The Intermediary

Rochdale Football Club has appointed Financial Solutions as its official financial solutions partner. The mortgage and protection advice specialist’s branding will appear around the Crown Oil Arena. A branded ball plinth will be used at Saturday’s home match against Gillingham, with the referee collecting the match ball from it before kick-off. Season ticket holders will also have access to free, no-obligation mortgage and protection advice from Financial Solutions.

The average UK landlord portfolio generates £88,454 a year in gross rental income, according to analysis from Rushbrook. Data showed that the average landlord currently owns 7.3 properties worth a combined £1.7m. Both figures were unchanged from the previous year. Annual rental income per property rose by 22.9%, from £9,860 to £12,117 in the first quarter of 2026. This pushed income across the average portfolio up by £16,476, from £71,978 to £88,454 a year.

Ayrshire Housing has appointed Gavin Johnston as property director to oversee planned investment in its housing stock. Johnston joins from Built Environment – Smarter Transformation, which works with organisations across the construction sector. He has an architectural background and experience in social housing.

Home insurers paid £72m for domestic subsidence claims in the second quarter of 2026, according to the property insurance tracker from the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The average subsidence payout reached a record £20,000, more than £2,000 higher than during the same period in 2025. The figures followed the warmest spring on record in England and Wales and the third warmest across the UK. Prolonged dry weather increased the risk of soil shrinking, ground movement and property damage.

Formal complaints to the New Homes Ombudsman Service (NHOS) rose by 204% from 593 in 2024/25 to 1,802 in 2025/26, according to its annual report. The number of final decisions increased by 236%, while the proportion upheld in favour of homeowners rose from 78% to 82%. Compensation awarded increased by 221%, from almost £67,000 to nearly £215,000. Cases settled through early resolution rose from 186 to 575.

Skipton International has appointed Jo Phillips (pictured) as senior mortgage sales manager. Phillips brings more than 30 years of financial services experience, having worked in mortgage, client service, relationship management and leadership roles across Jersey, Dubai, London and Southampton. She was previously mortgage market lead at a retail bank in Jersey, where she worked with mortgage intermediaries and high-net-worth clients.

There was plenty to take from Andy Burnham’s first major statement to the House of Commons as Prime Minister at the start of the month, but one commitment which should be particularly interesting to those of us working in the housing and mortgage markets was the insistence his Government would “meet the climate challenge”.

Almost half of consumer County Court Judgments (CCJs) issued during the first quarter of 2026 were for less than £500, analysis from Checkmyfile has found. Some 45% of consumer judgments were worth less than £500, while 13% were for more than £3,000. The median consumer judgment stood at £607, while £283 was the most common judgment value, with 7,721 registered for exactly that amount. Checkmyfile’s analysis also found an increase in the proportion of lower-value judgments over recent years.

UK construction output dropped at a faster rate in August as residential building activity declined, according to S&P Global’s Construction PMI. The headline index fell from 44.7 in July to 44.3 in August, remaining below the neutral 50 mark for the 20th month in a row. Residential work recorded the sharpest fall, with its index dropping to 37.6. Commercial construction stood at 47.8, while civil engineering registered 40.5. New orders fell at the slowest rate since September 2025.

A little more than half (56%) of advisers use technology to help them evidence, and comply with, Consumer Duty, research from Dorsum and the lang cat found. The findings come as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) continues its supervision exercise into Consumer Duty, which has already resulted in several investigations into firms.