Industry unconvinced deadline for better water treatment will boost housebuilding Housebuilders are sceptical that pressure on water companies to get their treatment works up to scratch will unlock homes in areas where river nutrients are high. Last week environment secretary Steve Barclay announced water companies operating in 16 sensitive catchment areas would have to meet specified nutrient removal standards by April 2030. Home Builders Federation’s communications director Steve Turner said: “The notice is important as it requires local authorities, and [...]

Solar panels on the roofs of all new homes will add millions to the cost of housing developments, warns the National Federation of Builders. The trade body is unhappy with a proposal that they could become mandatory under the Future Homes and Building Standards consultation released this week. NFB head of policy and market insight Rico Wojtulewicz said: “They’ve pushed photovoltaic panels as a great thing, but they aren’t if they’re merely an add-on and the environment for delivery is [...]

Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to build the “foundations for a better future” in the King’s speech failed to mention addressing the country’s decline in housebuilding.  The construction industry was dissatisfied the speech omitted legislation to overhaul nutrient pollution laws estimated to be holding up 150,000 new homes in river catchment areas.  Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry said: “It is disappointing that there was nothing of note to address the alarming decline in housebuilding rates across the [...]

The government’s amendment to ease nutrient neutrality rules for rivers in sensitive areas was rejected in the House of Lords with 192 peers voting against versus 161 in favour. Baroness Willis of Summertown said the Homebuilders Federation’s claim that urban development counted for less than five per nutrient loading was out of date. She said an updated Defra, department for food and rural affairs, report showed that sewage effluent was responsible for closer to 30 per cent of river nutrients [...]

Repair work to soar in wake of RAAC crisis Builders could be overwhelmed with repair work to schools, hospitals, theatres, and other unsafe public buildings due to failing RAAC panels. Earlier this week the government revealed 156 schools contained reinforced autoclave aerated concrete, RAAC, of which 104 required urgent action with 52 already repaired. The Federation of Master Builders, FMB, chief executive Brian Berry said: “Local builders may struggle to cater for the scale of the issue facing schools, as [...]

Construction products could be withdrawn from the country within two years if the government forces all building products to be UK conformity assessed by the 30th of June 2025. The Construction Leadership Council, CLC, co-chaired by business and industry minister Kemi Badenoch, warned there is insufficient testing capacity for the UK mark to go live by then. “We will continue to make the case that there should be a consistent approach across all industry sectors and products to CE mark [...]

Giving Homes England the power to acquire land, masterplan and grant planning approval offers a glimmer of hope for scaling up housing delivery. Housing and levelling up secretary Michael Gove’s speech earlier this week focused on elevating the government agency’s role to one similar of the development corporations of the 80s. He was critical of London’s mayor Sadiq Khan’s failure to build the 52,000 new homes a year which the capital needs. “We’re planning to intervene using all the arms [...]

A major scaling up of custom and self-build homes has failed to materialise due to insufficient publicity and available land, claims Conservative MP Richard Bacon. He is disappointed at the lack of progress since the 2016 housing and planning act where the government pledged to double the number of self-commissioned homes over two years. “Too many local authorities are yet to fully engage with the benefits to them and their communities of enabling more of this approach to housing delivery. [...]

The construction industry has breathed a sigh of relief that political pressure to make the installation of solar panels on all new-build homes has been rejected. Net-zero and energy security secretary Grant Shapps rejected calls by Conservative MP and environmental audit committee chair Philip Dunne for photovoltaic cells to be fitted as standard. Mr Shapps said it was up to developers to find the “most appropriate and cost-effective solutions” for making new homes energy efficient. The National Federation of Builders, [...]

The UK’s focus on increasing habitats for wildlife could hinder housebuilding on smaller sites warns the National Federation of Builders, NFB. The trade body is concerned that rules which go live in November to increase biodiversity net gain, BNG, by ten per cent on all new housing developments will prove tricky for small sites. NFB chief executive Richard Beresford said: “The UK’s biodiversity strategy is one focused on habitats, rather than biodiversity.” The trade body warns that this means smaller [...]