Stolen house sales, Air fryers, Energy efficiency standards
The criminals setting up as estate agents to sell the homes of complete strangers? Are air fryers still worth the investment? Energy efficiency in privately rented properties.
We return to the extraordinary story of how criminals are trying to use whatever means possible to sell the homes of complete strangers. Our reporter, Shari Vahl, reveals how some criminals are setting up as estate agents to sell houses, without any checks on whether they're legitimate. It's a legal requirement for estate agents to register with one of the two government authorised schemes - the Property Redress Scheme (PRS) or the Property Ombudsman. We uncover how these two official bodies, aren't doing any checks on those registering with their schemes.
There's been a lot of hype around air fryers for some time now. They're seen as a healthy, cost effective way to get the same results you'd see in a deep fat fryer or a conventional oven. Sales continue to soar with more people investing in them to bring down their energy bills during the cost of living crisis. We speak to home cook, Clare Andrews, who set up an Instagram account, AirFryerUK, after being given an air fryer during the 2020 lockdown. Her first cookbook, The Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook, comes out next week. We also hear from Dr Christian Reynolds from the Centre for Food Policy at City University in London.
We ask whether Government plans to raise minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rental sector in England and Wales have been abandoned. The plan was to bring in new targets, making it compulsory for all new tenancies to have an energy performance rating of at least a C by 2025. We speak to Richard Blanco of the National Residential Landlords Association about the 2025 deadline and if it's still realistic for landlords to make the necessary improvements to their properties in time.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes