will come down to how closely the government chooses to follow any recommendations. But I think in response to the general principle, the shift would probably cut the cost of buying the most expensive homes, but add to the annual cost of ownership, particularly given the artificially low levels of council tax charged by many places that have the most expensive house prices. 'The impact of a change to the system would probably depend on the level at which the rates were set, and the length of time it takes for the higher ownership charges to outweigh existing stamp duty and council tax bills.' The Treasury said it did not comment on speculation about the budget.
