We recognise learners on vocational and technical courses urgently need reassurance about how their qualifications will be assessed and awarded in the coming weeks and months. We are working as quickly as possible to develop an approach which enables learners to get the qualifications they deserve and that they need to progress.

For the wide range of vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) used for progression and taken in schools, colleges and training providers, we are considering how similar arrangements to those set out for GCSEs, AS and A levels could be applied. Some form of teacher calculated grade, or other form of estimation based on assessment that has already taken place, will be possible in many cases. For other qualifications, it might be more appropriate to adapt the assessment or delivery arrangements so that everyone can have confidence in the outcome. And for some qualifications that signify occupational competence or award a licence to practise in safety-critical industries, assessment might need to be delayed in order to ensure public safety and meet the needs of employers.

There are many different types of qualification, awarding organisations, learner groups and assessment approaches, so the landscape is complex and it is clear that one size will not fit all circumstances.

We are working urgently with the Department for Education, awarding organisations, other regulators and the wider sector to develop and publish a clear approach for the different categories of VTQs in the coming days.

This information is for the veterinary pharmaceutical industry.

While the UK and EU negotiate additional arrangements, we will continue to engage with you at regular intervals to keep you informed of what you need to know and the actions that you will need to take.

You will be given enough time to complete these actions which will extend past the end of the transition period of 31 December 2020, by at least 1 year.

We will update you later in the year with information about the changes that may affect you.

The Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency and the President and Chair of the UKspace trade body met virtually last week to discuss the space sector’s response to Covid-19.

The UK space sector employs 42,000 people and generates an income of £14.8 billion each year, while supporting £300 billion of wider economic activity through other industries with satellite services such as navigation, communications and Earth observation. Space is part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure and has in-built resilience due to the autonomous nature of many orbital operations, the relatively low number of specialist staff required for ongoing operations, and multiple contingencies.

During the meeting the UK Space Agency and UKspace agreed to:

1. Maintain an effective flow of information between the space sector and government during the COVID-19 crisis.
2. Establish dedicated teams from the UK Space Agency and UKspace to direct companies towards the support available from government.
3. Identify any further actions that the government and trade body can take to minimise the disruption of COVID-19.
4. Broaden the engagement with space businesses beyond members of UKspace.

Graham Turnock Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency said:

While we know the UK space sector is strong and resilient, we have been engaging regularly with representatives from industry and academia to fully understand the challenges they are likely to face over the coming months.

We have agreed an initial plan of action with UKspace to ensure the whole UK space sector has access to the unprecedented package of government support already available, and are carefully considering the need for any further, more targeted measures to secure high-skilled jobs and safeguard our world-leading space capabilities.

Graham Peters, Chair of UKspace, the trade association, said:

UKspace members have an extraordinary wealth of technical and scientific expertise and many provide critical services in areas of telecommunications, position navigation and timing and Earth observation.

We are working closely with the UK Space Agency and our members to ensure critical space enabled services remain operational; to find ways our members can support the national effort to fight the virus; and in helping the government take actions that will make the sector resilient to the economic challenges so it can take advantage of future opportunities once the virus has been defeated.

There is an unprecedented package of government-backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses, making available an initial £330 billion of guarantees – equivalent to 15% of GDP.

This includes:

• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme providing government-backed loans of up to £5 million to small and medium-sized businesses.
• The Bank of England’s COVID Corporate Financing Facility will provide a quick and cost-effective way to raise working capital for those large firms who need it.

More details about business support schemes can be found at: businesssupport.gov.uk

• local authorities will be fully compensated
• part of a business rates holiday introduced from 1 April 2020

Estate agents, lettings agencies and bingo halls that have closed as a result of Covid-19 measures to restrict the spread of the virus will be now be exempted from business rates in 2020-21.

This measure comes after the Chancellor announced in the Budget that, in response to Covid-19, the business rates retail discount would be increased to 100% next year and would be expanded to the hospitality and leisure sectors.

Today the government has announced that some of the exclusions for this relief have been removed, so that retail, leisure, and hospitality properties that have closed as a result of the Covid-19 restriction measures will now be eligible for the relief.

This will ensure that estate agents, lettings agencies and bingo halls that are required to close will not pay any business rates next year.

Rishi Sunak commented:

We are determined to do whatever it takes to support businesses during Covid-19, which is why we have extended business rates relief for the high street.

Today, I am removing some the exclusions for this relief, so that retail, leisure, and hospitality properties that have closed as a result of the measures announced by the Prime Minister in his statement on Monday will now be eligible for the relief.

This will ensure that estate agents, lettings agencies and bingo halls that are required to close will not pay any business rates next year.

Eligible businesses will be rebilled by their local authority and the new bill will give them the discount of 100%.

If businesses have made payments in the meantime, they will be refunded by their local authority. We are working with local authorities to ensure new bills are issued as soon as possible.

The Devolved Administrations will receive funding under the Barnett formula to support businesses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Guidance for local authorities on the application of the holiday will be published by MHCLG shortly.

Notes

England

In England the January data shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 1.2% since December 2019. The annual price rise of 1.1% takes the average property value to £247,355.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• the West Midlands experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 0.4%
• the North East saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 2.6%
• Yorkshire and the Humber experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 3.1%
• the East of England saw the lowest annual price growth, down by 0.6%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in November 2019 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in November 2019 was in the North West.

Average price by property type for England

Funding and buyer status for England

Building status for England

*Figures for the 2 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 have fallen by 1.1% since December 2019. An annual price rise of 1.4% takes the average property value to £476,588.

Average price by property type for London

Funding and buyer status for London

Building status for London

*Figures for the 2 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 fallen by 2.9% since December 2019. An annual price rise of 2.0% takes the average property value to £161,719.

There were 58 repossession sales for Wales in November 2019.

Average price by property type for Wales

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Building status for Wales

*Figures for the 2 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

UK house prices

UK house prices increased by 1.3% in the year to January 2020, down from 1.7% in December 2019. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK fell by 1.1% between December 2019 and January 2020, compared with a fall of 0.6% during the same period a year earlier (December 2018 and January 2019).

The UK Property Transaction Statistics for January 2020 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the estimated number of transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 102,810. This is 5.2% higher than a year ago. Between December 2019 and January 2020, transactions increased by 4.1%.

House price growth was strongest in Northern Ireland where prices increased by 2.5% over the year to Quarter 4 (October to December) 2019. The lowest annual growth was in the East of England, where prices decreased by 0.6% over the year to January 2020, followed by the South East where prices fell by 0.5% over the year.

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 February 2020 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 22 April 2020. 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 statistics are 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 (April 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 April 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. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. 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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