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Owners of mid-rise flats with dangerous cladding will no longer have to pay to have it removed from their homes.

The cost will now be passed on to developers and cladding manufacturers, according to the government.

Michael Gove, secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, published his letter to the building industry on January 10th.

In it, he requested that companies and industry bodies work together with the government on a "new deal" to fix the cladding crisis.

They have until early March to agree on a plan to fund and fix unsafe cladding on buildings of around four to six-storeys high.

The estimated cost of work to fix cladding on these buildings is £4bn.

The government is paying for cladding to be replaced on blocks of flats that are above 18m high.

"It is neither fair nor decent that innocent leaseholders should be landed with bills they cannot afford, to fix problems they did not cause," Gove said.

Nicky Burridge - Zoopla Property News

Everyone at Fox Estates would like to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Let's hope that 2022 is kinder to us all.

Everyone at Fox Estates would like to wish you all the very best Christmas you can possibly have.

Let's hope that 2022 is kind to us all.

Please take care.

The Bank of England has increased interest rates to 0.25% in a bid to rein in rampant inflation despite mounting fears over the impact of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted eight to one to raise rates from the historic low of 0.1%.

It comes as the pressure has been building on the Bank to bring the soaring cost of living under control, with official figures this week showing the Consumer Prices Index jumped to 5.1% - the highest level for more than a decade.

In the minutes of the decision, the Bank warned that inflation could now peak at 6% in April, while it also downgraded growth outlook to 0.6% in the fourth quarter from a previous forecast of 1%.

It said: "Most of the committee judged that an immediate small increase in the Bank Rate was warranted."

"The decision at this meeting was finely balanced because of the uncertainty around Covid developments. There was some value in waiting for further information on the degree to which Omicron was likely to escape the protection of current vaccines and on the initial economic effects of this new wave. There was, however, also a strong case for tightening monetary policy now, given the strength of current underlying inflationary pressures and in order to maintain price stability in the medium term."

Rates have been at 0.1% since March last year, when the Bank moved to prop up the economy in the early days of the pandemic.

The rise marks the first rates increase since August 2018 and just the third since the financial crisis.

The Bank of England has announced it plans to relax mortgage lending rules next year.

It wants to remove a rule that means borrowers have to prove they can meet payments on their lender's variable rate if interest rates go up to 3%.

It will consult mortgage lenders and other industry parties early next year about withdrawing the rule.

Zoopla

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