Where Good Ideas Come From...

In recent newsletters, we’ve concluded with links to videos of people doing some fairly odd things with bricks!  Here we’ve had a slight change of tack.  You may have come across Steven Johnson before, but this video encapsulates some really interesting approaches to innovation and struck a real chord with us.  There aren’t as many laughs, but nevertheless, Steven has an entertaining  style - we hope you enjoy his approach…..

Fuel poverty is bad for your health and the economy...

A couple of weeks ago, John Healey one of Labour’s (many) former Housing Ministers spoke at the National Housing Federation conference – sharing with the audience some of his thoughts on the state of the housing sector and the impact of the coalition’s policies.

As you would expect, there were some pretty clear criticisms in his speech of the spending cuts and the impact they will have on the housing sector in particular and the economy in general.

Party politics to one side though, I thought that he made some interesting observations about the links between health and housing, making the point for example that poorly heated or insulated homes can lead to hypothermia and ultimately to deaths and how overcrowded homes can lead to the rapid spread of infectious diseases.
Consequently the quality of our housing stock has a direct causal link with the health of the nation, a link which not only has social implications but also economic consequences. For example, the Audit Commission calculated that for every £1 spent on housing support for vulnerable people, £2 would be saved in the reduced costs of health services, tenancy failure, crime and residential care. To coin a well worn cliché then, if a cross-department view were taken, such spending could be seen as sensible investment rather than as a pure cost. Supporting this view, the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health reported that health costs of £600 million arise every year directly from poor housing.

Healey asserts that the economic benefits go wider than this though and that for every £1m of public investment in housing refurbishment, 17 jobs are created and that completing the Decent Homes programme would support 54,000 jobs.

He also argues that the separation of health and housing responsibilities makes it much harder for governments to make sound and sensible policies, but does say that the last Labour government was effective in more closely linking the two areas - with the Decent Homes programme affecting more than 1.4 million homes and the encouragement of closer local working between housing and health providers (citing as an example the recent ‘Healthy Homes’ initiative launched jointly by Liverpool Council and Liverpool PCT which targets the health and housing needs of families living in 25,000 homes across the city).

Furthermore, a report released this week states that between 2004 and 2009 domestic electricity prices increased by over 75%, while gas prices increased by over 122% over the same period. This suggests to me that it’s not just our existing housing stock to be concerned with but in future all houses will not only be valued by location and numbers of bedrooms but also their running costs.

As a company with close links to the social and private housing sector, we’d certainly endorse some of these views. Products such as our own Gebrik insulating brick cladding system not only deliver performance advantages (better insulation, improved aesthetics, reduced energy costs etc) but can also provide better living environments for home owners and tenants – with a consequent benefit to both short and long term health.

I have to confess that I don’t remember this argument being made by Labour when the party was in power, but it does make interesting reading – and it’s hard to argue with the logic of more closely linking health and housing. Interestingly when Aneurin Bevan led the legislation to set up the NHS through Parliament in 1946, he was Secretary of State for Health and Housing; maybe he was on to something….

Woah! Be careful...!!

This may be a bit of an urban myth but if only he’d used a lightweight brick system...?! 

Facing the facts...

Recent months have seen the release of some interesting reports and announcements as the government’s policies towards public sector procurement further crystallize – at least with respect to the construction sector.

In the housing sector, there’s been the announcement of an initial trial site for the Green Deal. Initially covering 2,500 social housing properties in Manchester, this pilot retrofit scheme is expected to be the model for future programmes.

Meanwhile the much-trailed James Review into school building has also recently been released. The report (as expected) was critical of the BSF programme, but also made recommendations for the future, the adoption of which the author suggests would cut 30% off school building costs.

Whilst both reports highlight the benefits of more efficient construction practices and point to future growth, other areas of the market are exhibiting signs of rapid growth already. For example, the budget hotel market has grown by a staggering 35%, since the recession hit in 2008. Research conducted by Marvin Gold Consulting, has found that since 2008, 20,000 rooms have been added to the budget sector and in the next two decades a budget hotel is expected to be built, opened or converted every five days.

It seems that the benefits of modern methods of construction are finally being realised – with modularity, certainty, predictability, efficiency, performance and value every bit as important as aesthetics and design. But then with modern materials there’s no reason why all of this can’t be achieved.