David Houldsworth
Lawyer, member of the Royal Company of Archers and natural countryman
David Houldsworth, lawyer. Born: 19 February, 1953. Died: 2 February, 2021, aged 67
David Henry Houlds worth was a well-respected lawyer who combined a successful career as a solicitor in Edinburgh with the custody and management of his family estate in Morayshire and gave his time freely to conservation and community causes.
Born 19 February 1953, David was the son of Ian and Clodagh and eldest of their five children. A happy early childhood living at fin la rig, ne a rf orr es, was brought abruptly to an end by the tragic death of his father from a wound he had suffered during the Second World War. Just three months later his Houldsworth grandfather also died, leaving him, aged just ten, heir to the Dallas estate and with a charming and touching sense of responsibility which he never lost.
The family moved into Dallas Lodge, a beautiful house dating back to the late 17th Century with an idyllic garden, which Clodagh made into a much loved home for her children and a place which holds many, many happy memories for them and all their friends.
David enjoyed the outdoors, was a natural countryman and developed a keen interest in the estate, its moorland, hill farms, woodland and wildlife. Under the eye of the legendary head keeper, Angus Mackinnon, he became a skilled shot and he also learned to cast a good line on the Spey at neighbouring Knockando. But it was the Dallas garden, with its attractive loch and large variety of trees and shrubs, which gave him the greatest pleasure. He developed a considerable knowledge of trees, introducing many new species which he planted himself. Latterly, he derived great satisfaction from rebuilding the dry stone walls.
David studied Scots Law at Edinburgh university and then joined the Edinburgh law firm Bro dies, where, in 1979, he qualified as a W.S. (Writer to the Sign et ). He became the partner in charge of the Estates and Agricultural section of their Private Client Department.
David always felt a very keen sense of responsibility towards the local community. overtime, this expanded to encompass several other scottish estates of which he was asked to be trustee. His interest in wildlife and conservation led to appointments as director of The Cairngorm Mountain Trust and trustee of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, the Findhorn & Lossie Rivers Trust and the recently reclaimed Japanese Gardens at Cowden. He guided each of these with his customary light touch and easy sense of humour.
David’s interest in younger people resulted in an invitation to join The Prince Philip Gordonstoun Foundation which raises and manages funds to be applied as bursaries, enabling the school to attract pupils with a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. he was chairman of the gordon stoun foundation from 2010 to 2020, chairman of the New Club in Edinburgh between 2012 and 2014 and from 1983 served as a member of The Queen’ s Body Guard for scotland, royal company of Archers.
David was married twice His first marriage to Jane Hogg ended in divorce and he later married Poppy Scholes. Poppy, with whom he shared many interests including fishing, adventurous travels and collecting contemporary Scottish art, together with their daughter Romilly, survive him.
Q AHow does the new 95% mortgage, offered by the government, work?
Ever since last week’s Budget, I’ve been inundated with questions from firsttime buyers wanting to know how they can take advantage of the announcement. Clearly there’s some pent up demand for home buying.
The thing that is getting people very excited is a new 95% mortgage guarantee scheme, offering an opportunity for those with a small deposit to get access to a range of mortgages which has all but disappeared during the pandemic.
But why has the government chosen to intervene in this part of the mortgage market? Mainly because mortgage lenders have pulled the vast majority of 95% deals over the past year – according to Which? research, the number of 95% mortgages available to firsttime buyers fell from 391 to just three. This is because people with small deposits are risky – they are charged higher interest rates (meaning higher monthly repayments) and are at greater risk of ‘negative equity’ (when your mortgage is higher than the value of your property), resulting in a higher risk of default. In uncertain economic times, lenders do not want to expose themselves to so much risk.
So the government is stepping in and taking on some of
that risk. It will guarantee the portion of the mortgage over 80% (so, with a 95% mortgage, the remaining 15%), meaning that it will compensate the lender on the proportion it has backed if you fail to pay your mortgage.
The guarantee scheme has some rule s attached. You have to be buying a property you’re going to live in, rather than let out, and the maximum
price of the property you can buy is £600,000. The deposit you put down can be no more than 9% of the value of the property you want to purchase, which can be either a new-build or an existing property.
So onto your question – will you be able to get one of these mortgages and could you find your first home and get your mortgage approved and
complete? I must say, I think this is ambitious.
The scheme is not open yet – it is due to start in April 2021, running to December next year. Major banks have already said they’ll come on board – the likes of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Natwest, Santander and Virgin Money were mentioned when the scheme was announced, so you will at least have a choice
of deals. But you’ll get an agreement in principle from a lender, which means sharing your financial details to assess the maximum loan you could get and then find a property and have an offer accepted.
You’ll then need to pass affordability checks and a credit check to secure a mortgage. The length of the legal process to purchase a property is thought to be a minimum of 10 weeks, depending on how complex your chain (all of the buyers and sellers of properties connected to your purchase). It is not uncommon for this to drag on for three or four months.
But I think trying to wrap up a purchase in two months is ambitious.
Westminster’s decision to extend the period of grace on border checks on agrifoodstuffs coming into the country from the EU was met with angry calls for a level playing field by UK producers and exporters.
They claim they have been labouring under ‘overly bureaucratic’ border checks on goods destined for Europe
NFU Scotland slammed the decision as a “serious step backwards”, stating that since the beginning of the year Scotland’s agrifood exporters had toiled with substantial and costly bureaucracy and physical inspections that had resulted in friction, delay, losses and extra costs.
“The decision to delay has been taken without progressing essential negotiations with the EU to secure agreement on equivalence on sanitary and phytosanitary trade standards.
“That is critical if we are to alleviate the problems of asymmetrical trade affecting high value Scottish goods like seed potatoes,” said union president, Martin Kennedy.
“While our exports of food and drink are facing new difficulties and costs in getting to Europe, the firms that we are often
competing with in domestic markets are continuing to get a free pass to come into this country.
"The rules that should have been applied to imports on January 1, 2021 are now going to be a year late.”
Calling on the UK government to re-think its decision Kennedy said: “The UK must quickly address its shortcomings in border control facilities and long-term arrangements that remove the legislative.
"And costly stranglehold on Scottish agri-food sector exports to the EU must be prioritised or we will simply continue handing a burden-free trading advantage to imports coming from the EU.”
English NFU president, Minette Batters said that it was highly frustrating that the government was not pressing for a level playing field for imports coming into Great Britain from the EU.
“British exporters have faced additional costs and the risk of financial losses if products were turned back or held up at the border immediately after the Brexit transition period ended on January 1.”
She said the UK government’s decision meant that EU producers would maintain access to the UK market relatively burden-free for a considerable time.
That prompted calls for a pragmatic approach to be taken on checks carried out on imports and exports as quickly as possible, in order to level the field.
Those involved in the trade said that more needed to be done to address the burdens on exporters to the EU, including the digitalisation of outdated paperwork requirements for health and organic certificates, and a streamlining of the physical and administrative checks at the border.
The British Association of Meat Processors said that the current regime had all but halted small, mixed, just-in-time deliveries of British pork chops, sausages and other meat products to supermarkets and customers in the EU and Northern Ireland.
“The new system is adding an average of 30 hours into the process; and the costs to ship these loads are now around 60 per cent higher than last year,” said the organisation’s chief executive, Nick Allen.