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The housing industry needs to grow not only its capacity to build, but its capacity to build well. That was the view shared by NHBC Chief Executive Officer Paul Turner at this year’s HBF Housing Market Intelligence Conference in London on Wednesday. Providing the perspective of the UK’s leading provider of warranty and insurance for new-build homes, Turner used his keynote speech to explain that any increase in activity must not come at the cost of lower standards.

NHBC’s Claims team in Northern Ireland is preparing to complete a significant remediation project that highlights the importance of effective, thorough drainage design. Six properties benefiting from our Buildmark policy’s insurance cover experienced the failure of foul and surface water drainage systems when movement within the surrounding ground led to sections of the underground network becoming displaced and disconnected.

NHBC working to boost NI building NHBC’s team is continuing its efforts to support the home-building industry in Northern Ireland as we launch a dedicated quarterly newsletter. Regional Director Padraig Venney and colleagues recently met with key figures from the Northern Ireland Executive to discuss the challenges faced by builders in the country.

House building has always evolved. But now, as the world faces new and emerging challenges like climate change, disrupted supply chains and rising costs, it’s arguably doing so at a greater pace than ever. Such transformation requires skills and labour, of course.

NHBC has partnered with PropertyPal, Northern Ireland’s leading property listing website. Together, we will raise awareness of our Buildmark warranty and insurance cover for new-build homes registered with us and how the policy works. PropertyPal will produce content for prospective homeowners on topics such as what is covered, what happens before they get the keys and what they can expect during the handover process.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) has welcomed news from Government of a new equity loan scheme that will help first-time buyers to purchase new build homes. The details of the new initiative Your First Home are due to be announced in next month’s Autumn Budget. Reacting to the announcement NHBC CEO Paul Turner said: “News from Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner of a new equity loan scheme to help first-time buyers purchase new build homes is a welcome boost for the industry.

The construction skills gap in the UK has reached crisis point, with more than 206,000 extra construction workers needed by 2030 just to meet the current demand, let alone build more new homes. This is a huge issue for the industry, putting Government housing targets out of reach unless decisive action is taken now. We know demand for housing is higher than ever before, particularly social and affordable housing, but the industry is facing pressure from all angles.

With the need for new housing more urgent than ever, finding the right land to build new homes on can be a difficult challenge for most UK developers, and whilst greenfield may appear to be the easy answer, the latest National Planning Policy Framework revision has tipped the balance of gaining planning success in favour of brownfield sites, especially those close to transport hubs, making brownfield, urban settings, and ‘grey belt’ locations increasingly attractive to developers But,...

Timber-frame housing is nothing new. After all, mankind has been constructing homes with wood for thousands of years – as evidenced by the discovery of remains in Scotland that date back to the Mesolithic period. Fast-forward to the present day and it’s in Scotland, too, where you’ll see a higher proportion of timber-frame homes being built. There, this method of construction accounted for 95% of all new homes in 2024 – a figure that dwarfed England’s 15% in the same year.

Charlie Ash, Sector Lead for Housing Associations at NHBC. “The government’s announcement of the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) today, with the allocation of nearly £10 billion to deliver 70,000 homes across England will be warmly welcomed by local councils, housing associations and other providers.