31 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions were reduced globally in the last nine years as a result of UK intervention – the equivalent to taking 6.7 million cars off the road for a year – according to new climate finance data published today (Wednesday, 19 August).

UK International Climate Finance (ICF) investments aim to reduce poverty by helping developing countries build resilience and manage the risks of climate change. Developing countries are the hardest hit by climate change and the World Bank estimates that without intervention the impact of rising emissions could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030.

Today’s results show that since 2011, UK aid investment has:

• Provided 33 million people with improved access to clean energy, including connections to off-grid renewable energy sources, access to solar lanterns and clean cook stoves.
• Installed 2000 MW of clean energy capacity, equivalent to the capacity of 454 average sized UK offshore wind turbines.
• Helped 66 million people to cope with the effects of climate change, for example by providing training on how to grow climate-resilient crops.
• Leveraged £2.2 billion of private finance to fight climate change.

In 2021 the UK will host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, building on the success of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change internationally. The UK’s world-leading ICF investments demonstrate the Prime Minister’s commitment to help the world build back better from coronavirus by preventing deforestation, investing in climate-resilient crops and implementing early warning systems for floods.

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

As the world starts to recover from coronavirus, we have a unique opportunity to help the poorest countries build back greener from this devastating pandemic and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

UK aid is fighting climate change while lifting people out of poverty. As we prepare to host COP26, the UK will be pushing for international action to tackle these two challenges.

Through International Climate Finance, UK aid is investing in innovative solutions for tackling climate change. In Indonesia, this support has created a legally binding agreement between the Indonesian government and forest managers to prevent deforestation and provide new, sustainable jobs for local communities.

Through this programme, more than 270,000 hectares of forest – the equivalent of nearly 400,000 football pitches – have been protected.

COP26 President and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Alok Sharma, said:

As hosts of COP26, the UK is committed to tackling climate change in a manner which leaves no one behind, especially countries that need urgent support.

I am proud that our International Climate Finance scheme is part of this work, from protecting our precious forests to ensuring developing countries are supported through adaptation and resilience measures and assisted to transition to cleaner, greener energy.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• The UK’s International Climate Finance is funded by Official Development Assistance (UK aid) from DFID, BEIS and Defra.
• UK International Climate Finance (ICF) is a portfolio of investments with a goal to support international poverty eradication now and in the future, by helping developing countries manage risk and build resilience to the impacts of climate change, take up low-carbon development at scale and manage natural resources sustainably. Through annual publications the ICF sets out results from these investments against a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• The International Climate Finance results can be found here.

Home Office Minister Kevin Foster visited the Latin American Disabled People’s Project (LADPP) in Elephant & Castle, London today (18 August 2020) and saw first-hand the support being provided to help vulnerable Spanish and Portuguese speaking Europeans apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

The LADPP has helped more than 1,200 people apply to the EU Settlement Scheme already, ahead of the 30 June 2021 deadline. It is one of 24 charities in London, and 57 organisations and local authorities across the UK, being awarded up to £17 million in funding to help vulnerable EU citizens apply.

Caseworkers at the LADPP have continued to provide crucial support throughout the coronavirus pandemic to some of the most vulnerable Spanish and Portuguese speaking people in London. This includes those with low literacy and digital skills, those without a permanent address, and those who have a disability or may be elderly or isolated.

Minister for Future Borders and Immigration Kevin Foster said:

The Latin American Disabled People’s Project has been doing such vital work helping vulnerable EU citizens apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, providing support right through the pandemic.

EU citizens are an integral part of UK society which is why I’m pleased there have been more than 3.5 million grants of status already securing people’s rights in UK law.

The latest official statistics show there were 587,490 applications from just ten local authorities in London up to 31 March 2020, with the highest number of applications coming from Newham (84,950), Brent (79,660), Ealing (66,270), Haringey (57,140) and Barnet (54,270).

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, people in London have had access to a range of support either online, by email or by telephone to help them apply. Assisted digital support is also available to those EU citizens in the UK who do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to apply online.

There are also over 1,500 Home Office staff working on the EU Settlement Scheme with 250 Settlement Resolution Centre staff in place to provide assistance to applicants with any questions about the scheme or who need help applying.

Rachel Hobbs, EU Settlement Scheme Project Co-ordinator at the Latin American Disabled People’s Project said:

We have already helped more than 1,200 Spanish and Portuguese speaking EU citizens living in London apply to the EU Settlement Scheme and we continue to provide critical support to those for whom English may not be their first language.

Whilst the application process is simple and straightforward for the vast majority of people we are passionate about ensuring that those who are vulnerable or may just need a little extra help applying, get the support they need. If you are one of those people we would encourage you to get in touch.

The Home Office has run two bursts of marketing campaigns, spending £4 million across the UK to encourage EU citizens to apply.

To help raise awareness of the scheme at a local level, the Home Office has also held a series of pop-up events across the UK where staff answer questions and help people to apply in person.

In September to October 2019, and February of this year, the Home Office ran local events in nine locations across the UK, including London, Aberdeen, Great Yarmouth, Nottingham, Leeds and Birmingham.

We have also translated communication materials into 26 EU languages, including Spanish and Portuguese.

In a joint initiative with the Access to Justice Foundation, funding will be provided to not for profit organisations across the country to provide free legal support – ensuring better advice and clear guidance for those without legal representation in court. Crucially, alongside helping litigants in person to understand legal processes and their rights within them, they will also be provided with practical support throughout the duration of proceedings.

This is a key milestone in the MOJ’s Legal Support Action Plan, which is helping people resolve legal problems at the earliest opportunity.

MOJ has already awarded over £500,000 to national charities through this grant, delivering:

• an improved helpline that provides practical and emotional support to clients throughout the court process
• web-based legal advice that enables people on low incomes to access free legal advice sooner
• an online hub that offers a greater range of solutions to legal problems, including advice for remote hearings

Around £270,000 of the grant has been diverted for emergency support to several organisations providing vital expert advice to litigants in person, ensuring they can continue to offer their services during the coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Minister, Alex Chalk said:

This money will improve legal support for those representing themselves – helping them to navigate the justice system.

I am delighted to deliver this with our partners at the Access to Justice Foundation, and look forward to building similar partnerships to ensure people across the country have the necessary support.

Lord Goldsmith QC, Chair of the Access to Justice Foundation, said:

The Foundation is pleased to be working in partnership with the MOJ to deliver this new funding that will further improve the experience of vulnerable people facing the legal process alone.

The new services covered by the national funding stream will help to ensure that litigants in person have routes to free or affordable legal advice and that people in need are able to access the right type of support, at the right time.

We look forward to continuing our work with the MOJ to distribute additional grants to support a wide range of projects at a local and regional level later this year.

Martin Barnes, Chief Executive of LawWorks, said:

We are delighted to receive funding to enable us to scale up and put on a sustainable basis our new Free Legal Answers website.

The website will help enable access to initial legal advice for people on low incomes, supported by a network of referral organisations and a growing number of solicitors willing to support people in need through pro bono volunteering.

Notes to editors

• Please see our wider Legal Support Action Plan

• This new funding, known as the Legal Support for Litigants in Person programme, is split between grants for services provided at national, regional and local levels. Working closely with the charities delivering them, these different services will be collectively evaluated to build up our understanding of how they combine to provide the best support.

• The MOJ and ATJF have already awarded over £500,000 of these grants to a number of larger charities to provide new national-level services:
  • Support Through Court (STC) and RCJ Advice – who are partnering to expand STC’s national telephone helpline to include the addition of new family referral routes into RCJ Advice, as well as piloting a new remote support initiative.
  • LawWorks – who will scale up their Free Legal Answers website service, which enables people on low incomes and not eligible for legal aid to access free, initial legal advice by describing their issue, or asking direct questions.
  • Law for Life – who will add new resources to their Advicenow website to assist people to deal with a range of legal problems, as well as creating new guidance to help individuals appear in the virtual court effectively. They will also use the new funding to undertake research to expand understanding of digital and legal capability.
• Background on the organisations already funded by Legal Support for Litigants in Person:
  • Support Through Court (STC) and RCJ Advice. STC is a charity dedicated to providing free, independent assistance and emotional support to people facing proceedings without legal representation. RCJ Advice is a unique Citizens Advice service who deliver free legal advice to people who cannot afford a solicitor and need assistance with preparing, or dealing with a Civil or Family court case. RCJ Advice also provide a range of other specialist services, such as the Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors (FLOWS) project
  • LawWorks are a charity working in England and Wales to connect volunteer solicitors with people in need of legal advice, who are not eligible for legal aid and cannot afford representation, and with not-for-profit organisations who can support them.
  • Law for Life are a national public legal education charity. Their Advicenow platform already provides an online one-stop-shop for anyone experiencing legal problems in England and Wales. The website provides instant access to regularly updated resources from a range of sources, including GOV.uk, Citizens Advice, Shelter, Mencap, Age UK and specialist advice organisations.

A further £2 million of funding from the programme will be awarded to smaller not-for-profit organisations at regional and local levels in the autumn. Distribution of this funding has been moved back in order to give those organisations more time to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and put together proposals.

In the meantime, around £270,000 of the grant programme has been diverted for emergency support to a number of organisations providing vital expert advice to litigants in person, to help them deal with COVID-19 demand. Through this diverted funding, we have, so far, provided emergency funding to Citizens Advice Devon, Norfolk Community Law Services, Citizens Advice Middlesbrough and Citizens Advice North Lancashire.

This emergency funding is in addition to the MOJ’s £5.4 million cash injection for law centres and other legal advice charities to help people with housing, debt, discrimination and employment problems during the COVID-19 crisis.

The new grant will build on the more than £9 million that the MOJ has invested in support for litigants in person in the civil and family courts since 2015, through the MOJ’s existing Litigants in Person Support Strategy (LIPSS).

Dr Liam Fox has pledged that women will make up at least half of his senior leadership team if he is appointed the next Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The UK has nominated former International Trade Secretary Dr Fox to be a candidate to replace current Director General Roberto Azevedo who stepped down this month after seven years.

Dr Fox, the only elected politician in the running for the role, believes changes need to be made to attract more women into senior trade roles at the WTO. He states:

• Women’s economic empowerment through trade can only continue with widespread commitment to advancing the WTO and rules-based trading systems
• There is a need for the WTO to embrace the ‘talents, innovation and creativity’ of women to ensure it can lift another one billion people out of poverty
• Thirty years of progress is under threat from rising levels of unilateral actions and protectionism and those bearing the economic impact will disproportionately be women

Dr Fox believes securing the input of women at a senior level at the WTO will help reduce the many barriers women face in accessing trading opportunities.

He said:

As someone who trained and practised as a medical doctor I was used to half, and sometimes more, of my colleagues being female. But, despite real progress being made, women continue to face disproportionate barriers in accessing trading opportunities and markets due to discriminatory attitudes, poor conditions and harassment as well as unequal access to inputs such as credit and land.

And, as we look around us at the rising levels of unilateral actions and protectionism, we know that the remarkable achievement of the last three decades is under threat and that those bearing the brunt will be women.

Dr Fox believes the WTO and rules-based trading systems have created opportunities for women in both developed and developing countries which will be key to helping the global economy recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2016, McKinsey estimated that creating more opportunities for women to work, including in export-led sectors, could add $12 trillion to the global economy by 2025.

Dr Fox said:

What could be more counterproductive than failing to utilize the talents, innovation and creativity of half the planet’s population? Women’s economic empowerment through trade can and has played a key role in creating political stability and so the conditions for wider economic progress. This matters to all of us, wherever we are.

Currently, neither the Director General nor any of the four Deputy Director Generals at the WTO are female. The latest diversity breakdown of the WTO secretariat shows that of the 24 staff members in the most senior grades, only five were female.

Dr Fox said:

To attract more women into the architecture of trade, we need to make changes at all levels.

We need more input for women, by women if the WTO is to play its part in taking another one billion people out of extreme poverty. That is why, if I am successful in my candidacy, women will account for at least half of my senior leadership team.

England

In England, the April data shows on average, house prices have fallen by 0.3% since March 2020. The annual price rise of 2.5% takes the average property value to £250,874.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• the East of England experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 1.5%
• the South West saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 2.5%
• the East Midlands experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 4.7%
• the North East saw the lowest annual price growth, down by 2.7%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

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

The highest number of repossession sales in February 2020 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 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 have fallen by 1.6% since March 2020. An annual price rise of 2.3% takes the average property value to £480,425.

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 by 0.6% since March 2020. An annual price rise of 5.0% takes the average property value to £169,489.

There were 43 repossession sales for Wales in February 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. Therefore, the price data feeding into the March 2020 UK HPI will reflect those completions that occurred before the government measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus took hold.

UK house prices

UK house prices rose by 2.6% in the year to April 2020, down from 3.5% in March 2020. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK fell by 0.2% between March 2020 and April 2020, compared with a rise of 0.7% during the same period a year earlier (March 2019 and April 2019).

The UK Property Transactions Statistics for April 2020 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the estimated number of transactions of residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 41,960. This is 56.9% lower than a year ago. Between March 2020 and April 2020, transactions fell by 55.5%.

House price growth was strongest in Wales where prices rose by 5.0% over the year to April 2020. The highest annual growth within the English regions was in the East Midlands where average house prices grew by 4.7%. The lowest, and only negative, annual growth was in the North East, where prices fell by 2.3% over the year to April 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 May 2020 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 2 September 2020. See the 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 (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. 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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