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With housebuilding expected to pull construction out of its current slump (the CPA anticipates growth to fall this year – the first time in six years), the reliance on this sector is a somewhat precarious strategy. A prolonged period of investment being withheld following what could be a chaotic Brexit is the last thing we need. If job losses or a hike in the cost of living are major casualties, then mortgages applications are also likely to be. This won’t help housebuilders build what they need to (they won’t build anything that won’t sell).


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The NHBC said in July that builders had started work on 12 per cent fewer homes in London in the three months to June than in the same period in 2017. A fairly feeble 2,917 homes were due to start construction, the smallest number for the time of year since 2009 – the depths of a financial crisis. This is being blamed on Brexit uncertainty coming from the financial sector. London’s housebuilding decline dragged the overall total to a 3 per cent yearly drop – again lagging behind previous years.


So, if Brexit continues to be a source of concern for the financial sector, which seems highly likely at least in the short term, we can expect London at least to continue to see such drops. While some may see this as a rebalancing of inflated property prices, any prolonged downturn has to be a cause for concern.


Will the realities of Brexit turn the ideals of taking back control expressed by many into instead having to accept some humble pie – that it was too damaging to our economy over the long-term to have been worth the perceived political gains? I can’t help clinging on to a faint hope that we won’t have to find out.


James Parker Editor


08.18 ON THE COVER...


Make Architects’ mixed use Rathbone Square scheme in London’s Fitzrovia leads visitors to urban green spaces via tunnels lined with green ceramic tiles


RATHBONE SQUARE, FITZROVIA Make Architects takes the chance to create an urban green oasis in this central London mixed use scheme


SIMON SAINSBURY CENTRE, CAMBRIDGE Carving out open student spaces on a tight city site


For the full report on this project, go to page 37 Cover Image © Make Architects


FROM THE EDITOR


T


here is no escaping it, even during the summer months – Brexit remains the topic of conversation on everyone’s lips, partly due to the fact that it affects everyone’s lives in the UK. In some quarters the tide appears to be turning against the Leave vote as the realities of trying to push through either May’s compromise or the alternative No Deal scenario become clearer.


A recent poll by Sky of 1500 customers found that 78 per cent of respondents thought the Government was doing a “bad job” in the negotiations, somewhat predictably. However, it also saw a majority of those responding (51 per cent versus 40 per cent disagreeing) saying that Brexit would be “bad for the country overall”. Perhaps even more revealing (and food for thought for Theresa May as she returns from a less-relaxing- than-she-would-have-liked holiday), was that 50 per cent (versus 40 per cent) said they were in favour of a second referendum. In this scenario, this would be a choice between the deal the Government agrees with the EU, No Deal, and staying within the EU.


While the idea of another referendum, with the same inflated grandstanding from both sides (skirting over any inconvenient detail in case a Twitter soundbite moment is missed), is somewhat depressing, so is the idea of No Deal, or an unworkable deal which causes economic misery. According to the Construction Products Association, Brexit uncertainty is the “elephant in the room” which has “had a big effect on international investment” in the UK, and which has played out in the organisation’s recent poor construction output figures.


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ADF AUGUST 2018


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