Home improvement applications dwindle, but extensions hold up

London has seen "a normalisation of single-storey basements as the 21st-century version of the loft conversion," says Professor Burrows in a new study of the capital's "luxified troglodytism".

'In some cases, the scale of flooding or coastal change may be so significant [that it] may mean potentially moving communities out of harm’s way in the longer term'

Commutability and community remain the key factors for home-buyers in the UK, says Strutt & Parker, after quizzing some 2,000 people about what they want from their next home and how they want to live …