Browsed by
Tag: population

Bright prospects ahead for construction. That’s the forecasters’ view

Bright prospects ahead for construction. That’s the forecasters’ view

UK construction by 2018 will have witnessed a five-year growth spurt not seen since the 1980s. That’s what is suggested by the majority verdict among the latest batch of industry forecasts. Taking Construction Products Association forecast numbers, from 2013 to 2018 the industry output will have expanded by a quarter. Only in the post-War era up to the 1960s and in the late 1980s did construction enjoy growth of that magnitude over a five-year period. This will, if it happens,…

Read More Read More

More families share homes as the squeeze on housing tightens

More families share homes as the squeeze on housing tightens

The number of homes being shared by two or more families has leapt almost 20% over the past two years, according to families and households data released last week. In 2010 the Office for National Statistics put the number of multi-family households at 237,000. In 2012 it stands at 281,000.

This decade will be the first in more than a century when Britain’s homes become more crowded

This decade will be the first in more than a century when Britain’s homes become more crowded

Prepare for a massive shift in housing standards over the coming decade. That’s what I see when I read the latest UK population estimates released today. In fairness this story line is much the same as when the 2008-based estimates were released, except these figures show a bigger population growth (at 67.2 million in 2020 that’s an extra 700,000) and we now expect far fewer homes to be built over the coming decade than we might have hoped for a couple…

Read More Read More

England’s housing stock grows slower than the population for the first time in decades

England’s housing stock grows slower than the population for the first time in decades

The release today of the latest population estimates for 2010 revealed a reversal in the long-standing trend in England that the housing stock increases proportionately faster than the population. For more than a century the ratio of the number of people in England to the number of dwellings has, give or take a few blips and the effects of the World Wars, shrunk. The trend, from the best data I can find at the moment, was reversed in the decade…

Read More Read More

Housing shortage, what housing shortage?

Housing shortage, what housing shortage?

Few people disagree with the notion that there is a housing shortage in England. It is trotted out both as an argument for more social homes and as an underlying case for ever increasing house prices. I too subscribe to the view that we need to increase and enhance the English, and indeed UK, housing stock. But here is something that caught my eye when I was checking out some figures recently. Consider this: according to the Survey of English…

Read More Read More

Will we see the return of mobile classrooms, or can construction firms find a better solution?

Will we see the return of mobile classrooms, or can construction firms find a better solution?

In a chat yesterday it was suggested I should make a note of the rapid increase in the number of babies being born and the implications for construction, or not as the case may be. This chimed with me, as I had recently been told that they will need two more classrooms at the primary school my son is at by the time my daughter attends. I noted also that the Daily Mail had screamed about it a few days…

Read More Read More