Money, in brief

Home sellers in Britain cut the asking price on more than 3,000 homes a day on average in September, figures from the property website Rightmove show. [1]

That was the most in any month for 15 years. Rightmove blames a glut of homes for sale and some sellers setting their hopes too high. [1]

About a third of the homes on the site, 34%, had their price cut in September, close to the peak of 36% in September 2023. [1]

The average cut was nearly 7%, about 21,000 pounds off a typically priced home. [1]

A home that had its price cut typically took 119 days to find a buyer. A home that kept one price took 39 days. [1]

Once a home has sat online for months, buyers start asking why it has not sold, said Katie Griffin of a Devon surveying firm. [1] A seller may then have to accept an offer below even the lowered asking price, she said. [1]

Zoopla, a rival property website, counted 5% more homes for sale in September than a year earlier, and 9% fewer sales agreed. [1]

A quarter of the homes newly listed in September had already been for sale in the past year, and six in ten of those came back at a lower price, Zoopla found. [1]

Buyers are borrowing at three-year highs. The average five-year fixed mortgage reached 5.94% in late September, the highest since October 2023, said Moneyfacts, a firm that tracks loan deals. [2]

Lenders approved 54,918 mortgages for buying a home in August, the fewest since December 2023, figures from the Bank of England, the UK's central bank, show. [2]

Mortgage rates rose after the war with Iran began in late February and pushed up oil prices. [2] The Bank of England held its own rate at 3.75% in September and said it is likely to rise if energy prices stay high. [16]

Homes sell fastest in Scotland, where a seller must get an independent valuation before listing: 74% listed in spring sold within three months, against 30% in London. [1] In inner London, 88% of flats listed in 2025 found no buyer within six months, Zoopla says. [5]

Why it matters. The next reading is the Bank of England's count of mortgage approvals for September; a figure below August's 54,918 would mean buyers are still pulling back. [2]

BBC Panorama found private firms in Birmingham collecting housing benefit for vulnerable people while giving them little of the support it pays for. [7] The scheme, called supported exempt accommodation, houses people such as former prisoners and women fleeing abuse, and pays enhanced housing benefit to cover the support. [7] The UK benefits ministry paid 410m pounds for it in Birmingham last year, for more than 34,000 residents. [7] One provider was paid 443 pounds a week for one woman's room and support. [7]

Why it matters. By law a provider needs to offer only 'more than minimal' care, and the city council approves each claim while central government pays. [7] A 2023 law to license these landlords is still stuck in consultation three years later. [7]

Alan Milburn, a former UK health secretary who leads a government review of young people out of work, told the Guardian that ministers should cut benefit spending to pay for more help into jobs. [8] His review counts a record 1 million people aged 18 to 24 who are not in work, education or training, and 60% of them have never had a job. [8] Ministers have put off his final report until after the Budget. [8]

Why it matters. About a third of these young people claim no benefits at all, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a research group, found, so a cut would reach only the two-thirds who do. [10] Only Romania, among the 27 EU countries, has a higher share of young people out of work and study, the Resolution Foundation, a think tank, said in May. [9]

Online casinos buy licences in the name of Anjouan, an island in the Comoros off south-east Africa, the Guardian reports. [11] Anjouan's licensing authority says they must apply through a website run by a UK company in north London. [11] The Comoros central bank says the scheme is illegal and uses the country's name to look legitimate. [11] Nearly 1,500 gambling firms hold the licences. [11] Some are accused of refusing to pay out winnings, and some are advertised as not on GamStop, the UK tool that lets gamblers block themselves from betting. [11]

Why it matters. The website offers a licence for 19,000 pounds, and an industry source said one in Curacao, a Caribbean island tightening its rules, costs about 80,000 pounds. [11] Harold Sorsky, one of the company's owners, said it has not handled gaming licences since 2023, and the Comoros government has asked the UK for help. [11]

Archway Heights, a nine-storey block of flats in north London, has been wrapped in scaffolding for more than six years for cladding work that has not started, the Guardian reports. [12] Safety rules brought in after the fire at Grenfell Tower, a London block of flats, require the work, and it cannot begin until the Building Safety Regulator approves it. [12] The regulator says the first application, in April 2024, was invalid, and the second, in January 2025, has needed several requests for more information. [12]

Why it matters. Residents say rents and service charges rise every year, and they got 250 pounds twice a year in compensation until Acorn, a community union, won an increase. [12] Places for People, the UK's biggest housing association, owns the block and says it is waiting on the regulator. [12]

Voters in Massachusetts will decide on 3 November whether to cap the minimum plot for a single-family home at 5,000 square feet, HousingWire, a US property news site, reports. [13] More than half the towns in the east of the state now require at least an acre for each house. [13] To pass, 'yes' votes must be a majority and also equal 30% of all ballots cast. [13] The question sits seventh of nine on the ballot. [13]

Why it matters. Backers say smaller plots mean smaller, cheaper starter homes, and their campaign has raised more than 1.7 million dollars, much of it from property groups. [13] In California, a vote on Proposition 45 would set deadlines for environmental reviews of housing and other projects. [13]

Ten US states now let households use plug-in solar: panels and a battery that connect to an ordinary wall socket, ZDNet, a technology news site, reports. [14] Utah was the first. [14] About two dozen more states have bills in progress, and New York's is waiting for the governor's signature. [14] Bills failed in Georgia, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. [14] The panels were kept illegal because US home wiring was not built to take power in through a socket. [14]

Why it matters. Power companies are the biggest obstacle, ZDNet says, and they would sell less power if the panels spread. [14] The new laws stop power companies blocking the panels, but landlords and homeowners' associations can still ban them. [14]

Gleaning Cornwall, a charity in south-west England, has collected 1m pounds' worth of fruit and vegetables left in fields after harvest and given it away. [15] Its volunteers deliver the food to 160 food banks, community larders and kitchens, and it says it feeds 11,000 people a week. [15] Places giving out free food in Cornwall rose from 20 in 2015 to 180, Cornwall Council says. [15] A council study found 30% of the county's children live in food poverty. [15]

Why it matters. The charity says the cost of transport, storage and planning is rising fast, and it needs funding to keep going. [15] Its rule is that all the food is free to the people who get it. [15]

About six million people in the UK live without basics such as a bed, a cooker or a fridge, End Furniture Poverty, a national charity, says. [17] Scratch, a charity in Southampton that has run for 27 years, says it is busier than ever, with two vans out every day. [17] Most social housing is let empty: over a quarter of social tenants live in furniture poverty, but only about 3% of those homes come furnished. [17]

Why it matters. Families who cannot pay may turn to loans with high interest instead, a Portsmouth charity says. [17] End Furniture Poverty wants 10% of social homes let furnished, and the UK government points to a 1bn pound fund that can be used to help households get furniture. [17]