Housing Focus – Page 6
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FeaturesHousebuilders' salary survey 2015: Making hay…
This year’s housebuilders’ salary survey finds that wages and bonuses are both on the up. But how long will it last?
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Features1 million homes: Hitting the mark
Housing minister Brandon Lewis has publicly stated that he wants to see over one million homes built in the next five years. But can the sector meet this challenge?
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FeaturesHousing associations: Going it alone
Housing associations are being forced to find efficiencies, with some taking repairs and maintenance work in-house and leaving private contractors out in the cold
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FeaturesInterview: Geeta Nanda
With government policies that cut rents and extend Right to Buy, housing associations are feeling the strain. But Geeta Nanda of Thames Valley Housing has an alternative approach
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FeaturesInterview: Brandon Lewis
Building talks to housing minister Brandon Lewis about the Conservative government’s radical policy agenda
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FeaturesTop 150 contractors: Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow
This year’s contractors and housebuilders Top 150 list shows the sector pulling out of recession and with a spring in its step. But with big losses for some contractors pushing down profits, and margins increasing by a mere 1.2%, the danger remains they could still fall flat on their backs. ...
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FeaturesIt’s time to fix the housing crisis
With a dire shortage of homes in the country, what has the government got to do to get housing working again?
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FeaturesBuilding Award Winners: Housing Project of the Year
This year’s housing projects have been chosen for exceptional design work and for providing a boost to their local community, with one entry standing out on both these factors
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FeaturesBuilding Award Winners: Housebuilder of the Year
In a year that has seen housebuilders as the centre of attention, these four were singled out not just for their strong financial results, but for their work towards the betterment of the sector
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FeaturesTrue cost of sustainable homes
Our roundtable of housing experts, sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, gathered to discuss how housebuilders can build sustainably and cheaply
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FeaturesUKIP: The vocal minority
Control immigration and large areas of British countryside will not need to be destroyed by housebuilding, says UKIP. Nationalist populism at its most simplistic, perhaps, but the party’s anti-development stance is bearing down on politics at a local level
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FeaturesBehind the hype: Sustainable new homes
New research is casting further doubt on long-held claims that a new-build property is necessarily cheaper to run than a refurbished Victorian home
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FeaturesCouncil housing: Maybe this time…
After years of decline, council house building looks set to enjoy something of a resurgence. But can the new generation of council homes avoid the stigmas of the past?
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FeaturesSME housebuilders: Small talk
The proportion of homes built by small housebuilders has halved in recent years. So, with listed builders increasing output and reporting record profits, why are their smaller competitors still struggling to make ends meet?
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FeaturesSlackwood Farmhouse: Ahead of the curve
Adjoining a 17th-century Lancastrian farmhouse, Paul Archer Design’s curved-glass pavilion is both strikingly modern and a discreet addition to the landscape
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FeaturesHousebuilders' salary survey 2014: Paying the price
New research into the housebuilding industry shows that although staff are enjoying higher salaries, they’re also taking on more responsibilities, working longer hours and finding their work/life balance out of kilter.
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FeaturesReviewing the Lyons Review
The Lyons Review sets out a routemap to the construction of 200,000 homes a year, so what do private housebuilders and affordable housing landlords make of it?
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FeaturesAlways read the label: Home performance labelling
The amount of consumer information for home buyers is pitiful, but now a pilot project will test what better home performance labelling might look like in practice
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FeaturesInterview: Steve Morgan
Steve Morgan left Redrow in 2000 but returned five years ago to save the housebuilder he founded, now it’s posting record results
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FeaturesTop 150 contractors and housebuilders 2014
Building’s annual list of the UK’s biggest performers in the construction sector shows that housebuilders have enjoyed the past 12 months most. But many predict the tides are ready to turn for contractors, as Joey Gardiner reports