FEATURE HOUSE BUILDING
of FMB members, Carr says. A challenge to overcome is that one site with many houses – say 1,000 units – yields a big profit with fewer
gap, Carr explains, is the number of employers and subcontractors retiring and the absence of new entrants coming into the market. Furthermore – and Carr takes issue with the Government’s stance on this – apprentices are required to pass mathematics and English qualifications to complete their apprenticeships. “It’s not the right thing to do. Some of the best tradespeople haven’t got any maths or English qualifications but they deliver a fantastic product.” The result of the Government’s hardline approach is that employers cannot claim the full funding support for an apprentice if that person does not pass maths and English at the end of their apprenticeship. But, as
Carr rightly notes, if schools have not been able to teach students in 10-12 years, why should it be up to construction employers to do the job? “They could be the most brilliant bricklayers and joiners in the world, but if they don’t pass maths and English, they don’t get an apprenticeship to keep them employed for life. It’s not realistic to ask people to do that.” Finding funding It can be a challenge accessing financial support through some of the high street banks,
BUYER DEMAND
Buyer demand is at its lowest since 2015 (when this data was first recorded), with an average score of 1.99/5
administrative requirements as there is just one planning
application and one series of objections by the public and other stakeholders. Carr says the Government should “incentivise or penalise” local authorities either to encourage more SME house builders or discourage fewer volume house builders from winning these house building contracts. Closing the skills gap Before taking on the role of FMB National President, Carr sat for 7 years on the CITB’s National Council for England. “So I see from both sides what the CITB is doing and what the FMB is doing to solve the skills shortage.” The major factors contributing to the skills
“So whether you’re a village with 30 houses or a town with 10,000 houses, you should be required to take a percentage of homes in that area,” Carr says. “That makes it more sustainable. There needs to be affordable homes so younger people stay in the village, which stops local schools and pubs and everything else from closing down. It might be 8-10 houses a year in one village and 1-2 homes in a small hamlet.” Carr says there seems to be a false belief that the market isn’t ripe for retirement homes in rural areas, but he argues that there is a huge appetite for small bungalows for retirees. Building 5-6 units on small sites is the “bread and butter”
PLANNING APPLICATION DELAYS
Respondents cited ‘inadequate resourcing of planning departments’ as the most significant cause of delays, followed by ‘inadequate communication by planning officers’ Planning application delays are the most significant cause of additional cost in the planning process Only 12% of members had a high or very high degree of certainty in the planning process, with 45% having medium certainty 32% having low certainty 11% having very low certainty
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Master Builder
www.fmb.org.uk
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