Howard Chapman, Buildingtalk Editor, reviews the first crop of New Year construction news, including Cameron’s pledge to build 10k new homes on public land in 2016.
What’s new in building this year? UK house prices are on the move again, CIOB awards open to non-site managers, the UK wind industry booms, the Circuit of Wales project begins and the numbers of new apprentices plummet.
Cameron announces 10,000 new homes to be constructed on public land
More than 10,000 new homes will be built on public land through Government direct commissioning in a plan David Cameron hailed as a “huge shift” – the biggest of use of such a policy since Margaret Thatcher and Michael Heseltine started the regeneration of London’s Docklands in the Eighties. It will “ensure hard-working people can buy affordable homes”.
Downing Street said the “radical” move will see homes being built at a faster rate with smaller building companies that cannot take on big projects able to begin construction on Government sites which already have planning permission.
- extra £1.2 billion to prepare brownfield sites for the building of 30,000 starter homes – available to first time buyers under 40 for at least a 20% discount – over the next five years
- first wave of up to 13,000 directly commissioned homes – 40% of which will be starter homes – will begin this year in Dover, Chichester, Gosport, Northstowe in Cambridgeshire and Old Oak Common in north west London
UK house prices on the move again
Average house prices grew strongly in December according to the latest survey from building society Nationwide
House prices in 2015
- rose by 4.5%
- average price of a property in the UK now at £196,999
- average house price growth of between 3% and 6% nationally in 2016
- average prices in the London are now 50% above their pre-crisis peak in 2007
London remained the strongest performing region for the fifth year running, with average prices up 12% compared with a year ago, according to Nationwide.
Scotland was the only part of the UK that saw a fall in average house prices, with values down 1.9% in the three months to the end of December compared with the same period a year ago.
CIOB opens awards to non-site managers
CIOB revise criteria for entering the 2016 Construction Manager of the Year Award, opening up routes for non site-based managers to apply.
CIOB said that the shift was based on a general recognition that many members in project delivery roles were not ‘site based’, and therefore unable to apply. The changes have been made in order to encourage a wider range of companies to enter their best people who deserve to be recognised for their hard work within the industry.
Busy year for UK wind industry
Renewable UK is predicting a busy year of construction for wind sector. Under construction over the next 12 months:
- 1.2GW of onshore wind
- 4.5GW of offshore wind
Onshore wind projects going live in 2016 will generate more than £913m of investment in the UK economy during their development and construction phases, while offshore wind projects in construction in 2016 will generate £5.9bn of investment within the UK over the next five years.
Circuit of Wales project begins
Preparation work on the site in Blaenau Gwent is set to begin in January, before construction work the following month.
The £315m project will bring an international motorsport circuit to the site north of Ebbw Vale, near the Rassau Industrial Estate, alongside a one million sq ft technology park and training facility.
Numbers of new apprentices plummet
Britain is on the brink of a skills crisis because of a slump in the number of people taking apprenticeships in construction, a study reveals.
- total number of UK apprentices has risen by 57% in the past five years but the number opting for construction has fallen to 15,510 from 20,000 in 2006
In the last eight years construction and related trades’ apprenticeships have dropped from the most popular to the lowest two in the top ten.
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