Housebuilder Sept 2018

September 2018
PICTURE OF THE MONTH
Duchy Homes is working with the British Heart Foundation to install defibrillators at
all its working sites across Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire with the BHF training the
site teams to keep them safe during construction (right). Once these developments
are complete, Duchy Homes will gift the defibrillators to the local communities and
arrange for public training sessions by the BHF.
MOMENT OF THE MONTH
The weeks of sunshine and England’s surprise progress in the World Cup made
the summer somewhat surreal – as if we were living in a parallel universe while
our politicians continued to fail to lead us in any way at all. As someone Tweeted:
“Dear Italy – we seem to have stolen your weather, your football team and your
politics – we will return them by Christmas.” The World Cup progress and good
weather probably dampened visitor footfall to show homes – so perhaps, for
the industry’s sake, our moment of the summer should be when Croatia’s Mario
Madzukic dumped our brave boys out of the tournament. But that would be
churlish. Instead, let us look to politics again – it could be the appointment of Kit
Malthouse as the 15th housing minister in 17 years. But maybe not. Instead let us
highlight the positive – the launch of the revised NPPF was well received on the
whole, described as “broadly sensible, workable and pragmatic”. That’ll do – we’ll
take that. The revised NPPF is our moment of the month.
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
POLL
OF THE MONTH
We asked:
Will the revised NPPF help increase new homes supply?
Yes 20% No 64% Maybe 16%
Follow us on Twitter @housebuildermag
Roofing and waterproofing company IKO says its Pitched Roof System meets the
requirements of most pitched roof projects but with additional benefits. “IKO’s
Metrotiles, for example, are steel but designed to be aesthetically indistinguishable
from traditional clay pantiles, so they offer the same visual appeal with additional
benefits expected from lightweight steel roofing,” explains technical manager
Martin Fisher.
For more products see pages 70 – 81
THE HOUSEBUILDER SHARE PRICE INDEX
The Housebuilder share price index graph is provided
by Thomson Reuters Datastream. The graph includes
McCarthy & Stone and Countryside which floated
in 2015 and 2016. They join the seven companies
presently tracked by the FTSE Home Construction
index – Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Bovis, Persimmon,
Redrow and Taylor Wimpey. In addition this version
includes Abbey, Crest Nicholson, Galliford Try, Gleeson,
Inland, Kier, Telford and Trafalgar New Homes.
The new index was set as a base of 100 in February 2016,
as Countryside floated. It rose gently by 13% to the end of
May that year, but a month later took a hit following the
EU vote to fall to 68.84. It regained lost ground through
2017, peaking in October but this year has been bumpier
and the graph has dipped over the summer.
150
120
90
August 18 2017 to August 17 2018
High 131.52 (October 24 2017)
Low 107.24 (July 6 2018)
Last 109.89 (August 17 2018)
Aug Oct Dec Feb Apr
Jun Aug
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