Housebuilders are being invited to bid for government funding to help deliver discounted first homes for locals and key workers across England. The government has earmarked £150m to support the roll-out of the scheme with a target of 1,500 new homes by March 2023. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Homebuilders of all shapes and sizes will now be able to benefit from this scheme while helping first-time buyers and key workers onto the property ladder.” The scheme offers homes at [...]

Occupier confidence in the West End is beginning to return with some existing retailers moving to better locations or superior-configured stores, according to Savills research. Mobility across London reached its highest levels in the second quarter since the start of the pandemic. However, average weekly footfall is still 56 per cent lower than pre-Covid levels due to low overseas arrivals and continued homeworking. Savills commercial research director Marie Hickey said: “The vast majority of demand is currently generated by domestic [...]

A former apprentice service engineer, Tim Balcon, will take over the reins of the CITB from the beginning of next month. Mr Balcon started out from a mining town in South Yorkshire as an apprentice with British Gas in the early 1980s. “As a former apprentice I know how much having the right skills at a young age can transform your whole career and support your employer. “That’s why I’m so passionate about skills and am thrilled to be joining [...]

Pent-up demand on hold in 2020 has returned with office take-up in the first half of this year nearly a quarter above the five-year average, according to Savills’ data. Demand is outstripping supply with a development pipeline equal to five months take up in an average year said the property agent. Commercial research director Steven Lang said: “The resurgence in transactional activity in the greater London and the southeast office market has continued as we begin to emerge out the [...]

A new steel frame modular housebuilder opened its first factory last week intending to build 5000 new homes a year within the next five years. CoreHaus’s 20,000 sq ft factor in Seaham, County Durham, is initially employing about 20 people but expects to grow to 100 once the firm reaches its optimum production volume. Managing director Scott Bibby said: “We already know there is interest and demand for our innovative product. The housing sector is screaming out for something that’s [...]

Allowing cafes, restaurants, day centres and gyms to be turned into housing could mean four out of five high street shops could be replaced by housing according to a new study out this week. University College London researchers looked at how extended permitted development rights, PDR, which came into force on the 1st of August, would affect Barnet, Crawley, Huntingdonshire, and Leicester. “We recognise the need for more homes and the desire to regenerate high streets. But we need new [...]

More than half of respondents agree conditions are consistent with an upturn, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS’ latest commercial property market survey. In the second quarter, 56 per cent of survey participants predicted a recovery compared with 38 per cent of respondents from January to March. Chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said: “Demand trends appear much more stable in the office sector relative to recent quarters, while the industrial sector continues to see sharp growth in interest [...]

A new inquiry studying housing demand will include looking at the part smaller builders can play in innovation and developing difficult sites. The house of lords’ built environment committee will see how smaller builders can be encouraged back to the supply point. Cross-party committee chair Baroness Neville-Rolfe told Housing Today: “You get some innovation and vibrancy and they do things that perhaps a bigger builder would not do. Historically there’s quite a lot of smaller builders who have fallen by [...]

Office demand in the South East is picking up thanks to large corporates signing up for significant amounts of space, reports property agent Savills. It said offices showed a strong end to the year up to the first quarter thanks to companies such as Amazon and InterContinental Hotels signing up for significant workspace in Reading and Windsor. Commercial research director Steven Lang said: “Despite the pandemic impacting negatively on the sentiment towards the office market, it is fascinating to see [...]

University towns like Oxford, Cambridge and Canterbury are predicted to see their best house sale volumes in the coming months despite the demise of the stamp duty tax holiday. Knight Frank research, from 1995 to 2019, shows Oxford experiencing the largest volume of its sales from July to September with nearly 31 per cent occurring over this period. Cambridge has a similarly high level of completions with 30 per cent occurring with Canterbury also experiencing strong figures at 29 per [...]

Labour MPs have tabled a debate motion and vote this afternoon in a move to gain cross-party support for watering down the government’s forthcoming planning bill. The new bill is expected to follow the Planning for the Future white paper published last year where land would be earmarked for either growth or development. Shadow communities and local government secretary Steve Reed said: “Good development can only happen when developers and communities work together.” Currently, residents can raise their concerns about [...]

Average earnings on London building sites showed a 4.5 per cent month-on-month increase in May to £885 a week, according to construction payroll data from Hudson Contract. The firm is the UK’s largest payer of freelance site workers with more than 2,500 companies across England and Wales on its books. Managing director Ian Anfield attributed wage inflation in the capital to a reduction in migrant EU labour. “We are starting to see the impact of people leaving the UK ahead [...]