Archive for category: Latest News

Housing Minister, Julie James has announced that factory-made ‘modular’ housing should be used to quickly increase the number of high-quality social and affordable homes being built across Wales – part of a new Welsh Government strategy to kick-start the modern methods of construction industry.
The Welsh Government wants councils to build far more Council homes at scale and at pace, however, they face the well-documented capacity constraints faced by traditional house builders.
To deliver more homes quickly, councils will be encouraged to use modern methods of construction (MMC), which will help them build better quality homes faster than traditional methods allow, in order to meet the growing need for affordable housing across the country.
MMC includes various construction methods from new materials and technologies, to off-site manufacturing, which either replace or complement traditional methods of construction.
MMC opportunities will also bring significant new benefits to the Welsh economy.
To back Welsh business, Ministers plan to help this next generation of homes to be built utilising national assets such as Welsh steel and Welsh timber. There will also be a focus on using the emerging MMC industry in Wales to pursue Welsh social and ethical ambitions, including developing skills and market-leading technical expertise in communities hardest hit by the decline of traditional industries. Investment will also help firms invest in locally sourced labour.

Other benefits include:
• creating new jobs and developing the new skills required to accommodate greater use of MMC, which will represent a sea-change in the construction industry
• upskilling the existing construction workforce
• attracting new and diverse entrants from marginalised groups such as offenders and those who wouldn’t necessarily consider careers in traditional construction such as women

As part of the Welsh Government’s new Modern Methods of Construction strategy ‘Reimagining social house building in Wales’, which is being published today, Ministers are making a major £45 million investment in the modular housing industry in Wales, to ensure it can deliver the next generation of social housing that people need.

£20 million is being made available for MMC businesses, who in partnership with Welsh social landlords, want to build the next generation of social housing. This investment is designed to help and encourage the market, especially SMEs, to develop off-site manufacture (OSM) solutions such as supply chains, factories, skills development centres, that meet the needs of the next generation of social housing in Wales.
A further £25 million is being made available for round 4 of the Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme, which will focus on innovative housing delivered through MMC.
The strategy supports the Welsh Government’s ambitions to reduce carbon emissions from the housing sector. It also supports move to a circular economy, as building with MMC could reduce construction waste by as much as 70-90%.
Yesterday the Housing Minister today witnessed MMC in action on a visit to SO Modular in Neath, who already supply the social housing market in Wales.
Housing Minister, Julie James said:
Building more social and affordable homes is a key priority for the Welsh Government. Over the last 4 years, this Welsh Government has invested £2 billion in new housing across Wales, as part of our ambition to deliver 20,000 affordable homes by 2021.
But we want to build more. And we want to build better. The significant investment we’re making in the modular housing industry will enable us to do that.
Gone are the days of MMC’s association with poor quality, temporary, pre-fabricated housing; MMC now produces high quality, desirable and energy efficient affordable homes that tenants can be proud of. We have certainly moved from Pre-Fab to Ab-Fab!
Developing the MMC industry in Wales presents us with a great opportunity to not only build beautiful new social housing, but also kick-start a new industry that will become increasingly important for our economy.
The publication of the strategy is in response to a recommendation made by the Welsh Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Review, which identified Modern Methods of Construction as a way of more quickly increasing housing supply.

Source: Wired.gov

Expo 2020 Dubai takes on greater significance for UK post-Brexit

Expo 2020 Dubai will provide the perfect platform for the newly divorced United Kingdom to showcase itself to the world.

While the UK left the European Union (EU) on January 31, the country has entered an 11-month transition period that keeps it bound to the EU rules until December 31, 2020.

That coincides with the UK’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, which is set to run from October 20 this year to April 10, 2021.

Simon Penney, HM Trade Commissioner for the Middle East, told Arabian Business: “It’s bang in the middle of the UK leaving the European Union on December 31, so it is the UK’s first global event where we will be represented on the global stage, which is a fantastic point for the UK to showcase global Britain.”

The 3,417 square-metre, two storey UK pavilion is due to be delivered in May or June this year at an estimated cost of $18 million.

Highlighting a drive for AI and space exploration, the pavilion will showcase innovations in culture, education, tourism and business.

Founding partners of the pavilion are De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester and London-headquartered HSBC.

Daniel Howlett, regional head of commercial banking, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, told Arabian Business: “The UK is the largest single corridor for HSBC from a UAE perspective. We’re keen to continue building that. We’re confident when you look at the UK pavilion, it’s going to be outstanding.”

Source: Arabian Business

The government has released the report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.  Our readership constitutes individuals who collectively would have to bring about the changes recommended in this report. Whilst it acknowledges the desperate need for social housing, it also seems to hark back to a time when money and time where in greater supply and ideals of philanthropy so perfectly demonstrated in housing provision by individuals such as George Cadbury could be expounded without compromise.  In such times individuals rather than government bodies were far more in control of social house provision and that allowed their vision to be bridled only by the funding at their disposal.

The report focuses strongly on the negative role of the motor car when affecting design in both our homes and the spaces around them but it asks for a complete re-think of planning which would be difficult without the virtual eradication of the motor cars.  Without a technological advancement that is quite beyond our current status, the replacement of the car is not going to happen quickly.

Given that the times we live in are so radically different from those of the late 19^th early 20^th centuries, we question whether the approach suggested by the report has any practical relevance to construction today.  It might be suggested that the report tells us nothing that we do not already know and equally gives no real solution, which raises the question, what is the point?  We have included some extracts from it below and would really welcome the comments of those of you who look at our industry from the mud and grit of the construction site rather that what might be seen as the view from ivory towers, where distance blurs the hard edges of reality.

……….It is not often that a government adopts beauty as a policy objective. But such is the remit of this Commission, and we fully endorse the thinking that has led to it. It is widely believed that we are building the wrong things, in the wrong places, and in defiance of what people want. A comprehensive recent study agrees, arguing that about three quarters of new housing developments are mediocre or poor.1 At a time when there is an acute shortage of homes, there is therefore widespread opposition to new developments, which seem to threaten the beauty of their surroundings and to impose a uniform ‘cookie cutter’ product that degrades our natural and built inheritance. People want to live in beautiful places; they want to live next to beautiful places; they want to settle in a somewhere of their own, where the human need for beauty and harmony is satisfied by the view from the window and a walk to the shops, a walk which is not marred by polluted air or an inhuman street. But those elemental needs are not being met by the housing market, and the planning system has failed to require them. The Commission on building beautifully was set up at the end of 2018, asking us to review the planning system that has regulated construction in our country over the last hundred years. Ours is a discretionary system. The right to build has been nationalised. However, it does not proceed by top-down control from government, but by the granting of permissions decided locally. This allows a voice to the many interests involved, including the interests of neighbours, and reflects the historical origins of our legislation, largely introduced under pressure from civic associations motivated by the desire to protect our natural and architectural legacy from thoughtless destruction in the wake of the industrial revolution. It has also meant that, in comparison with many other countries, the planning process as we know it is both uncertain in its outcome and unclear in what it permits, involving high risk for the developer and sparking often fierce resistance from local communities. Large estates of low-quality housing naturally arouse opposition from those whose amenities and property-values they threaten, and precious aspects of our built environment and countryside give rise to a strong desire to protect them from changes that might spoil them. The cumulative effect of this, together with a rise in litigation from developers, has been a stagnation in the planning process, and a sense that – despite the greatly increased wealth that this country now enjoys, in comparison with what was enjoyed by our predecessors in the early 20th century – we are building less beautifully than they, and indeed littering the country with built debris of a kind that nobody will want to conserve. What has gone wrong, and how can we change it? Those were the questions before the Commission, and this report is our answer to them. It is not the final answer; but it is the first step towards understanding the direction in which our planning policy should go…………..

….. Cities built with the aim of accommodating the car therefore have to look very different from the traditional city. If three parking spaces are required per household, as occurs in some local authorities, then terraces, streets, squares and mansion blocks become nearly impossible. The traditional shopping crescents and high streets tend to be abandoned and replaced with out-of-town retail centres, surrounded by fields of cars. Offices and government buildings are transferred to business parks, with their own parking lots. Walkability and mixed-use neighbourhoods are swiftly imperilled. We do not need to imagine this: in much of the United States it is the norm, with residential settlements starting life and remaining as car-dependent sprawls. Once the car starts to take over, the process becomes self-reinforcing: even people who would prefer to walk to the shops have to drive if there are no shops in walking distance……

……… The government of Harold Macmillan did oversee the rehoming of vast numbers of the poorest families out of inner-city slums into the ‘fresher air’ of the new housing estate; arguably the highest annual delivery of new homes we have seen in this country. However, what happened next was cheap system-building, often corrupt procurement, the ‘vertical slums’ that were poorly constructed and often equally poorly managed, leading to isolation and crime, that and were a far cry from the neighbourliness and family life they promised. We have learnt from these mistakes. Over more recent decades, new affordable housing has often been built by housing associations and councils to higher space and design standards than much of the housing for sale that this Commission has seen. As landlords, housing associations and councils have a long-term stake in these places and a commitment to the people living there, to offer the best quality of life they can. However, the severe shortage means that opportunistic developers can abuse permitted development rights to produce accommodation of the lowest quality to house those with no alternative. As the TCPA’s Raynsford Review pointed out, there is no beauty in a child having to use a car park as a play area or being housed in a glorified shipping container next to a flyover, on the argument that it is better than nothing. We believe that all homes – new build or conversions – should meet minimum standards for space, amenity and comfort, as well as the safety of the people that live there…..

Living_with_beauty_BBBBC_report

2019 raised the awareness of climate change, and it also saw an increasing number of holidaymakers opt for a staycation in the UK.

The government has been behind an initiative to support eco homes with its cleaner heating scheme (part of the Future Homes Standard) planned to be in full operation by 2025.

Offering attractive, eco-friendly and energy efficient homes is also appealing to furnished holiday let landlords and investors, with a growing number of guests looking to do their bit for the planet and holiday in the UK.

Julian Walker, director at the agency Spot Blue International Property, comments: “For anyone in the market for a holiday home this year, buying an eco-friendly property in the UK and letting it to the domestic market, so guests don’t need to travel far, makes a lot of sense.”

In June last year, the UK became the first first-world country to pass laws that should end its contribution to global warming by 2050. The new target is to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, compared with the previous target of at least 80% reduction from levels in 1990.

Property investors look to greener options

Julian Walker adds: “We anticipate that the UK’s furnished holiday lets market will continue to become a popular investment choice. The fact that holiday lets produce far higher weekly rental yields than long-term lets is not the only advantage for investors and landlords.

“Undoubtedly, 2019 was a turning point in the global drive to raise awareness of climate change.

“This is thanks largely to the likes of David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, who continue to keep the issue firmly on the agenda while forcing many of us ordinary people to ask questions about our own energy use and carbon footprint.”

Energy efficient modular building

The concept of modular design and construction methods in the residential development sector has been gaining traction in the past few years. At MIPIM last October, Esther McVey, the UK Housing Minister, spoke about the benefits: “Industry has told us some homes built using modern methods can have 80% fewer defects and heating bills up to 70% lower. Homes built using modern methods can be of higher quality, greener and built to last. I want to see a housing green revolution.”

This efficient and fast way of building lends itself to holiday homes. According to Spot Blue International, the amount of waste over the building phase in comparison to traditional housebuilding methods, according to specific measurements, is reduced by large levels. Labour time is reduced and this reduction in man hours results in decreasing travelling time to and from site, which helps reduce the carbon footprint further.

Walker says modular homes’ green credentials start before they’re even built. “And they continue for decades, even centuries, after they’re built,” he adds, while modern modular homes are also built to last a lot longer than traditional homes.

Modular homes adapt well to the holiday letting market; cutting-edge insulation materials mean they retain heat and landlords benefit from typically around 60% less going on utility bills than traditionally built properties.

By becoming more widely available, having these options is expected to “encourage UK tourists to travel less, thereby reducing not only the owners’ but the nation’s overall carbon footprint”.

Source: Buy Association