INDUSTRY NEWS 5
Brokenshire promoted from Northern Ireland office to Housing
of pay negotiations between the Federation of Master Buildings (FMB), on behalf of SME construction employers and union Unite, on behalf of operatives. All apprentices and trainees will
also benefit from the same pay increase, with adult general operatives’ rates increased by 29p per hour to £9.52, and NVQ3 ‘advanced craft’ rate by 37p per hour to £12.45. Jerry Swain, national officer for construc-
tion at Unite the Union, commented: “It is only right that workers see the benefits of growth in the construction sector with this significant pay rise which demonstrates the importance of a strong collective union voice for construction workers.”
James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, has returned to the Cabinet as the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary. The news came after Amber Rudd resigned from her role as Home Secretary following the Windrush scandal, with PM Theresa May promoting Communities Secretary Sajid Javid to her old role. Commenting on Twitter, Brokenshire
wrote: “Honoured to have been asked by the Prime Minister to serve as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government. Looking forward to taking the Government’s agenda forward especially on building the homes our country needs.” There has been criticism of the amount of churn among senior DCLG roles follow- ing the announcement, given the scale of the housing crisis facing the UK. While Javid has been in the job for 18 months, in January Dominic Raab became the fifteenth Housing Minister in 17 years.
SMEs and Unite agree to 3.1 per cent pay rise
A one year deal involving a 3.1 per cent pay rise has been agreed by The Building and Allied Trades Joint Industrial Council (BATJIC), to come into effect in June 2018. This follows the successful conclusion
Labour focuses on affordable homes in Green Paper
A Green Paper entitled ‘Housing for the Many’ has been published by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party. Setting out the Labour Party’s strategy to fix the housing crisis, and focusing largely on social housing, the Green Paper sets out a plan to deliver one million ‘genuinely affordable’ homes over 10 years, the majority of which would be earmarked for social rent.
The wide-ranging paper covers areas
including affordable housing, the role of Government, housing benefit, planning, delivery, regeneration, empty homes, design and safety.
The National Federation of Builders (NFB) praised the document’s ambition to increase housebuilding numbers, and agreed that social housing is a ‘vital tool’ for councils to deliver more affordable housing, but argued that the language used by the paper does little to recognise the current barriers to the development process. Critiquing the paper’s lack of focus on SME builders, chief executive of the NFB Richard Beresford said: “Construction SMEs train and retain two-thirds of appren- tices and employ within 15 miles of their head offices. In 1970, SMEs were seen as imperative partners but, in 2018, their expertise is not being utilised to full potential to increase housing delivery. “With planning devolved to local authori-
ties, the NFB encourages decision makers to better understand the development and plan-making process. This is the only way to truly build housing for the many.”
CPA forecasts industry output will ‘flatline’ over 2018
Construction output growth for the whole of 2018 will remain flat, before accelerating to 2.7 per cent in 2019 and 1.9 per cent in 2020, according to new forecasts.
After a weak start to the year following the demise of Carillion in January and adverse weather across the country in February and March, the Construction Products Association has released its Spring forecast. Infrastructure and private housing
remain the two bright spots for UK construction activity, said CPA. Infrastructure output is forecast to grow 6.4 per cent this year and 13.1 per cent in 2019, as main civil engineering work commences on large projects such as HS2, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, and Hinkley Point C. In private housing, output is forecast to rise 5.0 per cent, with demand for new build underpinned by Help to Buy through to March 2021. Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association commented: “The start of the year was a bad one for construction. Carillion, the UK’s second biggest contractor, went into liqui- dation in January and led to a hiatus on infrastructure and commercial projects. “The snowy weather badly affected work on site for at least three working days in February and March and, as a result, 2018 Q1 construction is likely to be £1.5bn lower than in 2017 Q4. Fortunes for the industry overall will depend on the extent to which construction activity catches up during the rest of the year.”
Francis said that activity will rise by 2.7 per cent next year, “primarily driven by infrastructure and private housebuilding.” Despite the sector’s strong growth prospects however, “questions remain about poor government delivery of major infrastructure projects.”He added: “Private housing starts are expected to rise 2.0 per cent in both 2018 and 2019 in spite of the slowdown in the general housing market as Help to Buy is clearly sustaining demand for new build homes. “The growth in infrastructure and private housebuilding this year is forecast to offset falls in the hard hit commercial sector, where Brexit uncertainty continues to hit international investment in new office towers in London and high street woes affects the construction of new retail.”
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