Tag Archives: business
UK home builders facing a severe shortage of workers
It is not a lack of materials, sites or ability that is preventing house builders in the UK from meeting targets but a lack of workers, according to some of the country’s largest home firms. If 200,000 new homes are to be built by 2020, a target pledged by the government, recruitment in the industry would have to take a sharp upturn from current numbers, especially for the most highly skilled workers. ‘Whilst we as an industry are committed to the target of more affordable homes available to first time buyers, Weston Homes has had to really ramp up its recruitment in order to meet these targets,’ said Bob Weston, the firm’s chairman and chief executive. ‘We currently have a shortfall within the industry of skilled tradesmen, construction managers and fabricators, especially those with many years’ experience providing the quality we expect,’ he added. He pointed out that Weston Homes has recently sent 6,500 letters to local schools, attempting to attract more young people into apprenticeships and eventually the construction industry to meet the shortfall. In the last month Weston Homes has taken on 23 new recruits into its apprenticeship scheme, who join in to the around 20% of employees studying for NVQ’s, attending ILM management training or on sponsored day release courses. ‘It takes two years to train skilled workers and five years to train our best recruits to management level, though of course development lasts a lifetime. Finding someone with 20 plus years of experience is becoming increasingly rare and difficult,’ Weston said. ‘We have always been committed to getting more young people involved in the industry, and with these new affordable home targets we will need, as an industry, to open our doors to bright young apprentices,’ he added. Recent research from the Federation of Master Builders said that 66% of small and medium construction firms have had to turn down work because they don't have enough workers and the biggest shortages are for bricklayers and carpenters. The shortages all around the UK, with the east of England suffering from a short supply of plasterers, while the West Midlands is struggling to find scaffolders. Northern Ireland has the greatest need for general labourers. Firms said the main problem was difficulty in finding apprentices, and a lack of apprenticeships has held back potential new entrants to the jobs market with a belief that many are bowing to pressure from their parents to stay in full time education. ‘The lack of experienced multi skilled workers is a huge concern for my business, as it could affect our future growth plans. We urgently need tradespeople that are trained in more than one area, such as plumbing, tiling and joinery for bathroom installations but we just aren’t seeing the candidates come through,’ said Tony Passmore, chief executive of the Leeds based Passmore Group. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) agreed that recruiting and training people was now… Continue reading
Buy to let surges in UK as first time buyer activity retreats
May has seen an acceleration in property valuations for buy to let landlords, while first time buyer activity has retreated, according to the latest research. There were 33% more buy to let valuations conducted in May than at the same time last year. Conversely, valuations for first time buyers declined by 4% over the same period, the data from Connells Survey and Valuation shows. On a monthly basis, May’s buy to let valuations were up 3% on April, while valuations for first time buyers fell 2% between the two months and the buy to let market is booming, according to John Bagshaw, corporate services director of Connells Survey and Valuation. ‘Would be landlords are eager to enter the sector and current landlords look to expand. However for first time buyers, May was not just less positive than the rest of the housing market, but also disappointing in comparison to the previous month. Previously, valuations for new buyers had proved resilient in April, even with uncertainty about the impact of the election result on home buyers,’ he said. He explained that fewer people are looking to buy their first home means more tenants sticking to the rental sector. ‘As such, new landlords enter the market and those already in the sector grow their business to capitalise on the increased demand. Yet what remains unclear is how long this contrast in fortunes will continue,’ he added. May’s remortgaging figures also outperformed the overall housing market, with these valuations up 9% on April’s figures. This equates to a 31% increase on the number of remortgaging valuations since May 2014. Meanwhile, valuations for those existing home-owners looking not to remortgage but to move to a new property posted a 4% increase since April. This has contributed to an 8% increase in the number of home-owner valuations since May 2014. ‘Remortgaging is going from strength to strength right now. Record low mortgage rates are the main reason for this, and with inflation still near zero and flirting with a negative reading, the Bank of England is likely to play it safe and keep rates at bargain-basement levels for the foreseeable future,’ said Bagshaw. ‘Yet the recent cooling in home mover activity points at another cause for the remortgage rush. Increasingly, home owners are opting to upgrade the property they already have, be it through a loft conversion, conservatory or major face lift, rather than sell up and get a new one. In short, people are improving not moving,’ he pointed out. He believes that people feel financially secure enough to use their home as a guarantee against which to raise big capital, a sentiment that was absent for some time immediately after the economic crash. ‘However, they still don’t feel the property market overall is safe enough to risk trading up what they already have. For a government reliant on movement… Continue reading
Surveyors reveal the damage caused to Victorian and Edwardian houses in the UK
There are over four million Victorian and Edwardian houses in the UK and many are crying out for some serious care and repair work, according to chartered surveyors. Buildings of Victorian and Edwardian age account for a disproportionately high number of the 'essential repairs' listed in mortgage valuations and survey reports, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. One cause of problems arising today can be traced back to the Victorian builders who were not always averse to taking shortcuts and skimping on materials, with the result that ‘inherent defects’ developed in later life. Experienced surveyors will know how to identify common problems like damp, timber decay, and structural movement. But they will also know when not to worry, when apparent defects are not significant, according to a RICS qualified chartered surveyor Ian Rock. He pointed out that large numbers of homes of this era have suffered from a long term lack of maintenance. Worse, many old buildings have been subjected to inappropriate repair work, leading to a loss of valuable original features. ‘In some cases well intentioned repairs have had the effect of exacerbating the problems that they set out to solve. Works such as re-pointing and rendering in modern cement based materials, the use of plastic paints and the retrospective application of unnecessary damp proof treatments can all be detrimental to the health of such buildings, in time leading to accelerated decay and irreparable damage,’ he explained. The most inappropriate works commonly carried out on traditional buildings include replacing original good quality sash windows with inappropriate modern aluminium or PVC-U casements and stripping out original period doors. There is also unnecessarily injecting chemical damp proof courses or injecting them incompetently, and re-plastering or rendering main walls with cement based materials rather than traditional lime, thereby trapping damp in the walls. Damp, rot and beetle infestation is encouraged by blocking ventilation to floors and roofs, and by allowing high ground levels such as flower beds to build up against external walls. Removal of chimney breasts or load bearing internal spine walls without providing adequate support to the remaining masonry above can also cause damage. Others are neglecting badly eroded mortar joints to external masonry, allowing damp to penetrate and frost damage to occur and re-pointing walls with cement mortar that prevents walls from ‘breathing’, and re-pointing in visually dominant ‘show off’ styles such as protruding ‘weather struck’ pointing. RICS also points to botched repairs to flashings to stacks and roofs with short life materials such as self-adhesive tapes or mortar fillets and a failure to provide enhanced structural support to roof structures where original lightweight slate coverings have been replaced with heavier concrete tiles. Damage can also be caused to these old buildings by not lining old flues before lighting fires or using appliances, and failing to cap and ventilate disused flues as well as weakening floor joists with excessive cutting for cable and pipe runs. ‘RICS members have a pivotal role to… Continue reading
