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JUNE 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
New housing
registrations
continue to rise
The number of new homes
registered across the UK continues to outperform 2014
levels, according to NHBC.
For the rolling quarter (February
- April), registrations increased by
20% compared to the same period
last year (41,307 in 2015; 34,451 in
2014). This follows the strong Q1
growth reported by NHBC earlier
this month.
The private sector increased by
24% during this period (31,083
in 2015; 24,993 in 2014), with
the public sector also up by 8%
(10,224 in 2015; 9,458 in 2014).
As the leading warranty and
insurance provider for new homes
in the UK, NHBC’s monthly registration statistics help to provide
new and accurate data on the
country’s new homes market.
For April, 12,459 new homes
were registered (9,268 private sector; 3,191 public sector), a 4% increase on the 11,985 homes (8,955
private; 3,030 public) registered in
the same month last year.
Commenting on the latest statistics NHBC Chief Executive Mike
Quinton said; “The very positive
start to the year continues, with
the growth in new home registrations unaffected by uncertainty
ahead of the General Election,
and so 2015 is likely to be another
strong year.
“Now that the outcome of the
General Election has been decided
we look forward to continuing our
work with government to ensure
that housing remains at the top
of the political agenda to help us
get back to pre-recession building
levels.”
NHBC UK statistics for February
- April 2015 show that:
During February 2015 - April
2015 the number of registrations
was 41,307, a 20% increase on last
year (34,451). Of these:
• Private sector registrations in February - April 2015 increased by
24% (31,083), compared with the
same period last year (24,993).
• Public sector registrations in
February - April 2015 increased
by 8% (10,224) when compared
to the same period last year
(9,458).
‘we look forward to
continuing our work
with government to
ensure that housing
remains at the top of
the political agenda’
Source: www.nhbc.co.uk
Avoiding
‘mobilegeddon’
In response to the recent major update from Google,
Leads2trade has updated its website to fully comply
with the latest changes and ensure members of its
Trusted Local Suppliers scheme remain unaffected.
On the 21st of April
this year Google updated its mobile search
algorithm – a change
which has been dubbed
‘mobilegeddon’ by
some – to favour websites which are optimised for mobile use.
Websites not deemed
mobile-friendly may be
dropped down the search
results for important search
terms, which dramatically reduces the number
of visitors to a site and
potentially costs businesses
thousands in lost revenue
due to a reduced number
of website visitors.
Andy Royle, Director at
Leads2trade comments:
“Mobile search is on the
rise. 50% of all Google
searches are now done via
a mobile device, spark-
‘a seamless user experience
across mobile and desktop’
ing the new algorithm
change which will see
mobile-friendly websites
ranking above those solely
designed for desktop for
some of the most competitive home improvement
industry lead generating
terms.
“Amongst other reasons,
sites with text too small to
read on a mobile, links too
close together, or content
wider than a mobile screen
will see themselves fall
down the mobile search
results.”
“The majority of consumers will research home
improvement companies
when looking to have work
carried out such as double
glazing, boiler and solar.
“Companies offering lead
generation services whose
websites aren’t optimised
will see their listing bumped
down and a sudden drop
in leads which can damage
the business and impact
customers.
“We’ve prepared our customers for ‘mobilegeddon’
by optimising our site to
provide a seamless user experience across mobile and
desktop and to keep them
at the top of Google and
first for homeowner enquiries, giving our customers an
advantage over the competition.”