Published on The Little House Company on 6 August 2014 http://thelittlehousecompany.com/news/140/how_bbcs_move_to_media_city_uk_has_transformed_north In 2011 the BBC moved around 3000 of their employees from London to Media City UK in Salford, Greater Manchester. This has had an overwhelming effect on the city of Manchester in many aspects, notably employment and housing. As a freelance screenwriter who moved from Manchester to London in 2011 I couldn’t help but be slightly irked by the timing of their departure. I wondered if I was a curse, as I waved goodbye to BBC departments that could have provided me with jobs, like BBC Children's, Radio 5 live, BBC Sport, and parts of Drama and Comedy. Whilst this hasn’t helped my job prospects, it has boosted those of the people around Greater Manchester, not to mention a surge in house prices. The Guardian reports that property prices in Salford have risen by more than any other town in the UK since the start of 2014. The influx of the BBC and other broadcasters like ITV to the waterfront development seems to have sparked this. So far in 2014 the average value of a home in Salford has increased to £138,619. This is an increase of 12%...

Published on Little House Company- 13th august Selling your home can be a stressful, drawn-out affair, and when you're stressed it's easy to make silly mistakes. Here are some of the worst things you can do when you're trying to sell your home. Appearing too desperate to sell up You're selling your house for a reason. Perhaps you hate the neighbourhood, the neighbours, or it may just be time to move on. Whatever your reasons, you shouldn't give the impression that you're desperate to leave this place. Prospective buyers will question why. I visited a house in a bad area and the current occupiers were so desperate to prove that the area was safe; they claimed they don't even lock their car doors. I tried the car door... It was locked. Overselling the place If you're showing people round the house yourself make sure you don't come across as a jargon spouting sales person. People want to buy from a person, not a sales robot who's desperate to clinch the deal . Be yourself, unless you are a jargon spouting salesperson, and answer questions honestly. Give the information that you'd like to receive if the roles were reversed. They...

Published on Little House Company- 4th August Vertical gardening is ideal for maximising minimal garden space, by allowing plants to grow along an upright surface, be it a thousand foot sky-scraper or a four-foot fence. This concept has excited everyone from small-scale gardeners to leading botanists, architects and designers. In recent years, an increasing number of high-end buildings have been adorned with interior or exterior vertical gardens. Patrick Blanc is a botanist and the inventor of the vertical garden. His vertical gardens can be seen all over the world, and in London he has installed a stylish interior vertical garden in Heathrow airport. He applied his considerable skill and imagination to design and install a living wall on the exterior of The Athenaeum Hotel London. This impressive wall of vegetation provides a dynamic visual, and a stark contrast to the largely grey and clinical buildings nearby. Blanc says that creating a successful vertical garden relies on the diversity of the species used. For a hanging installation in Miami he used different species of plants for each section of the column to ensure they all grew at the same rate, despite some receiving more sun. "I use many, many different...

Whilst watching Grand Designs recently, I considered how rewarding it would be to build my dream home. Although, creating your own utopia sometimes comes at a heavy price. Here are 5 of the worst Grand Designs builds, which left their owners cursing the day they met Kevin McCloud. Thames Barge In 2007 two social workers, keen to leave their small London flat, decided to convert their 100-foot long barge, into a house. What could possibly go wrong? For starters, the appearance of the boat-house was simply weird. Large corrugated iron roofing jutted up from the barge into the air, creating quite an eyesore. Whilst this didn’t look very pretty, the couple should be praised for using recycled materials. This noble and intriguing idea seemed a little half-baked and they ended up spending £80,000 on this project. Presenter Kevin McCloud was sceptical from the onset, saying, "The project was compromised from the beginning. They were not prepared properly from the beginning and were relying on happenstance. I didn't want to do that one from the start." As the project ran into cash problems, the couple eventually abandoned it, and left the barge moored on the Thames estuary. Sadly, four years...

With dicey flat-shares pricey, low wages causing rages and the underground costing quite a pound, why do we live in London? We grumble about crowded tubes, busy streets and extortionate prices, without doing a thing about it. Even if secretly, I think we all enjoy being sucked into London’s vibrant, eclectic black-hole… but what is the actual cost of living in London? The UK minimum wage is £6.31 and many of London’s workers are on, or close to, the minimum wage. The London living wage is £8.80, which for a 40 hour a week job would give a salary of £18,304. This is before tax and when you factor in the cost of renting, bills, travel and general life, you’re not left with much. Despite this, many employees refuse to pay the London living wage. Rented property has been getting progressively more expensive, as aspiring home owners cannot afford a deposit. I write this article in my box-room of my grotty flat-share, in a grotty area, listening to my grotty flatmate repeatedly slam his door for no particular reason. For my pleasure, I pay over £450 per month, not including bills, for this inhospitable shelter. If I was on...