Housebuilders have branded Bath and North East Somerset council’s decision to ask for all new homes to be net zero as ‘unaffordable’ and ‘undeliverable’ at scale. They argue the council’s decision cuts across work between industry and the government for all homes to be ‘zero carbon ready’ under future homes standards to go live by […]
Housebuilders have described new rules forcing developers in England to adopt sustainable drainage systems to prevent flooding as ‘ill thought out’. The government has announced it will amend the flood and management act to make sustainable systems, referred to as SuDs, mandatory on all new housing development by 2024. Currently, SuDs, which typically use soakaways, […]
McLaren secured its first top spot in 18 months in the contractors’ league table for December 2022 thanks to work including a £90m south London tower job. The project to build three towers in the new Leon Quarter in Croydon was one of four secured by the contractor in December, according to data gathered by […]
A new scheme designed to make 95% mortgages more readily available to people buying new homes will be launched in the new year. Own New will launch its 95% mortgage product with Darlington Building Society early next year, alongside more than 50 housebuilders, offering a route to owning a new home for buyers with low […]
The construction supply industry has won a major victory with the 30-month extension of the CE mark for building products. The government had planned to scrap the European system by the end of the year in favour of its own regime, the UKCA mark, which goes live in January 2023. However, the lack of UK […]
The government has announced amendments to be made to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB), plus further changes to come through a review of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other consultations. This follows pressure from nearly 60 backbench MPs who sought to ban mandatory housing targets in England, ban the requirement for […]
November survey data signalled a steep and accelerated decline in construction activity across France midway through the final quarter of 2022. The sharper downturn reflected quicker reductions in activity across the three types of work monitored by the survey, although especially pronounced falls were seen in residential building and civil engineering projects. November’s slump was […]
The S&P Global Eurozone Construction Total Activity Index fell from 44.9 in October to 43.6 in November, indicating a seventh consecutive monthly contraction in activity levels across eurozone’s construction sector. Notably, the decline was the strongest since May 2020 and marked overall. France (40.7) led the downturn, followed by Germany (41.5) which had recorded the […]
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown: ‘’Pessimism is seeping through the construction sector, with activity slowing to a snail’s pace in November as worries about a looming recession causes orders to slow. It’s a stark change of pace from October when there appeared to be pent up demand for building work, with […]
Housebuilders have hit out at plans to buy ‘nutrient credits’ for building on protected wildlife sites where pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus have leached into rivers. They claim many smaller developers will go out of business when the new nutrient mitigation scheme goes live early next year. National Federation of Builders, NFB, housing and […]
