Building firms are being urged to carry on asking their workforce to wear masks while working in enclosed spaces or on busy sites by the Construction Leadership Council, CLC. The CLC is calling for a consistent approach in line with government guidance as rules on social distancing and face masks relax from the 19th of July. “It is recommended the good practices the industry had adopted over the last 18 months are retained,” said the CLC in their public statement [...]

Birmingham is to make the most of the £700m investment in Perry Barry for the 2022 games, which includes a revamp of Alexander stadium, with ambitious plans to regenerate the district. The masterplan covers the next two decades and includes building 5,000 new homes, enhancing the suburb’s parks and improving transport connections. City council leader Cllr Ian Ward said: “For many years there has been a clear need and ambition to unlock the obvious untapped potential of Perry Barr, but [...]

Up to 46,000 new homes in the capital could be delivered by Transport for London’s new property development company over the next 25 years. The proposals for Transport Trading Limited Properties, TTLP, were outlined at TfL’s finance committee meeting last month and form part of its bailout settlement with the government. TfL director of commercial property Graeme Craig said: “As part of our long-term strategy, and building on the successful work that has already taken place in recent years, we [...]

UK property developers may have to adjust schedules and pricing to adapt to the lack of supplies to complete projects, advises Construction Leadership Council, CLC, co-chair Andy Mitchell. In an open letter to the industry, he points out that most contracts such as JCT and NEC 4 Secondary X1 have provisions to deal with fluctuations of provisions. “We have been fortunate enough to operate in a stable environment for a long time and these clauses have been seldom used. “However, [...]

A new inquiry studying housing demand will include looking at the part smaller builders can play in innovation and developing difficult sites. The house of lords’ built environment committee will see how smaller builders can be encouraged back to the supply point. Cross-party committee chair Baroness Neville-Rolfe told Housing Today: “You get some innovation and vibrancy and they do things that perhaps a bigger builder would not do. Historically there’s quite a lot of smaller builders who have fallen by [...]

Office demand in the South East is picking up thanks to large corporates signing up for significant amounts of space, reports property agent Savills. It said offices showed a strong end to the year up to the first quarter thanks to companies such as Amazon and InterContinental Hotels signing up for significant workspace in Reading and Windsor. Commercial research director Steven Lang said: “Despite the pandemic impacting negatively on the sentiment towards the office market, it is fascinating to see [...]

University towns like Oxford, Cambridge and Canterbury are predicted to see their best house sale volumes in the coming months despite the demise of the stamp duty tax holiday. Knight Frank research, from 1995 to 2019, shows Oxford experiencing the largest volume of its sales from July to September with nearly 31 per cent occurring over this period. Cambridge has a similarly high level of completions with 30 per cent occurring with Canterbury also experiencing strong figures at 29 per [...]

Labour MPs have tabled a debate motion and vote this afternoon in a move to gain cross-party support for watering down the government’s forthcoming planning bill. The new bill is expected to follow the Planning for the Future white paper published last year where land would be earmarked for either growth or development. Shadow communities and local government secretary Steve Reed said: “Good development can only happen when developers and communities work together.” Currently, residents can raise their concerns about [...]

Average earnings on London building sites showed a 4.5 per cent month-on-month increase in May to £885 a week, according to construction payroll data from Hudson Contract. The firm is the UK’s largest payer of freelance site workers with more than 2,500 companies across England and Wales on its books. Managing director Ian Anfield attributed wage inflation in the capital to a reduction in migrant EU labour. “We are starting to see the impact of people leaving the UK ahead [...]

Housebuilders will have to offer effective aftercare service on new homes to iron out snagging problems in a new draft code on quality out for consultation this month. The code requires builders to offer greater consumer protection to new home buyers from when they walk into a sales office through to two years after occupation. New homes quality board, NHQB, chair Natalie Elphicke MP said: “This is a major milestone in our work to introduce a new and comprehensive framework [...]

Easier access to the best design from across the world is to be available via a new architects’ recognition system, the government has announced. The new initiative will allow architects with certain international qualifications to join the UK register administered by regulator the Architects Registration Board, ARB. The National Federation of Builders housing and planning policy head Rico Wojtulewicz described the move as extremely useful. “We should always be ensuring the best talent can work in the UK and international recognition [...]

The average UK property price has reached a record high of £261,743 with Wales the strongest performing region according to Halifax’s house price index for May. Annual growth surged to 9.5 per cent, meaning the average UK home has increased in value by more than £22,000 over the last 12 months. Halifax managing director Russell Galley said the market was continuing to be buoyed by the current stamp duty holiday with prospective buyers racing to complete before June’s deadline. “The [...]