26/05/2009 by David Slade.

 The Lifetime Homes Standard is the result of careful study and research. The design Criteria forming the Standard relate to interior and exterior features of
the home.

There are a total of 16 design Criteria. Each is valuable in itself, but to achieve the Lifetime Homes Standard a dwelling must incorporate all relevant Criteria.

Wheelchair accessibility was chosen as the benchmark for a good space requirement. Good space requirements also help many other people – for example, parents with pushchairs and small children, or people carrying bags
of shopping. Good accessibility helps everyone, not just people who use wheelchairs.

See www.lifetimehomes.org.uk

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston has told the property and construction industry that the economy will not recover until the end of 2010.

Addressing the British Council for Offices annual conference he said: “The challenge for the UK is convincing the rest of the world that we can live within our means.

“Yes we are going to recover, your sector will recover. It is not a disaster but it is going to be pretty tough.”

He told conference delegates in Edinburgh that the private sector should assume more of the burden of driving recovery to relieve the public sector, which has been propping up the banking system.

Mr Peston said the recovery would be slow. “When the recovery comes it may be a bit sluggish as households and companies follow banks in paying down debt.”

He added that the downturn was worse in Germany and Japan but added: “The big question is will there be a semi-permanent reduction in the British economy? We will have to tighten our belts for several years.”

Conference chair Mike Hussey, senior vice-president at Land Securities, said: “We need to look at how we do things in the property industry to see if there is anything we can do [to help the global economy].”

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

The Government has laid out its mandatory Lifetime Homes Standards for all public sector housing by 2011.

The Government intends that private developers will do this as well so that by 2013 all new homes will be built to the same standard.

Research done by the Housing and Older People Development Group outlines the needs of older people:

• Well designed with growing older in mind and should meet the needs of all ages.

• Space is important, with extra room for visitors or a carer.

• Low maintenance and safe housing design with downstairs bathroom, and affordable to heat.

• Access to green private space and accessibility to transport is important.

• A reliable repairs service.

• Older people want to be listened to and be involved in all stages of planning and policy.

Different homes

• Nursing homes are for people who can require 24 hour care.

• Extra care homes are for people who live independently and own or rent their homes but they have on-site support. Also known as sheltered housing from the 1960s. Housing associations
are the main clients for this market and other private operators are on the increase.

• A care village is a collection of extra care homes. It can be a gated community, which has full care facilities for people planning for old age.

• Hospices are for those whose conditions may not be curable.

• Day centres may be part of hospitals and serve a variety of purposes.

• Elderly persons’ homes may be those which are specially adapted but they don’t have to be, and may be designated due to location or other reasons.

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

Partnerships for Schools has shortlisted 22 contractors for the hotly contested £4 billion academies ‘super framework’.

Construction giants including Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Kier are joined by firms scattered throughout the construction top 100.

Scunthorpe-based Clugston and Sheffiled-based Henry Boot – both of which have turnovers in the region of £125 million – made the 18-strong North and Midlands shortlist.

Abingdon-headquartered JB Leadbitter and East Sussex-based Rydon made the cut for the Southern and Eastern section. They are joined by Educinq, a joint venture of Osborne and Midas.

A total of 14 companies are shortlisted for both frameworks, including Willmott Dixon, Interserve and Wates.

A maximum of 12 contractors will be named on each framework, both of which are expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

Pre-qualification questionnaires were completed by a mammoth 57 companies. Contractors are desperate to be on the broadly-scoped framework, which has double the value of its predecessor at a time when work is hard to come by.

Partnerships for Schools chief executive Tim Byles said: “The interest in the new Contractors’ Framework from large and medium-sized companies across the country demonstrates how all sectors of the construction industry see this as a great opportunity, particularly at a time when conditions are challenging.

“With more than 127 Academies being delivered through BSF currently, and more than 100 more in the pipeline, the new Framework will enable contractors and suppliers from across the country to get involved in a scheme that has a predictable flow of work, supported by direct grant Government funding.”

The shortlisted companies:

Sector 1: North and the Midlands
Apollo
Balfour Beatty
BAM
Bovis
Bowmer & Kirkland
Carillion
Clugston
Galliford Try
Henry Boot
Interserve
Kier
Miller
Morgan Ashurst
Shepherd
Sir Robert McAlpine
Vinci
Wates
Willmott Dixon

Sector 2: London, the South and the South and East of England
Apollo
Balfour Beatty
BAM
Bovis
Carillion
Educinq
Galliford Try
Interserve
JB Leadbitter
Kier
Miller
Morgan Ashurst
Rydon
Sir Robert McAlpine
Vinci
Volker Fitzpatrick
Wates
Willmott Dixon

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

With the amount of bad news that has been coming out, it is tempting to become desensitised to any new bad figures.

Indeed, some commentators do appear to be seizing on any bits of positive news so they can be the first ones to call recovery.

However, as tempting as it is, we are nowhere near the upturn. Within housing there have been recent rises in mortgage approvals and house prices.

Yet transactions have fallen to such depths that monthly changes are likely to be erratic and the increases have been high as percentage changes but high percentage changes but on low levels.

Homebuilders have been discounting heavily and once destocking has finished, we may expect a slight increase to match demand levels.

But these demand levels are still extremely low by historical standards and the bigger picture highlights a concerning story with construction expected to endure historic falls in 2009.

Macroeconomic forecasts keep being revised down each month that goes by despite government and central bank intervention.

With the fall in economic activity, and unemployment set to break the three million barrier by early 2010, construction is anticipated to fall further.

The latest output and new orders highlighted the worst falls since 1980 and 1983 respectively.

The Association’s latest forecasts published this week highlight a fall of 12 per cent for construction in 2009, the largest fall in construction output on record - and the records go back to 1955.

Private housing and industrial already fell in 2008 and are set to endure further falls this year.

Offices and retail are set to fall as private sector construction suffers a 20 per cent drop in 2009 alone.

Private housing starts are set to fall to 70,000 in 2009, the lowest figure since 1924 and contrasts sharply with 181,000 starts in 2007.

Prospects are that 2010 will not be much better and the Association anticipates starts of only 77,000.

Industrial properties also felt sharp falls following the economic slowdown and by the end of 2010, warehouses and factories construction are expected to be 50 per cent and 39 per cent lower respectively than in 2007.

The falls in offices and retail are just as shocking with expectations that by 2011, the new build offices market will be 56 per cent lower than in 2007 and retail new build will be 43 per cent lower in 2007.

Public growth

It is not all bad news, thankfully. Construction work driven by public funding such as education and rail is expected to grow significantly over the next five years.

On the rail side, the regulator has agreed funding with Network Rail at £28.5 billion between 2009 and 2014, which should provide consistent double-digit growth.

Programmes such as Building Schools for the Future, Building Colleges for the Future and Primary Capital Programme are helping education work but with public borrowing expected to reach unprecedented and unsustainable highs over the next few years, government spending will be cut in the medium term.

In the near term, Building Colleges for the Future has already experienced funding problems.

With the worst fall in construction on record anticipated this year, it is difficult to be anything other than pessimistic.

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

The NHBC’s latest housebuilding statistics show 14,537 applications to start new homes in the combined private and public sectors in the three months to February.

The applications are 59 per cent down on the same period a year earlier when 35,733 applications were made.

Of the 14,537 applications to start new homes, 7,931 related to private sector activity – 72 per cent lower than the 28,533 in the same three-month period a year ago.

Public sector figures for the three months to the end of February totalled 6,606 – 8 per cent lower than the 7,200 in the same period a year ago.

New build completions in the combined private and public sectors totalled 26,918 in the three months to the end of February – 32 per cent lower than the 39,499 in the same period a year ago.

The average number of daily sales of new homes in the UK from December 2008 to February 2009 was 333 – 37 per cent lower than the 525 a year earlier.

NHBC chief executive, Imtiaz Farookhi, said: “With the number of applications to start new homes in the public sector remaining broadly consistent in recent months, our statistics suggest that house builders are increasingly relying on public sector work in the downturn.”

The Housing Forum today called for a radical shake-up of housebuilding and planning priorities to better accommodate current market conditions and better insulate for future market recovery.

Unveiling the findings of its Reaching for Recovery report, the Forum highlighted the need to review funding and planning models, re-evaluate land value and quality standards and ultimately reinstate a stronger sense of realism about the short and long term challenges facing the house building industry.

The report summarises the findings of four cross-industry working groups to investigate several key areas of housing industry reform including.

Each group produced a set of proposals which will be further developed in collaboration with The Housing Forum members and taken to Government.

Housing Forum chairman Jeffrey Adams said: “The need to increase housing volumes and improve existing homes does not lessen in the wake of the financial crisis – rather the challenges and timescales for delivering reform simply become tighter and shorter.

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26/05/2009 by David Slade.

The housebuilding industry has received a boost with applications to build new homes up 10 per cent in the three months to April, figures from the National Housebuilding Council have revealed.

The National Housebuilding Council statistics show 17,859 applications to build new homes were received in the three months to the end of April 2009.

The amount is 10 per cent higher than the previous rolling quarter January to March 2009 when 16,232 applications we received.

Some encouragement can be taken from April’s figures, which show applications to start new homes in the combined private and public sectors rose for the fourth successive month in a row to 6,379.

But activity levels during the three months to the end of April were still severely depressed, with a 53 per cent reduction compared to the same period a year ago.

NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: “While it is still too early to assume that these are definite signs of a recovery, some positive indicators are emerging which suggest that the severe downturn in house-building activity may be beginning to turn a corner.

“Anecdotal evidence from house-builders and developers also suggests that conditions are easing slightly on site, no doubt boosted by the Government’s recent £1 billion budgetary pledge to help the housing market and the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Kickstart initiative to open up mothballed sites.”

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