How housing benefit - now transmuted into \'local housing allowance\' - is calculated and paid has changed.
Since 7 April 2008 the allowance has been based on the area in which the claimant lives and the size of their household. The allowance is intended for people who rent their homes from private buy to let landlords, who are on a low income, and need help to pay their rent.
The new...
Finding a new finance job is one thing, finding the right one, is however a completely different matter. So what \'really\' makes the difference? There are many things that make a difference, some of which we have no control. There are however a number of mind sets that will genuinely help you find your next job in London\'s financial sector.
Whilst it is really important to not only post...
Formerly \'Siam\', Thailand took on its present name in 1939 shortly after a change from absolute to constitutional monarchy.
For much of the time since then the military has been involved in government. An unbroken period of civilian rule that began in 1992 was ended with a 2006 military coup, suspension of the constitution and declaration of martial law.
An interim government has been...
Commanding strategically important sea routes between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Republic of South Africa is at the southernmost tip of the African continent.
With a coastline of some 2,954 kilometres, it is bounded to the north by borders within Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Mozambique. To the north east is Swaziland, a small, landlocked kingdom surrounded by South Africa...
Mehrban Haq, of Rawstrone Street, Blackburn, was convicted following a trial last July for failing to show that he had exercised a proper \'Duty of Care\' regarding rubbish produced at one of his properties and found dumped in a back street.
Blackburn magistrates heard a member of the public witnessed a man dumping rubbish in the alley at Stansfeld Street, Blackburn. An investigation was...
A member of the European Union since 2007, Romania is a country of almost 92,000 square miles - roughly the same as the UK - but with a population of only 22m people.
This one time communist state has borders with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova and the Ukraine. To the east it has a Black Sea coastline of about 120 miles. The Carpathian Mountains are in the north east and...
Slovakia, formerly part of Czechoslovakia, itself created as a state at the end of World War One, became an independent republic in 1993. As part of Czechoslovakia, and despite the spring uprising of 1968, it had been within the Communist bloc from 1948 to 1989. Since 2004 it has been a member of the EU.
Landlocked, Slovakia has borders with the Czech Republic, Austria to the west, Hungary...
With repossessions almost doubling and other property owners facing negative equity, the BPF believes a professionalised, branded rental sector, where big firms provide long term homes to rent, is what is needed.
Current government policy is still focused heavily on ownership. However, many housing associations are facing real problems as shared ownership schemes are left vacant due to a...
The provisions of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 should be extended to lettings and management agents recommends Professor Colin Jones\'s Review of Regulation and Redress in the UK Housing Market published by the Department for Business.
Professor Colin Jones, of Heriot-Watt University took into consideration the problems across the housing sector that are damaging...
Portugal is bordered to the north and east by Spain and to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean, it is a full member of the EU.
The country is mountainous north of the Tagus River, with plains to the south. Offshore its territories include Madeira, and the Azores.
Summers are dry and hot, winters are relatively wet with most rain falling in November and December.
Portugal has a...
