Matilda Battersby is a freelance journalist and editor, and a senior reporter at the Today’s Media titles. She worked at The Independent newspaper for many years, but has also worked at The Times, Evening Standard, Telegraph and I newspapers since going freelance in 2015. Her specialisms are property and books, having worked extensively for various trade property magazines and The Bookseller magazine. She is based in East London.
The Law Society of England and Wales has welcomed the government’s new anti-money laundering and recovery strategy, but has warned about the potential for “increased burden” and duplication of work for solicitors and firms. The
There were more than 100,000 extra mortgage sales agreed in 2025 compared with a year earlier, but the figures are still a more than a third lower than 20 years ago, new research reveals. There
House builder Vistry has called for a new ‘Choice-led Shared Ownership’ model to contribute up to 30,000 homes a year towards the government’s 1.5 million homes target. Vistry is among a coalition of 35 housing
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has fined a solicitor more than £20,000 for “a reckless disregard to the risk of harm and his regulatory obligations” over five years. Bryn Roberts, a sole practitioner at Evan
The incoming Law Society president has called for greater openness around disability in the legal sector. Brett Dixon, who will take up the post from October 2026, said improving disability inclusion is one of the
The majority of local government planning departments in England and Wales are understaffed, according to new research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF). Nine out of 10 local authority planning departments are operating below full
The Law Society of England and Wales has warned that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) complaints handling proposals could “increase administrative burden without delivering clear benefits for consumers”. The SRA recently consulted for a second
A property with damp or structural issues would prevent more than a third of buyers making an offer, new research from LRG reveals. The survey of more than 700 buyers and sellers found that damp
New research shows that 94% of lawyers use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for legal work, with 74% using it at least once a week and 34% using it every day. One in 10 (10%) of the
The Law Society has raised “serious concerns” over proposed changes to fees for the Legal Ombudsman. The 12 week consultation period on The Office for Legal Complaints’s (OLC) proposed changes to the Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO)
Home building generates more than £60 billion of social and economic value for local communities across England and Wales, new research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) suggests. New homes built in England and Wales
The number of council tenants buying their homes off the local authority via the Right to Buy scheme went up 90% this financial year compared with a year earlier. Local authorities reported 14,275 eligible sales
A former director of Axiom Ince has been struck off and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs for amending an invoice to give “the misleading impression” of a discount. Toby Richard Matthews admitted to dishonestly
An overwhelming majority of small and medium enterprise (SME) house builders think the Building Safety Levy will make more development sites unviable, new research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) reveals. As the home building
A consultation has been launched on proposed changes to the composition of the Residential Property Chamber of First-tier Tribunals to make them more flexible. The proposals are designed to help the system meet the anticipated
The time it takes to sell a UK home remains unchanged on average year-on-year but the regional picture is quite different, according to new analysis from Zoopla. The national average time to sell of 42
The government has announced the loosening of planning policy to try and encourage the building of thousands of new homes around England’s train, tram and underground stations, including on greenbelt land. Secretary of state for
Nearly a quarter of the population of England and Wales lives in an area classed as a ‘legal aid desert’, new research reveals. Analysis of local authority data by LexisNexis suggests that 14.49 million people,
Remortgage activity has returned to normal following the spike seen in March, according to the latest Q2 2026 statistics from conveybuddy. The latest quarterly figures show purchase/sale transactions increased as a proportion of overall instructions
Former defence secretary John Healey has been announced as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in Andy Burnham’s government, replacing Rachel Reeves. His first move has been to remove VAT from energy bills. “For too
Mortgage demand softened in the second quarter of this year as affordability pressures were exacerbated by rising borrowing costs, the latest research suggests. The Stonebridge network’s quarterly Mortgage Market Index shows the average rate rose
New research recommends introducing Flood Performance Certificates (FPCs) for all new-build properties. FPCs are similar in concept to Energy Performance Certificates, and are designed to provide a formal assessment of a property’s resilience to flooding.
Only one in 10 first time buyers in Northern England pay stamp duty compared to five out of 10 in the South East and nearly eight in 10 in London, new analysis from Zoopla reveals.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data reveals the number of Black judges has remained “disappointingly stagnant”. The diversity of the judiciary statistics for 2026 show Black judges make up only 1.6% of the judiciary, up slightly
The number of property sales in the UK which fell through rose by 9.8% during the first quarter of 2026, the latest index by the House Buyer Bureau reveals. Failed transactions cost the housing sector
Plans to introduce the flood-related equivalent of an Energy Performance Certificate moved closer this week following publication of new research into a standardised data template for the systematic collection and documentation of household resilience and
The housing market in England and Wales remained subdued in June although there were signs of marginal improvement, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK Residential Market Survey. New buyer enquiries remained
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has welcomed the government’s plans to reform the buying and selling process, but warns its success will rely on engaging “all participants in the home moving process”. Simon Law,
Ending stamp duty land tax could bring up to 750,000 homes to the market across England within three years, new research suggests. According to the Jackson-Stops Housing Mobility Report, stamp duty is the third most
A government-backed reinsurance scheme designed to offer flooding insurance to homeowners and renters in high risk areas has announced a series of major reforms to mark 10 years since it launched. The new measures are
Small and medium-sized home builders are experiencing a sharp deterioration in confidence, new research suggests. The Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) second quarterly SME Developer Sentiment Survey, in partnership with Quantum Development Finance (QDF), shows expectations
Buyers will pay on average 1.6% more for a home with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rated A or B compared to a D-rated home, new research reveals. Nationwide’s analysis of the latest English Housing