A year ago – before Covid transformed our lives – we booked a holiday cottage through Character Cottages to allow our extended family to spend Christmas 2020 together. By August, it became clear that those in the US would not be allowed to visit, so following a conversation with Character Cottages we cancelled. Such was…
It’s 50 years since the UK’s currency went decimal, ditching tanners, shillings and florins and introducing new coins including the 1p piece. The anniversary of Decimal Day on Monday 15 February 1971 marks when Britain finally moved to a system based on units of 10. Under the old system, which had been in place for…
Demand for detached houses in the UK has boomed during the coronavirus pandemic, driving up prices three times faster than for flats as working from home boosted the popularity of bigger homes. Buyers paid an average price of £486,595 for a detached property in December – 10% more than in December 2019, according to the…
Robert Booth’s accurate analysis of the cladding issue (Government vow to fix cladding crisis unlikely to soothe UK residents, 10 February) nevertheless misses the point. It is not the government’s responsibility to fix this problem; it is their responsibility to make sure it’s fixed. Why should the government (ie the taxpayer) have to shell out…
Thousands of workers saving pensions at Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group have been offered fresh hope they will recover more from their savings than feared following the sale of property assets at the tycoon’s collapsed company. Sources said the Arcadia scheme is on course to remain independent of the pensions lifeboat – which protects people…
First off: everyone remotely connected to producing BBC One daytime TV stalwart Homes Under the Hammer calls it Hammer. So we’ll call it Hammer, too. How to describe Hammer? People buy dilapidated properties at auction. They renovate them and either flip them for profit, rent them out or – very occasionally – live in them….
