Housing Focus – Page 7
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FeaturesHousing Design Awards 2014: Addresses to impress
From radical warehouse conversions to art deco elderly care, this year’s Housing Design Awards show an industry emerging from the recession with a spring in its step and unafraid to experiment
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FeaturesThe Alan Cherry Debate 2014: Pickles goes back to the future
The communities secretary used this year’s Alan Cherry debate to argue that the way to increase housing supply is through a full-blown return to off-site manufacture. But not everybody was convinced, as Joey Gardiner reports
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FeaturesThe London housing problem
Best estimates suggest that London needs to be creating between 42,000 and 52,000 homes each year to keep up with demand. But with only 17,000 built in the last year, what chance is there of closing the gap?
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FeaturesGarden cities: Back to the future
Garden cities offered a utopian vision of town planning at the dawn of the last century. But could they be the answer to the current housing crisis? The coalition seems to think so
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FeaturesInterview: Alan Brown
With two investors behind it and the recent purchase of upmarket housebuilder Banner, Cala Group has come a long way from its precarious refinancing in 2009. Alan Brown talks about delivering volume at the top end of the market, and plans to treble turnover to £800m a year
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FeaturesRebuilding after Japan's tsunami
Three years on from its devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japan is, for the first time, signalling that it needs help rebuilding homes and communities. For UK construction firms willing to dig in, this could mean new opportunities
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FeaturesInterview: John White
After 30 years heading Persimmon, John White was never likely to spend his retirement at home in his slippers. But few expected him to take the helm at troubled retirement housebuilder McCarthy Stone
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FeaturesInterview: Ian Sutcliffe
Countryside is set on a rapid path to growth, announcing its merger with Millgate Developments last week. Joey Gardiner talks to the boss, Ian Sutcliffe, about aligning his agressive expansion plans with the Cherry family tradition of quality housing
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FeaturesGreen Deal: One year on
The Green Deal is one year old this week but the celebrations are, to put it mildly, subdued. We look back on a year of disappointments for the energy efficiency retrofit market
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FeaturesFunding affordable housing with private sales
Government policy is still pushing social housing providers to develop and sell private homes in order to fund affordable ones. So what happens the next time that prices crash?
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FeaturesHousebuilders' salary survey 2013
Over a few short months, the housebuilding industry has moved from stagnation to skills crisis, with firms paying staggering bonuses to hang on to staff. Here are the findings of the Building/PSD Group 2013 housebuilders’ salary survey
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FeaturesEnergy efficient products
Keep the Building Regulations people happy with our choice of the latest building products on the market, from energy efficient wall and loft insulation to low powered ventilation fans
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FeaturesUnderstanding the changes to Part L
The new Part L Building Regulations come into force in April and while they may not be as rigorous as some would like, the emphasis on fabric efficiency will still put pressure on housebuilders
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FeaturesTop sustainable housebuilders: NextGeneration Initiative
The latest league table from the NextGeneration Initiative reveals mixed results for housebuilders on their sustainability targets this year
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FeaturesAutumn Statement preview: Five construction priorities
With debt still soaring, George Osborne is unlikely to be announcing much in the way of new spending. Here we look at the chancellor’s top five construction priorities
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FeaturesUphill all the way: Pre-commencement conditions
Housebuilders are up in arms about councils’ use of pre-commencement conditions, which they say are holding back schemes that have been granted planning permission
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FeaturesForeign investment in housing
With London house prices rising 10% this month and alarm that more people than ever are being priced out of home ownership, pressure is growing to clamp down on foreign investors
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FeaturesModern methods of construction: Material change?
Will the surge in demand lead to a permanent shift towards modern methods of construction?
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FeaturesInterview: Jeff Adams, United House
The United House boss on how the firm morphed from a social housing contractor into a developer with a £600m pipeline
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FeaturesHousing a nation
Nobody has yet come up with a convincing way to solve the housing crisis, and now the problem has got so big we need a plan on a national scale to tackle it