MMC 52pp M10 WEB

Industry welcomes abolition of cap on what councils can
borrow to build houses
Lifting the borrowing cap for councils will diversify the housing market, stimulate industry capacity and help councils more easily meet their
affordable homes requirements.
The Prime Minister Theresa May has shown her commitment to help fix the housing crisis by announcing the abolition of cap on what councils
can borrow to build houses, in her keynote Conservative party conference speech.
The Housing Builders Association (HBA), the house building division of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), is delighted that the
Government is helping tackle the crippling house crisis, by listening to the industry and finally addressing concerns which the HBA has lobbied
on for quite some time. The HBA has had the cap on local authority borrowing for new housebuilding as a measure in all of its past manifestoes
and the entire supply chain has worked hard towards achieving this. Lifting councils’ house building cap will now help small and medium-sized
(SME) builders and councils to work together to deliver the Governments’ target of delivering 300,000 homes a year.
Research reveals connected
tech is a bright way to recruit
and retain talent for SMEs
New research from Signify finds over half (54%) of SMEs currently
struggle to find new employees.
Two in five SMEs think investing in connected technology would
help retain employees
61% of workers believe that smart lighting would give customers
and clients a more favorable opinion of a business.
Over half of small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to
recruit talent and two in five have issues retaining employees,
according to new research from Signify, the world leader in lighting,
formerly Philips Lighting. The findings show that employers are
potentially missing a trick as over half of the employees surveyed
said they’d be in favour of their company investing in connected
tech, specifically smart lighting, ahead of other improvements.
“High workplace satisfaction influences engagement and the
reputation of a business as a great place to work. So it’s no surprise
that SMEs are looking into connected tech options to enhance
engagement,” said Bianca van der Zande, research scientist
at Signify.
New construction output
figures show rise in output
Commenting on new figures published by the ONS which show a
continued recovery in construction output after a weak start to
the year, Michael Thirkettle, Chief Executive of leading
construction consulting and design agency McBains, said “These
figures, which show a third successive increase in output, will be
cautiously welcomed by the construction industry.
“We’re still not out of the woods however, with Brexit worries still
on the horizon and the cost of imported materials remaining high
due to the weak pound. Before this recent upturn in output, we
saw several months decline so evidence of sustained growth is
needed before we can safely say we’re on the road to recovery.
“In particular, construction needs some incentives from the
government to help give housebuilding a further boost. We’re
still building fewer homes than required, and while we heard a lot
at the recent party conferences in terms of demand-side policy
announcements to help more people onto the housing ladder,
there was little detail on the supply side to help the industry build
the homes that will allow such aspirations to be met.”
Low-skilled does not mean low value
The Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to unveil a new skills based system as part of her post-Brexit immigration plans.
Under the proposals "The new skills-based system will make sure low-skilled immigration is brought down and set the UK on the path to reduce
immigration to sustainable levels,” Mrs May said when speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, and that “free movement would end once
and for all" when the UK leaves the EU.
The industry has expressed concern that many jobs within construction fall under the low-skilled bracket and this will have a damaging impact
on the construction industry. The Government is fully aware of the skills shortage the construction industry faces and the NFB is keen to see
more details on how the system will work, which will be outlined in the white paper expected later in the autumn.
UK has sixth-highest rate of excess winter deaths in Europe
Research reveals that the UK has the sixth-worst long-term rate of excess winter mortality out of 30 European countries. In addition, when
taking into account cold weather beyond just the winter months, the UK ranks second-worst out of 30 European countries.
Over the last five years there has been an average of 32,000 excess winter deaths in the UK every year. Of these, 9,700 die due to a cold home –
the same as the number of people who die from breast or prostate cancer each year. The fact that UK homes are amongst the least energy
efficient in Europe confirms that these deaths are preventable.
Pedro Guertler from E3G comments “The UK has one of the worst records on cold homes-related deaths in Europe and it is not only a public
health tragedy, it is a national embarrassment. This epidemic is entirely preventable and E3G and NEA are calling on the UK Government to
reinstate public capital investment in home energy efficiency to fix the cold homes crisis.”
MMC
Nov 2018 M10 5