New support for traders and businesses goes live today with the launch of the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS), to help them meet new requirements for moving animals, plants and associated products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland after the transition period ends.

This includes advice to businesses through a dedicated helpline and means traders will not need to pay certification costs, which will be reimbursed by government to those certifying the products. Together, these measures will make it easier for traders to continue to move agri-food goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Farming, Fisheries and Food Minister Victoria Prentis said:

“As we implement the Northern Ireland Protocol, these arrangements ensure there is unfettered access for traders and minimises the impact of these new requirements.

“The Movement Assistance Scheme will help make it easier to move animals, plants and agri-food goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and will give practical help and support to businesses.”

This follows the publication of the Command Paper setting out details of an agreement in principle on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, including movement of agri-food goods.

From 1 January 2021, traders will need to meet new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements following the end of the transition period given that the island of Ireland is treated as a single epidemiological unit. These SPS requirements include Export Health Certificates and Phytosanitary certificates for specific agri-food goods.

The scheme removes the need for traders to pay certification costs and will reimburse the costs incurred by those certifying the products up to a set amount. We will monitor the performance of the scheme, and review it after three months to determine how to best provide ongoing support to traders.

In addition to the scheme launched today, the UK Government has agreed that authorised traders, such as supermarkets and their trusted suppliers, will benefit from a grace period from certification requirements for products of animal origin, composite products, food and feed of non-animal origin and plants and plant products, through to 1 April 2021.

Guidance on the new scheme and moving agri-food goods to and from Northern Ireland is available.

On Tuesday 24th November 2020, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade and the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Economy held their sixth Joint Economic Committee (JEC) in Dubai. The JEC was established in April 2009 under a Memorandum of Understanding, and aims to strengthen and develop bilateral cooperation between both countries, with a focus on trade and investment ties, creating opportunities for our business communities, and stimulating an exchange of technical expertise. The United Arab Emirates is the United Kingdom’s largest trading partner in the Gulf, with total trade in goods and services between our counties reaching £17.8bn in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2020.

The JEC was co-chaired by the United Kingdom’s Minister for International Trade, Ranil Jayawardena M.P. and the United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Trade H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmad Al Zeyoudi. There was a wide-ranging discussion on bilateral trade, ways to increase market access in priority sectors, as well as presentations from local government representatives for Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah on the trade and investment opportunities within their Emirates.

The JEC discussed the work of the United Arab Emirates-United Kingdom Business Council, hearing from the council’s co-chairs Lord Udny-Lister and H.E. Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh. Discussion covered plans to expand the business council’s membership to include more SMEs and entrepreneurs, as well as run a series of campaigns on priority issues in 2021, such as food security and space sector technology, where there is great potential for closer engagement between businesses in both our countries.

Discussion at the JEC focused on the Joint Trade and Investment Review currently underway between the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) too. It is a joint piece of work to provide an overview of the trade and investment relationship between the GCC and the United Kingdom, identify barriers to trade and investment, and draw clear recommendations for future cooperation that both parties can take forward to deepen our bilateral trading relationship in the long term. More details of this work can be found on GOV.UK.

During the JEC, we celebrated the close collaboration between the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and our work to maintain the flow of trade – especially on products such as food and drink. Both delegations recognised the importance of closer collaboration for the post-pandemic recovery phase in order to build back better through technology, innovation and economic partnership; all of which contribute to increased economic diversification, clean growth, supply chain resilience, and strong regulatory environments.

The meeting saw the British and Emirati governments agree to tackle market access barriers and boost trade in a number of sectors ranging from Healthcare and Life Sciences to Intellectual Property. The next meeting of the JEC will be organised by the Department for International Trade and will be held in the United Kingdom’s Pavilion at Dubai Expo in late 2021.

England

In England the October data shows, on average, house prices have risen by 0.6% since September 2020. The annual price rise of 5.4% takes the average property value to £262,175.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• Yorkshire and the Humber experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 2.4%
• London saw the lowest monthly price growth, with a fall of -1.2%
• the North West experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 6.6%
• the East of England saw the lowest annual price growth, with a rise of 3.4%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in August 2020 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in August 2020 was in the North East.

Average price by property type for England

Funding and buyer status for England

Building status for England

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

London

London shows, on average, house prices fell by 1.2% since September 2020. An annual price rise of 3.9% takes the average property value to £490,936.

Average price by property type for London

Funding and buyer status for London

Building status for London

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have risen 2.5%since September 2020. An annual price rise of 5.8% takes the average property value to £175,998.

There were 23 repossession sales for Wales in August 2020.

Average price by property type for Wales

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Building status for Wales

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Access the full UK HPI

The UK HPI is based on completed housing transactions. Typically, a house purchase can take 6 to 8 weeks to reach completion. The price data feeding into the October 2020 UK HPI will mainly reflect those agreements that occurred after the government measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) took hold.

UK house prices

UK house prices increased by 5.4% in the year to October 2020, up from 4.3% in September 2020. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK increased by 0.7% between September and October 2020, compared with a fall of 0.3% during the same period a year earlier (September and October 2019).

The UK Property Transactions Statistics showed that in October 2020, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the estimated number of transactions of residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 105,630. This is 8.1% higher than a year ago. Between September and October 2020, UK transactions increased by 9.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis.

House price growth was strongest in Scotland where prices increased by 6% in the year to October 2020, up from 4% in the year to September 2020. The lowest annual growth was in the East of England, where prices increased by 3.4% in the year to October 2020, down from 4% in the year to September 2020.

See the economic statement..

Background

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The November 2020 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 20 January 2021. See calendar of release dates.

2. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.

3. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

4. Sales volume data is also available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.

5. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

6. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.

7. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

8. The UK Property Transaction statisticsare taken from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series so HMRC also presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Adjustments are made for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in a particular month.

9. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.

10. The first estimate for new build average price (July 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

11. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

12. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

13. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

14. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

15. For England, this is shown as volumes of repossession sales recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales, there is a headline figure for the number of repossession sales recorded in Wales.

16. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession sales data prior to July 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossession sales.

17. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

18. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

19. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

20. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £7 trillion, including over £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 87% of the land mass of England and Wales.

21. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

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