National Approved Letting Scheme Appoints Private Rented Sector PR Specialist

September 28th, 2009 LONDON - The announcement of a national scheme for Scotland to protect tenants' deposits and provide Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Private Rented Sector has been welcomed by The Tenancy Deposit Scheme, TDS. The Scheme has offered to provide assistance wherever it can.

September 14th, 2009 LONDON - With the licensing of both letting agents and landlords rapidly climbing up the housing agenda, NALS, the National Approved Letting Scheme, will offer licensing to all its existing registered letting offices from this week. This moves follows extensive consultation throughout the summer on a framework for statutory licensing drafted by NALS.

September 14th, 2009 LONDON - 2008-09, the second year of operation since mandatory deposit protection was introduced into the private rented sector, was a successful year for the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). The number of tenancies registered nearly doubled, rising from 470,323 to 786,405.

September 2nd, 2009 LONDON - The rental market is on the move again. However, this is the time when landlords are most at risk from defaulting tenants as, although performance indicators, including housing, show upswings, unemployment is still expected to rise for the foreseeable future.

July 22nd, 2009 BOURNEMOUTH, England - - First Foreign Olympic Monies Into UK The Weymouth office of the UK's largest dedicated letting agency, Martin & Co is among the first businesses to directly benefit from foreign revenues as a direct result of the Olympics - some three years before the event itself! The Canadian Sailing Team has just rented a four bedroom house, complete with swimming pool, through Martin & Co in order to accommodate its team members as they train in waters close to the actual sailing course. Martin and Co's local franchise owner David James said, "We were pleasantly surprised to receive the enquiry from Canada, and it certainly proves that our international connections are paying dividends.

June 17th, 2009 LONDON - Ealing Council is proposing to give a one-off 'Value For Money Premium' cash handout to every home in the borough as part of a GBP6 million-plus package to fight the recession. Under plans, more than 122,000 council tax households in the borough will be given GBP50 cash back, costing the council more than GBP 6.1 million.

June 7th, 2009 MILTON KEYNES, England - Even the greenest of businesses are unlikely to be able to make informed choices about the energy efficiency of the premises they buy or rent right now, according to new research published today by National Energy Services (NES). In a mystery shopping exercise to check on compliance with European and UK law relating to the energy efficiency of buildings in the commercial property sector, NES discovered that more than 80% of agents it spoke to were unable to provide the mandatory Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the offices or shops they were marketing for sale or rent.

April 6th, 2009 BOURNEMOUTH, England - In the wake of a number of cases of end-of-tenancy disputes and even the fraudulent misappropriation of deposits held on some letting agencies' client account, the Managing Director of the UK's largest dedicated letting agency has hit out at the Government's failure to go further in legislation covering the security of tenants deposits. Ian Wilson, MD of Martin & Co, which has over 160 letting offices nationally, said that many landlords and, shockingly, letting agencies still hold deposit monies themselves without complying with the Tenancy Deposit Protection regulations.

March 30th, 2009 LONDON - At the approach of the second anniversary of mandatory tenancy deposit protection next week (on Monday April 6), the Tenancy Deposit Scheme reports that it is protecting over GBP800 million pounds in tenants deposits, an increase of a quarter of a billion pounds in less than 12 months. These deposits cover against damage and dilapidations in over 800,000 tenancies housing 1.25 million tenants.

March 17th, 2009 LONDON - Stafford Hospital is a classic case of the government's 'flawed' privatisation agenda for the NHS, Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Wednesday, 18 March). The hospital, run by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where more than 400 people are said to have died over a three year period - an above average figure - is 'an example of what happens when the target obsessed privatisation culture takes hold'.

May 6th, 2009 BHOPAL - Private telecom player Tata Indicom has adopted a white tiger and a panther at the Van Vihar National Park here under the park's 'Adopt an Animal Scheme', park officials said Wednesday. 'Earlier, the company had adopted a lion at the park.

June 5th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday criticised the Manmohan Singh government for remaining silent on the issue of quotas for Dalits in the private sector in President Pratibha Patil's address to the joint sitting of parliament Thursday. In a statement read out on her behalf by cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh here, Mayawati asked why the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government "had not cared to pay any heed to the much needed job quota for Dalits in the private sector".

May 5th, 2009 New Swiss Guard chief open to letting women serveVATICAN CITY — The new commander of the Swiss Guards says he'd be open to letting women serve in the papal security corps. In an interview with private Mediaset television Tuesday, Col.

September 3rd, 2009 Gentiva Health appoints 3 independent directorsATLANTA — Home health services provider Gentiva Health Services Inc. said Thursday it named three independent directors to its board.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's textile industry was hit hard by the global slowdown last year, with the handloom and powerloom production declining 3.8 and 3.2 percent respectively, a union minister said Wednesday. According to the provisional data available, production in the handloom sector in 2008-09 stood at 6,677 million square metres, as compared to 6,947 million square metres the year before, Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi told the Rajya Sabha.

June 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The midday meal scheme for primary students of government schools may soon include a processed food item if a proposal for this is approved, Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay said Tuesday. "If the promise of quality and nutrition is to be kept, then a packaged food item must be bundled with the midday meal, Sahay told reporters on the sidelines of a conference at the PHD Chamber of Commerce and industry here Tuesday.

July 23rd, 2009 Peabody appoints Robert Malone to boardST. LOUIS — Peabody Energy Corp.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - In order to empower panchayats and have transparent and efficient accountability systems, the government has proposed to expand the Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS) by making suitable allocations. 'EAIS is an existing scheme under the central sector plan which has been recognized as a powerful instrument to incentivise states to devolve funds, functions and functionaries and set up an institutional framework for such devolution,' said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the interim budget in Lok Sabha Monday.

June 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is "strongly considering" to allow commercial coal mining by private companies in a bid to bridge the demand-supply gap, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said Monday. "We are strongly considering to allow commercial coal mining by private firms," Jaiswal told reporters here.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced a new scheme 'Izzat' in the Railway Budget for 2009-10. Under the scheme, a uniformally priced monthly season ticket of Rs.