Spectator Life

One of the most striking features of the second Covid summer has been the soaring prices of holiday cottages. How dare the owners of static homes in the vicinity of the coast be charging quite so much for the uneven pleasures of a week in a caravan park? Well, get used to it because as Britain’s population continues to soar – we’re on track to hit 75 million in the next two decades –pressure on property and prices is only going to increase. As Mark Twain remarked: ‘Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.’ All right, you say, we’ll go abroad instead, plus the weather’s better over there. Well good luck with that, too.

As MPs and peers vacated the Houses of Parliament for their summer holidays last week, we take a look at five homes for sale with political links. Where Pitt stoppedImage: Knight Frank A bronze plaque on the front of Pitt House, a grand Georgian property in Bath, informs visitors of its famous former resident. William Pitt the Younger made the townhouse his home in 1802, the year after the first of his two stints as prime minister came to an end with his resignation. Built a decade earlier, the residence was designed by Thomas Baldwin, the architect of many of the city’s most impressive buildings. Its connection to the country’s youngest prime minister is not the property’s only political pedigree: it later served as the offices of Bath Conservative Association.

The word Powys is not filled with onomatopoeic potential and, to the English ear at least, doesn't conjure up a particular image. And yet the region has a dizzying lineage, one that stretches back to antiquity. In the fifth century, the Romans scarcely off the stage, Powys was ruled one of the last kings of the Britons named Vortigern – that’s according to the Venerable Bede not the comedically venerable Monty Python. Later still Powys was ruled by Brochwel Ysgrithrog (‘the fanged’ or ‘of the tusk’) and did battle with the Saxons before Alfred the Great had even been born – let alone burned his fingers on a cake. It thus qualifies as one of the most ancient place names in Britain – predating the Saxon era.

Monday promised to be a significant day for those living in high rises across England. The Building Safety Bill, which has been sold by the government as the biggest change to building safety in a generation, was published in its final form before it goes through parliament. Introduced more than four years after the Grenfell fire killed 72 people, the Bill is aimed at ensuring a similar catastrophe never happens again. But will it succeed? The 208-page document includes wide-ranging measures that will overhaul building safety regulation exposed as wholly inadequate by Grenfell, as well as significantly change the way in which high-rise buildings are designed, built, managed and lived in.

You don't need me to tell you that the property market has experienced a surge over the last year. The stamp duty holiday encouraged many to buy now rather than later, working from home has opened our eyes to living in areas with more natural amenities on the doorstep and we’ve realised that if we do only have to go into the office three rather than five days a week, a longer commute is tolerable. But for how long can the bubble continue? Whilst there’s plenty of speculation over how long this current boom will last, here’s my guide on determining whether you should take the plunge right now or hold fire. Don't panic buy Do you already own a home?

The debate over whether we will end up going back to the office five days a week is likely to rumble on for the coming years. Desperate employers worried that the genie is out of the bottle are battling with those of us who happen to get more done when we aren’t distracted by gossiping at the water cooler. And it’s not just anecdotal either. According to research undertaken by Close Brothers, 39 per cent of Londoners are thinking of moving to achieve a better quality of life. So where should you move if lifestyle is driving your decision? Surrey has often been touted in times gone by as the first county to consider. Close enough to the big smoke to commute, it's also far enough away to ensure rolling hills and to warrant the hassle and cost of a move.

There comes a point in every metropolitan potentate’s journey from London to Edinburgh, when he or she looks up from their laptop in First Class and gazes from the window of the train. At this point, they suddenly realise that whatever’s been absorbing their interest for the last hour or two, is completely irrelevant. Chances are they are gazing out at some of the 60 or so miles of Northumberland that the doubtlessly ageing LNER rolling-stock is careening through at 100 miles per hour.

Our attention turns to all things literary this week after the return of the Hay Festival. It comes during a bumper year for book sales, when lockdown encouraged many of us to read more and escape our repetitive reality for fictional worlds. But what of the authors' own abodes? Here we look at five homes for sale with links to literary greats. Agatha Christie - Winterbrook House The Queen of Crime bought this five-bedroom house in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan in 1934 and lived there until her death in 1976, taking inspiration for her popular detective fiction from her surroundings.

House prices are increasing at their fastest rate for seven years, jumping by as much as 10.9 per cent according to the Nationwide in their most recent survey. Is now the time to stay put and extend rather than go through the hassle of moving into a supply constrained rising market? And if you do extend, is it guaranteed that you’ll add value? Adding an annex or a loft extension, according to Shawbrook Bank, a home improvement loan provider, indicates that you’ll add 5 per cent to the value of a home and separate research by Nationwide suggests that 20 per cent of the value can be added if you build in a double bedroom and en-suite bathroom.

When Julia Riley ran her Somerset home as a B&B prior to the Covid pandemic a few guests booked in not for her Tripadvisor-recommended breakfast or a peaceful night’s sleep, but because of the Georgian property’s literary connection. Coxley House is the former home of David Cornwell, better known as the spy novelist John le Carré. 'We had one or two people coming because they were keen on him,' says Riley. 'They wanted to know which bedroom he slept in and things like that but, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure, so I invariably told them it was the one they were sleeping in because it was the easiest answer.

Is there any television programme as cruel as Grand Designs? At least Jeux Sans Frontieres only offered 15 minutes of humiliation at a time. Grand Designs, by contrast, offers a lifetime’s worth, often with bankruptcy and divorce thrown in. But none have come quite such a cropper as Edward Short who, in 2008, paid £1 million for a building plot on the North Devon coast and has spent the past 13 years – as well as a further £6 million – trying to turn it into a lighthouse-inspired luxury home with infinity pool, home cinema and sauna. What stands there at the moment, however, looks more like the remains of Chernobyl nuclear power station.