Pulse.Assent

England

In England, the March data shows on average, house prices have fallen by 0.3% since February 2018.

The annual price rise of 4% takes the average property value to £240,949.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• the East of England experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 1%
• the North East saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 1.5%
• London saw the lowest annual price increase, down by 0.7%

Price change by region for England

Region	Average price March 2018	Monthly change % since February 2018
East Midlands	£184,736	-0.6
East of England	£291,415	1.0
London	£471,944	-0.9
North East	£124,381	-1.5
North West	£157,461	-0.3
South East	£320,682	-0.2
South West	£249,839	-0.3
West Midlands	£188,697	-0.8
Yorkshire and the Humber	£155,251	-0.3

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in December 2017 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in December 2017 was in the North West.

Repossession sales	January 2018
East Midlands	34
East of England	15
London	48
North East	76
North West	138
South East	46
South West	41
West Midlands	71
Yorkshire and the Humber	91
England	560

Average price by property type for England

Property type	March 2018	March 2017	Difference %
Detached	£367,859	£350,079	5.1
Semi-detached	£223,241	£213,544	4.5
Terraced	£194,099	£185,775	4.5
Flat/maisonette	£223,619	£221,172	1.1
All	£240,949	£231,760	4.0

Funding and buyer status for England

Transaction type	Average price March 2018	Annual price change % since March 2017	Monthly price change % since January 2018
Cash	£226,994	4.0	-0.3
Mortgage	£247,980	3.9	-0.3
First-time buyer	£201,635	3.4	-0.6
Former owner occupier	£274,116	4.4	0.0

Building status for England

Building status*	Average price January 2018	Annual price change % since January 2017	Monthly price change % since December 2017
New build	£302,522	4.8	1.4
Existing resold property	£237,206	4.1	-0.7

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for England

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for England show the number of completed house sales in January 2018 fell by 12% to 50,583 compared with 57,498 in January 2017.

Month	Sales 2018	Sales 2017	Difference %
December	70,383	79,605	-11.6
January	50,583	57,498	-12.0

London

London shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 0.9% since February 2018. An annual price fall of 0.7% takes the average property value to £471,944.

Average price by property type for London

Property type	March 2018	March 2017	Difference %
Detached	£907,329	£893,859	1.5
Semi-detached	£569,389	£566,834	0.5
Terraced	£484,804	£485,460	-0.1
Flat/maisonette	£416,470	£422,917	-1.5
All	£471,944	£475,442	-0.7

Funding and buyer status for London

Transaction type	Average price March 2018	Annual price change % since March 2017	Monthly price change % since February 2018
Cash	£498,531	-0.7	-0.2
Mortgage	£463,827	-0.7	-1.1
First-time buyer	£412,691	-1.0	-1.1
Former owner occupier	£532,748	-0.4	-0.7

Building status for London

Building status*	Average price January 2018	Annual price change % since January 2017	Monthly price change % since December 2017
New build	£496,237	0.5	1.7
Existing resold property	£477,835	0.8	0.3

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for London

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for London show the number of completed house sales in January 2018 fell by 19.7% to 5,567 compared with 6,931 in January 2017.

Month	Sales 2018	Sales 2017	Difference %
December	7,163	8,460	-15.3
January	5,567	6,931	-19.7

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 0.1% since February 2018. An annual price rise of 3.5% takes the average property value to £152,999.

Average price by property type for Wales

Property type	March 2018	March 2017	Difference %
Detached	£234,077	£224,384	4.3
Semi-detached	£146,545	£141,508	3.6
Terraced	£117,210	£113,940	2.9
Flat/maisonette	£110,764	£107,477	3.1
All	£152,999	£147,794	3.5

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Transaction type	Average price March 2018	Annual price change % since March 2017	Monthly price change % since February 2018
Cash	£149,072	3.1	-0.1
Mortgage	£155,327	3.8	0.0
First-time buyer	£131,548	3.0	-0.3
Former owner occupier	£178,196	4.1	0.2

Building status for Wales

Building status*	Average price January 2018	Annual price change % since January 2017	Monthly price change % since December 2017
New build	£204,664	5.4	1.4
Existing resold property	£149,752	4.3	-0.5

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for Wales

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for Wales show:

• the number of completed house sales in January 2018 fell by 7.3% to 2,834 compared with 3,056 in January 2017
• there were 62 repossession sales in January 2018

Month	Sales 2018	Sales 2017	Difference %
December	4,289	4,581	-6.4
January	2,834	3,056	-7.3

Access the full UK HPI

UK house prices grew by 4.2% in the year to March 2018, unchanged from the year to February 2018.

The UK Property Transaction Statistics for March 2018 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 92,270. This is 11.8% lower compared to a year ago. Between February and March 2018, transactions decreased by 7.2%.

Looking at the country and regional level, Scotland showed the highest annual growth at 6.7%, down from 6.8% in the previous month. The second fastest growing region was the East of England at 5.8%. The lowest annual growth was in London, which recorded negative annual price growth for the second consecutive month at -0.7%, down from -0.1% in the previous month.

See the economic statement.

Notes to editors

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The April 2018 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on 13 June 2018. See calendar of release dates.
2. This release will now be published on Wednesdays.
3. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.
4. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.
5. Sales volume data is also available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.
6. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.
7. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.
8. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular, HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.
9. The UK Property Transaction statistics are taken from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series so HMRC also presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Adjustments are made for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in a particular month.
10. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.
11. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.
12. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.
13. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.
14. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).
15. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.
16. For England, this is shown as volumes of repossession sales recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales, there is a headline figure for the number of repossession sales recorded in Wales.
17. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession sales data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossession sales.
18. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.
19. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.
20. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.
21. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 85% of the land mass of England and Wales.
22. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry
23. Follow us on Twitter @HMLandRegistry, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook

One of the toughest bans on ivory sales in the world is a step closer to coming into force in the UK as the Government today (23 May 2018) introduced the Ivory Bill.

The introduction of this Bill means that robust measures set out last month by Environment Secretary Michael Gove are a step closer to becoming law, and helping to protect elephants for future generations.

The Bill covers ivory items of all ages, not only those produced after a certain date, subject to some narrow, carefully-defined exemptions. The maximum penalty for breaching the ban will be an unlimited fine or up to five years in jail.

The Bill follows widespread engagement with environmental groups and the antiques trade sector as well as the general public. More than 70,000 people and organisations responded to Defra’s consultation on an ivory ban late last year, with over 88% of responses in favour of measures to ban ivory sales in the UK.

The number of elephants has declined by almost a third in the last decade and around 20,000 a year are still being slaughtered because of the global demand for ivory. The UK Government continues to show global leadership in this area and in October will play host to leaders from across the globe at the fourth international conference on the illegal wildlife trade.

Environment Secretary, Michael Gove said:

Elephants are one of the world’s most iconic animals and we must do all we can to protect them for future generations. That’s why we will introduce one of the world’s toughest bans on ivory sales. The overwhelmingly positive response to our consultation shows the strength of public feeling to protect these magnificent animals.

We have acted quickly in introducing this Bill, less than six weeks after publishing our consultation responses. I hope this serves as a clear sign of our global leadership on this vital issue.

As announced in April’s consultation response, the Bill provides for narrowly-defined and carefully-targeted exemptions for items which do not contribute directly or indirectly to the poaching of elephants:

• Items with only a small amount of ivory. Such items must be comprised of less than 10% ivory by volume and have been made prior to 1947
• Musical instruments. These must have an ivory content of less than 20% and have been made prior to 1975
• The rarest and most important items of their type. Items of outstanding artistic, cultural or historic significance, and made prior to 1918 Such items will be assessed by specialists at institutions such as the UK’s most prestigious museums
• Sales to and between accredited museums. This applies museums accredited by Arts Council England, the Welsh Government, Museums and Galleries Scotland or the Northern Ireland Museums Council in the UK, or the International Council of Museums outside the UK
• Portrait miniatures. A specific exemption for portrait miniatures – which were often painted on thin slivers of ivory – made before 1918

The combination of the UK’s ban on ivory items of all ages with these exemptions delivers one of the toughest ivory bans in the world. The US federal ban has a rolling exemption for items over 100 years, as well as items with up to 50% ivory content. China’s ban exempts ivory “relics”, but this term is not clearly defined.

As profits become ever greater, the illegal wildlife trade has become a transnational organised enterprise, estimated to be worth up to £17billion a year.

In October, the UK will show global leadership in this fight when it hosts the fourth international conference on the illegal wildlife trade. The event will bring global leaders to London to tackle the strategic challenges of the trade. This follows the ground breaking London 2014 conference on the illegal wildlife trade, and subsequent conferences in Botswana and Vietnam.

A report published today (23 May 2018) by the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) calls on the UK government to do more to help young people living independently take advantage of training and employment opportunities by easing the immediate – and in some cases very significant – pressure on their day-to-day budgets.

At least 300,000 young people live independently on benefits – that’s 1 in 25 of all 16 to 24 year olds. Many of them have absolutely no choice but to live independently due to circumstances outside of their control. They may, for example, be care leavers without any close family or unable to live at home because they are at risk of abuse or violence.

Many of these young people told us they very much appreciate the support of the benefits system. They acknowledge that, were it not for this support, they could well be homeless. We also heard that young people in care have benefited greatly from the financial support made available to them by local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales and the Department for Work and Pensions as part of the ‘staying put’ initiative. This enables them to remain with their foster parents until they are 21 when they are arguably better prepared for independent living – both in terms of finances and maturity. The government’s recent announcement that housing support would be reintroduced for all young people who are unemployed or in low paid work – reversing a measure implemented just over a year ago – is also very welcome.

However, despite the support available, many young people who live independently find it difficult simply to ‘get by’. Our research shows that:

• Young people on the shared accommodation rate of Housing Benefit are struggling. Affordable and available accommodation can be very hard to find. In some areas, just 1% of vacant rooms are affordable and available to young people on benefit. Some landlords refuse to let rooms to anyone on benefit, limiting the number of available rooms even further. As a result, many young people live in very poor quality accommodation, which they can only afford by using other forms of income – including benefits designed for food and other basic living costs.
• Young claimants inevitably have limited experience of budgeting, which means they may be more likely to fall into rent arrears and be evicted than older counterparts. The wait for the first payment of the housing element of Universal Credit increases the risk for some young people making a new claim. Income security is especially important in these formative years. We think it is unrealistic to expect young people to look effectively for training and work opportunities when they are struggling to pay the rent.
• A young claimant living independently is almost 4 times more likely to have their benefit sanctioned (that is, stopped or reduced) than an older claimant. In many cases, the failure of the individual to comply will not be in question. But it is crucial to understand the context. Many young people who live independently have no family support or guidance, may be living stressful or disorganised lives and have very little life experience. Penalising people in this situation may well not be the best way of supporting them into work. There should be a duty on the government to support young people who live independently better during these unsettling formative years. We suggest establishing youth specialist work coaches and more actively promoting the take-up of the support already available that can help with costs of travel to interviews, purchase of work clothes etc.

The fundamental question behind the report is whether the core benefit rates for young people are sufficient to support a springboard into training and employment. For example, we heard about a young person who had just £20 available for food each month – that’s less than £1 a day – once other essential costs (such as utility bills) had been taken into account. If the financial challenge of funding the essentials of daily life was eased, young people would inevitably be better placed to identify and secure the opportunities to progress that exist.

Paul Gray, Committee Chair said:

It is understandable why the government has adopted a position that young people in receipt of benefits should face the same choices as other young people who go out to work and cannot yet afford to leave home. But it is important not to overlook the fact that many of the young people living independently have not made a choice to do so.

No one could reasonably argue that those leaving care or at risk of abuse at home should be disadvantaged by the benefit system for circumstances outside of their control. They should be better supported in making their first tentative steps towards a better future.

Seyi Obakin, Committee Member said:

A Centrepoint employee recently said that their work was important because young people are often overlooked and deserve an empowering network around them to help make them want them to succeed and to realise their potential. An empowering network would help young people to access safe, stable, affordable places to live; access income from stable work in which they can thrive; and improve their financial literacy.

But while young people are on their journey to these outcomes, they need meaningful and consistent support from the Department for Work and Pensions – both financial and in terms of employment advice.

Full set of recommendations

The full set of recommendations set out in the committee’s report are that the Department for Work and Pensions should:

1. Ensure every young person aged under 25 is proactively offered a choice about whether their housing-related benefits are paid directly to their landlord or into their own bank account, and about whether Universal Credit is paid to them fortnightly or monthly.
2. Place a duty on jobcentre work coaches to inform young people about all available grants and funds. Consider ring-fence funds to provide additional support towards work-related costs, such as buying equipment or work-specific clothing, or travelling to and from work.
3. Change the application of sanctions for young people living independently via a number of adjustments to the sanction process to decrease the risk of inappropriate sanctioning.
4. Trial both youth specialist work coaches and also specialist advisors who support work coaches in their interactions with young people with complex needs – focusing first on those living independently. This should be evaluated, and rolled out more widely if successful.
5. Exempt care leavers from the shared accommodation rate and the under-occupancy penalty until they reach age 25.
6. Monitor the numbers of 16 to 24-year olds living independently who are eligible for but not in receipt of benefit. Tackle the barriers to claiming the benefits to which they are entitled and receiving the support they might need.
7. Publish evidence demonstrating the affordability of basic living costs for a young person living independently on benefits and take action if these rates are not enough to cover essential living costs.
8. Publish evidence on the affordability and availability of housing for young people at the shared accommodation rate in every broad market rental area, and take action where affordability is too low.

About SSAC

SSAC is an independent advisory body of the Department for Work and Pensions. The committee’s role is to give advice on social security issues; scrutinise and report on social security regulations (including tax credits) and to consider and advise on any matters referred to it by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions or the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.

The committee membership comprises: Paul Gray (Chair), Bruce Calderwood, David Chrimes, Carl Emmerson, Chris Goulden, Philip Jones, Jim McCormick, Grainne McKeever, Dominic Morris, Seyi Obakin, Judith Paterson, Charlotte Pickles, Liz Sayce and Victoria Todd.

More information

For more information contact Denise Whitehead, Committee Secretary.

The UK is providing fresh support to help tackle the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt will announce today (Wednesday 23 May).

This new UK aid support will help the World Health Organisation (WHO) to monitor the spread of the disease, identify and diagnose cases, trace people at risk of infection, support the vaccination campaign, and treat the sick. It will also strengthen the DRC’s own health systems to treat and appropriately manage the growing number of cases of the disease. This extra £5 million in funding means the UK is currently one of the largest country donors to the response.

Ms Mordaunt will also set out an additional package of support which is strengthening the ability of countries across Africa to prepare and quickly respond to deadly diseases including Ebola, Zika and Yellow Fever, using valuable lessons learned from the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

This support has already led to vast improvements in the speed and effectiveness of the Government of DRC and WHO’s response to the current outbreak.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

The UK has acted swiftly to scale up the response to this outbreak of Ebola, a horrific disease which we know has the potential to cause devastating loss of life.

Our support is vital in helping to contain Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and stop it spreading to other countries – and ultimately the UK.

As part of a co-ordinated international response we have already helped to send thousands of UK aid-funded vaccines to the country and a team of three UK experts is set to deploy.

In addition, the UK is not just waiting for the next outbreak to come along. We’re working to improve the ability of vulnerable and high-risk countries across Africa to detect and tackle outbreaks quickly and effectively. This is keeping us all safe from current and future global health emergencies.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, England’s Chief Medical Officer, said:

Ebola has the potential to devastate a country – that’s why we need an expert and rapid response to this outbreak, led by the DRC government, and in partnership with the WHO and global community to tackle this deadly virus.

The UK government will continue to support the DRC and WHO to halt this deadly disease and make sure it does not cross borders. Our expert Public Health Rapid Support Team is soon to be deployed and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

In addition to this new support, following the Ebola outbreak of 2014, UK aid worked with Wellcome to develop an experimental vaccine for the disease. Thousands of doses of this vaccine are currently being targeted at those most at risk in the DRC.

Three experts from the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team – two epidemiologists and a data scientist – are also being deployed to the DRC to assist our partners in tracking the spread of the disease so that it can be tackled quickly and effectively.

The UK is also helping to fund the rapid response through its major contributions to the UN’s Central Fund for Emergencies, and the WHO’s Contingency Fund for Emergencies, both of which have released $2 million to fund surveillance, diagnosis and treatment operations. The UK is the largest donor to the UN Fund and the second largest donor to the WHO Fund.

Notes to Editors

This £5 million package of new support is taken from DFID’s Crisis Reserve, and is being provided immediately to the World Health Organisation’s response plan for at least the next three months.

Following the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone 2014-2016, the UK focussed on establishing better international global health preparedness and crisis response mechanisms which could be mobilised rapidly. This work has proven effective in this outbreak to date and we judge that WHO’s greatly improved performance is in significant part due to these measures put in place.

The Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme (£40 million) builds on this support to further strengthen long-term preparedness, detection and response to serious diseases in particularly high-risk countries across Africa, including the DRC. Part of this package will support the WHO to improve country health systems and improve surveillance and monitoring of diseases which have the potential to destroy communities. The programme also contains an additional contingency mechanism, to be drawn upon in the event of serious outbreaks, and use of which is allowing the UK to respond swiftly to the current situation in the DRC.

Investing in health systems early is important and good value for money, because it enhances the world’s ability to prevent epidemics, rather than reacting to the next crisis. Evidence suggests that for every £1 invested in preparation a £2 return can be achieved in terms of savings on future spend and investments.

This new funding is in addition to £1 million which DFID made available from its joint research initiative on epidemic preparedness with Wellcome. Wellcome has also made a further £2 million available to deal with the Ebola outbreak, which is being used to help roll out the vaccine campaign.

The Department for Health and Social Care provided an additional £4 million to the World Health Organisation’s Contingency Fund For Emergencies in March 2018. The UK is the second largest donor to this Fund, which has activated to respond to the outbreak.

Public Health England has assessed the risk of this outbreak to the UK as negligible to very low.