Why wood you build with anything else?
By
Ron Easton, Managing Director of Stewart Milne Timber Systems
Housebuilding today faces twin challenges from two very different directions. on the one hand, the Government’s imperative to achieve zero carbon homes across all sectors before the end of the decade; and on the other, the ability to respond to the economic recovery, when it arrives and to dedicate capacity to deliver new homes to consumers who want them within the same timescales.
The truth is the recession has forced the industry to downsize significantly and to cut its cloth, its banking facilities and its aspirations for a rapid return to profitable growth accordingly. The dilemma will be how best to invest impoverished resources and the budgetary case for R&D to meet the new regulations will have to be argued against a myriad of other good causes for access to scarce funds. Given the timescales involved until the new regulations begin to impact, it is clear that the winners will be those who are currently ahead of the game in innovation and developing new, sustainable products that can not only be delivered to the mass market quickly, but which are both financially and aesthetically attractive to developers, housebuilders and consumers as well.
It is true that many of the early-stage development R&D programmes in progress covering both materials and build systems are aimed directly at meeting the forthcoming Government targets. But with growing and significant demand for sustainable products already here, and only three years before the first immovable deadline is upon us, the challenges facing the industry in terms of infrastructure and product development are substantial and there will inevitably be winners and losers. Consequently anyone not working diligently towards meeting at least Level Four of the Code for Sustainable Homes commercially is in danger of having missed the boat.
At its peak, the housebuilding sector was producing around 240,000 homes per annum, of which around
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60,000 were built as social or affordable housing. The social and affordable sectors have fared better than others throughout the downturn, providing relatively consistent volume and a source of much-needed work for the industry. That is until recently and the introduction of the Government’s austerity measures and subsequent cuts to public spending. The private sector, of course, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self and these factors now conspire to provide a backdrop of pent-up demand; the true dimensions of which are yet to be realised. Estimates vary but there is a view that the UK housing stock is short to the tune of between 200,000 to 250,000 homes per annum; around 10% of this in Scotland alone. Therefore, it is clear that not only is there demand, but when it arrives it needs to be met fast, to higher building standards, with improved control of costs and from a reduced pool of resources. Clearly the industry needs an absolute ‘can do’ attitude.
The key areas that these homes of the future will address include minimising the energy requirement (and thus carbon footprint) of the home by utilising a range of sustainable technologies that all have one thing in common - no need for user intervention. Put simply, the majority of the environmental performance of these homes will be incorporated into the fabric of the buildings, an approach where timber frame is well placed to deliver.
As yet from a consumer perspective, there is not a huge understanding of what sustainability means for housing but importantly, these homes will also be judged on the value-for-money they provide. Price premiums justified by the cost of embodied technology must deliver an
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