Some 85 per cent of people surveyed by Norwich & Peterborough Building Society last year revealed that they have considered having a house
Posted in General on 13. Oct, 2010
Some 85 per cent of people surveyed by Norwich & Peterborough Building Society last year revealed that they have considered having a house built to their own specifications. But the number who act on this dream is likely to be much lower, given the scale of the task.If you are considering self-build, coming up with a budget and sticking to it is as important as finding the right plot of land and gaining planning permission. Buying the plot will blow a big hole in the budget and you still have to pay an architect to draw up your plans – and ensure that you can afford their vision.”The main complaint among self-builders is that plans drawn up are not buildable for the initial budget – something that often does not come to light until the quotations start coming in,” warns Mark Brinkley at Homebuilding & Renovating magazine.Remortgaging your existing property to fund a new one is unlikely to be feasible as you may well need to sell your home and rent while the building work is carried out. There are plenty of self-build home loans available, through such lenders as Nationwide and Britannia, though most advance just 75 per cent of the total amount.A self-build mortgage will enable you to buy the land but you may be required to complete the next stage, such as the foundations, before more cash is released. “This can come as quite a surprise to self-builders, and they might have to raise some extra capital,” says Mr Hollingworth.The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show is at Birmingham’s NEC, 13-16 March, 10am-5pm. For free tickets, go to co.uk/national_f.htmlTips for self-building and renovating Set your budget. Set out a schedule and do your best to keep to it while being prepared to be flexible.
There will be problems with the weather and with suppliers letting you down Keep contractors informed.Quality control. David Bowie is being sued for £6m by the estate of the late record producer Gus Dudgeon, which claims royalties owed for the chart-topping Space Oddity have not been paid for over 30 years. Lawyers have been instructed to serve a High Court writ after failing to settle the matter amicably. “We are being instructed by the estate of Gus Dudgeon to pursue his claim to royalties with the utmost vigour,” he said. “It’s our aim to file the writ against Mr Bowie and all other interested parties within the next few weeks.”Space Oddity, which was recorded in one day at Trident Studios in London in 1969, is credited with launching Bowie’s career, reaching number five in the charts after the BBC used it during the coverage of the first moon landing. A re-released version made it to number one in 1975.Lawyers for the estate allege Dudgeon was only paid a £250 advance for producing the record, but claim he was promised 2 per cent of future royalties.
With interest and damages, they now estimate he would be entitled to some £6m.Dudgeon, who also produced ” Your Song” which catapulted Elton John to fame as well as his classic Seventies output such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, was considering legal action in the weeks before his death. He said: “When I started producing in the Sixties I was very green. It was only when I started seeing decent royalties rolling in from my Elton records that I realised the true value of that track.”But his cause has since been taken up by royalties investigator David Morgan.”There’s a lot of money involved and they are still using his name. David Bowie owns all his own recordings and it’s our understanding that producer liabilities stay with the owner of the copyright,” Mr Morgan said.This is disputed by RZO Companies, Bowie’s New York-based business managers. In a letter to Mr Morgan, RZO’s Henry Wrenn-Meleck states: “We see no basis on which David Bowie is liable to Gus Dudgeon or any other party for producer royalties.”Bowie became the first music star to raise money on the financial markets when he “securitised” his future royalty stream: his “Bowie Bonds” brought an advance of $55m (£37m) against earnings from his back catalogue.. It says everything about cross-channel culture clashes. The late Serge Gainsbourg, a musical situationist who could switch from jazz to reggae to pop erotique and once told Whitney Houston, “I want to fuck you” live on French TV, is known in the UK – if at all – for three minutes of panting noises on his 1969 hit “Je T’aime.. Moi Non Plus”
It says everything about cross-channel culture clashes.
Moi Non Plus”.
His partner on that record was Jane Birkin, acclaimed in France as a singer, an actress, a gap-toothed cultural ambassador nicknamed “L’Anglaise”. Here she’s best remembered for her part in Antonioni’s Blow Up, romping in the buff with David Hemmings.At that time, in the mid-Sixties, Birkin was married to Bond film score composer and notorious womaniser John Barry. A few years later, just out of her teens, she married Gainsbourg, who was on the rebound from Brigitte Bardot. It’s hardly surprising that she seems to have spent most of her life in someone else’s shadow.