12 INDUSTRY NEWS; HOUSEBUILDER NEWS


Scrap stamp duty for downsizers, survey says


homes under £500,000 and “slashing the current rate paid for homes worth over £1.5m from 12 per cent to 7 per cent”. According to reallymoving, there has


since been speculation that he may go further and radically overhaul the tax by switching responsibility from buyer to the seller. This would reduce immediate upfront costs for all homebuyers except for downsizers, and therefore while it would encourage people to move, it would not help free up the family homes required at the top of the chain. The company says that Government


Scrapping stamp duty for downsizers would help free up larger homes for families who need them, and boost trans- action levels throughout the property market at relatively little financial cost to the Treasury, according to new research by home move consultancy reallymoving. The company has analysed its own data


from 240,000 homebuyers since the beginning of 2017, along with HMRC data on SDLT receipts for 2017/18, to reveal that downsizers are on average


responsible for just 7 per cent of stamp duty paid to the Treasury, totalling £938m. This is reportedly just a fraction of the £4,201m (31.2 per cent) paid by upsizers, £4,120m paid by first time buyers (30.6 per cent) and £4,193m (31.2 per cent) paid by others such as investors. New Prime Minister Boris Johnson


stated in July that he is keen to “shake up stamp duty”, with proposals being consid- ered including a reduction in tax for all


policy over the last few years has focused solely on helping first time buyers onto the ladder, through Help to Buy and First Time Buyer Relief, but that nothing has been done to tackle the blockage at the other end, where an estimated 1.1 million homes with two or more spare bedrooms are lived in by a single person over 65, according to think tank Policy Exchange. A tax break for downsizers would


reportedly not only help that specific group, but would benefit the entire market, including first time buyers, through greater fluidity and less competition for property, reducing pressure on prices.


Lovell Midlands scores 95 per cent satisfaction


Customers in the Midlands have rated housebuilder Lovell Homes as “outstand- ing”, with 95 per cent of homeowners stating they would recommend the Midlands region to a friend.


In-house, the company who conducted the study, spoke with customers who have recently purchased a home from Lovell Midlands, “allowing the developer to hear and understand the voice of their customer”.


The survey gave purchasers a chance


to speak openly about their experience from the initial point of interest all the way to receiving the keys to their brand new home. Trish Foster, regional sales director at Lovell Homes, commented: “We are so pleased to have received 95 per cent satisfaction from our customers. The whole team has worked so hard from the


WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK


building of the homes to the final sale of the property, to make sure that each home suits each of our customers individual needs. “We will continue to provide such high customer service and quality homes, with the aim to hit 100 per cent!”


Three UK housebuilders win NHBC H&S award


Three site managers were crowned national winners at NHBC’s 10th annual Health and Safety Awards in Birmingham on 5th July 2019 – the only health and safety recognition scheme in the UK exclusively for home builders.


National award winners Billy McCallum (Large builder category) from CALA Homes, Dave Brown (Medium builder category) from Wainhomes, and Adam Hedley (Multi-storey category) from Berkeley Homes were praised by the


judges for “an impressive range of initia- tives focused on maintaining the health, safety and wellbeing of the people working on site as well as and the public”. Organised by NHBC, and independently judged by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), The Construction Products Association and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the awards are intended to be the “ultimate competition for housebuilders with exceptional health and safety standards”.


The judges were looking for site managers who continuously go above and beyond industry standards, such as effective planning before a project starts, a tidy, well-organised site, as well as an outstanding infrastructure that supports the site manager. Steve Wood, NHBC chief executive, said: “It's been a fantastic year with a record number of entries; we had an outstanding shortlist of finalists this year, strengthening the importance given to health and safety on house-building sites across the UK.


“This year’s winners demonstrated their commitment to maintaining an excellent health and safety record while keeping up with the growing demand for quality new homes. We offer them our congratulations."


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84