House price growth slows

According to Rightmove's latest House Price Index, house price growth has slowed across Britain this month and fallen in London. The price of new houses put up for sale in June nudged up just £272 or 0.1% from May, compared to 3.6% the previous month. In the capital, new seller prices recorded a drop of 0.5% in June. Rightmove said buyers were put off by high values but also had more choice, with a 20% rise in the number of houses coming to market in London. Across the country, new seller numbers were up 9.6% compared with last year. The firm’s Miles Shipside said the figures showed that after months of steep rises, the London property market was "starting to run out of steam." However, he added that the legacy of rises in central London continue to ripple out to its better-value commuter-belt, fuelling price increases in all southern regions. Commenting on the figures, Lucian Cook,Savills UK head of residential research, said: "We've reached a point where the gap between London and the rest of the country is becoming irresistible to London home-owners who have for several years put off moving out. The result is more stock on the London market and slightly more realism from sellers."

Osborne to incentivise brownfield construction

George Osborne will announce new incentives for developers to build new homes on derelict urban sites in an effort to spare the green belt. Figures show there is enough brownfield land for 2.5m homes, but developers are often reluctant to build on it due to having to decontaminate soil on former industrial sites. "It looks like a welcome recognition that more needs to be done to use sites in towns and cities that are derelict and not force development sprawling into the countryside,” said Shaun Spiers of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Construction activity eases

UK construction activity eased back in May, however, a strong performance from the house building sector helped the index remain at elevated levels. The Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers' survey fell to 60 in May, its lowest level since October last year. Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said overall the construction sector was enjoying its "strongest overall phase of expansion since the summer of 2007."

Landlords could face jail if they let to criminals

In a crackdown on organised crime it will be announced in the Queen's Speech that landlords who knowingly lease premises to criminal gangs will face up to five years' imprisonment under new laws.The owners of residential properties could be prosecuted for "participation in an organised crime group" if they fail to report suspicions that premises are being used for crime. The offence will also apply to commercial landlords and others who provide services such as transport or parcel delivery.However, the new measures will be primarily aimed at corrupt lawyers and other professionals who "turn a blind eye" when working for organised crime gangs. Karen Bradley, the organised crime minister, said: "This new offence sends out a clear message to those individuals – if you are helping to oil the wheels of organised crime, you will be prosecuted and face being jailed."

Small developers to be exempt from carbon rules

Small housing developers will be exempted from new environmental controls to encourage the building of thousands of homes, under legislation to be announced in the Queen's Speech. Measures introduced last year to ensure that every new home in Britain would have to be built to a "zero carbon" standard by 2016 will be watered down so they do not apply to "small sites", which house builders say are developments with fewer than 50 homes. The legislation is also expected to exempt larger developers from having to meet the highest level of energy efficiency. Instead they will be allowed to design homes to a lower standard and offset the extra carbon that the homes produce by paying into a government fund for energy efficient projects.