Homes & Gardens

Typical first time buyers will need to earn £51k a year by 2020, new research by housing and homelessness charity Shelter shows. This is more than 30% more than the £38k needed for a typical first time buyer’s mortgage today. On top of this they would need a typical deposit of £47,000 to keep up with rocketing house prices in the region, which are projected to rise to £236,000 over the next four years. The research looked at the salary and deposit needed for the average first time buyer today, and calculated what they would be in 2020 if they grew in line with projected increases in house...

With just 30 per cent of all “small” electrical goods recycled in the UK, Devon County Council are acting to improve this figure as they introduce a new scheme which could reward those who choose to recycle their electronic goods.

Devon and Torbay councils have teamed up with four local waste management companies, and have been awarded funding for prize draws which will take place on 11th, 18th, 25th April and 5th May.

In each draw Devon and Torbay residents have the opportunity to win one cash prize of £200 and five cash prizes of £25.

Councillor Roger Coad, who is...

Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival returns to Powderham Castle with some of the country’s best plant specialists, gardening stars and plenty of delicious local food, craft, live music and fun.

Gardens come in all sizes and whether you have an acre or a window box, a bare square of earth or a shady spot, you can grow a beautiful garden. Let your creativity take root at Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival at Powderham Castle and soak up inspiration from amazing and colourful nurseries, demonstrations and gardening experts. Nowhere else in the South West can you find such diversity of...

Someone paying rent for an average two bedroom home in the South West would have forked out £38,137 to their landlord over the last five years, new analysis by housing and homelessness charity Shelter reveals today.

This is just under the sum needed for a 20% deposit on the average first time buyer home in the region, which is currently priced at £195,672.

With millions of renters caught in a ‘rent trap’, paying sky high housing costs and unable to keep up with rocketing house prices, the research pulls out the areas where ‘generation rent’ are forking out the most....