Tag Archives: london
New £1 million scheme launched to train housing industry staff in UK
A big increase in the number of homes being built in the UK over the past two years and a raft of new home being promised by the Government means that more training is needed in the property construction industry. As a result the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have launched a new £1 million scheme to train non-construction staff such as marketing, sales and business development employees. This new fund, which will run throughout 2016, is aimed at ensuring the thousands of staff working in these areas are, like their construction counterparts, getting the required level of training to ensure the industry can deliver more, high quality homes. The fund will help HBF members to target training to employees, graduate scheme trainees and those on undergraduate placements to ensure that best practice is applied and high standards upheld. A portion of the fund has also been set aside to fund further training for sales and marketing staff. Driving up levels of customer service is a particular area of focus for the industry as more potential customers visit sales offices and more homes are sold. ‘The past two years have seen tens of thousands of new people recruited into house building and a significant increase in the number of homes being built. As we look to increase output still further it is imperative we continue to increase industry capacity and develop the skilled workforce required to build the high quality homes the country needs,’ said Stewart Baseley, HBF executive chairman. ‘The house building process is an extremely complex one requiring a great number of people with very different skills. If we are to provide the high quality homes and the level of customer service today's new build customer demands we need to ensure every member of staff in every part of the process is trained to the best possible standard,’ he added. ‘Industry told us that more needed to be done to address the range of skills challenges in the housebuilding sector. Working with HBF, this new pilot fund is a first step in addressing that important issue and testing how this approach could be employed in other parts of construction,’ said Steve Radley, director of policy at the CITB. ‘This £1 million pot of money will boost technical skills in the sector to ensure that we can build the homes the country needs,’ he added. Continue reading
Prime property rents in London set to see recovery in 2016, report predicts
January will be the start of the prime property lettings season in London, kick starting a recovery in top end rents in 2016, according to a new outlook report. Throughout 2015, the pace of rent rises in London slowed, and weaker activity at the top tiers of the lettings market in particular have created a difficult climate for rent growth, says the report from estate agents Marsh & Parsons. However, the firm is predicting a rental resurgence in 2016, forecasting prime London rents to rise 5% in the next 12 months, a significant uplift from a the 1.9% rise in the past year. While rents at the highest tiers of the market, namely over £750 per week, are unlikely to experience major pick up, rental prices below this benchmark have significant room to grow. And much of this growth will come at the very start of the year, with January typically the strongest month outside of the summer for lettings activity. Over the past three years, there has been on average a 34% monthly boost in lettings exchanges from December to January, as people use the New Year for fresh starts. ‘Come January, households will be picking up where they left off on big life decisions – be this downsizing, starting a new job, relocating overseas or even separating. All of these combine to give new impetus to the rental market at the very start of the year, and it’s a time when we experience some of our most zealous lettings activity,’ said Patrick Littlemore, director of lettings at Marsh & Parsons. ‘This initial activity will feed into stronger and more sustained rent growth throughout 2016 as a whole. It is the lower price brackets of the private rented sector that have the biggest room to grow next year, especially in popular hot spots such as Queens Park, lauded for retaining the style and atmosphere of Kensington with more affordable prices,’ he added. The report also points out that the average length of a tenancy on a rental property in prime London has grown 18% in the past year, from an average of 19 months in the third quarter of 2014 to 23 months during the third quarter of 2015. Marsh & Parsons expects the popularity of two year leases to continue growing in 2016 as tenants are increasingly entering into these longer tenancies in search of greater stability in the face of reduced rental properties available on the market, but it is the guarantee of housing they are securing, not rental prices over this period. The report explains that the stock of homes to let in London has decreased significantly in 2015. The total supply of available rental properties across 2015 was 9% lower than in 2014, while the levels of demand experienced throughout the last year has been 7% higher than during 2014. As… Continue reading
Average UK property price up to £200,000, latest index shows
Property prices in the UK increased by 0.8% month on month in December to an average of £196,999 and up 4.5% year on year, according to the latest monthly index to be published. The data from home lender, the Nationwide, shows that after moderating during the first six months of 2015, house price growth has remained in a narrow range between 3% and 4.5% in the second half of the year. All regions except Scotland saw increases in house prices in 2015, though all recorded slower rates of annual price growth than in 2014. London was the strongest performing region for the fifth year running, with average prices up 12% year on year. The Nationwide’s quarterly index, however, shows that average prices in London are now 50% above their pre-crisis peak in 2007, while in the UK overall prices are around 7% higher. The neighbouring Outer Metropolitan region took second place, with prices up almost 11% compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. Yorkshire and Humberside was the weakest performing English region, with prices up 0.4% year on year. House prices continue to recover in Northern Ireland, with annual growth of 6.5% in the fourth quarter, although average prices are still 44% below their pre-crisis peak. Wales saw a 0.7% year on year increase in average prices, similar to the 1.4% increase recorded in 2014. Scotland was the only region to see prices fall over the year, with prices down 1.9% compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. The full data also suggests that in England the North/South divide has widened further. Average house prices in England increased by 2.2% in the fourth quarter and were up 6.9% year on year. Price growth in the South exceeded that in the North for the 27th consecutive quarter. Prices in Southern England, that is the South West, Outer South East, Outer Metropolitan, London and East Anglia, were up 8.9% year on year, whilst in the West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside, North West and North prices rose by just 1.6%. In cash terms, the gap in average prices between the South and the North of England widened further and now stands at nearly £159,000, around £23,000 higher than a year ago. Looking ahead to 2016, the risks are skewed towards a modest acceleration in house price growth, at least at the national level, despite the likelihood of interest rate increases from the middle of next year, according to Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist. ‘Further healthy gains in employment and rising wages are likely to bolster buyer sentiment, while borrowing costs are expected to rise only gradually. However, the main concern is that construction activity will lag behind strengthening demand, putting upward pressure on house prices and eventually reducing affordability,’ he said. ‘Overall, we expect UK house prices to rise by 3% to 6% over the next 12 months. It remains an open question whether the striking divergence in regional house price performance evident in… Continue reading
