Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
A new study has found that the rate of building in London’s private housing sector has fallen by 84% since 2015. This comes despite the city needing 88,000 new homes every year.
Molior consultants discovered that last year, work began on only 5,547 private-sector residential properties – that is compared to the 33,782 in 2015.
Member of the London Assembly, Lord Bailey, has announced that the capital’s situation has gone from “difficult to devastating” as “ordinary Londoners are suffering the most”.
A figure of 18,326 homes are set to be completed by the end of the year, with a further 14,053 completed either next year or the following year – that is just 8% of government’s 176,000 two-year target.
Construction has also been paused for 5,009 homes throughout 51 developments, due to building contractors “going bust” because of high costs and currently being a weak sales market.
Crazy News
A new epidemic of thefts from car has unfortunately begun to rise.
Cars are being broken into, not for personal belongings or to take the car itself – but for the parcel shelf. Online, they can sell for up to £150.
A neighbourhood in Bounds Green have had so many cars broken into – the replacements for rear windows can take weeks to be fitted due to the backlogs caused by the demand.
Sam Phipps was a victim and decided not to claim on her insurance due to the cost of excess. After some research she realised that the shelf was listed on eBay and the seller was about 20 minutes away: “We looked on eBay and there were hundreds of them available and, strangely, we found one that was our exact model, the exact year, and it had been placed that morning after ours had been stolen the day before”.
Hampstead and Highgate have also been hit, as the Met Police have opened an investigation.
Happy News
A woman who won £250,000 in the Postcode Lottery donated £25,000 to a hospice, with the company running the draw matching the donation themselves.
Linda Styles gave the Heart of Kent Hospice in Aylesford the donation after it cared for her late husband, Owen, in the final days before his death in March.
She says: “They've meant so much to me and continue to support me. I've been coming back to the hospice to attend the bereavement groups - it's a safe space for us all to share our emotions”.
Chief executive of the Heart of Kent Hospice, Ann-Marie Kelly, added: “We're delighted to receive this additional award. It will directly support those with a terminal illness under our care now and into the future”.
Comments
Add a comment