6 INDUSTRY NEWS
Leaseholds scrapped for all new houses
All new-build houses are to be sold as freehold, and ground rents for new leases are to be reduced to zero, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire announced at the Chartered Institute of Housing confer- ence in Manchester. A time limit of 15 working days and a maximum fee of £200 for freeholders and managing agents to provide leaseholders with the information they need to sell their home will also be introduced. Brokenshire said that he has already instructed Homes England to renegotiate Help to Buy contracts to explicitly rule out the selling of new leasehold houses – other than in “exceptional circumstances” – to protect new home buyers from “unscrupulous charges.” Alongside this, he said that where buyers
are incorrectly sold a leasehold home, consumers will be able to get their freehold outright at no extra cost. Brokenshire told the conference: “We
have long recognised that we have a responsibility to confront unfairness in the leasehold market. Last year we consulted on proposals including the leasehold house ban and ground rent reduction. “Today I can confirm we will go ahead with our original plan to reduce ground rents on future leases to zero, as opposed to a cap of £10 per year. “And we will legislate to ensure that in the future – save for the most exceptional circumstances – all new house will be sold on a freehold basis.”
Give temporary workers access to training funds, says REC
(CPA) has analysed the value of contracts in regions across residential, infrastructure and commercial sectors, identifying ‘hotspots’ and ‘coldspots’ as pockets of growth or contraction over the near-term. While the report shows ‘coldspots’ in the
residential sector outnumbered ‘hotspots’ in 2018, it also shows that unlike previous years there were no residential ‘coldspots’ in London, which according to the CPA suggests that the slowdown in house price growth and consequent diminution in developer appetite is spreading out across the country. As well as growth in residential, Scotland and the South East saw growth in contract awards in commercial and infrastructure, contrasting the slowdown in construction new orders on a national level. Growth in Scotland was in large part down to the Moray Firth offshore wind farm (£1.8bn) and the Highland main line phase 2 (£250m) - two of the country’s largest infra- structure contract awards in 2018. The South East’s hotspots were driven by the £25m Buckholt Lane business park in East Sussex, as well as airport and smart motor- way improvements for Gatwick Airport and smaller-scale office redevelopments in the counties surrounding London. Rebecca Larkin, senior economist at the
Residential contracts see slowdown
A slowdown in the residential sector has been revealed in a regional analysis of construction contract awards. The ‘Regional Construction Hotspots in
Great Britain 2019’ report from Barbour ABI and the Construction Products Association
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
CPA, commented: “A cooling in house price growth has formed residential coldspots across the country and despite the government’s demand side stimulus and ambitious supply side goals, a slowdown in activity in a market dominated by private sector housebuilders may not be avoided. “In addition, Brexit-related uncertainty means investors are still wary of committing to large upfront outlays. Illustrating this, construction on Spire London, the largest residential contract award in 2018 by some way, has been paused for review given the significant weakening in prevailing market conditions, particularly for high-end property in the capital.”
An estimated 960,000 temporary workers could benefit from better skills training if the Government let them access the train- ing funds their agencies pay to the Treasury, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). The REC believes that courses which could lead to significant pay rises and higher productivity would be “unlocked” if money paid for the Apprenticeship Levy could also be used on other high quality qualifications as part of a skills levy. The body has launched a petition that calls for the Government’s Apprenticeship Levy, which it says is poorly designed, inflexible, and doesn’t reflect modern working practices, to be changed to a flexible training levy. Reportedly, 670 REC members already
have £104m of Apprenticeship Levy funds between them going unspent, because it can’t be used to support the temporary workers on their payrolls. The REC has also launched a new
research report, Training for Temps, which provides evidence and statistics to back up the importance of reform. Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, explained further: “The Apprenticeship Levy was designed with the best of intentions, but everyone knows it is not working as intended. It’s time for reform. “As we redesign the levy, keeping support in place for apprenticeships matters, but we must end the scandal of locking temporary workers out of the system. Employers are paying a levy for them – but can’t use it to support their development. 95 per cent of REC members who pay the levy cannot use the funds available to them to train their staff.”
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