PRO INSTALLER MAY 2016
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PRO NEWS
BLACKPOOL AT BOTTOM OF HOME IMPROVEMENT TABLE
With many households across the country in the process of a spring clean , it was Kensington & Chelsea that led all regions in Great Britain for home improvement planning applications in the last year .
The home improvement report , compiled by construction industry analysts Barbour ABI , shows that Kensington & Chelsea had 7.3 applications for every hundred homes in the area last year , compared to the average of two out of a hundred across Britain . Overall the South East and East of England completely dominated the top 25 districts for home improvement applications . The first northern borough , Harrogate , is not found until number 74 .
The biggest riser year on year in the home improvement rankings is Cambridge , with application growth of 119 % and rising from 69th in 2014 to 7th in 2015 . Like many towns and cities across Britain , Cambridge has seen a sharp rise in demand for housing but only has a limited supply . As house prices grew by 14.4 % in the area last year , homeowners have turned to home improvement to further increase the value of their properties . At the other end of the spectrum we find Blackpool at the bottom of the table , with just one home improvement application for every 250 private homes , which is the lowest rate in Britain . The report shows that generally , seaside towns in the south have a high rate of applications compared to a low rate in the north .
Michael Dall , Lead Economist at Barbour ABI commented : “ As housing transaction activity expands outside of London , and with the subsequent positive impact on prices , the rise in home improvement applications is perhaps expected . And while economic conditions continue to improve , the likelihood is that residential planning activity will also follow this trajectory . Although the economic headwinds have strengthened , the reliance on housing as a source of investment should mean that the home improvement market remains buoyant over the next 12 months .”
www . barbour-abi . com
ENTREPRENEURS PUSH FAST LEAD TIMES
When industry stalwart and entrepreneur Terry Richardson told colleagues at the start of 2016 that he planned to bring aluminium bifold lead times down to three days , many of them laughed . But when he contacted glass and glazing marketing specialists Purplex about his latest business initiative called ‘ Premium fast-track service ,’ its founder and MD Andrew Scott said ‘ let ’ s do it .’ Fast-forward to the present and the bold claim is a reality , with TWR Bi-folds set to open a new 25,000 sq ft factory in Peterlee in the coming months that will be dedicated to only manufacturing bi-folding doors .
Terry Richardson , MD of TWR Bi-folds , explained : “ We ’ re an entrepreneurial firm at TWR and we invested a lot of time and money to fulfil our ambition to bring lead times down on aluminium bi-folding doors to three days . “ We did it , despite the naysayers , but we needed to bring the concept to market . Purplex worked alongside us at a strategic level and are very much a consultancy that has experts across all marketing departments that can execute ideas .” Andrew Scott , Purplex MD , comments : “ It ’ s refreshing to see a company taking risks and investing to improve industry standards . The move has proved successful and the team enjoyed working with TWR as business consultants , and to deliver a publicity drive and lead generation campaign to launch this initiative .”
For more information , call Purplex on 01934 808132 or visit http :// www . purplexmarketing . com /
Budget ‘ limited in scope ’ says FMB
The latest Budget may prove to be a missed opportunity in the government ’ s race against time to meet its own housing targets , the Federation of Master Builders ( FMB ) warned following the Budget statement .
Brian Berry , Chief Executive of the FMB , said : “ The government has set itself a target of a million new homes by 2020 . That is rightly ambitious , but the continuing gap between what ’ s being built and what needs to be built makes hitting that target more difficult by the day .
“ Official statistics show that annual housing completions in England totalled just over 140,000 in 2015 , a long way short of the 200,000 homes we need every year to hit one million . We are well into the current parliament and the government is already falling well behind on its targets . We recognise that the government is working on a number of fronts to speed up the planning process and intervene to support first time buyers , and some of the measures in the Budget are welcome steps forward . “ Yet these announcements are limited in scope and won ’ t signal the step change that we need to see . We cannot afford to lose momentum in the battle to beat the housing crisis .”
www . fmb . org . uk