[The Weeping Angel]

This sounds promising. Then again Warren always makes things sound positive.

I haven't checked Clive Lewis for a while. Doubtless, he's praising the government for collecting unpaid tax, seeing he was exercised by this before?

He does, although it's a useful antidote to the likes of Stephen Bush.

[The Weeping Angel]

This was announced yesterday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0 ... 3gS8eVJrAQ

P

lans for a major reform of the house-buying system, which aim to cut costs, reduce delays and halve failed sales, have been unveiled by the government.

Under the new proposals, sellers and estate agents will be legally required to provide key information about a property up front, and the option of binding contracts could stop either party walking away late in the process.

The government estimates the overhaul could save first-time buyers an average of £710 and shave four weeks off the time it takes to complete a typical property deal.

But sellers at the end of a chain may face increased initial costs of £310 and, while broadly welcoming the move, housing experts say more detail is needed.

Previous attempts at mandating sellers to offer key information - through home information packs - were scrapped owing to complaints that it discouraged or delayed sellers in putting homes on the market.

The broader issue of housing affordability remains a block for many potential property purchasers, especially first-time buyers.

And many home buyers would not benefit from the estimated savings, as the calculations include the average cost of failed transactions that some might not experience.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Home Information Packs, that's a blast from the past. These were elevated to some sort of "Labour have lost the plot' issue, which Cameron and Clegg immediately scrapped because "red tape". Amazingly, selling houses is still really cumbersome and expensive.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Prime Minister said the Blair-era target for 50 per cent of young people to go to university is not 'right for our times'. In his speech at Labour Party conference on Tuesday (September 30), he announced it would be scrapped.

Luckily there never was such a target. It wasn't "university", it was higher education. It was people under 30, so it included people who left school at 16 and 18. This would include people with full time jobs studying part time, often vocational stuff, and people who had maybe not come from educated backgrounds, but who'd realized they could go further with education than they had. Both of these, you'd think were a good thing, to which not even Farage and Kemi could object.

But I suppose that the myth has got so deeply entrenched, you might as well get some political theatre out of scrapping it.