UK Construction Excellence August 2018

AUGUST 2018

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The Rural Housing Crisis: the problem and solutions

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HOUSEBUILDING PLEDGE UNDER THREAT

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HOMES FIT FOR BRITS

WELCOME to the latest edition of UK

“million new homes” to be built was the

we look at in more detail with Mark

first headline statistic to come out of the

Farmer himself on page 18) many

crisis, this was rapidly amped up, with

companies are hailing the use of offsite

talked about topic, from construction

more and more new homes added with

manufacturing as the answer – and the

managers, to house builders,

every ministerial change.

government’s new Construction Sector

Construction Excellence.

The housing crisis is a much

government ministers to first-time

However, many in the sector are

buyers, and build-to-renters; in this

questioning the government’s mettle;

to answer the housing conundrum. In

edition, UKCE takes a look at the issues

seeing the appointment of Kit Malthouse

this issue we speak to experts in the

plaguing the housing industry and what

MP as the 17th Housing Minister in less

industry to see what changes can fix

the possible solutions are.

than 20 years as an indication of where

the problem.

The government is pushing housing higher and higher up its agenda: a

Deal, certainly puts it at the forefront

Victoria Maggiani

government focus truly lies.

Following the Farmer Report (which

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DRIVING PERFORMANCE IN HOUSEBUILDING THROUGH TECHNICAL INNOVATION

SPEAKING VOLUMES ABOUT THE WAY AHEAD FOR CONSTRUCTION

Publications Editor Vicky Maggiani

36 300,000 NEW HOMES A YEAR: AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL?

Head of Content & Client Services Sandra Peet

Designer Seamus Norton

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NEWS

NATIONAL WINNERS REVEALED AT NHBC HEALTH AND SAFETY AWARDS

EIB DEAL SEES AFFORDABLE HOMES BOOST FOR SCOTLAND Thousands of affordable homes have been secured for Scotland through a funding deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Wheatley Group has secured some £185M in funding in a landmark deal that will see new homes constructed and the improvement of thousands of existing properties.

The deal was announced at a community event in Glasgow by EIB Vice President Jonathan Taylor with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP and tenants, staff and apprentices from across Wheatley, along with local politicians and business, community and social housing leaders in attendance. It is the largest loan EIB has made to a Scottish business, and brings the amount of funding raised by Wheatley to £800M over the last four years.

Wheatley is progressing an ambitious building programme from 2015 through to 2025, which will see some 7,500 affordable new homes constructed from Balloch and Dumbarton through Glasgow, West Lothian and Edinburgh to North Berwick.

Wheatley has also committed to investing £400M into affordable housing over the next three years.

This also includes refurbishing existing homes to meet new Scottish and EU energy-efficiency standards, helping tenants cut energy bills, and housing and integrating refugees into Wheatley communities.

Jonathan Taylor, EIB Vice President,

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said: “New investment in social housing is crucial to increase the number of affordable homes and cut heating bills in existing properties. The European Investment Bank supports social housing investment with leading housing associations across Europe and is pleased to back transformational investment here in Scotland by Wheatley, the largest housing association in Scotland and the largest builder of new social housing in the UK.” Wheatley has completed almost 1,900 homes over the last three years and is building or planning up to 3,000 more on 60 sites across Scotland. The new £185M EIB loan, along with future investments, will enable Wheatley to maintain a building programme of around 650 homes a year from 2021 to early 2025.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Ensuring people have access to quality housing is a fundamental part of building a fair and equal society. That is why we have committed to deliver at least 50,000 new affordable homes in the five years to 2021.

“Wheatley Group is vital in helping us achieve that, having delivered almost 1,900 new affordable homes across Scotland over the past three years and the additional funding from the European Investment Bank will help them build on this. It is also another reminder of how Scotland benefits from the EU and its institutions.”

The best site managers in UK housebuilding have been commended by the NHBC for their commitment to health and safety best practice.

At the NHBC Health and Safety Awards in Birmingham, seven site managers received National Winner and Runner-up accolades in recognition of their outstanding contribution to health and safety management – from preliminary risk assessment right the way through to implementation on-site.

Among the award winners was Jeff Calder of Barratt Homes North Scotland, named National Winner in the Large Builder category for his work on the Ness Castle development near Inverness. Graham Mann of Stewart Milne Homes (North Scotland) won the Medium Builder category for a highly bespoke development at Regency Place in Countesswells, Aberdeen, while Dean Ellis of Duchy Homes took home Small Builder award for The Ings site at Wetherby.

A further 20 site managers achieved Highly Commended status following the Commended awards they won during the competition’s first round in May. Organised by NHBC and independently judged by a panel of health and safety professionals from CITB, the Construction Products Association and the Health and Safety Executive, the awards are in their ninth year and are the only health and safety recognition scheme in the UK tailored to house builders.

NHBC Chief Executive Steve Wood said: “It’s been a great year for the awards with a record number of entries. We had an outstanding shortlist of finalists who are showcasing and sharing best practice across the industry. This year’s winners have demonstrated their ongoing commitment to health and safety, which is undoubtedly a hugely important part in delivering high quality new homes. We offer all the winners our congratulations.”

NEWS

HOUSING MINISTERS 17 – ENGLAND 0 The UK property industry is facing its 17th Housing Minister in 20 years, after Dominic Raab was promoted to Brexit Secretary.

Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a barrage of difficulties on all sides; as key members of her Cabinet resign over Brexit implementation, the housing and construction industry are bringing her under fire for yet another change in the department for housing.

Kit Malthouse MP has been appointed as the 17th Housing Minister in just 20 years, and the industry has called for cohesion and consistency.

Property experts and construction industry members have accused the government of not taking housing strategy seriously with a ‘merry-goround’ of Ministers affecting housing policy and strategy.

New Minister of State for Housing Kit Malthouse MP said: “I am delighted to be appointed as Minister of State for Housing.

Building the homes this country needs is a top priority for this government. I am keen to build on the real progress that has been made and start working with the sector so we can deliver more homes, restore the dream of home ownership and build a housing market

fit for the future.

“I’m also committed to continuing the important work of supporting those affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy and ensuring people are safe, and feel safe in their homes.”

With a housing crisis currently under way and government ambitions to build an extra million homes within the next few years, political clarity and strategy are needed now more than ever.

Paresh Raja, CEO of Market Financial Solutions, commented: “With the resignation of David Davis, Theresa May has been dealt a significant blow in her attempts to create a workable, agreeable plan for Brexit. And yet it’s not just the PM who has been affected – the UK’s property sector will also feel the impact of Mr Davis’ decision.

“News that Housing Minister Dominic Raab is to now become Brexit Secretary means yet another MP takes hold of the reins as the Government attempts to address the housing crisis – Mr Raab’s successor will become the 17th Housing Minister in the past two decades and, at a time when the property market needs consistency and clarity in policy, this development could prove a hindrance to a hugely valuable sector for the UK economy.

It’s vital the Government acts quickly to appoint a new Housing Minister and ensures it sticks to its strategy to help more people get on and move up the property ladder.”

Simon Bath, CEO and founder of proptech platform When You Move, says: “While it is of critical importance that the Prime Minister handles the Brexit negotiations with the strongest possible team around her, there remains a need to ensure that important – and time sensitive – domestic issues do not get left behind. Kit Malthouse will now inherit a department dogged by a number of issues ranging from the impact of Brexit on the property industry right through to the transparency of referral fees amongst estate agents and conveyancers. While some projects, such as the digitisation of local authority records, may take longer than some find comfortable, this new appointment must serve as a call to action across the industry to push for real change where it matters. In what has not been a seamless period for UK housing, including acute tragedies such as the Grenfell Tower fire, I hope that this will be the last change in post for some time to come, providing stability and security to one of the UK’s most important sectors.”

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NEWS

CITB LAUNCHES SKILLS ANALYSIS FOR SCOTTISH CONSTRUCTION

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS BOOST AFFORDABLE HOMES DELIVERY Homes England has confirmed a landmark deal with eight housing associations which will boost the delivery of affordable homes across the country.

The eight ambitious housing associations have joined with Homes England to deliver 14,280 additional affordable homes by March 2022, in a deal which will make use of the additional £1.67Bn recently announced as part of the government’s affordable homes programme.

The announcement comes after Homes England CEO Nick Walkley called for a new sector partnership with Government.

This new approach will also boost the wider supply contribution from the sector, with the eight partners signing up to deliver more than 23,500 additional homes across all tenures, including for market sale.

Under the new partnerships, a programme approach will be applied to delivery of the homes, with plans to explore how adopting this approach across Homes England’s land, funding and powers can further generate additional supply.

Following successful delivery, Homes England will look at expanding this approach with a second tranche of strategic partnerships.

The initial funding package of £590M will support the first wave of strategic partnerships with: emh group, Great Places, Home Group, Hyde, L&Q, Matrix Partnership, Places for People,

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and Sovereign / Liverty.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, said: “There is no mission more urgent than making our housing market work, and we are investing £9Bn in building affordable homes. This £590M fund we are giving Homes England will help housing associations accelerate the delivery of affordable properties communities need.”

Nick Walkley said: “When we launched Homes England, I called on housing associations to work with us to develop ambitious strategic partnerships that would help them to get on and build significantly more affordable homes than they were previously planning. After a huge amount of hard work, these new deals show our real determination to combine ambition, flexibilities and the full range of our resources to change the way we deliver affordable homes.

“This is a very important day for us but we have no intention to stop here. Over the summer, we will work to expand the eight deals to become even more ambitious while agreeing a second wave of strategic partnerships with other ambitious housing associations. This is a fantastic opportunity for the sector to up its game and get more affordable homes built more quickly.”

For the first time, newly published CITB research is providing a five-year overview of skills demand and supply in the Scottish construction sector.

In the report, entitled Local Construction Skills Needs for Scotland, CITB has demonstrated its new evidence-based model which will help industry and academia to address the prevailing skills shortage. In 2018, construction demand was estimated to be 247,300, with the Scottish workforce nearing 241,000 workers. This means that the sector requires 6,400 more workers, which represents a shortfall of three per cent.

CITB will revisit the findings on an annual basis. The core findings from the report include: • The construction skills shortage is greatest in regions such as the Highlands & Islands and South East • There are potential skills shortages in the painting, decorating and plumbing trades • There is a clear need for support staff working in the supply chain such as IT specialists, lawyers, procurement experts and researchers.

“We have undertaken the most wideranging regional skills mapping exercise for construction in Scotland,” said Ian Hughes, CITB Partnerships Director for Scotland. “The research gives an unprecedented level of detail about the industry, providing us with an in-depth evidence base of construction skills requirements on a regional basis.

“It enables us, in partnership with industry and key stakeholders, to develop regional skills action plans, which will address existing and emerging occupational shortfalls, and really focus on where support is needed most. We will now be able to measure how we are closing skills gaps, and in turn increasing the flow of skilled workers into the Scottish construction industry.”

Ian Rogers, Chief Executive of the Scottish Decorators’ Federation, added: “The construction industry has been calling for the evidence base in Scotland to go into this level of detail for some time. I welcome this initial report, which highlights the skills issues, both geographically and at an occupational level. The findings will enable us to plan for the future and get the right skills in place across the whole country.”

CONSTRUCTION ON THE BACK FOOT The latest ONS statistics for construction output have been released, making tough reading for the industry.

According to the figures, construction output has continued its recent decline in the three-month on threemonth series, falling by 1.7% in May 2018. This latest statistic is the third consecutive decline in this series.

A failure of businesses to commit to new work has driven recent falls over the last three reports, figures show that new work has decreased by 2.5% in May. However, the more volatile monthon-month series is finding positives.

Construction output has grown from April’s figures, showing an increase of 2.9%. Growth in the month-on-month series has been driven by a recovery in fortunes for private housing repair and maintenance work, which grew 7.3% in May 2018.

Construction output reached a record high in the final two months of 2017, finishing at 31.5% higher than May 2013 – the low point. With the start of 2018,

however, output fell – largely attributed to the terrible weather brought by the ‘Beast from the East’. Output has risen steadily as the weather warmed up and has begun to show signs of recovery.

Even with a struggling three-on-three monthly series, construction output remains 30.3% above the level seen in May 2013. The month-on-month rise in construction output in May 2018 stemmed from increases across all types of work.

In the three-month series construction output fell by £683M in May 2018. Losses came from private housing new work, which decreased by £394M. Elsewhere, public other new work also fell sharply, decreasing by £238M. In contrast, the relatively small and volatile private industrial sector continued to provide the most notable positive contribution to growth in the three months to May 2018, increasing by £89M, bolstered by non-housing repair and maintenance, which increased by £65M in May 2018.

Commenting on the new construction output figures published by the ONS which show output continuing its recent decline, Michael Thirkettle, Chief Executive of leading construction consulting and design agency McBains, said: “These figures make for further depressing reading and show that construction is well and truly mired in the deep waters of recession.

“UK and international companies and investors that are looking to invest in the UK are still struggling to get a read on the post-Brexit destination, meaning a reluctance to commit to new projects.

“In particular, the wages of scarce skilled tradespeople have been rising sharply in recent months and companies will face a further squeeze on labour with the supply of non-UK skilled workers being cut off when the UK leaves the EU – an effect, which coupled with material price increases, is squeezing margins substantially.”

HUNDREDS OF HECTARES AVAILABLE FOR HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

Homes England has revealed an ambitious plan to help tackle the housing crisis with the publication of its latest Land Development and Disposal Plan.

The plan pinpoints some 1,250 hectares of land which will be made available for development over the next 12 months.

The nationwide portfolio is available to view for the first time as an interactive map, allowing users to identify sites geographically and to view site-level details, including red-line plans, online. The ambitious pipeline from the Government’s national housing agency also provides improved technical packs and site information as well as a standard Building Lease to ensure a consistent approach across the country. These will incorporate clear approaches to the pace of build-out, Modern Methods of Construction, design and quality of place and tenure mix.

Stephen Kinsella, Executive Director – Land at Homes England, said: “As part of Homes England’s expanded remit, we will be much more active in the land market, using our increased resources to ramp up the acquisition of land opportunities and developing new ways to partner other government departments to bring forward more sites more quickly. We are ambitious about our disposals for the year

ahead so we’re really keen to talk to developers about the opportunities in our latest plan.”

The publication of the Land Development and Disposal Plan follows the news that Homes England is launching a new framework that will help speed up the delivery of new homes, which will be in place in the autumn. The procurement of a new Multidisciplinary and Technical Services Frameworks will broaden the technical and design services available to support Homes England and other public bodies to accelerate the supply of new homes, with the frameworks providing direct access to the professional, technical and design services needed to prepare land for housing development.

Sites listed in the Land Development and Disposal Plan will be disposed of on a competitive basis through Homes England’s Delivery Partner Panel (DPP3), through a private treaty sale, bespoke OJEU process or auction.

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NEWS

LETWIN REVIEW INTO HOUSEBUILDING PUBLISHED The Letwin review of house building and methods to solve the housing crisis has been published.

Sir Oliver Letwin was commissioned by the Government to examine what could be done to speed up the slow rate of housebuilding on major sites, and his findings make for interesting reading.

The review calls for changes in the system to ensure new homes are released to market quicker than they are currently, as well as warnings that the skills crisis will greatly impact the ability of housebuilders to meet demand.

The study, published on 25th June 2018, warns that developers are slowing the system down by limiting the number of newly built homes that are released for sale at any one time, while thousands more British bricklayers need to be trained to help meet government targets.

The practice being employed by developers is designed to prevent a glut of newly built homes driving down prices in the local market and is known as the ‘absorption rate’. However, the report suggests that a wider variety of

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choice in homes in each development would negate this impact and therefore speed up the rate at which houses are built and sold.

The report concludes that “….to obtain more rapid building out of the largest sites we need more variety within those sites”.

A shortage of skilled workers, in particular British bricklayers, is also having a “significant biting constraint” on house building, which will be exacerbated by Britain’s departure from the EU. To meet the shortfall, and hit government targets to increase the number of new homes built from 220,000 a year to 300,000, the report calls for 15,000 more bricklayers, a figure equivalent to almost a quarter of the current workforce, to be trained over the next five years.

The report says: to “raise production of new homes from about 220,000 to about 300,000… the government and major house builders work together … on a five year ‘flash’ programme of pure on the job training.”

Sir Oliver Letwin said: “I would like to thank everyone who has contributed

to the Review Panel’s work to date in analysing all possible reasons behind the slow build out of housing sites. It is clear that the main cause for delay is the absorption rate. We found that if house builders were to offer more variety of homes and in more distinct settings then overall build out rates could be substantially accelerated.”

Secretary of State for Communities James Brokenshire said: “We want to help people onto the housing ladder, and so I would like to thank Sir Oliver and the expert panel for their excellent work. I was particularly interested to see that increasing the choice of design, size and tenure of new homes in helping to speed up build out rates and help deliver the homes we need and communities want. I look forward to receiving the final report in the autumn.”

The government commissioned this Independent Review as part of its comprehensive plans to deliver a housing market fit for the future and build the homes that communities need. The review panel will submit final recommendations on improving build out rates in the autumn.

BREXODUS EXACERBATES SKILLS CRISIS

COMMUNITY-LED AFFORDABLE HOUSING FUND A fund of £163M has been announced, intended to support community-led housing groups in the development of affordable homes across England.

The new Community Housing Fund was launched by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, on 2nd July 2018.

The fund is designed to help community-led housing groups significantly increase the delivery of affordable homes, while developing a body of expertise as a lasting legacy for the community housing sector. Community-led sectors will provide housing that’s affordable for local incomes.

The first phase of funding will support community groups with predevelopment funding, while local authorities can also bid for revenue funding to support capacity-building activities for community-led groups in their areas.

In addition, local authorities can bid for capital funding for smallscale infrastructure projects, such as roundabouts or pumping stations, to unlock sites that the community can then develop for housing.

Funding outside London is being allocated by Homes England across two phases. A separate programme for London will be delivered by the Greater London Authority. This is in addition to £60M of funding that has already been allocated directly

by Government to 148 councils in December 2016.

Homes England Chief Executive Nick Walkley said: “Communityled housing is about local people playing a leading role in solving local housing problems to provide affordable homes and strengthen communities in ways that aren’t always possible to achieve through mainstream housing.

“At Homes England, we’re determined to increase the supply of homes across all tenures and increase capacity in the housing sector. This is a really important fund, which will offer lasting impact and we look forward to receiving bids from community groups across England.”

Tom Chance, Director at the National Community Land Trust Network, said: “We’re delighted the Government has recognised the vital role community-led housing can play in delivering muchneeded affordable housing. It’s the fastest growing new form of housing in the country. The new Community Housing Fund will provide long-lasting opportunities for communities everywhere so they can go out and build the homes they really want and need.”

Bidding for Phase One of the Fund is now open on a Continuous Market Engagement basis via the Homes England Portal. A second phase of the fund will be launched later this year by Homes England, who will invite bids for capital funding to develop community-led affordable housing schemes.

Analysis from leading professional services company Turner & Townsend shows that the construction industry is facing a crisis as Brexit looms.

The industry is already trying to tackle a skills shortage, and the latest analysis shows that the loss of EU workers will exacerbate the problem and affect productivity of this vital industry.

Turner & Townsend’s latest UK market intelligence report finds that, across UK construction, businesses are operating at an average of 86.2% of capacity in Q1 2018 – up 1.9% from Q1 2017. This comes despite ONS data showing a continued fall in the three-onthree month series, and the sharpest decline since 2012.

Highlights for the sector will see infrastructure grow at its fastest tender price inflation this year (3.8%), with more measured growth (1.7%) anticipated for building projects. However, labour costs are expected to grow at an average of 4% over the coming year, putting pressures on margins as competition for skilled workers grows.

Official ONS data shows that the number of EU-born workers as a share of the construction workforce fell by one per cent between the time of the EU referendum and the end of 2017. With the highest construction activity and heaviest reliance on foreign labour, the London market is especially exposed. At the time of the referendum, nearly half the capital’s construction workforce had been born abroad, current figures place this proportion at 42% – the fastest 18-month decline seen in 15 years.

Paul Connolly, Managing Director of cost management at Turner & Townsend, commented: “Mounting a successful recruitment fightback has never been so important, but to do this the sector needs full-throated support from employers – beyond existing contributions through initiatives such as the apprenticeship levy. Contractors need to ensure that the skills initiatives and incentives are in place to attract a modern construction workforce and make sure we have the capacity and talent in the right areas.

“But it’s going to take time to tackle this demographic timebomb. At a project level, the industry needs to be arming itself with strategies to mitigate wage inflation and drive maximum productivity from a diminishing labour pool. We need to be following a pre-emptive approach, adopting lean thinking to streamline project processes from design through to delivery, and leveraging the full benefits of technologies such as off-site construction. Only by increasing productivity, protecting margins and attracting new talent will the construction industry be able to deliver the game-changing infrastructure projects and housing the UK needs.”

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NEWS

HOMES ENGLAND HELPS UNLOCK 3,000 HOMES IN SUSSEX Homes England has secured land for the development of much needed homes in Sussex The acquisition of the 176ha Burgess Hill site will see some 3,080 homes developed as a priority following adoption of a local District Plan.

The Government agency worked closely with Mid Sussex District Council and the main land owners and promoters to acquire interests in different land holdings at Burgess Hill. The promoters had successfully secured the allocation of the site via the Local Plan Process and had worked closely with the local community to advance the scheme.

The scheme has been in the making for ten years, with the site identified for a long time as a key location for housing. However, due to the complexities of the different land ownership and the need to deliver significant upfront strategic

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infrastructure works, such as a link road through the site, landowners and promoters agreed to dispose of their interest to Homes England.

As landowner for the whole site, Homes England will submit an outline planning application later this year and bring forward early release of the first phases of new homes alongside investing in strategic infrastructure to unlock the site for development.

Stephen Kinsella, Executive Director – Land at Homes England, says: “Homes England’s reinvigorated land role is seeing us step up and intervene to unlock residential sites to help increase supply of homes where they are desperately needed.

“This acquisition at Burgess Hill shows how we can step in to ensure that complex sites in areas of acute housing need can be brought forward for early delivery through our intervention.

“It is a huge statement from Homes England, demonstrating how we can now intervene and invest to unlock the largest sites. We will now work quickly to achieve an early start on site and ensure the site deliver a great place to live.”

The Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid Sussex, added: “I have championed the involvement of Homes England in the growth planned by the Government for Burgess Hill. This very significant investment and longterm commitment to Burgess Hill will ensure the housing comes forward in a timely manner and is accompanied by much needed infrastructure. It is a vote of confidence in Burgess Hill and Mid Sussex.”

The Burgess Hill development will include the construction of two new primary schools, a secondary school and a range of leisure facilities to help build a community.

SOCIAL HOUSING INVESTMENT BOOST Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government, James Brokenshire, has confirmed a massive funding boost for social housing across the country.

Over £1Bn has been secured in the social housing deal, which will deliver 23,000 affordable homes across the UK through a new generation of council housing. The funding is aimed at helping solve the housing crisis and provide the country with the homes communities need.

Some £1.67Bn will be invested in providing more than 23,000 new affordable homes, including at least 12,500 social rent homes in high cost areas in a move to support families struggling to pay their rent.

The funding comes as part of the government’s £9Bn investment in affordable homes. With £1.67Bn allocated to London in March 2018 this latest funding will deliver homes across the rest of the country.

The new generation of council housing was signalled by Mr Brokenshire inviting local authorities to bid for a share of the extra funding to build muchneeded homes. This £1Bn borrowing cap raise will be split equally between London and the rest of England. Local authorities have requested this extra financial flexibility, which will be allocated to those in areas with the highest affordability pressures to ensure homes are built where they are needed most.

Secretary of State for Communities James Brokenshire said: “The Government has ambitious plans to fix the broken housing market and build the homes our communities need.

“This announcement is a further milestone. It will secure the delivery of an additional 23,000 muchneeded affordable homes as well as paving the way for a new generation of council houses. The majority of these new homes will be in high cost areas helping to ease the burden of rent on hard working families and delivering stronger communities.”

COMMUNITIES SECRETARY APPOINTS INDEPENDENT PLANNING REVIEW CHAIR Communities Secretary James Brokenshire has named Bridget Rosewell Chair of the Independent Review into Planning Appeal Inquiries.

As Chair, Bridget Rosewell will explore ways to reduce the amount of time taken resolving disputed planning proposals without compromising the decision making process. During the 2017/18 financial year, appeal inquiries took an average of 44 weeks to be resolved, resulting in lengthy delays for residential developers at a time when housing is in short supply.

The independent review is expected to make its recommendations towards the end of the year.

A qualified economist, Bridget Rosewell has extensive knowledge and experience in the planning sector, having previously acted as an expert witness during inquiries. She is currently Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission and Chair of Atom Bank.

“I am delighted Bridget Rosewell has agreed to lead this review into a key part of our planning system,” said Brokenshire. “She brings a wealth of experience to this role and I look forward to receiving her report. We have been clear that the appeals process must work for both local communities and those taking forward housing schemes, and that involves swift and fair decisions being made to deliver the homes our communities need.”

“The Planning Inspectorate’s role in arbitrating disputed planning applications is vital, but the current inquiry process is very drawn out,” added Bridget Rosewell. “I’m thrilled to be appointed the Chair of this review and look forward to exploring the real solutions that could speed up and improve the process and give greater certainty to those with an interest in a development or who are affected by it.”

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F E AT U R E

Registering existing buildings and locations; it’s a labour-intensive and costly process. Especially in 3D. Is the revision up to date? Are digital drawings or models already available? Should there be a baseline measurement?

New technologies help to answer these questions quickly.

New technological developments offer unprecedented possibilities to innovate the construction workflow - especially when combined with Building Information Modelling. Here are three technologies to look out for when it comes to connecting BIM to the building site: 1. Point Cloud Laser scanning as a technology has been around for quite a while, but it’s only recently that this technology has found its way to BIM applications in the MEP industry. With 3D laser scanning, MEP engineers can import accurate information about existing structures into their BIM models. This information is assembled in a point cloud: a collection of measurement points that have been recorded on the construction site.

2. Virtual and Augmented Reality Virtual and Augmented Reality are gaining ground in many industries. Not only in education, entertainment, and healthcare, but also in construction. For MEP engineers, both Augmented and Virtual Reality offer opportunities, since both technologies make it possible to see systems at the place where they need to be installed: 1. Virtual Reality simulates the complete environment. This makes it possible to view a virtual 3D model in the office, which can be useful during meetings with construction partners. Although this provides a great deal of insight, the technology is often less suitable for use on project sites because of

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construction hazards.

2. In contrast to Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality is better suited for on-site applications. With Augmented Reality, a layer of additional information from the digital model is projected onto the user's field of view. This way, the engineer can see where an installation should be placed with respect to the location where he stands.

The applications of this technology in construction are in full development and the first real construction hard hats with Mixed Reality support are already being used.

3. Robots on Site There have been quite some speculations about the way robots will change the future of construction. What tasks that are currently being done manually, could be automated? Which processes can be optimized? In which

ways are robots already being used in construction? Robotics is a promising technology when it comes to increasing efficiency in construction. Especially in combination with BIM. When connected to BIM collaboration software, robots allow contractors to truly connect their digital model to the building site. Take, for example, robots equipped with accurate positioning technology. Because these robots use the data from the BIM model, contractors can quickly take measurements on site. Based on locations in the model, the robot automatically points to the corresponding locations on the construction site. With the help of a laser beam, points are laid out at positions in the building where, for example, a sleeve or hanger must be mounted. This means that taking measurements manually with a tape measure is no longer necessary, and makes the job on site a lot easier and more accurate.

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HEALTH AND SAFETY – WHY RUN THE RISK?

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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently published the culmination of its investigation into substandard practices at Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions Ltd, where the company was sentenced by the court and fined £500,000 after it was alleged it had exposed its workers to a debilitating health condition over a nine-year period.

The HSE investigation considered whether workers at the company were exposed to unacceptable levels of hand-arm vibration between 2002 and 2011, which put them at risk of developing Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). HAVS, also known as ‘vibration induced white finger’ is a widely recognised industrial disease affecting the blood vessels, nerves, muscles and joints in the hands, wrist and arm. It can cause difficulties with everyday tasks such as gripping and lifting objects.

Sheffield Crown Court found that the company had failed in its legal duty to ensure the risks to workers who used power tools were kept to as low a level as reasonably practicable. It was held that the company failed to assess the risk to workers’ health, failed to put in place and monitor suitable risk control

measures and failed to put in place a suitable risk of health surveillance.

While this is an extreme example of a company failing to adhere to health and safety regulations over a protracted period, it serves to highlight that the need for robust and effective health and safety policy is everpresent and ongoing.

Although there has been a general trend of improvement in health and safety practices in the construction sector, there is little room for complacency; the construction site poses a great number of possible risks both in construction and operation. The HSE records that in the period 2016/17 there were 679,116 non-fatal injuries in the workplace, while 137 workers were killed at work.

These statistics must also be considered against the backdrop of the new sentencing guidelines introduced by the HSE in 2016, which mandate much higher fines for breaches of health and safety law, and the approach of the judiciary in recent cases where they appear to support the new guidelines’ uncompromising approach to sentencing.

Since the introduction of the new guidelines the magnitude of the fines levied has increased, and the differences make for stark reading: in the period 2014/15 the total level of fines awarded amounted to £18.1M, compared to £38.3M worth of fines in 2015/16. In one recent case, Solarjen Ltd were fined £250,000 plus costs of £12,000 when one of their employees fell 3.5m through a hole in the roof he was working on. The company had failed to ensure that physical guard rails were in place to prevent his fall.

Management of health and safety risks on a construction project often poses a complex challenge. Multiple parties are involved throughout the various stages of a project, who may each owe health and safety duties in respect of one particular element of work. In certain circumstances,

parties can even be found liable for a health and safety breach when their employees were not responsible for the action themselves.

There is an abundance of legislation imposing health and safety obligations in construction projects. It is prudent to address any health and safety risks posed by a project before work commences on-site.

Relevant considerations and action points include: 1. Whether the organisation’s health and safety procedures are current; 2. Review risk assessments and ensure that these are utilised wherever relevant; 3. Ensure all employees have access to relevant personal protective equipment; 4. Consider whether any employees require additional or further health and safety training; and 5. Manage the organisation’s insurance coverage to ensure that it is suitable and appropriate for the forthcoming project.

Business owners, directors and construction managers may also wish to consider whether it is sensible to incorporate health and safety related provisions into the works contract so that parties are obliged to adhere to relevant health and safety laws and industry best practice.

Article submitted by Mark James, Partner – Dispute Resolution, Coffin Mew

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MODERNISE OR DIE, THE MARK FARMER INTERVIEW

UKCE SPEAKS WITH CAST CEO, MARK FARMER, ABOUT HOW OFFSITE MANUFACTURING CAN MODERNISE THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY, IMPROVE BUILDING STANDARDS AND HELP SOLVE THE SKILLS CRISIS

Mark Farmer was commissioned by the Construction Leadership Council, at the request of the ministers for Housing & Planning & Skills, to undertake an independent review of the UK’s construction labour model.

Published in 2017, the report looked in particular at the skills pressures and other constraints that limit housebuilding and infrastructure development in the UK. The result was Modernise or die: The Farmer Review of the UK construction labour model, which called for radical steps to be taken to address the sector’s longstanding Problems.

The title of your report was 'Modernise of Die', but what are the real consequences if the industry fails to take the opportunity to modernise?

We are at a crossroads in terms of both risk and opportunity to the

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construction industry. I think we have some unprecedented pressure points that we haven’t seen in the industry before. There are two very specific issues I would highlight that mean the timing of my report is perhaps more critical than in other instances where high-profile industry reports have been launched.

Firstly, the demographics of our industry are such that we are now consistently losing more people every year than we are gaining.

As people retire, we are not bringing through enough homegrown talent into the industry. That’s true across not just the onsite construction trades but also in the professions such as surveying, engineering and architecture. It is quite an insidious problem that is creeping up on us but it’s gathering pace.

Secondly, we have the potential impact of Brexit. This is an unprecedented event that could disproportionately affect construction

from the perspective of the industry’s high reliance on migrant workers, particularly in London – though actually it is also a broader issue across other regions, towns and cities in the UK. What plays out over the next few weeks, months and even years could have quite radical implications for the resourcing profile available to the construction industry.

If you combine the Brexit risk with the issue of the ageing workforce, plus the fact that we are still struggling generally to attract youngsters into our industry, then we have a unique combination of pressures that means we will have to do things differently.

It is no longer a choice, as perhaps it was when the Latham and Egan Reports were launched in the 1990s.

To my mind, we haven’t seen this level of risk before yet with technology and the advent of new ways in which we can deliver, we now have a fantastic opportunity to grasp that

chance to do things differently in the face of such significant challenges.

Do you feel the Government needs to do more to encourage new methods of construction to meet the shortfall in housing?

The Housing White Paper was definitely a step in the right direction.

The content and issues identified are the right ones. There is a recognition these issues can’t be solved overnight but what the Government committed to do is to recognise it has a role to play in pump-priming demand for the pre-manufacturing and offsite market, which was recently ratified by the CLG Select Committee.

To build capacity in that market, which is currently quite fragmented and immature, we need the sector to grow sustainability in response to increased client demand. While the industry comes to terms with the fact that it has to change the way it delivers, the Government can take a leadership position and actually start commissioning work using premanufactured techniques.

The HCA’s Accelerated Construction Programme, which is a very specific initiative that the Government has set out, combined with the Home Building Fund, will provide £5Bn of combined funding and is quite clearly established to do that very thing.

From my perspective, the Government understands the potential but it is about pace and scale.

What we need is real commitment in terms of putting significant sums behind different ways of delivering that enable the industry to have confidence in the levels of investment needed to establish more offsite manufacturing capacity.

What would you say are the biggest obstacles to the industry embracing offsite construction?

There is an ingrained culture in the construction industry, which is just against change. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but some of it is that people have grown up, trained and worked in an industry which has always done things a certain way.

There is quite a deep-seated reluctance to change the way that we deliver and that is something that isn’t going to go away easily.

It’s going to take time to overcome suspicions, scepticism and the lethargy around realising, as I have already made clear, that we simply have to do things differently.

I think the challenges around Brexit and an ageing workforce will force the issue. So even those who don’t really believe they should be embracing modernisation will face a time when they have no choice and will be influenced by peer pressure as the market starts to marginalise ‘business as usual’.

There is a dawning recognition sweeping the industry at the moment that there are some significant problems ahead and people need to get ready for what that means around their own role, their business’s health and its market positioning.

These issues need to be addressed now – not when it’s too late and all these problems are already upon us.

Another barrier is the very tangible issue of the level of investment some of these techniques involve.

For people who want to consider establishing new factories or offsite techniques, there are considerable amounts of money involved in doing so.

Unless there’s clear line of sight to where the demand is, then it could

be a high-risk decision, which comes back to my point about the Government having a key role to play in proving there is a minimum level of demand for these new techniques.

Also, some of the issues relate to the perception of pre-manufactured, or what has historically been termed ‘pre-fab’. In the housing market there is still a perception that ‘pre-fab’ is linked to poor quality, temporary type housing rather than what it can be now – truly permanent, 21st century precision engineered manufactured components. The recent quality problems experienced in traditional delivery also call into question the long-held beliefs that artisan trades can deliver a better solution.

We need to go on a journey that not only educates the industry but also the wider public and funders. The Government also has a key role in an accreditation and warranty system that might sit behind this emerging new sector.

Do you think there is a concern from traditional construction workers that these new methods could put them out of work rather than giving them an opportunity to retrain?

Yes, there is definitely a sense that this would be seen as a threat.

I can understand that; it is only human nature.

Workers may have concerns that their skills are no longer relevant, leaving them redundant in some shape or form. Even though that is an understandable reaction the reality is we need to educate everyone as to what the opportunities are in skilled craftsmanship alongside retraining in new skills in digital and manufacturing led careers.

The first point I would make is

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that we will never in our industry be delivering more than just a proportion of what we do using pre-manufactured techniques. We will always have a significant component of what we do being built traditionally.

It still needs to be built better traditionally in terms of the efficiency of the process that we use and in some cases the quality that is achieved, but we still need traditional trades like bricklaying and carpentry and a large amount will always be site-based. That’s the nature of how we deliver – we can only do so much in a factory.

The bigger thing for me, as referenced above, is making people aware of the re-training and reskilling opportunities that could make their working day and career much more interesting.

The ability to not only be involved in site-based traditional working but also to combine that interfacing with factory-based products – how you might be engaged in hybrid working and embrace robotics and automation on construction sites.

There is an opportunity for tradesmen to become quality control supervising technicians rather than people physically laying bricks or cutting timber.

There are some really interesting career opportunities if people take a step back and receive the right kind of guidance and leadership.

It’s difficult for people on the ground to understand what this might mean for their own welfare. It requires leadership and people to explain what it could look like for individuals concerned and that this is not a threat to their livelihood.

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Could offering a more factorybased working environment make a career in construction a more attractive proposition?

You have to look at the issue from two angles. Firstly, from the existing workforce’s perspective you have the re-skilling opportunity already described or a refinement of what they do and continue to do so alongside new techniques.

Secondly, you need to look at the possible impact on attracting new entrants. As we discussed earlier, one of the biggest issues we have, against a backdrop of Brexit and an ageing workforce, is that we aren’t attracting enough youngsters into our industry.

When people visualise being involved on a construction site, they immediately see themselves being out in all kinds of weather, physical exertion and higher health and safety risks. These points, whether perception or reality, don’t help make our industry a priority choice for kids.

If you retain the element of a site-based involvement, I think that actually adds to the uniqueness of construction, and not being stuck in a constant office or factory environment will be seen as a positive for some kids.

But if you can then bring that experience alongside factory-based manufacture-led processes with a controlled indoor environment using digital technology, then there is a massive opportunity to step change the attraction of the construction industry for young people coming in.

That exciting future construction skills landscape can be conveyed in schools to kids as young as ten years

old, if not younger, to create a revised narrative about what construction actually represents, rather than diving in and talking straight away about the way we have always done it with architects, surveyors, engineers, contractors and sub-contractors and showing images of building sites with projects being delivered in the traditional way.

There is a real opportunity to completely redefine what the contracting process looks like and bring a lot of it closer to the manufacturing sectors, then bolting on the end the fact we have site-based assembly and construction.

Is there enough collaboration between industry, educators and government to ensure offsite construction can be maximised?

The simple answer to that is no. Our industry is not known for collaboration and sharing concepts and ideas. It’s not known for wanting to embrace the idea of working with others for the greater common good. I think that is something that as a structural issue the industry definitely needs to overcome.

Again, a lot of it is driven by culture.

People have been trained and brought up in the industry in a certain way – it’s adversarial, it’s very contractual and it’s about people protecting positions on different sides of the contract. We have to overcome that with the recognition that we need more collaborative, shared and aligned interests.

I’m a bit of a sceptic when it comes to just promoting or preaching about collaboration in isolation from a real means of embedding it into industry.

I do not believe from my experiences of being in the industry a long time

that by just saying we should all be collaborating anything is ever going to happen. The industry doesn’t react to that kind of stimulus; what it will react to though is disruption and competitive threats.

By changing the delivery to more of a pre-manufactured model utilising offsite technologies, combined with onsite process improvement changes, the physical way in which parties have to work together will force the issue of collaboration.

Some people will get it and treat it as an opportunity. Others won’t be able to change their behaviours.

That is a very clear dividing line between those who are going to be successful going forward and those stuck in the past.

It would be nice to think that rather than pushing people on the journey to work collaboratively you could attract people to do so because it is a good thing to do, but unfortunately in our industry it’s going to require a push I’m afraid.

It will be driven by some of the pressures we now have on resource shortages and manpower. That’s going to drive the agenda whether we like it or not.

Do you think that the BIM mandate can act as a catalyst for the adoption of offsite construction and collaborative working practices?

I understand why the Level 2 BIM government mandate was introduced but I’m not a believer in mandating digital technologies in isolation from influencing the physical delivery models that we use.

My view is, again, similar to

collaboration; if you just say this is a good thing to do people will not listen in our industry. On public sector projects where you are forced to do it, then the industry will, to an extent, play the game and do what it needs to do but it won’t really embrace the potential of digital engineering.

You have to reverse the issue; if there is any mandating to be done, it should be around the physical model of how we deliver using design for manufacture and assembly-led premanufacturing because that will force the issue around the fact that most of that approach would only really maximise efficiency if it uses digital platforms such as BIM. So rather than leading on BIM or collaboration in isolation, my view is you have to concentrate on the hard, physical way we deliver construction and the other two things will come with it as a natural consequence.

BIM can be a massive enabler. It enables us to deliver digital design, manufacture and assembly in a completely different way to traditional construction. The collaboration is then forced because the actual integration model is very different and you don’t have that hierarchical split between clients and their design team and the supply chain – it’s fully integrated and more in line with a manufacturing model.

Do you believe that modern methods of production can help improve standards as well as deliver greater efficiencies?

There is a great opportunity to address what is a growing concern about traditional construction quality, particularly in

the housebuilding sector.

We have seen an increase in media interest in poor delivery quality in the housebuilding sector over the past six months. I believe there are a lot more stories to come that you will find pretty shocking about how traditional construction and poor workmanship, design and supervision have contributed to a sub-standard product that wouldn’t be acceptable in any other industry.

The clear challenge and opportunity for offsite and pre-manufacturing is that if you are going to use fully precision-engineered, digitally enabled techniques of assembling products, ensuring ultra-tight tolerances and interface working, then that can absolutely overcome all the issues and risks you have with onsite materials and workmanship assembly.

The biggest risk is that the emerging offsite sector replicates some of the problems that the traditional industry is experiencing. If we had a situation where too much demand was placed on too small a supply of capacity in the offsite sector, it is likely mistakes would be made. That is the big risk constraining what is a potential opportunity.

There’s also a big difference in some of the solutions out there in the offsite sector. Some of them are fully digitally enabled, high-tech and underpin quality; others aren’t that dissimilar to traditional working but just done in a factory environment.

Absolutely, the offsite sector has an opportunity to embrace high quality and be seen as a byword for better quality than traditional – but it also needs to learn from the problems traditional industry has had and grow sustainably with the Government’s help.

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SPEAKING VOLUMES ABOUT THE WAY AHEAD FOR CONSTRUCTION Oliver Lowrie, Co-Founder and Director of award-wining architectural practice, Ackroyd Lowrie, explains why volumetric offsite construction is set to become a major driver in tackling the housing crisis, renewed architectural innovation, sustainability and environmental best practice. training and a declining population of skilled, onsite labour. As the population grows and requirements develop, so too must our provision of services and crafts. As homebuilders, we are in a position to introduce a truly disruptive solution to the construction industry’s key challenges, and also the social and economic issues fuelled by the housing crisis.

Volumetric construction

You don’t need to be an industry insider to know there is a chronic shortage of housing in the UK. The Government has pledged to deliver one million new and affordable homes by the end of 2020 – a tall order given that only 184,000 were built in 201617. Productivity is on the up, and whilst that is cause for celebration, it is still only marginal. As an industry, we are pressured to provide 300,000 new homes each year to meet the goal of one million. Meanwhile, every heavy industry is facing the same challenges at the core: reduce waste, drive efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint.

In 2015, only 69% of projects were completed in budget and only 40% were completed on time, exacerbated by an ageing population, insufficient

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‘Modernise or die’ was the conclusion of the famous Farmer Review which assessed the state of the UK construction industry. Volumetric construction answers the modernising call, and as such adoption is growing in the UK. However, as is often the case, we have been fairly slow at seizing opportunities. Currently some 15,000 volumetric homes are built each year in the UK. In contrast, our international counterparts are really beginning to maximise the opportunities presented by volumetric construction, driving creativity in every aspect of the design and build processes. In Japan, a quarter of homes are built offsite; while in Sweden, more than 50% of all new detached homes are prefabricated.

Volumetric housing is a quick, highquality, cost-effective offsite technique where entire blocks of apartments or homes are pre-manufactured in factory conditions. They are produced

in a series of ‘volumes’, which are then transported to the site to be assembled and stacked, rather than ‘built’.

After drainage and foundations are laid, the entire building can be craned into place in modules. Less affected by poor weather conditions, onsite labour and supply chain delays, volumetric construction allows developers to deliver homes ‘just-in-time’ and with uncompromised quality.

The volumes can be pre-clad and include windows, with kitchens, bathrooms and even furniture pre-installed at the production location. Internal and external finishes can be installed in the factory where quality can be monitored effectively.

Building better We are seeing, from these domestic and international projects, that offsite construction makes a real impact and drives efficiency: 44% of developments cost less, projects are delivered with an average of 75% fewer defects and build time is 65% faster (Faulkner 2016).

The legacy of postwar social housing haunts offsite construction, but advances in both the modelling software used by architects and the manufacturing capabilities of modern offsite fabricators means that beautiful, bespoke projects can be delivered in a streamlined way.

BIM models can be shared back and forth between the architect and manufacturer to ensure that quality and aesthetics are achieved. This ability

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to easily communicate directly with the manufacturer using 3D models reduces the opportunity for mistakes in interpretation, and therefore wasted time and materials.

Furthermore, this 3D technology can be used to ensure the building that is being fabricated totally meets the brief of the client. At Ackroyd Lowrie, we use Virtual Reality headsets to allow our clients to explore a series of different options. These are then developed into a final proposal which is fully signed off by the client before being sent to the manufacturer for production.

Some 70% of rework on all construction projects can be attributed to onsite redesigns, which can cause major delays and be hugely expensive in terms of time and financial spend, as well as being hugely wasteful in terms of materials and energy. In gaining a better sign-off, Ackroyd Lowrie ensure that there are no surprises once the fabrication process starts.

The volumetric supplier uses this same model to overlay their structure and services, and then shares the

model back with us to review – which for anyone used to the UK construction industry feels like the future.

How sustainable is it really?

Construction sites create massive amounts of waste. By contrast, factory conditions allow for works to be carefully planned to avoid wastage.

The most wasteful activities on sites often occur where there is a lack of coordination, and solutions have to be found onsite. The advantage of offsite construction is that the manufacturing process requires full coordination prior to fabrication. Furthermore, homeowners can also reap the rewards of volumetric construction, due to the improved and reliable quality.

for being particularly innovative, in offsite, volumetric housing we are confronted with something that will revolutionise the way we build homes and make the significant dent in the housing numbers we desperately need. Combined with efforts laid out by the UK Government, there is an opportunity to renew confidence amongst investors and suppliers. In February 2017’s Housing White Paper, the Government stated its intention to stimulate offsite construction through a £1.7Bn Accelerated Construction and a £3Bn Home Building Fund.

Driving further adoption will only increase confidence, improve profitability and level the playing field for innovation in the property sector.

The future of construction Without factoring in the avoided delays of traditional builds, the volumetric route is still far quicker than onsite construction. So, whilst the housebuilding industry is not renowned

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DRIVING PERFORMANCE IN HOUSEBUILDING THROUGH TECHNICAL INNOVATION

In this article, we speak with Oliver Novakovic, Technical and Innovation Manager at Barratt Developments Plc, about the changes underway in house construction and what the future holds.

As the UK’s largest and bestknown housebuilder, one of Barratt's core business priorities is to lead the industry through our approach to innovation and new building methods. If housebuilding wants to be able to deliver more homes whilst maintaining the highest safety and quality standards, it needs to embrace the best new methods of both onsite and offsite construction. Or, as the Mark Farmer report put it rather more succinctly, “Modernise or Die”.

Another equally important reason for investing in modern methods of construction (MMC) is to help address the current skills shortage. As the interim report in June from Sir Oliver Letwin pointed out, the industry urgently needs another 15,000 bricklayers to be trained over the next five years. Put simply we need more people to join the industry, particularly if we are all going to stand a chance of hitting the government’s 300,000 homes target.

Which is why in 2014 Barratt have set ourselves the target of having 20% of our housing output contain an element of offsite construction by 2020.

Over a two-year period we evaluated over 150 different suppliers and technology types. We are now trialling a variety of MMC, all of which will help us change our build profile in different ways. Whilst there are pros and cons to each of the systems, they all help us

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to reduce our reliance on particular trades, speed up build times, improve safety and, when used at scale, maintain efficient costs.

The most widely used of these is timber frame construction, which we will use to build over 1,600 homes in 2018. Using timber frame has increased our build speed and changed our labour demand profile.

In particular, it changes the demand profile for bricklayers, enabling the existing bricklaying labour pool to operate more efficiently, so helping increase overall build volumes.

Timber frame construction is actually one of the oldest methods of building a home, accounting for around 20% of the homes being built in the UK, and is fully covered by the NHBC standards and mortgage providers.

However, its use is extremely regional. Nearly every new home in Scotland is built using timber frame, whereas in England its usage, while growing, is still much less common.

We are also looking closely at large format block construction. We recently hosted Secretary of State Sajid Javid at our site in Banbury for him to see the system, which consists of large format blocks that are 15 times larger than traditional blocks, with an integrated floor, wall and roof.

The blocks create a watertight, innerleaf shell using the same material as aircrete blocks, and are fixed using a thin mortar joint system. We are currently looking to roll this technology out across six of our divisions in the Midlands and South West, and just like timber frame methods, it enables

us to speed up construction whilst reducing the amount of labour needed to build the homes.

The third main method Barratt are actively trialling is light gauge steel frame construction. We have recently finished a successful trial project with Fusion Building Systems at our development in Cane Hill near Croydon, where we constructed social housing and private for sale apartments using this method. We are now further trialling the Fusion system with more of our divisions. As Mike Fairey, Fusion’s director, said: “The UK housing shortage is no secret and with building sites suffering a decline in available skilled workers, offsite construction is one way developers can ensure their build programmes deliver homes on time and on budget.”

Despite the success of these methods, we have not stopped there. We have previously hosted a ‘Barratt Innovation Challenge Sandpit’. A ‘Sandpit’ is an approach to supplier engagement which allows direct dialogue between our business and suppliers of exciting future technologies through a day of interactive workshops. The aim was to pool ideas for technology and process innovations that drive cost, quality and speed benefits whilst looking to use diverse skill sets. Among the ideas mooted were onsite safety solutions, alternative insulation applications and prefabricated masonry walling systems. At the end of the day we selected five products to be taken to an initial product review. One of these, an offsite flooring system from a company

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called Nu-Span, has already been installed on over 2,500 of our houses.

In total over the past four years we have looked at over 150 innovative systems, the majority of which have been offsite technologies. Barratt has applied over 17 innovations on sites with our divisions, of which we are currently trialling or rolling out 12 more widely across the business.

A group of our board directors and senior managers have also just returned from a European research trip to study offsite manufacturing techniques and new housebuilding technologies in countries that have parallel housing demand profiles and similarities to the UK. The group toured Holland and Germany, visiting Streif (to look at advanced timber systems in panelised format), Ursem in Holland (to look at volumetric modular buildings) and dBRG (to

look at large format concrete). Such research trips are beneficial in that they push us to think differently.

It helped us to validate some of our technology choices and reinforced our overall approach to MMC and offsite construction techniques.

As our chief operating officer, Steven Boyes, said: “As the UK’s largest housebuilder we like to think we lead the housebuilding industry in this area, not least because of the breadth of technologies we are actively trialling and the strength of our supply chain relationships. Our move to embrace offsite technology is also based on addressing the long-term skills shortages that we are seeing in the UK housing sector and is intended to help ensure predictability of build cost and programmes. It’s vital that all of the

technologies we use and offsite supply chain partners that we select can work with us effectively to deliver the high quality that we need.”

Ultimately, the benefits of these technologies are maximised when they complement, rather than replace, traditional construction methods. By investing in these modern methods of construction now we are hopefully making ourselves more resilient to deliver the high quality homes the country needs in the future. In the middle of a housing crisis where the industry is attacked for not building enough, that can only be a good thing.

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THE RURAL HOUSING CRISIS: THE PROBLEM AND SOLUTIONS The need for housing is critical across the UK. Government and building officials agree that more housing needs to be built, and more quickly. The Government is trying to address the crisis through various schemes, intending to create an extra million homes by 2020. Yet Britain is proud of its countryside and green belt, and there are concerns that this could be lost in the drive to create properties. UKCE spoke to Crispin Truman, Chief Executive at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, about the problem and possible solutions which will protect our green spaces whilst housing our families.

In 1926, the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s (CPRE) first Honorary Secretary, Patrick Abercrombie, wrote that “it should be possible that a just balance be struck between conservation and development”. Good development, Abercrombie believed, could “bring forth something new but beautiful” in our villages and market towns and preserve the life of the countryside. And his vision of diverse and thriving rural communities is still ours today.

CPRE wants to see a countryside where land is used sustainably, in the public interest. Where new developments are integrated with good transport links that help to prevent loneliness and isolation. Where properly funded public services address the needs of school children, key workers, the elderly and those who are vulnerable. Where open, green space is

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recognised for its intrinsic value and contribution to health and wellbeing.

Where development meets the needs of communities and no one is forced to leave their local area because they cannot find an affordable place to live.

We have been presented with a false trade-off between building homes and protecting the natural character and beauty of the countryside, when in fact we should seek to do both. To properly address the needs of rural communities, we do need more homes in rural areas, but they must be the kind of homes that people want and can afford to live in.

Housing is at the heart of our members’ concerns – ordinary people who care about their environment and community, and have no desire to see the countryside become a museum.

Affordable homes can help secure

the future of our rural communities.

Just a handful of new properties can make the difference between a primary school forced to close and one which goes on welcoming new pupils; a village shop shuttered up and one which continues to serve customers; a pub converted into holiday cottages and one which remains a hub for the local community.

Yet, across much of rural England, communities are being quietly eroded by an acute lack of low-cost rented homes. An analysis by the National Housing Federation last year found that 52 rural schools in England had closed since 2011, along with 81 rural post offices and over 1,300 pubs.

As rural housing practitioners have long highlighted, there are a number of key barriers to the delivery of affordable homes in rural areas.

These include inflated land values, difficulties finding appropriate sites, the abandonment of a specific rural target for grant funding, and the Government’s decision to define ‘affordable rent’ as up to 80% of market rates, a level which is simply not affordable for many low-paid rural workers.

These are the real barriers. Not the democratic planning process, nor green belt protection. As the Local Government Association recently highlighted, councils and their communities granted nearly twice as many planning permissions as the number of new homes that were completed in the financial year 2016/17, approving more than 321,000 new homes of which only 183,000 were built.

If we want to deliver more homes more quickly, we must also stop conflating builders, who build the homes

that people need to live in, with speculative developers whose only object is to profit from rising land prices. The Government should work to support builders, and be prepared to hold developers accountable.

But perhaps the most fundamental problem is that the realities of rural life are not well understood, in Westminster or by the general public. Too often, the housing crisis is portrayed as an exclusively urban issue. Rural poverty remains largely unacknowledged, even though low wages and high living costs mean there are pockets of real deprivation in the countryside.

The fact that a single person on a median rural wage can expect to spend 46% of their income on rent gets lost in the focus on cities.

We need stronger measures to reconnect rural rents and incomes,

encourage land to come forward more cheaply, and promote better ruralproofing of policy. In an age of declining faith in government, developers and the planning system to deliver the right homes in the right places, it is vital that communities are empowered to push for the kind of development they want and need.

CPRE believes that it is possible to build the homes that people need and preserve the green spaces they benefit from. We must protect the countryside and enhance it, by promoting the right kind of development in the places where it is needed most. Only by pursuing both these aims will we ensure that our villages and market towns remain vibrant and thriving places for future generations to live and work in.

F E AT U R E

THE UK’S HOUSING PROBLEM AND FLOODING In this article we speak to Simon Crowther, Founder and MD of Flood Protection Solutions, about housing infrastructure in the UK and whether it can cope with another million homes within the next few years.

Population change over the last decade has called for a greater number of homes to be built every year, but the UK is already one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, so where do we put everyone?

To make matters worse, we have been subject to more flooding than ever in recent history, and planners must understand that an increase in impermeable surfaces will only exacerbate this further by increasing overland flow and reducing infiltration into the ground.

To solve one problem may only create another, so both need to be addressed in harmony.

The UK’s population has seen sharp increases in recent years. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, it took over 40 years for the population to increase from 50M to 60M. However, since hitting 60M in 2005, it is estimated that the population will reach 70M by 2027. It is estimated the current population has swollen

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to 66.5M. The concern with this rapidly rising population is where to put everyone.

The Government set a target in 2015 to build 200,000 houses a year, so that by 2020 one million new homes would have been built.

Incredibly, this target was deemed too small and in 2017 it was increased to 250,000 homes a year with the suggestion that the target should rise to 300,000 a year.

The problem being seen in the UK is where to put all these houses.

Recently, councils have seen increased pressure from government to stop avoiding targets or adopting ‘not in my back yard’ approaches to housebuilding. In fact, Sajid Javid, the former Communities Secretary, told councils that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government would be ‘breathing down their neck’ to make sure targets were met (Khan, 2018).

This pressure, and sense of building

quickly to meet targets, poses a real problem to flood risk.

According to Know Your Flood Risk, one in six homes in the UK at present is at risk of flooding. There is no doubt that the UK has seen a rise in flooding issues in recent history, with climate change and land management practices driving an increase in events.

One factor that has contributed to the rise in flooding is the increase in impermeable surfaces with rapid urbanisation. Higher impermeable cover leads to increased surface runoff, a driver of flooding. More and more houses being built will only increase the percentage of impermeable cover, which will continue to exacerbate the issue. The land can no longer absorb rainfall if it is built over; instead, water runs off impermeable surfaces into drains which can become overwhelmed, and into rivers, increasing the flood risk in multiple areas. It is unlikely that old drainage systems will be able to cope

with the increased burden, and thus sewer and surface water flooding will be more prevalent.

Floodplains continue to be built on despite understanding the associated risks, a trend that is set to continue.

Floodplains are viewed as attractive by developers due to their flat topography, but the nature of them, and their natural function, means any homes are very likely to be hit by flooding in their lifetime.

Building more homes will naturally put greater pressure on our infrastructure networks. With no change to them, roads will become more congested, schools and hospitals will be at capacity and everyone will suffer. Expansion to these areas will greatly increase the amount of impermeability in the area, especially when the development is on rural, pastoral land. Currently this land helps to store water and reduce surface water runoff.

The longer-term effects of

development and the attempts to meet housing targets need to be considered, so that appropriate action can take place to protect whole catchments. As is the nature of catchments, actions in one area will have consequences in another. Ideally, developers would consider these effects, but that may not always be the case. Nevertheless, new houses should be built with flooding in mind as increasing their flood resilience could negate effects further down the line.

Flood resilience can be incorporated into new buildings, and it makes far more sense to build with flood resilience in mind rather than retrospectively fitting it after a flood.

Flood resilience may include items such as lime plaster, ceramic tiles, and raising up electrical sockets and appliances. The idea is that if the property is flooded, it can be repaired faster and with less cost, minimising any disruption. New-build developments could also include flood

defences such as integral sumps and pumps, or even community flood kits on the development. Developments should incorporate sustainable urban drainage schemes (SUDS) and use permeable paving, along with ensuring maintenance of these systems is undertaken.

There could be policy shifts to reduce the country’s flood risk such as increasing wetland and woodland cover and returning rivers to their natural courses; however, these are long-term, large-scale options.

The only way to tackle the housing problem is to build more houses, but with flooding incidents ever increasing, the effects of development need to be considered in the planning stages with Flood Risk Assessments. If this is done, along with modifications to improve residential flood resilience, we may halt the rise of flood events in the country.

Flooding is the biggest threat the UK faces as a result of climate change, and therefore flood risk must not be ignored.

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F E AT U R E

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HOUSEBUILDING PLEDGE UNDER THREAT Despite a government rallying cry about addressing the housing crisis and pushing for the creation of new home across the UK, housebuilding statistics are registering a fall in production.

The latest statistics from March Quarter 2018, show that new build dwelling starts in England have dropped five per cent compared to the previous quarter, and eight per cent decrease compared with the same quarter the previous year.

The Prime Minister has made much of her manifesto pledge to create homes for the people who need them.

The Conservative party renewed its 2015 commitment to build one million new homes by the end of 2020 during campaigning ahead of the 2017 general election last June; yet it appears actions towards solving the housing crisis are having little effect. If the rate of construction is not reversed, the gap between the number of homes delivered and the homes needed and pledged will widen to nearly 100,000.

The battle to help solve the housing crisis is not helped by the merry-goround of ministers in the Department for Housing, with Kit Malthouse recently becoming the 17th Housing Minister in 20 years, and the third in the last two years.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, released figures at the end of June which show new homes starts have also fallen year on year. Annual new build dwelling starts totalled 157,480 in the year to March 2018, down by three per cent compared with the year to March 2017. During the same period, completions totalled 160,470, an increase of eight per cent compared with the previous year.

Private enterprise new build dwelling starts (seasonally adjusted) in the quarter to March 2018 were also down by three per cent from the previous quarter, and completions were also down by nine per cent. Starts by housing associations were 14% lower compared to the last quarter and completions ten per cent lower.

All starts are now 19% above the trough in the March quarter 2009,

but 14% below the March quarter 2007 peak. All completions are 50% above the trough in the March quarter 2013, and nine per cent below the March quarter 2007 peak. The rate of new building has been growing steadily since 2013 – and that trend is continuing through 2017 and 2018.

The anticipated failure of Conservative housing policy in England hasn’t stopped the Government making even bolder promises. In last November’s Autumn Budget, Mr Hammond pledged that 300,000 new homes would be built every year by the mid-2020s.

The evidence of insufficient housebuilding was further compounded in May, when the National Housing Federation – which represents housing associations in England, social landlords to five million people – and Crisis, the national charity for homeless people, released research conducted by Heriot-Watt University showing that England’s total housing need backlog has reached four million homes.

The research came ahead of the publication of the Government’s social housing green paper, expected in the summer. The Government promised the green paper, announced in September last year after the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, would bring about a “fundamental rethink” of social housing in the UK. It will take time to build up the country’s affordable housebuilding programme to the levels needed but lessons from the past show that, with government backing to release land at affordable prices and to increase investment, housing associations and councils have the potential to increase the supply of new homes for social rents, and low cost home ownership. In post war years until the 1970s councils regularly built more than 100,000 homes a year and previous research shows that an increase in housebuilding alone would lead to a decrease in the most acute levels of homelessness.

Instead, Government funding for social housing has been steadily declining for decades: in 1975/76, investment in social housing stood at more than £18Bn a year, but had

declined to just £1.1Bn in 2015/16.

Over the same period, the housing benefit bill grew from £4Bn to £24.2Bn each year.

David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “This groundbreaking new research shows the epic scale of the housing crisis in England. The shortfall of homes can't be met overnight – instead, we need an urgent effort from the Government to meet this need, before it publishes its social housing green paper in the summer.

“The green paper will set out the Government’s approach to tackling a number of key issues, like stigma of social housing tenants. However, it is clear that many of these stem from a chronic underinvestment in affordable housing. Fixing this should be the Government's top priority. As a first step, ministers should make the £2Bn they promised for social rent available immediately.

“The Government must also totally change the way it sells surplus land.

The priority here must be supporting developments that will deliver a public good on public land, rather than simply selling it off to the highest bidder.”

Jon Sparkes, Chief executive of Crisis, said: “[These] findings are stark and shocking, but they also represent a huge opportunity for us as a country to get to grips with our housing and homelessness crisis – and to end it once and for all.

“Right now across England, councils are desperately struggling to find homeless people somewhere to live.

This means thousands of people are ending up trapped in B&Bs and hostels or on the streets, exposed to danger every night. It also means that far too many people are living on a knife edge, in danger of losing their homes because of sky-high housing costs.

“But we know that homelessness is not inevitable and that with the right action, it can become a thing of the past. To truly get to grips with this crisis and ensure everyone has a safe and stable home, we must build the social and affordable housing we need to end homelessness once and for all.”

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F E AT U R E

UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES AND BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE NECESSARY TO TACKLE THE HOUSING CRISIS With Prime Minister Theresa May’s housing policy announcements, the Government has once again stated its ambition to address the UK’s housing crisis. The attention now paid to housing, whether from the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer or MPs from both sides of the House of Commons, has propelled housing of all types towards the top of the political agenda. This is an encouraging development, but it is important to bear in mind that building homes is an integral part of a far more complex picture. We speak to Patrick Sweeney, Partner in the Projects, Infrastructure and Construction team at law firm TLT, about the issues and how the housing promises will be delivered.

Many questions remain on infrastructure if we are to truly tackle the housing crisis. The Government has pledged to deliver one million new homes between 2015 and 2020, with a further half a million homes by 2022. While it currently looks unlikely that such volumes of delivery will be achieved, these are the Government’s stated objectives and it is putting a number of components in place to speed up access to planning permission and maximise housing delivery. With an ever-increasing number of developments in the pipeline up and down the country, developers, local communities and local authorities need to come together to meet the challenges that will arise, particularly on issues ranging from funding to transport to energy and social infrastructure.

Funding and understanding local development challenges Over the course of the last eight years, central government funding to local government has fallen. The reduction in this support has inevitably challenged local authorities about how they deliver frontline services, how they raise revenue to try and make up for the funding gap, and at the same time develop and regenerate areas in order to provide places that people will want to live and work in.

A number of local authorities and wider public sector bodies have sought to regenerate existing land they

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own to provide housing, including affordable homes. This has required developers to fund the building of these properties with public sector organisations retaining a stake in the development through retention of a number of units on-site (which can then be managed by third-party property specialists if no in-house capability exists).

These schemes are not without controversy, as opponents of this approach claim the result permanently removes key assets from public ownership and further query the number of affordable or social housing units on such redevelopments. Ultimately, the charge is that such developments can force workers on lower pay out of certain areas. Proponents of these schemes often defend the approach on the basis that they are doing what they can to address a housing shortage (and seeking to raise additional revenue to support delivery of frontline services) within the parameters set by central government.

Beyond the challenges faced by the public sector on developments involving their land, there are a number of other considerations which interested parties will need to consider and work collaboratively together on to find acceptable solutions for all stakeholders.

Transport and service infrastructure Given the number of homes experts suggest are required and the number of homes currently being built, a number of different solutions will be needed to meet future demands.

Inevitably, both brownfield and greenfield sites will be considered for development which will undoubtedly lead to contentious planning applications – a concern the Prime Minister has acknowledged.

Provision will need to be made for new developments to connect to existing infrastructure such as utility services and fibre optic cables, as well as transport routes. This, in turn, could result in the need to build new roads, or even tram and underground stations. In areas undergoing considerable growth, it will be necessary to re-examine the capacity of existing infrastructure as roads and public transport systems become more heavily used by new residents. The lead time for such vital work will also need to be considered by developers and local councillors alike.

Energy infrastructure These questions are not new and have been grappled with by those involved with the development process for decades. Given the pace of technological change, there is a clear need when planning a development or redevelopment to consider how a major

infrastructure project can be futureproofed. With the rapid and continued evolution of clean energy technologies, developers need to decide whether developments are built to energyefficient Passivhaus standards and whether they will feature off-grid energy schemes.

As wind, solar, ground-heating and energy storage technologies have developed to become efficient and affordable, it will be interesting to see whether the solutions to the housing crisis will also provide the tools necessary to prevent future energy crises. We have increasingly seen energy generation or energy storage projects feature as part of developments, giving residents off-grid energy capacities and reducing energy costs in the long run, and this will be a trend to watch.

We have also seen a number of local authorities seek to address fuel poverty, carbon targets, the need to find savings and the desire for their areas to become more energy-secure by assessing the viability of district heating schemes. Such schemes may yet become more financially viable with the main phase of the Heat Network Investment Fund (HNIP).

There is a clear tension between developers, who may prefer to connect to mains gas supply, and local authorities who, for the reasons set out above, may use planning to require the installation of district heating schemes in a locality. We should therefore expect a certain number of innovative schemes offering the capability of taking entire communities off-grid. Regardless of the energy infrastructure model chosen, the effects of energy-hungry electric cars will also need to be contemplated.

As the Government and leading car manufacturers have bought into the electric car revolution over the last couple of years, planners, developers and local authorities will have to plan accordingly. Indeed, with the Government having announced a ban on diesel and petrol vehicles from 2040, the future of cars appears to be electric.

This opens a new set of questions as to whether new developments should come with electric charging points as standard or with the capacity to add them at a later date. Where homes come with charging points, costs are likely to be included in the price of the property. If, on the other hand, charging points are installed later down the line, someone will have to foot the bill and this could spark disputes between developers, residents and local authorities, or present an opportunity for a new type of 'statutory' service provider to deliver the necessary infrastructure.

Social infrastructure Beyond the ‘hard’ infrastructure requirements needed to accommodate the new homes Britain needs, central and local government will have to take into account the need to update the social infrastructure around new developments. The occupiers of the new homes will increase demand on existing social infrastructure such as school places, on open spaces and on doctors’ surgery capacity. The current model is for some of these social infrastructure requirements to be delivered through the planning system, with the rest waiting for the market to provide. As with all sorts of infrastructure, by meeting these

needs local authorities will increase the attractiveness of their communities for would-be residents and encourage faster development and investment.

Two halves make a whole Whether infrastructure is transport, utilities or service related, it should not be a secondary consideration.

Providing suitable infrastructure for developments with planning permission is crucial to meeting the expectations of residents. Laying down the foundations for improved infrastructure in advance of development is also key to giving developers confidence in their ability to sell or rent out their properties.

Infrastructure construction can only be forgotten to the detriment of housing delivery. The acceleration of housebuilding in the UK should bring fresh opportunities for the infrastructure sector and this drive to deliver homes may well result in an exciting pipeline of new work for those involved in the industry. It’s worth remembering that the reverse is also true – areas well provisioned in infrastructure are more likely to attract future residents, thereby inducing new developments to sell fully.

The housing crisis is a long way from being solved, but if local authorities, the wider public sector, developers and the construction industry work holistically, this will benefit everyone and tackle the political issue of our time in the process.

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F E AT U R E

300,000 NEW HOMES A YEAR: AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL? With the Government pushing to address the housing crisis, we speak to Steve Mansour, CEO of CRL, about the problem. Possible solutions include changing the building process itself, but would a shake-up of production help make 300,000 homes a year an achievable goal?

Make the homebuilding process more about building homes Getting tangled up in red tape is every small and medium sized builder and developer’s nightmare.

Overly complex policies, unnecessary processes, outdated legacy systems and piles of local government paperwork all cause long, costly delays. This bureaucracy repeatedly threatens to pull focus from the job at hand – building homes and meeting the challenge of our national housing crisis.

CRL recently surveyed SME builders and developers to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities they face. The results clearly show the feelings and grievances experienced by those who are building the homes of tomorrow, today. One strong theme that emerged is the belief that there is inadequate support from those who set regulatory and legal stipulations and requirements. 53% of those surveyed described the Government as either ‘unsupportive’ or ‘very unsupportive’.

Just 2% thought legislators were ‘very supportive’ of the industry.

There’s an inbuilt irony here – a radical disjuncture between the support expressed by policymakers for the building trade, and the level of practical help that they deliver.

Current legal frameworks are outdated and no longer fit for purpose.

Government policy unfairly favours larger homebuilders over small to medium developers. Some of the steps that could be taken to correct this are simple. The Government ought to minimise form-filling to allow contractors to focus on quality builds and workmanship. The Government’s recent White Paper ‘Fixing Our Broken

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Housing Market’ states that “the fundamentals of the Building Regulations system remain sound and important steps were taken in the last Parliament to rationalise housing standards.” Yet, there is still much progress to be made.

In her foreword to the White Paper, Prime Minister Theresa May promises the Government will be “giving councils and developers the tools they need to build more swiftly” in order to “tackle unnecessary delays”. If this sentiment was translated into practical action, our industry would gain great momentum.

Instead, one developer working on a project to construct just over 100 homes was faced with 40 different demands from the council that had to be met before the development could progress.

These included: obtaining approval for roadworks; seeking permission to move any foliage that birds might use for nesting; erecting pre-approved fences around five silver birch trees; reporting on colours and other details of door, window and garage lintels; submitting detailed drawings showing proposed brick types and design of windows, garage and house doors; taking steps to protect hedgehogs; protecting slow worms by filing an ecologist report; and building ten bat boxes and 22 bird boxes.

I don’t want to trivialise the importance of some of these measures, but others seem overly onerous. What’s even more worrying is that this example is from three years ago and yet 39% of those we recently surveyed said they thought the Government’s support had decreased over the years, with 32% claiming that it had stayed the same. In addition, the Government has proposed reducing the time that builders have to work on projects that have gained planning permission to just two years, before permission is removed. Ministers have also proposed that developers which fail to construct homes quickly enough could have their land confiscated by

local authorities.

In response, builders were keen to point out that there was a substantial difference between outline permission – where land for housing is approved by planners, and detailed permission – which is required for the builder to actually begin work. If the two-year deadline for work commencement was counted from the time outline permission was granted, many projects would be undeliverable.

We believe it’s vital to cut as much red tape as possible, without delay.

This doesn’t mean cutting corners in terms of building quality, health and safety or building regulations. We are certainly not advocating buildings that are less structurally sound. Instead, we are simply calling for a reduction in the complexity involved in inspection and certification, to streamline the process.

This will be of particular help to SME builders who don’t have the resources to deal with overly burdensome bureaucratic requirements.

It’s important to unshackle the construction industry. From the vantage point of a structural insurer, it’s straightforward: developers must be able to quickly and easily receive quotes, enjoy simple flat rate fees through easy payment methods, have reliable inspections with surveyors who cause minimal disruption and ultimately get their final certificates on time. In short, removing all the administrative headaches normally associated with the process, leaving these SMEs to focus on the job in hand.

There is one clear and optimistic note, though. Those surveyed remain confident about 2018, with 65% saying they are planning to build more homes than they did last year. Can the industry meet the Government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year?

The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’, but only when the barriers to building are removed, and red tape is purposefully pared back. We’re doing everything we can; it’s time for the Government to do the same.

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F E AT U R E

HOMES FIT FOR BRITS

Materials matter

The British take their homes seriously. If we’re not putting up shelves, mowing the lawn or staining the fence, we’re no doubt watching Grand Designs explaining to each other knowingly why that space-age carbon-neutral windmill will never come in on budget. But when it comes to what we really value in a home, the picture becomes more complicated.

We speak to Andrew Minson, Executive Director at the Modern Masonry Alliance, about the issues

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housebuilders are facing.

How important is energy efficiency? Do people consider fire safety when buying a house? Or long-term maintenance? Or is it really all about location? Modern Masonry commissioned a survey of 2,000 home owners and renters to find out what architects and specifiers should be considering when approaching any new build project. Here are some of the core findings:

One of the most surprising findings from the survey was that three-quarters of all owners (76%) have never asked what a building is made of when buying it as their home. 23% don’t know what type of walls their house has, and 20% don’t know what their floors are made from. There is, however, an acknowledgement that it matters.

The overwhelming majority – 90.1% – thought people should be told what building materials have been used before buying or renting a property.

While they may not consciously choose a home based on its structure, the attributes people deem most important are directly affected by the choice of construction materials. It is therefore the responsibility of the architect – and the whole project team – to ensure the construction and the build quality delivers what people value most.

Safe as houses The highest rated of 14 factors when choosing a new home was fire safety – with 61% viewing it as ‘very important’. This was closely followed by durability over a 60-year-plus lifetime (59%), robust construction (58%) and energy efficiency (56%). More people deemed efficient central heating ‘very important’ (56%) than having a garden (54%). Alongside the tangible impact of reducing bills, well-heated spaces also add to the less measurable quality of cosiness – an attribute that was cited by a considerable number of respondents as the thing they love most about their home.

Sound affects Material choice also plays a part in the crucial quality of sound insulation. When it comes to what they dislike most, the answer was clear: bad neighbours. This was the negative impact that had affected most respondents (33%), and which they feared most (22%). It is hardly surprising that quiet was considered

a ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important’ factor by 91% of people.

Shock of the new The good news for residential architects is that new-builds have a solid level of support, with 60% saying they would consider moving to a newly completed home (and a further 9% saying they already lived in one). Despite our TV habits, only 6% would describe their dream home as ‘a contemporary Grand Design’ and another 6% a ’period home’. There also seems to be a general perception that new buildings perform better, in particular on energy efficiency, with the highest proportion of respondents – 50% – voting it one of the main influences behind the design of houses and the materials used.

A climate of confidence But to maintain, and increase, the trust of the house buying public, architects and the supply chain need to stay focused on the challenges ahead.

It will be their responsibility to prevent minor concerns from becoming bigger

problems.

It is noticeable that people principally worry about things that they’ve experienced in the past.

But the impact of climate change, and the increasing incidence of extreme weather events, will mean unfamiliar perils such as flooding and overheating could become much more common within a matter of years.

Overheating is a concern for only a small proportion (6%) at present, but there is already awareness that it could worsen: 82% said that building construction that could reduce summer overheating was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat important’ in their choice of home, though only 6% thought that this was a key consideration in current housing design. Ditto flood resilience: a ‘very’ or ‘somewhat important’ factor in the choice of a new home for 87% of people, though only 17% felt it was currently a top priority for designers.

This emphasises the fact the housebuilding industry cannot afford to ignore the impact of the future climate on today’s new homes.

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