Rydon Contract Manager Used ‘Essex Boy Patter’ To Push Cheaper Cladding Option For Grenfell

The firm, which was revealed to have hidden the true size of potential savings on cladding to boost its own profit margin, wanted to use a cheaper “face-fixed” system rather than panels which had been cut into cassettes. But planners at Kensington and Chelsea Council favoured the cassette system because they believed it gave a smoother and more aesthetically pleasing look. “I have a gut feeling that KCTMO may go [for] the cassette fixed cladding option due to the perceived cladding risk,” wrote contract manager Simon Lawrence in an internal Rydon email. “I’m giving it my hardest sales pitch as we speak. Come on the Essex boy patter!” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/rydon-contract-manager-used-essex-boy-patter-to-push-cheaper-cladding-option-for-grenfell-67243?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Housebuyers Benefit From Profits Squeeze On Mortgage Lenders

Mortgage borrowers are benefiting from intense competition on the high street following the biggest squeeze on profit margins for two years. The Bank of England reported that in the final three months of 2017, the difference between the central bank’s base interest rate and the average mortgage rates charged to borrowers “narrowed significantly”. The last time Threadneedle Street officials reported a sharp decline in the cost of borrowing was around Christmas 2015, before the Brexit vote, as the UK enjoyed its highest sustained rate of GDP growth since the 2008 crash and demand for homes rocketed. Read more on the Guardian website.

Developers Accused Of Slowing Supply Of New Homes

Housing developers have been accused of exploiting Britain's housing crisis to make profits by deliberately slowing the supply of homes.  It has led experts to call for the Government to start directly building homes to send a signal to the industry that 'landbanking' - profiting from sitting on land while prices rise - is unacceptable.  Nearly half a million homes in England have been granted planning permission but have yet to be built - a new record. And the time it takes to complete new homes has jumped from an average of 24 weeks to 32 weeks.  Despite authorities increasing the rates of planning permission - a rise of 60 per cent since 2010 - the rate of home building has increased by just 48 per cent.  These figures come at the same time as some of Britain's biggest developers have declared record profit margins and coincides with a growing housing crisis in the UK. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Housebuilders' Profits Dominating Over Social Worth

Alister Scott, Professor of Environmental and Spatial Planning from Birmingham City University, has claimed that a "one-sided approach" to housebuilding means that potential sites are judged on the financial profits they will reap for developers, rather than on their social or environmental viability - which has led to a reduction of more expensive sites on brownfields, putting more pressure on green belt plots. The professor insists that the UK urgently needs to move away from a "fix on housing, green belt or transport in separate silos", and build "communities and places" rather than merely houses. Professor Scott was speaking in the wake of housebuilder Persimmon's call for a review of the green belt to potentially free up more land for development.  Read more on 24dash.

Housebuilder's Profits Soar on Back of Help to Buy

Britain's second biggest housebuilder has revealed a surge in annual profit after the government's Help to Buy scheme fuelled demand for new homes and helped send mortgage approvals to their highest level in almost 6½ years. Persimmon said underlying pre-tax profit jumped 49% to £330m in the year to the end of December – near the top end of City forecasts. The first few weeks of this year's crucial spring selling season went well, it added. The company said sale completions rose by 16% to 11,528 and the average selling price increased 4% to £181,861. Forward sales, which are agreed but not completed, were up 41% to £1.4bn. Read more on the Guardian website.

'Help To Buy' Will Boost Banks and Builders' Profits

George Osborne's flagship home ownership programme Help to Buy will fail to see new homes being built but help boost banks' and builders' profit margins, Fitch Ratings agency has warned.  Banks would be set to benefit from the extra home loans being offered while builders will prosper on the higher house prices brought about by an inflated housing market, as supply fails to satisfy demand. "For house builders the main benefit from the second phase of the scheme will come from rising house prices, rather than increased volumes," said Fitch Ratings.  "Builders also might prefer to avoid sharply increasing construction because of the risk that they may not be able to sell the properties when they are completed in two years' time.  The risk was offset by Help to Buy's three-year duration, Fitch added.  Read more on the Huffington Post website.