True Cost Of Cladding Crisis As High As £50bn

The true cost of the national fire safety recladding project is 10 times higher than the Government’s allocated funding, according to one of the largest specialist contractors in the Midlands. The government has set aside £5bn for cladding remediation works but this falls woefully short of the £50bn estimate Colmore Tang Construction believes is needed to make every high-rise housing development compliant. The firm has priced remedial projects on over 20 typical developments. It found the average cost of these works to be around £4.65m for buildings above 18m and £2m for buildings between 11m and 18m, which they claim is fair reflection of typical costs across the country. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2021/04/20/true-cost-of-cladding-crisis-as-high-as-50bn/ 

Henry Boot Puts Social Housing Arm Into Liquidation

Henry Boot has put the social housing contractor it acquired last year into voluntary liquidation. Henry Boot acquired a majority stake in Starfish Commercial last August. But the business has now been placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation after not performing in line with expectations.Henry Boot said: “Whilst we have been encouraged by recent increases in activity within our construction division, which is now at over 90% of pre-Covid-19 levels, unfortunately, we have not seen the same level of recovery in Starfish. “Furthermore, there is no visibility as to when it might reach a sustainable level. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/09/15/henry-boot-puts-social-housing-arm-into-liquidation/ 

£4.6bn Paid Out To Support Wages Across Construction

The Government has paid out £4.6bn since March to support the wages of construction staff on furlough and self-employed workers laid off in the lockdown. Up to 1.48m construction staff and self-employed workers have received some kind of wages support during the coronavirus outbreak.

According to latest Government figures, so far 801,000 self-employed construction workers have received pay-outs from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, totalling over £2.8bn. Over the same period, more than 150,000 construction firms submitted claims for Government support for 680,000 furloughed staff. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/06/11/furlough-claims-for-construction-staff-reach-1-8bn/

Post-Lockdown Buyers Swap Flats For Houses

The first signs are emerging that the lockdown has impacted on the type of homes buyers now find desirable. A change in attitudes could drive a reassessment of urban scheme design and construction as tower blocks lose their appeal, warns a survey of the UK’s estate agents. South east volume house builder Weston Homes reported this week that it has already seen a wave of buyer enquiries for new homes in the Home Counties as purchasers sought to relocate from inner London. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/06/11/post-lockdown-buyers-swap-flats-for-houses/

House Building Sites Allowed To Work Longer Hours

The Government has granted house builders the all-clear to keep building sites open later to stagger workers arrival times. The move is one of a raft of measures to get the housing market back up to speed, including re-opening show homes, estate agents and letting removal firms get back up and running. A Safe Working Charter similar to that in use on major construction sites has been unveiled by the Government and the Home Builders Federation, enabling home builders to return to work safely. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/05/12/house-building-sites-allowed-to-work-longer-hours/

Redrow To Restart Work With Covid-19 Supervisors On All Sites

Redrow is the latest house builder to announce a return to work with a raft of Covid-19 protection measures on all sites. Redrow will be mobilising sites from May 11 with a phased return to construction on May 18 with “robust social distancing protocols and physical measures in place.” These include an e-learning module for all Redrow employees, induction videos for contractors, appointed Covid Supervisors for each site and enhanced signage and PPE. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/04/27/redrow-to-restart-work-with-covid-19-supervsiors-on-all-sites/

Huge Losses At Modular Firm Handed £30m Of Public Cash

A modular homes specialist granted £30m of government funding this week racked-up a pre-tax loss of £7.7m in its latest published accounts. Yorkshire based ilke Homes was handed a £30m loan by Homes England earlier this week to ramp-up production at its Knaresborough factory which opened last year. The money was announced by Housing minister Esther McVey who hailed it as a “significant step” in the creation of a “Construction Corridor” in the north of England. It is the largest investment by Homes England in a modular housing business. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/11/08/huge-losses-at-modular-firm-handed-30m-of-public-cash/

Construction Insolvencies Leap By 55% In Three Months

The number of construction firms falling into administration leapt by over half during the third quarter of the year. According to KPMG restricted access to finance, rising input prices and project delays caused by political uncertainty have started to take their toll. Administrations in the sector jumped up from 49 in the second quarter to 76 in the third quarter of this year which saw Pochin’s as one of the high profile victims. Regional contractors like the North West’s Marcus Worthington and South West’s Dribuild also went to the wall in the worsening economic climate. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/10/23/construction-insolvencies-leap-by-55-in-three-months/

Developer Commits To Zero Carbon Buildings By 2030

Property developer Great Portland Estates has committed to constructing net zero carbon buildings by 2030. The firm has also signed up to a groundbreaking Climate Change Commitment launched by members of the Better Buildings Partnership. The BBP represent 31 leading property owners who are working together to improve the sustainability of existing commercial buildings. GPE also aims to upgrade its existing portfolio of buildings to achieve a 40% reduction in energy intensity and at least a 69% reduction in carbon intensity by the 2030 target date. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/09/20/london-developer-commits-to-zero-carbon-buildings-by-2030/

Persimmon Launches Retention Scheme For Home Buyers

Persimmon is launching a ‘retention’ scheme for home buyers to protect them from construction problems. The scheme will see 1.5% of a home’s value withheld by the buyer’s solicitor until any build faults are resolved. The average amount withheld based on current selling prices will be around £3,600 per home. Persimmon lawyers are now drawing-up details of the new standard contract which is expected to be in place by the end of June. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/03/21/persimmon-launches-retention-scheme-for-home-buyers/

Just Nine ‘Fire-Risk’ Social Housing Blocks Being Reclad

According to new Government statistics mapping the extent of remedial works just one social housing block has been completed six months after the Grenfell disaster. 162 social housing buildings are fitted with combinations of aluminium composite material cladding and insulation judged to have failed the large-scale tests.  Cladding has been removed on 57 of these buildings over 18m in height. Of these, 26 buildings have had all cladding removed. Work has started on nine blocks to install replacement cladding and one building has finished the installation of replacement cladding. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Build-To-Rent Fuels 100,000 Homes Construction Boom

There are now nearly 96,000 build-to-rent homes complete, under construction and in planning, a near 40% jump on the figures for first quarter of this year. According to research by Savills for the British Property Federation, London leads the expansion with Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham catching up fast. Taken together the regional cities also now account for a larger pipeline than the Capital, where private rental schemes first took off. Contractors are also directly joining in the race to supply private rented housing with 19% of planned rooms directly developed by building firms. Read more on Construction Enquirer.

Construction Output Suffers Sharpest Fall For Five Years

The run-up to the General Election saw the largest three-month drop in construction output for five years, according to latest official figures. New figures for May showed all work output slipped by 1.2% month-on-month, driven mainly by a 4% fall in infrastructure, equating to a real value fall of £61m. The only sector to show growth was social housing, up £6% or £21m in cash terms. The Office of National Statistics three-month trend figures also slipped back 1.2%, which represented the sharpest fall for five years, albeit after a sustained period of growth. This fall was driven mainly by infrastructure and private new housing, which dropped 1.3% and 1.8% respectively. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Cladding Crisis Deepens As 181 Towers Fail Tests

The deepening national crisis has left the onus on councils and building owners to decide whether they should remove cladding rather than receiving any expert Government advice. Now the advisory body headed by Sir Ken Knight, the former government chief fire and rescue adviser, aims to set out clearer guidance for owners and the industry. The move comes as 181 tower blocks in 51 local authority areas are now known to have failed fire cladding safety tests. This new total represent a 100% of all panels tested as part of the national safety operation to identify buildings with cladding similar to Grenfell tower. Read more on Construction Enquirer.

Every Tower Block Checked So Far Fails Fire Tests

So far every sample of cladding from high-rise buildings that officials have tested has failed tests for combustibility, raising the prospect of many more mass tenant evacuations with hundreds of more buildings still to be checked. As a result of the test findings Salford Council has given the go-ahead to start removing aluminium composite cladding on nine high rise blocks in the Pendleton area of the city. The Government has also stressed that the failure in testing of the cladding would not necessarily mean that a building would have to be evacuated. Local authorities have been told to only consider evacuations where there is the most serious risk. Read more on Construction Enquirer.

Green Light For Construction Of Thousands Of New Starter Homes

The Government has given the go-ahead to 30 local authorities to spearhead its new discounted homes scheme for 23 to 40-year olds. The first Starter Homes will be built on brownfield sites across the country. The first wave of 30 local authority partnerships were selected for their potential to get housing scheme going quickly. These partnerships will have access to the government’s £1.2bn Starter Homes Land Fund. Councils will work closely with the HCA to identify and take forward further land opportunities for the fund. The first places will begin construction later this year along with sites supported by the HCA. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Chancellor Unveils Extra £2.3bn For Housing Infrastructure

Chancellor Phillip Hammond has put extra infrastructure investment at the heart of his Autumn Statement announcement. Among the new spending pledges was £2.3bn for civil engineering infrastructure work like local roads to pave the way for 100,000 new homes. A further £1.4bn will be provided to deliver 40,000 new affordable homes. Treasury documents show the Housing Infrastructure Fund will total £60m in 2017/18 rising each year to £300m and £945m before hitting £1,425m in 2020/21. The money forms part of a £23bn National Productivity Investment Fund to be spent on innovation and infrastructure over the next five years. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

German PRS Giant Plans First 500-Home UK Project

German property firm Patrizia has revealed plans to build its first private rental scheme in Manchester in the First Street regeneration area. The 500-home development will form the foundation of Patrizia’s plans for a dedicated PRS fund, building on its significant European track record in the sector, which already includes the management of 80,000 apartments worth €7bn. The firm announced it had bought the 20-acre First Street site, which includes a half-built 180,000 building, to further develop offices and residential on the remainder of the site over the next 5-7 years. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.

Labour to Build 125,000 Homes with Help to Buy ISA

Labour has unveiled plans to build 125,000 new homes over the next five years using £5bn raised from a new ISA for first-time buyers announced in last month’s budget. Income from the ISA would be channelled into a Future Homes Investment Fund, which will form a key part of Labour’s plan to raise construction levels to 200,000 a year by 2020. This will be used to pump prime investment in Housing Growth Areas – new sites where local first time buyers will get priority  –  to unlock hundreds of thousands of homes. Read more on the Construction Enquirer website.