24 News LATEST FIRE FIGURES
RECENTLY PUBLISHED GOVERNMENT STATISTICS FOR FIRES THROUGHOUT THE UK DURING 2005 SHOW THAT ACTION IS NEEDED TO REDUCE FIRE FATALITIES IN THE HOME. IN PARTICULAR, THERE IS SCOPE FOR MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF SMOKE AND HEAT ALARMS, ALREADY PROVEN TO BE INVALUABLE TOOLS IN FIRE SAFETY.
Although lower than in previous decades, the reduction in the number of domestic fire deaths has stalled at 376 for 2005 - actually up 2 from the previous year – with 11,600 non-fatal casualties. So how can we improve the situation? The first priority is to ensure that as many houses as possible have at least one working smoke alarm but the rate of smoke alarm ownership appears to have levelled out at around 80%. Next, these alarms must operate in the event of a fire and the statistics show a wide difference between battery powered alarms, where 38% failed, and mains powered with just 13% failure rate. Building Regulations now call for mains powered smoke alarms in all new dwellings, so it is our existing housing stock that presents a challenge here.
Recent action in Scotland, via the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, requires private rented housing landlords to ensure that smoke alarms are fitted – and they must be mains powered if installed after 3 September 2007. Elsewhere in the UK, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which includes fire protection, is being used by local authorities as a powerful tool, as recent prosecutions have demonstrated, but more specific regulation would be helpful.
Other important considerations are the number and location of alarms - both to detect a fire as soon as possible and ensure that occupants are alerted, and awoken if necessary. The latest Code of Practice BS 5839-6:2004 recommends smoke or heat
alarms in Living Rooms and a heat alarm in every Kitchen, as well as the usual smoke alarms in circulation areas. But In England, Wales and Scotland Building Regulations still only require smoke alarms in corridors and some kitchens, which fails to address the 52% of all fatalities occurring in the room where the fire started. The exception is Northern Ireland which has adopted the Code of Practice requirements to good effect.
The latest statistics highlight significant differences in fire fatality rates (per million population or pmp) between UK countries. The rate increased over the previous year from 7.3 to 7.7 in England and from 8.8 to 10.5 in Wales, while Scotland had the highest rate of 12.8, although an improvement over 2004. But, in contrast, Northern Ireland saw an impressive fall from 8.2 to 4.6, by far the lowest death rate - suggesting that consistent application of the principles behind the Code of Practice really does save lives.
MIKE RATCLIFFE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF WOLSEY SECURITIES, THE FUNDING SPECIALIST FOR HOUSEBUILDERS,
TAKES A LOOK AT HOW THE CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS ARE AFFECTING THE NEW HOMES MARKET AND THE OUTLOOK FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD
The current situation in the finance markets is creating tougher conditions in the housing market, especially for housebuilders. In January we saw a number of Britain’s largest housebuilders reporting falls in reservations and as a result a downturn in their 2007 profits, as well as requesting payment cuts from subcontractors and suppliers.
We anticipate that for housebuilders of all sizes, the year ahead is going to be much harder than experienced in recent years, particularly in regard to maintaining cash flow; and with fewer buyers in the market place, as a result of consumers sitting tight until a clearer picture becomes available.
However, key to the current set of conditions is that the fundamental and underlying demand for new homes remains strong and housebuilders are significantly underperforming against Government targets for an additional three million homes by 2020. While affordability undoubtedly is an issue, particularly in the South East, there is still an active market as few units remain unsold. If, however, there is some readjustment in prices as a result of the credit crunch, most developers would agree that this is to be welcomed if it helps to encourage buyers back into the market.
As stability returns to the financial markets, the Bank of England will continue to steer us along a steady course with more rate cuts forecast this year. There are signs that buyers are returning to the market, in fact Wolsey’s portfolio showed a noticeable uplift in sales during January. I can see this increase continuing as switched on homebuyers take the opportunity to buy while there are some great incentives to be had and before homebuyers come back into the market in greater volumes.
Despite the improved outlook, developers’ programmes have slowed as a result of the slowdown in the last third of 2007 and cash is unable to be generated at the speed required. Whether these pressures are on general cash flow, site specific finance or the funding of land purchase, resulting from a successful planning application, the impact on a company cannot be underestimated. My advice to housebuilders in the months ahead is to regard cash flow as paramount. Costs need to be controlled both in terms of the price paid for land and build costs to help drive margins in a slower market.
BE PREPARED TO MARKET YOUR SITES AGGRESSIVELY TO SECURE SALES. TAKE WHATEVER OPPORTUNITIES YOU CAN TO REMAIN EFFICIENT DEVELOPERS; AND WHEN YOU NEED IT, LOOK FOR APPROPRIATE FUNDING TO UNLOCK CAPITAL INVESTED IN SLOW MOVING SITES TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS BUILDING.
WOLSEY, AMONGST OTHER FUNDING SPECIALISTS, PROVIDES THIS PRODUCT.
THE DEMAND HAS NOT GONE AWAY AND OUR INDUSTRY IS ROBUST ENOUGH TO RIDE THIS STORM.
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