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The UK has seen a “persistent under delivery” of new homes, according to the competition watchdog which has launched an investigation into eight major housebuilders.

Too few new homes are being delivered due to a “complex and unpredictable” planning system and the widening gap between what’s being built by private developers and what people need, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.

Its report into the housebuilding industry also identified “substantial concerns” about estate management charges – with homeowners “often facing” high and unclear charges for the management of roads, drainage and green spaces.

Less than 250,000 new homes were built last year across Britain – well below the 300,000-target for England alone, the CMA said.

Why building targets aren’t being met

Targets have only been met when local authorities build houses, the CMA said, but the majority of building currently comes from the private sector, it added.

“It is notable that housebuilding has only reached the levels that are currently being targeted in periods where significant
supply was provided via local authority building”.

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Along with planning problems, a key reason for this is the system of development where homes are built without knowing in advance who will buy them or for how much, a system known as speculative private development.

The majority of houses (60%) built from 2021 to 2022 came through this system which allows builders to respond to market changes but has led to a gap between what people need and what is being built.

“The evidence shows that private developers produce houses at a rate at which they can be sold without needing to reduce their prices, rather than diversifying the types and numbers of homes they build to meet the needs of different communities (for example providing more affordable housing),” the CMA said of the system.

Quality

Concern about the quality of housing was also identified.

The number of owners reporting issues increased over the last decade, the CMA found, as housebuilders don’t have strong incentives to compete with each other on quality and consumers have unclear routes to have problems solved.

Serious problems, such as collapsing staircases and ceilings, were experienced in a “substantial minority” of new houses.

Investigation into major housebuilders

An investigation into eight housebuilders has been launched as the CMA suspects them of sharing commercially sensitive information, which could be influencing the prices of new homes.

While the issue is not one of the main drivers high house prices and the shortfall in delivery number, the CMA said it is important its tackles anti-competitive behaviour if found.

Developers being investigated include Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, and Vistry.

The CMA said it has not reached any conclusions at this stage as to whether competition law has been infringed.

Roughly two-fifths of the homes built between 2021 to 2022 were delivered by the largest, national housebuilders, many of whom are the subject of the CMA investigation, while more than 50,000 homes were delivered by thousands of smaller, regional builders.

Growing estate management charges

A “growing trend” of housing estates with privately managed public amenities such as green spaces was found by the CMA.

Of new homes sold by the biggest builders in 2021 to 2022, 80% were subject to estate management charges which, the CMA said are “often high and unclear”.

The average charge was £350, the CMA found, but one-off, unplanned charges for significant repair work can cost thousands of pounds and cause considerable stress to homeowners.

“Many homeowners are unable to switch estate management providers, receive inadequate information upfront, have to deal with shoddy work or unsatisfactory maintenance, and face unclear administration or management charges which can often make up 50% or more of the total bill”, it added.

A Bellway spokesperson said: “Bellway has engaged and co-operated fully with the CMA throughout its market study – and will continue to do so… We remain focused on the delivery of high-quality new homes that meet local demand and enhance the communities we build in as we work to increase the supply of UK housing.”

A spokesperson for the Home Builders Federation said: “We welcome recognition that the planning system is a fundamental barrier to delivery and adds unnecessary delay and cost into the development process, and the need for local authorities to have plans in place and properly resourced planning departments.”

“Housebuilders do not want to be long term mangers of estates and make absolutely no profit from the management companies that are required to be put in place.”

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Trump state visit is all about deals to turn around UK economy

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Trump state visit is all about deals to turn around UK economy

For Donald Trump, today was primarily about one thing.

Before boarding Air Force One to make the transatlantic flight to the UK, he told reporters on the White House Lawn: “It’s to be with Prince Charles and Camilla, they’re friends of mine for a long time… you’re going to have some great pictures, it’s going to be a beautiful event.”

Britain delivered. After a military welcome, lunch with the King and Queen and a Red Arrows flypast, the president has already got more than enough photographs to admire on the plane back home. Luckily, pomp and circumstance is something we do well.

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But this was not an altruistic display. These things rarely are. As British governments have done in the past, the Starmer team leveraged Britain’s soft power to advance its own aims. Beyond the fanfare, Starmer wants to catch the president’s ear on foreign policy issues, including Gaza and Ukraine. But they are also there to talk money: investment and trade.

On trade, we faltered. The US refused to budge on its 25% tariff imposed on the aluminium and steel Industry (a reminder perhaps that no amount of tea with the King will get the US to act against its interests).

But in the arena of investment, the British government is already declaring victory. Trump arrived in Britain along with a who’s who of the US tech scene.

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Jensen Huang, chief executive of the AI chipmaker Nvidia, Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Sam Altman of OpenAI all made the journey over. Today, they are attending a state dinner at Windsor Castle along with the president but they had other reasons for coming too.

Many of them were here to announce major investments, running into the tens of billions of pounds, to build AI data centres in the UK under a new US-UK tech deal.

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These are private investments but the government is viewing them as a win for Starmer. His administration is – like the one before it and the one before that – scrambling to unlock economic growth in the UK. It is pinning its hopes on the transformational promise of AI.

The prospect of greater economic growth, productivity and jobs is an alluring one for Britain and, indeed, most of Western Europe’s ailing economies. The hope is that these investments will build the digital infrastructure needed to turbocharge the AI industry in the UK.

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Both sides of the road leading up to the castle were packed with onlookers as the presidential helicopter Marine One circled overhead shortly after 12pm.

The government said the deals, which came from Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google among others, were a “vote of confidence in the UK”. And there are, of course, compelling reasons why Britain’s existing AI ecosystem is attracting these companies. It has little to do with the King.

World-class researchers, universities and scientific research have contributed to an ecosystem in Britain that is ripe for take off. Deep Mind was perhaps the most famous success story, a company that Google swooped in to acquire in 2014.

That is something Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia was keen to remind us. Ahead of his trip to Windsor, he expressed surprise at Britain’s sometimes dysphoric attitude about its own capabilities.

“This week we’re here to announce that the UK is going to be a superpower… but you know, Britons can be a bit humble, even deprecating, about their successes. Really, this is a moment to celebrate the UK ecosystem.”

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Government celebrates tech win – but challenge lies ahead

He said that Britain was at the cusp of a new Industrial Revolution, and it should seize the moment.

“This is the home of the origins of artificial intelligence and some of the brightest minds in AI are here. So the expertise of creating artificial intelligence and creating and training large language models is deep here.”

The UK has obvious expertise and appeal. It is the third largest AI market in the world, after the US and China. It is home to a third of Europe’s AI start-up companies and twice as many as any other European country.

Where it falters is infrastructure. High energy costs and a creaking grid are holding back growth in data centres. The government has promised to rectify this (which has caught the attention of the tech giants, hungry as they are for energy and computational power). The deal with the US will also see both sides cooperate to expand nuclear energy in the UK.

Not everyone is comfortable with all this attention from the Americans, however. US dollars will help to fund the expansion in data centres, but US AI companies like OpenAI, which is partnering with Nvidia and Nscale to open a data centre in Blyth, will be at the forefront of the opportunities too.

Open AI will secure the access to infrastructure, energy and computing power to run and train its models. Meanwhile Nvidia will provide the chips. Nscale, the British data centre company, is set for huge growth but, where France boasts Mistral, the UK has no comparable national AI champion. For all the claims of “sovereign AI”, some may wonder whether building data centres in the UK is enough to give us sufficient control over this powerful new industry, when so much of the technology is American.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Huang batted away those concerns.

“Sovereign AI starts with having your sovereign data… you have lots of your own data,” he said. “The data of your people, of your companies, of your society. That data is created here. It belongs to you. You should use it to train your own large language models. There’s going to be a whole bunch of different AI models being created here, and I have every confidence, so long as we provide the instrument of the science.”

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Trump finally gets his demand for a US rate cut

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Trump finally gets his demand for a US rate cut

The US central bank has cut interest rates for the first time this year, in a move president Donald Trump will likely declare is long overdue.

Mr Trump has demanded cuts to borrowing costs from the Federal Reserve ever since worries emerged in the world’s largest economy that his trade war would stoke US inflation.

The president – currently in the UK on a state visit – has, on several occasions, threatened to fire the Fed chair Jay Powell and moved to place his own supporters on the bank’s voting panel.

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He was yet to comment on the rate decision.

The fallout from the row has resonated globally, sparking worries about central bank independence. Financial markets have also reflected those concerns.

The bank, which has a dual mandate to keep inflation steady and maintain maximum employment, made its move on Wednesday after a major slowdown in the employment market that has seen hiring ease sharply.

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The latest economic indicators have shown caution over spending among both companies and consumers alike.

The Fed said the economy had moderated.

Inflation, while somewhat elevated due to the effects of higher import costs from the trade war, has not taken off as badly as some economists, and the Fed, had initially feared.

Mr Trump has sought to fire Fed rate-setter Lisa Cook. File pic: AP
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Mr Trump has sought to fire Fed rate-setter Lisa Cook. File pic: AP

Its 12-member panel backed a quarter point reduction in the Fed funds rate to a new range of between 4% to 4.25%.

The effective interest rate is in the middle of that range.

Crucially for Mr Trump, who is trying to inspire growth in the economy, the Fed signalled more reductions ahead despite continued concern over inflation.

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Trump state visit: key moments so far

Financial markets saw a further two quarter point rate cuts before the year’s end.

The dollar, which has weakened in recent days on the back of expectations of further rate cuts, fell in the wake of the decision and the Fed’s statement.

It was trading down against both the euro and pound. Sterling was almost half a cent up at $1.17.

This Fed meeting was the first with new Trump appointee Stephen Miran on the voting panel.

He was chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers before being handed the role this week.

His was a sole voice in the voting for a half percentage point cut. It is clear, though the identity of participants’ forecasts are not revealed, he was the lone voice in calling for a further five quarter point reductions this year.

Mr Trump has sought to fire a member of the Fed’s board, Lisa Cook, to bolster his position further but that decision is currently subject to a legal challenge.

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Inflation remains relatively high but worse to come

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Inflation remains relatively high but worse to come

Inflation has remained relatively high, meaning goods are becoming more expensive, official figures show.

The rate of price rises remained at 3.8% in August, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Prices are expected to continue to rise, with the Bank of England forecasting the rate will hit 4% in September.

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