Industry News
RIBA responds to the CCC’s report on UK housing
and climate change
The Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA) has today (Thursday 21 February
2019) responded to the Committee
on Climate Change (CCC)’s report UK
housing: Fit for the future?
RIBA Chief Executive, Alan Vallance said,
“This report underscores the urgent need
for government action to address the
energy performance of the UK’s building
stock.
We desperately need a new approach
that includes a comprehensive plan for
improving the energy efficiency of our
homes and offices.
A number of themes highlighted by the
CCC will be familiar to anyone with
experience of the construction sector:
low standards, a lack of enforcement of
building regulations and a culture of cost
cutting that leaves others to pick up the
bill later down the line.
From re-committing to a zero-carbon
standard for new homes, to mandating
the use of post occupancy evaluation in
all public contracts - the government has
a number of opportunities to show the
leadership that has so far been lacking.”
While culture change can deliver some
improvements, ultimately we need
government to make significant changes.
Government’s Right To Build
policy proves a postcode
lottery as 40,000 join council
registers for a self build plot
New research by the National Custom and Self Build Association (NaCSBA)
has found that, since 1st April 2016, over 40,000 people have now signed
up to Right to Build registers across England to secure a plot to design and
build their dream home.
Strong Q4 boosts
building society
2018 performance
Lending and savings figures published today
show that building societies lent £68.9 billion
in mortgage finance in 2018, up 7% on 2017.
Over the same period savings balances increased
by £14.3 billion, well ahead of the £8.5 billion
increase for the previous year.
Over 10,000 new registrations have been added, many via NaCSBA’s Right
to Build Portal. While NaCSBA is happy to see the number of people who
have registered growing, it remains the case that the numbers remain far
short of the real underlying demand. Building society mortgage lending 2018
• Gross lending totalled £68.9 billion, up 7%
on 2017 (£64.1bn)
NaCSBA believes this is because of a lack of promotion of the registers by
many local authorities and increasing action by many authorities to make
it harder for individuals to sign up to the registers. • Net lending totalled £17.9 billion, up 12%
on 2017 (£16.0bn) - 39% of market growth
• 476,803 new mortgages were approved,
up 8% on 2017. This represents 31% of all
mortgages approved last year.
More than 12,500 new
homes registered in January,
reports NHBC • Around 1 in 3 mortgages were to a first time
buyer.
• 23% of all outstanding mortgage balances
are held by building societies - £322.3
billion up from £298.7 billion at the end of
2017.
The UK’s housebuilders and developers registered 12,677 new homes at
the start of the year – an increase of 9% compared to January 2018. Building society savings balances 2018
8,931 were registered in the private sector (9,214 in 2018), with 3,746 in
the affordable sector (2,469 in 2018).
For the rolling quarter, between November and January 38,611 new homes
were registered compared to 37,990 a year ago – an increase of 2%.
During this period there were 26,668 new homes registered in the private
sector (28,509 in 2017: -6%) and 11,943 in the affordable sector (9,481 in
2017: +26%).
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• Savings balances rose by £14.3 billion, well
up on the £8.5 billion increase in 2017
• Societies hold savings balances of £281.7
billion, 5% up on balances at the end of
2017 (£268.8bn)
• Cash ISA balances grew by £9.9 billion.
Banks saw cash ISA balances decrease by
£3.0 billion. Societies hold 37% of all cash
ISA balances.