Property and construction news
- Developer tax | Details were published on plans for a residential property developer tax which could be introduced in 2022. Consultations will run until 22nd July 2021.
- SME builders | The Federation of Master Builders found that small builders say enquiries increase at the fastest rate in ten years in Q1 2021, but the strongest increase was from repair and maintenance work. The survey also found that 93% of builders said material prices were rising.
- Industrial values | Over the past five- and ten-year periods, industrial land values have increased and are now similar to residential land values, higher than office or retail, according to Savills.
- External walls | A new publicly available specification for the fire risk appraisal and assessment of the external wall of a multi-storey, multi-occupied residential building has been published for consultation and the British Standards Institution is seeking views on the draft code.
- Unpaid rent | The head of UKHospitality has called on the government to help resolve a £6bn crisis in rent arrears in the hospitality sector as the temporary ban on evictions comes to an end next month. A letter sent to housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, calls for the ban to be extended to the end of the year and an adjudication process to share losses between tenants and landlords, with at least 50% of debt written off.
- Pensions | Data from the Department of Work and Pensions, received under a Freedom of Information request by Unite, has shown that the majority of construction workers are not paying into a pension. Unite stated that the way construction is organised “with short-term engagements, rampant bogus self-employment and nefarious schemes such as umbrella companies, it is incredibly difficult for construction workers to have confidence in their continued employment so as to allow them to consistently pay into a pension scheme”.
- Housing market | Net mortgage borrowing was at its highest month since data began in 1993, encouraged by the stamp duty holiday, borrowing rates, and low deposit mortgages. Homeowners borrowed £11.8bn more than they repaid in March.
