Commons committee report challenges ‘lazy narrative’ used by ministers that scapegoats wildlife and the environment
Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, an inquiry by MPs has found, in direct conflict with claims made by ministers.
Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, said nature was being scapegoated, and that rather than being a block to growth, it was necessary for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods.
Continue reading...Fall reported by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as UN calls for accelerated action in buildings sector to meet global climate goals
The growth in global demand for “green” office buildings has slowed after Donald Trump’s assault on environmental protection policies caused a slump in interest in the US, according to a survey of construction industry professionals.
Building occupiers and investors across North America and South America expressed significantly lower growth in demand for green commercial buildings, a shift that “seems to be in response to a change in US policy focus”, according to a survey of members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Reported demand across the rest of the world also fell, albeit not as sharply.
Continue reading...Education secretary promises ‘clear timelines’ are in place to permanently remove crumbling concrete
All schools in England that received grant funding to pay for the removal of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) should be free of it by the end of this parliament, the education secretary has pledged.
Setting out a new timeline for dealing with the crumbling concrete crisis in schools, Bridget Phillipson said: “We inherited a crumbling education estate, but I won’t let that be our legacy.
Continue reading...Public accounts committee warns UK infrastructure risked becoming ‘stony ground’ for investors without major overhaul
Bad management of private finance contracts is leading to poor quality assets being handed back to the government, including schools and hospitals, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.
Its report into the use of private finance initiatives (PFI) for infrastructure comes at a time when the government has identified private investment in projects such as power plants and transport outside London as a key part of its growth agenda.
Continue reading...The Coalition remains opposed to the scheme, claiming it is ‘badly designed and poorly targeted’
Australia’s construction worker shortage – and prospects for affordable housing – would worsen if Peter Dutton scraps Labor’s free Tafe program, experts warn, pushing housing prices even further out of reach of prospective buyers.
After a video emerged of Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson saying the fee-free Tafe policy was “just not working”, the opposition leader was asked on Tuesday if he would cut the scheme – designed to encourage people to work in priority industries like the construction sector.
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Continue reading...Land speculation to blame for lack of progress amid Labour drive to build 1.5m new homes, says Wildlife Trusts head
Housebuilders in the UK are failing to supply much-needed new homes not because of restrictive planning laws, but because they are “very bad” at building houses, the head of one of the UK’s biggest nature charities has warned.
“There’s planning permission today for a million new houses,” said Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts. “So why aren’t they being built? Why is it that volume housebuilders in this country are actually very bad at building houses, even when they’ve got planning permission?”
Continue reading...Özgür Özel expanded call to boycott companies perceived as close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Turkey’s anti-government protesters are weighing their options, amid calls by the main opposition leader for weekly rallies, a growing economic boycott and a groundswell of fired-up student demonstrators determined to stay on the streets.
The leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Özgür Özel, expanded a call to boycott goods and services from companies perceived as close to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a rally in support of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Continue reading...Possible action comes as ministers announce plans to improve building safety and strengthen accountability
Seven organisations involved in the Grenfell Tower disaster face possible debarment from government contracts as ministers set out plans to improve building safety and strengthen accountability.
The government has accepted the findings of the final Grenfell Tower inquiry report and pledged to take action on all the recommendations.
Consulting on a new college of fire and rescue later in 2025 to improve training and professionalism of firefighters.
Stopping unqualified individuals from making critical fire safety decisions, by legally requiring fire risk assessors to have their competence certified.
Continuing implementation of a new residential personal emergency evacuation plan policy to improve the fire safety and evacuation of disabled and vulnerable residents in high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings, engaging with relevant stakeholders on the implementation.
Continue reading...PM to promise $10,000 payments to keep young people in construction as cost of living blamed for a shortfall in builders
Apprentice tradies stand to get an extra $10,000 from a re-elected Labor government as Anthony Albanese tries to encourage more young people into construction to help build the 1.2m homes he promised by 2030.
The prime minister will make the $626m promise at the National Press Club on Friday, in his first major speech for the year which will set out Labor’s re-election bid.
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Continue reading...Union members hit out at LNP as deputy premier announces pause on pay and conditions policy
A “sweetheart deal” for the CFMEU has been suspended in an unprecedented crackdown after the embattled union was blamed for major project cost blowouts.
Construction union “perks” were put on ice as the Queensland government stepped up a campaign to tackle the CFMEU, with some union members clearly not happy.
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Continue reading...Shadow cabinet secretary Claire Coutinho accepted donation from Lord Bamford while overseeing millions awarded to his family businesses in green grants
A Conservative former cabinet minister who took donations from the billionaire boss of the JCB digger dynasty – including a £7,000 trip on his VIP private helicopter – oversaw decisions to award his family’s business empire millions in taxpayer-funded green energy grants.
Claire Coutinho also posed for pictures promoting Lord Bamford’s personal £100m hydrogen engine project and accepted a £7,500 donation from JCB to her local election campaign while she was the energy secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.
Continue reading...Labour shortage is driving up construction costs and stopping industry from building enough homes to ease housing crisis, Master Builders says
Leading construction bodies are urging the government to change its approach to skilled migration and bring in more migrants to ease the shortage of tradies.
Industry bodies say a chronic shortage of workers across 12 different trades is impacting housing prices and affecting the flow of new homes into the market.
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Continue reading...Program that ties new infrastructure to housing projects will start in 2027 in 10 Melbourne ‘activity centres’, premier says
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says an overhaul of the state’s infrastructure contribution scheme will ensure communities that build more homes will receive funding for key amenities like schools and parks.
With her government’s third housing policy announcement in as many days, Allan on Tuesday flagged a revamped statewide pilot infrastructure contribution program.
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Continue reading...Business Council of Australia also recommends phasing out stamp duty and fast-tracking migrant workers for building industry
The nation’s peak business body has called for a $10bn housing reform fund that will pay out to states that fix the regulation and planning bottlenecks contributing to the supply crisis.
The Business Council of Australia is also pushing for the nation-wide removal of stamp duty on homes, warning that it disincentivises people from moving to smaller dwellings and freeing up larger homes.
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Continue reading...Labour wants to see apartment blocks built in more densely populated cities to achieve its housing targets
A radical scheme to speed up the building of more apartment blocks in towns and cities – as opposed to individual houses and bungalows – has been announced by the prime minister on the eve of the Labour party conference.
Keir Starmer told the Observer in an exclusive interview that the new system of “planning passports” would be a “game-changer” as the government strives to build 1.5m new homes within five years.
Continue reading...Campaigners call for apology after inquiry report makes several criticisms of decisions made during Blair’s tenure
Grenfell campaigners have called on Tony Blair to apologise and take responsibility for decisions made by his government that contributed to the fire that killed 72 people.
The former prime minister said on Thursday that tragedies such as the west London fire, which came after years of missed opportunities to regulate combustible cladding, were a result of unavoidable mistakes.
Continue reading...As the final report on the fatal London blaze looms, many developers have not begun safety work
• Rowan Moore: The Grenfell inquiry is exposing a culture of contempt that has run deep in Britain
Grenfell was an avoidable tragedy, the inquiry’s counsel said on the final day of hearings. Yet with the report into the blaze that claimed 72 lives due this week, residents of other tower blocks fear that not enough has been done to prevent another catastrophe.
One of them is Gemma Lindfield. The 45-year-old barrister is still waiting for flammable cladding to be removed from her eight-storey apartment block in east London. It took three years before anyone even realised there was a problem. The following four years have been mired in indecision and wrangling about exactly who will pay to fix it.
Continue reading...Deputy PM visited Dagenham, east London, after fire tore through block of flats undergoing remedial works
Angela Rayner has called efforts to remove unsafe cladding from thousands of at-risk buildings “too slow” and said it was her job to ensure remaining works finished as quickly as possible.
The deputy prime minister made the comments during a visit to Dagenham, east London, on Tuesday afternoon, the day after a dramatic fire tore through a block of flats that was undergoing remedial works to remove “non-compliant” cladding.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves works on plan for 10-year formula to give councils and housing associations certainty
Social housing rents will rise by more than inflation over the next decade as part of UK government plans to boost affordable housebuilding and shore up the finances of struggling landlords.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is working on plans to introduce a 10-year formula to calculate social rent on homes that will result in rents increasing every year by the rate of the consumer prices index – which is now 2.2% – plus 1%, removing an existing cap on rises.
Continue reading...ONS data shows strong performance in second quarter with service sector helping drive growth
Britain’s economy has extended its recovery from recession after recording growth of 0.6% in the three months to June, handing a boost to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to the autumn budget.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show gross domestic product continued to grow in the second quarter, after a rise of 0.7% in the first three months of 2024. The reading matched the forecasts of City economists.
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