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Homeowners could be compensated by the state if the value of their property falls as a result of the building of new garden cities, to encourage them to accept development in their area, Nick Clegg has said. The deputy prime minister suggested that affected households could receive council tax rebates during construction, or may be able to sell their homes to the state at guaranteed prices. Clegg announced plans in April for a new generation of garden cities to ease the demand for housing in the south of England. It is expected that up to three cities of at least 15,000 homes will be built in the southeast, though no locations have yet been selected. Clegg told the Sunday Telegraph he wanted a shortlist of potential locations published by the end of the year. Speaking to BBC1's Countryfile, he said it was important to safeguard house prices in areas chosen for projects. "We could maybe give deductions on their council tax for the period of time during wh

The Lagos State Government said it has put plans in place to have Public-Private Partnerships to accelerate the delivery and maintenance of infrastructure in the state. The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, said the move was in line with the vision to maintain Lagos as a mega city, adding that infrastructure was an impactful development in the country. Hamzat said the amount of money required to meet the needs of the increasing population of the state was more than $50bn over the next 10 years. The commissioner said, “Raising this vast sum of money will not be easy and requires us to collaborate with the private sector through Public-Private Partnerships, to accelerate the delivery and maintenance of this much needed infrastructure. “When we consider the value of these PPPs, we must assess them against our own benchmark, which takes into the account the needs of the people that will drive our development.” According to him, the plan wil

The Federal Government is collaborating with the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria to develop the recently unveiled 10,000 housing units under the affordable home ownership scheme. The partnership, according to REDAN, will allow the association to bring its expertise to bear during the construction of the houses. The first phase of the scheme was officially unveiled by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja last Thursday. The President, REDAN, Mr. Olabode Afolayan, told journalists in Abuja that the project, unlike a few others, would not be hijacked by the Federal Government and expressed the hope that the houses would be made available to Nigerians according to schedule. He said, “From the beginning of this new initiative, we have been together with the government and all things that were put together, in most cases, reflected the collective aspiration and inputs of major stakeholders like REDAN. So, we are part of it. “The Federal Ministry of Finance is no

The UK is to encourage the development of driverless cars on its roads, it was announced on Wednesday, with a multimillion-pound research fund and a review into the relevant laws around road safety. The business secretary, Vince Cable, said a £10m fund will be made available for driverless car researchers in the UK, joint funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) and the Department for Transport (DfT). “The excellence of our scientists and engineers has established the UK as pioneers in the development of driverless vehicles through pilot projects,” said Cable. “Today’s announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society.” Fully autonomous and driver-equipped The DfT will also kick off a review process of the laws governing road use, including the Highway Code and the Road Safety Act,

Bills are to be reduced by £12 a year on average after new price controls were agreed by five of the six companies that run Britain's electricity network. Ofgem said the cut had been driven by £2.1bn of savings it had secured from the companies' business plans since last year. The regulator's proposals will see the distribution companies spend £17bn to upgrade and maintain Britain's local electricity network. At the same time, the distribution part of the energy bill - which accounts for 8% of an annual dual fuel bill - will be on average £12 a year lower than it is today for the eight-year period between April 2015 and 2023. Last November, Western Power Distribution was the only company to have its prices agreed early after Ofgem judged that its business plan for the eight-year period showed sufficient value for consumers. Ofgem returned five out of the six companies' plans - UK Power Networks, Northern Power Grid, SP Energy Networks, SSE Power D

Prior to the privatisation of the successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the firm employed no new engineer for over 16 years, the Federal Government has said. The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, said this in Abuja at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Youth Summit organised by the Youth Initiative for Leadership and Rural Development. According to him, this flaw and a few other issues led to the abysmal performance of the power sector and contributed to the abandonment of electrical equipment at the ports for several years. Nebo, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Kande Daniel, on Tuesday, stated that the present reforms in the sector had given rise to the employment of about 1,000 young engineers. He said the reforms were being religiously implemented with a view to achieving sufficiency in power supply, which would usher in industrialisation and greater economic growth than had already been achieved. On the Federal

As part of its criteria for mortgage refinancing, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company has set 20 per cent as the minimum equity contribution by applicants for loans. The Chief Executive Officer, NMRC, Mr. Sonnie Ayere, stated this at the uniform underwriting standards workshop organised by the company in Lagos last week. “Right now, we say 20 per cent for a normal salary worker, and for payment, people have to pay through deduction at source for the public sector and even possibly for the private sector. These are the kind of things we are putting in place as conditions under which we can begin to give out mortgage loans and secure the requisite long-term financing,” he said. According to Ayere, the criteria will be the guidelines that a mortgage lender will have to meet to be eligible for loan, adding that for a property to be eligible for financing, it must have tenure of 20 years. He said, “We are saying it should be around 20 years. To put it better from the da