UK construction and property
- Infrastructure | Anglian Water is building a 205 mile £500m pipe from Humberside to south Essex and is planning two reservoirs. However, customers have been warned that new infrastructure will cause bills to rise.
- Electricity breaches | The Building Safety Group has reported a 12% increase in the number of electricity breaches between 2021 and 2022. The main causes of infringement were damaged or trailing cables, as well as the temporary position of impermanent supplies.
- Power link | Plans for a subsea power connection between Scotland and England has achieved full planning consent meaning that work can begin on the five-year project. Marine cable installation is expected to begin in 2026, with the scheme completing in 2029. It will carry enough power for 2 million homes.
- Building safety | The government published a raft of secondary legislation giving more details of the Building Safety Act 2022. The changes are due to take effect from 1st October 2023 and the Construction Leadership Council has encouraged the industry to understand the changes and take action now. HSE has produced a summary document of the new process for Higher Risk Buildings which can be found here.
- Self-employed labour | The number of workers paid under the Construction Industry Scheme which gives a way for self-employed workers to pay tax as they earn, and so could be seen as a proxy for self-employed workers, increased by 15% last year. The advantage for employers is that workers paid through CIS are not required to pay employers’ national insurance contributions of 13.8%.
- Wage growth | The Hays/BCIS Site Wage Cost Indices show that wages for “unskilled” labourers and plant operators are increasing faster than for other roles, growing 8% between April and June (with some of the increase due to the 9.7% increase in the National Living Wage). Overall wages increased 4.7% in the year and 4.2% in the quarter. It also reported that job placements of skilled labour was down, but attributed this to a shortage of workers, not a shortage of work.
- Housing shortage | Data from the Office for National Statistics reveals that one in 10 Londoners are living in overcrowded conditions. At a national level, the figure is lower at 4%. The worst affected boroughs are Newham and Barking and Dagenham, where more than a fifth of households are affected.
- Second staircase impact | Property developer and builder London Square has proposed adding three additional storeys on two consented residential towers in response to the new rules for a second staircase.
- Planning rules | Michael Gove is to announce changes to the rules on waterway pollution and “nutrient neutrality” for housing developments. It is rumoured that the changes will make neutrality a local decision and that property developers could instead pay into a “mitigation fund”.
- Workload expectations | The latest Future Trends Survey by the RIBA found that architects are increasingly downbeat over future workloads, with the index dropping from +1 in June to -10. No regions had a positive outlook.
- Land banking | The Competition & Markets Authority launched a study into the house building market earlier this year and has now set out the five areas on which it will focus: land banks, planning rules, competition between builders, barriers to entry and estate management charges. It is concerned that the market is not working as it should which in turn is limiting the supply of housing. It intends to publish its findings later this autumn.
- Investment in repairs | Think tank Demos and the Centre for Ageing Better has suggested that spending £625m a year on improving safety, heating and accessibility of homes could remove potentially fatal hazards in 520,000 homes a year and could deliver £10bn in economic benefits annually.
