Category: Building Regulations & Planning Section

A Property Owning Democracy?

What was Thatcher’s True Property Legacy?

On the day of her public funeral, we issued a special, single-article edition of our newsletter, analysing through editorial comment the legacy the late Baroness Thatcher leaves to the UK property market.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s death has prompted vigorous debate on the matter of her controversial political legacy. In the wake of the passing of a woman described as “the most admired, most hated, most idolised and most vilified public figure of the second half of the 20th century”, we analyse the indelible mark she left on the British property market…

Read the rest of this popular article at this link.

Derby and Nottingham highways deal up for Bidding

Derby and Nottingham City Councils’ four-year joint highways deal up for tender

The framework will be split into 14 separate lots with a total estimated framework value for both councils of £100m and a potential for the framework to be used by other Midland Highway Alliance members with an estimated value of a further £25m.

 

£20m investment for 300 Manchester properties – from Tokyo!

Manchester Surveyors – A £20m scheme from Nedo, the Japanese Government’s R&D agency, is set to hit Manchester,  involving the replacement of conventional boilers with air source heat pumps – highly efficient electric heaters that absorb heat from the outside air. These will be twinned with a heat store, which is essentially a hot water tank, to allow heat to be stored until it is needed.

The innovation is in the energy management system that will connect all the homes, linked to the electricity grid and using the stored energy from the heaters to balance the load on the electricity network.

Bristol Uni seeks builder for 400 new student homes

bristolsurveyor.co.uk – The University of the West of England presses ahead with plans to build 1,200 student flats next to its main campus in Frenchay, Bristol.

The £36m building programme is being carved up into three phases stretching over the next five years. Each phase will include around 400 new 8-12 bedroom homes and a contractor is now being sought for the first £15m phase.

Are you involved with this work, or similar work in Bristol? Contact your local propertysurveying.co.uk member here to speak to a Chartered Surveyor about how he could help.

Salford Council goes extra mile for disabled child

salfordsurveyors.co.uk – Salford Council have used part of their £3.5m a year ‘home adaptations programme’ to assist a mother and child in their area, by building an inedible extension. The child suffers from rare disorder ‘Pica Disorder’ which means he has an appetite for non-edible substances.

If you are building an extension, with special requirements or not, contact your local surveyor here.

Mold development put on hold by flood risk assessment

moldsurveyors.co.uk – A long delay in assessing the flood risk of a reservoir in Greenfield, near Mold, is claimed by a local property developer to be putting homes and lives at risk.

The flooding risk of Flour Mill Reservoir must be determined, before work on eight new townhouses can begin. The Environment Agency instructed Flintshire County Council to complete an inundation map, but this has still not been done, despite a deadline of December 31, 2012.

If you are a developer in the Mold area, or elsewhere in England and Wales, contact your local surveyor to help navigate these difficult issues and ask them about how they can help elsewhere in the development.

Manchester Apartment Block Lies Dormant Whilst Housing Crisis Continues

Manchester Surveyors – Saltford Court, a tower block in Ancoats, Manchester was abandoned and unused after Manchester council closed it in the 1990s. A private developer purchased the building in 2006, but so far no action has been taken to bring it back into use.

Local residents want and need change. The block could be made into more than 100 much-needed apartments at an affordable price, so perhaps there should be a legal limit on how long a Developer can hold empty property before it is compulsorily auctioned?

If you want to bring an empty home back into use, contact your local manchester Surveyor.

Two Year Wait Ends for Whitehaven Hospital Redevelopment

Cumbria Surveyors – After a two year wait, Laing O’Rourke, one of the UK’s leading construction firms, has finally signed the contract for the £90m West Cumberland Hospital redevelopment in Whitehaven. The signing of the deal means that a £70m contribution from the Treasury can now be unlocked and will be released throughout the project in phases.

The project should have a wider benefit to the economy, including to related industries like property surveying. To find a local surveyor in Cumbria, click here.

Welcome News of Bounce in Housing Market

Property Surveying

A recent study from Lloyds TSB revealed that almost two-thirds of towns in England and Wales have seen year-on-year increases in house sales.

Home sales rose in 324 of the 500 towns tracked in the first half of 2012, compared with the first six months of 2011.

That is more than double the 151 locations where sales increased in the first half of 2011.

The port town of Felixstowe in Suffolk enjoyed the biggest homes sales increase, at 60%. Closely followed by ­Brighouse, in West Yorkshire, with a 53 per cent rise.