A Nationwide Housing Market bulletin reports that house prices have fallen by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 % m/m in June, broadly reversing May?s rise. The fall was sufficient to take the annual rate of house price inflation down to just 4.1%, its lowest level since July 1996. Although prices rose by 1.2 % in the second quarter, Nationwide attributes this to an early Easter which artificially boosted April?s house prices. House price inflation dropped into single digits in all regions except Northern Ireland and Scotland. In the previous quarter house price inflation had been 10% or more in eight of the 13 regions. In 10 of London?s boroughs the annual rate of house price inflation has turned negative and in three Boroughs prices are at least 5% lower than this time last year. With little evidence that housing market confidence or activity levels are growing, it is likely that the situation will stay like this for a while, resulting in a perceivable downward trend in the second half of this year and possibly through 2006.
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'You could walk round it every day and always notice something new': A private tour of the garden of multiple Chelsea gold medallist John MasseyInspired by his friends Christopher Lloyd and Princess Greta Sturdza, nurseryman and plant breeder John Massey has made a garden in Worcestershire that never ceases to delight, writes Charles Quest-Ritson. Photographs by Clive Nichols
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‘Once upon a time they covered an area the size of Ireland’: The restoration of Britain’s native oyster reefs is shaping future marine projects around the worldJane Wheatley reports on an innovative project to restore Britain’s once plentiful native oyster reefs in Tyne & Wear.
