Key events
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
UK house prices rise at fastest rate since January 2025
Kalyeena Makortoff
UK house prices rose at their fastest pace since January, a leading property index shows, with demand improving despite ongoing market uncertainty over likely tax changes in this month’s budget.
Prices increased by 0.6% month-on-month in October, pushing the average cost of a UK home to a record high of £299,862, according to Halifax.
It marked a reversal from an unexpected 0.3% drop in prices recorded in September and was stronger than the 0.1% monthly increase forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. On an annual basis, house prices also rose 1.9%, with that figure also shooting past forecasts for a 1.5% rise.
“Demand from buyers has held up well coming into autumn, despite a degree of uncertainty in the market, with the number of new mortgages being approved recently hitting its highest level so far this year,” said Amanda Bryden, the head of mortgages at Halifax, which is part of the wider Lloyds Banking Group.
However, affordability continues to be a challenge, with many buyers opting for smaller deposits and longer terms to help make the numbers work.
Although average fixed rates on mortgages continue to hover around 4%, and are likely to ease further in the coming months, record-level property prices continue to make moving “feel like a stretch” for many prospective homebuyers, Bryden said.
“Rising costs for everyday essentials are also squeezing disposable incomes, which affects how much people are willing or able to spend on a new property,” she added. “Even so, while there has been some volatility, the market has proven resilient over recent months.”
October’s 0.6% rise suggests buyers have been willing to look past jitters over potential tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s budget on 26 November. The Guardian reported in August that the chancellor was considering replacing stamp duty with a new levy on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000.
Former prison governor John Podmore told BBC Breakfast the prison and probation system is “utterly broken”.
On mistaken releases he said: “It’s symptomatic of a broken prison and probation system. It’s been broken for a long time – and we shouldn’t be saying it’s in crisis or it’s struggling, it is utterly broken.
“We can talk about resources until the cows come home, but you don’t give resources to a failing institution, you stop that institution failing.
“People have said to me, ‘should they make David Lammy go?’ and I’ve said ‘no, he should do his job’.
“And his job is to set the policy, set the budget, set the direction for the prison and probation service and appoint people to deliver on that leadership. And if they’re not delivering, and they clearly aren’t, he should be having them before him and asking them why.”
The shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said on X that the mistaken release of Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu is “just the tip of the iceberg”.
Referring to a story in the Telegraph that 90 prisoners may have been released by mistake, Jenrick said: “The accidental release of the Epping sex offender was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Lammy refused to provide the full facts, but thanks to the @telegraph the scale of the chaos has been uncovered. Where are these dangerous criminals @davidlammy?!”
One of two prisoners mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth handed himself back in yesterday.
William ‘Billy’ Smith, 35, handed himself in to the prison in south-west London yesterday.
He was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences at Croydon crown court on Monday but was mistakenly released the same day, prompting a three-day manhunt. Video shows the moment he handed himself in.
Moment mistakenly released prisoner Billy Smith hands himself in – videoShare
Three prisoners have been charged with murder after a child killer was found dead in his cell, PA reports.
The Prison Service confirmed the man was 33-year-old Kyle Bevan, who was jailed for life for murdering his partner’s two-year-old daughter Lola James in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 2020.
Bevan was set to spend at least 28 years behind bars for the savage killing after inflicting catastrophic head injuries on the toddler during a six-hour attack.
Officers were called to category A HMP Wakefield at 8.25am on Wednesday, West Yorkshire Police said.
Mark Fellows, 45, Lee Newell, 56, and David Taylor have been charged with murder, the force said. They were remanded into custody and are due to appear at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The incident comes less than a month after paedophile singer Ian Watkins was stabbed to death at the same prison.
Last night David Lammy posted a video on X saying he was “as shocked as anyone” that prison release errors were happening at this rate.
In the video the justice secretary said he was determined to get a grip on it:
“I’ve already brought in stronger release checks with more direct accountability.
“And I’ve asked dame Lynne Owens to conduct an independent review to look at action we can take going forward.
“Today I’ve convened prison governors to understand what further support they need to stop these errors.”
ShareMinister defends Lammy amid pressure over mistaken prisoner releases
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics as questions continue over David Lammy’s handling of a mistaken prisoner release, with a sex offender still on the run.
The deputy prime minister and justice secretary has been criticised over the freeing of Algerian Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from Wandsworth prison. Yesterday the deputy prime minister and justice secretary said the government has “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prisons crisis and insisted he was “not equipped with all the detail” when questioned in parliament on Wednesday about the issue.
But there has been apparent disquiet from colleagues, with The Times quoting anonymous senior ministers as saying he was “cowardly” and guilty of “rank incompetence”.
Keir Starmer, while at the Cop30 summit, backed his deputy by saying it was “right” he was “setting out the facts to the best of his knowledge”. He is travelling back from Brazil today.
Meanwhile Steve Reed dismissed criticism of Lammy from fellow ministers as “anonymous tittle tattle”. The housing secretary told Times Radio:
The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system. The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.
There is not an acceptable number for [mistaken releases], but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system.
David has already had the prison governors in his office yesterday, I imagine they felt pretty hauled over the coals given what’s been going on, but he was also making sure that they’re getting all the support they need to carry out the much tougher checks that will be required to make sure that the repeats of this are at an absolute minimum.”
Stay with us for all the developments as well as pre-Budget speculation with the new Labour deputy leader, Lucy Powell, saying that Labour should stand by its manifesto commitment not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, in a challenge that will put pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. You can read our story here