19 Jun 2017
LONDON\'S NEXT GREAT NEIGHBOURHOOD
Tottenham Hale is to be London's next great neighbourhood - a bustling new centre with an uinternational transport hub, residnetial quarter and thousands of new job opportunities. In this section you will find out about Haringey Council's plan to create a new centre for Tottenham Hale, deliver new housing and improve streets, and green and open spaces.
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10 May 2017
Important announcement - CMP
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT * PRESS RELEASE * Date of issue: 10th of May 2017 Housing Minister supports Government report which calls for new measures to protect rental money Paul Simon Estate Agents takes on new CMP cover to safeguard the money they handle for landlord and tenants in London and surrounding areas. Letting agents across the country will soon be required to protect rental monies through an approved Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme, following the recommendations made in a new Government report. Paul Simon Estate Agents is already offering local landlords and tenants in London and surrounding areas enhanced levels of protection to safeguard to protect rental income from fraud and unlawful use. Letting agents play a crucial role in passing on rental payments from the tenant to their landlord but there is currently no legal requirement for letting agents to take out any insurance to protect the rental money they handle. The Housing Minister has responded to a parliamentary review of CMP and supported its recommendations to make CMP mandatory for agents in England that handle client money. The report estimates that letting agents currently hold approximately £2.7 billion in client funds but found that very few landlords or tenants are aware of CMP and how it safeguards rental money if an agent goes bankrupt or attempts to use client funds fraudulently. Paul Simon Estate Agents can now offer its landlords and tenants complete piece of mind that any client funds held by the branch is insured through a new Client Money Protection (CMP) insurance policy, which goes above and beyond current legal requirements to safeguard client funds. The move has been praised by The Property Ombudsman (TPO) scheme, which provides a free, fair and impartial dispute resolution service to protect consumers from unfair practices and raise standards in the property industry. The Government launched an official review into CMP in August 2016[1] to decide whether it should become a legal requirement for every letting agent to have CMP cover. As part of this review, TPO agreed to carry nationwide survey, which found just 11% of landlords ask how their rental money will be handled. Gerry Fitzjohn, TPO’s Vice Chairman, said: “While there is legislation in place for agents to protect a tenant’s deposit by registering it with a government-backed protection scheme, there is no legal requirement to safeguard rental income and ensure the agent passes on a tenant’s rent to their landlord. “It is essential that landlords and tenants only use agents that have CMP cover or a method that guarantees the rent collected by their agent is covered against fraud and unlawful use. I would always urge consumers to check the credentials of their agent to ensure their deposits and renal money is protected, and the firm is registered with TPO should a dispute arise.” [1] Government Client Money Protection (CMP) review: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/client-money-protection-cmp-review
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12 Mar 2017
25 Feb 2017
New TAX Regime for landlords
Published: 24/02/2017 Though we believe that prices will soften in prime central London, we still expect certain hotspots to experience price growth - though perhaps not at the level we’ve seen in previous years. If it’s an investment you’re after, it’s crucial you buy in areas that are undergoing gentrification or experiencing infrastructure investment, that offer healthy yields so mortgage repayments aren’t a problem. Areas in the outer Zones are likely to experience the best price growth this year. Zone 5’s East Croydon is becoming the capital’s next big property hotspot. It’s currently undergoing huge development, offers key train links and the Gatwick Express, Westfield Shopping centre will soon be arriving, plus it offers a mix of luxury and affordable living ideal for young professionals. Crossrail winner Forest Gate is also likely to experience further gentrification when the high-speed rail link arrives this year, which will keep house prices on their upward climb. Leyton is another east London pocket tipped for house price growth, and in fact, east London as a whole will be one of the best investment areas generally this year down to improving transport links and the fact that prices here are still “affordable” compared with the rest of the capital. If you want to invest centrally, Farringdon is a safe bet, again thanks to key infrastructure changes such as Crossrail and the fact that the nearby silicone roundabout is becoming a great area in which to live, work and play.
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24 Feb 2017
Is Tottenham becoming the new Shoreditch?
An art installation in Tottenham's Markfield ParkThe times they are a-changing. Slowly. When you emerge at ground level using the north stairwell of Seven Sisters Tube station, you are greeted by the sight of a popular coffee franchise and an equally well-to-do supermarket. A little further up the High Road, towards the nest of shops and traffic congestion that is Bruce Grove, an estate agents – of the type which deals in affluent city-dwellers and families seeking to up-size without necessarily leaving the conurbation – has set up stall.Further on still, at number 639, the Blooming Scent Café sings softly of organic teas and a licensed bar with a range of wines by the glass. Quietly confident, it is affiliated to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, the cultural complex next to the Town Hall, which boasts a cinema and a superb 274-seat auditorium.Wander, and you will find further notes of intrigue. Meander east towards Tottenham Hale and you might stumble into Craving Coffee, one of those artful dens of caffeine where your latte comes with a froth-top doodle – of a flower, a tree, a bird, a fish. You might also come across Beavertown Brewery, where the context is Lockwood Industrial Park on Mill Mead Road, but the ales produced within have more in common with the craft-beer scenes in hip American cities like Portland and Seattle. And after a drink or two in the tap room, you might drift back towards the High Road, following your nose towards the aromas pouring out of Chicken Town – an eatery where the name suggest a greasy takeaway, but the blurb on the menu states that “we use happy herb-fed chickens, which we gently steam before flash-frying in rapeseed oil for a delicious, healthier treat.”At the end of all this, you might wipe your mouth and ask if you really are in Tottenham – and not Shoreditch, Hoxton, Dalston, or some other newly gentrified part of the capital.The 12th richest football club on the planet lies at the heart of this historically deprived district.It has been a slow journey for an often unloved segment of the metropolis. And, in truth, it is a march which still has some way to go.The new stadium will hold 61,000 people and generate a projected £293 million a year for the local economy CREDIT: TOTTENHAM HOTSPURAt the centre of all this is a contradiction. The vast hulking presence of a Premier League football club. Plenty might argue that Tottenham Hotspur is bigger in reputation than it is in achievement – for all the fine players to have graced its pitch, Glenn Hoddle’s feet a pair of magician’s wands; David Ginola moving with long-haired lyrical grace – the club has just two league titles to its name (1951, 1961), and has failed to crest the summit of the English game in the monied Premier League era (which began in 1992). But it is definitely sizeable in wealth. The latest Deloitte figures, released earlier this month, rank it as the 12thrichest football club on the planet – with an annual turnover of £209million.Spurs hope the stadium will be a destination beyond football .There is always something a little unsettling about a major sporting institution, flush with cash, radiating its good fortune from within an area rather shorter on readies. But Spurs – to use the club’s popular nickname – is far from a lone case in this. And the club would be swift to argue that its White Hart Lane stadium has long been good for Tottenham, bringing some 36,000 supporters into the area every fortnight during the season – fans whose disposable income is funnelled into the district’s pubs, bars, cafes and newsagents.As of next year, that relationship will broaden. The club has played at White Hart Lane since 1899 – but although it has rebuilt it several times during that period, it has now outgrown its mid-range capacity (Tottenham’s nearest neighbours and arch-rivals Arsenal upgraded to their own 60,000-seat arena in 2006). So from August 2018, the team will run out at a new, state-of-the-art stadium capable of holding 61,000 people. It will be revolutionary for Spurs, more than doubling its match-day income. But it will also be a boon for Tottenham – generating a projected £293 million a year for the local economy.There are hopes the stadium will boost the local economyThat, at least, is the hope. Up on the fourth floor of Lilywhite House, the club’s pristine new offices, executive director Donna-Maria Cullen is talking in glowing terms. “‘Game-changer’ is an overused word. But for Tottenham, this really is,” she enthuses. “The stadium will be a new sport and entertainment destination for London – and for Europe.”The "Tunnel Club" will offer a close glimpse of the teamBeyond the window, the arena in question is now taking shape. Indeed, the north-east corner of White Hart Lane has already been dismantled to allow construction crews better access to the building site – as the rush to have the project completed in time for the 2018-2019 season intensifies. Colossal concrete support blocks rear above the pavement, cranes peck at the skyline, and the hard sound of industrial drills is a constant cacophony.Once completed, the stadium will be more than just a sporting cauldron. It will have a hotel and a museum. It will be adorned with extra touches – a “public square” on the concourse with room for food stalls and events; an in-house microbrewery capable of dispensing up to 10,000 pints per minute; a “Sky Walk” climbing wall which will allow visitors to clamber 40 metres up the exterior of the complex. And the club has grand designs for it to be a year-round music venue which will occupy the space in the London mega-gigs market that exists between Wembley Stadium and the O2. “Wembley Stadium is fine if you are Muse, Coldplay or U2,” Cullen explains. “But there is a gap down to the O2, which holds around 20,000 people – and we are hoping that the stadium will fill it.”Then there is the match-day experience, and the not-so-small matter of corporate entertainment – which, nowadays, is such a crucial element of any sporting behemoth’s balance sheet. An innovative blueprint will see accoutrements such as “The H Club”, a members’ space supplying high-end cuisine and chef’s table dinners. And the “Tunnel Club”, a first of its kind in the UK where “premium” guests will be able to watch the players waiting in the tunnel before kick-off – an intriguing piece of 21st century fan culture which, thanks to one-way mirrored glass, will not disturb the team’s preparations.Throw in the fact that the arena will also host American Football matches – a contract is in place for Spurs to stage two NFL fixtures a year for a decade, via a special artificial pitch below the main (retractable) playing surface – and the club coffers are set to jingle.This is all well and good – but will it really bring anything to the area beyond the roar of bigger crowds? Cullen is adamant that it will – and gestures downwards, towards the base of Lilywhite House, where Tottenham University Technical College, which opened in September 2014, takes up most of the ground floor (with the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham (LAET), a sixth-form college, due to launch in September). “The stadium will be responsible for 3,700 jobs, of which 1,700 will be totally new,” she adds.Back on the High Road, opposite the rising pile of stone, reinforced metal and men in high-visibility jackets, nothing much is stirring. The fledgling wave of renewal has yet to reach this far up the thoroughfare, and the one customer in Chick King is buying his dinner in a fast-food outlet that shares a meat, but little else, with cool kid Chicken Town. Tottenham is still far from being an unmissable destination for those seeking to explore further corners of London – but come the summer of 2018, seven years after the area was fractiously ablaze, it will find itself in the headlines, and on the map, for the right reasons.
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