NW leads homes sector
THE National House Building Council (NHBC) has revealed that more houses were registered to be built in the 2017-18 financial year in the North West than anywhere else in the UK.
154,698 new homes were registered to be built in the UK, 18,272 of which were in the North West. This represents a regional increase of 21% on the number that were registered the year before.
The increase comes despite what the NHBC called a ‘slow start’ to 2018, with 36,637 new homes registered in the first three months of the year nationwide, compared to 42,405 in the same period last year, a decrease of 14%.
The NHBC said: “This fall in registrations in the first three months of 2018 can in part be attributed to the exceptionally bad weather during the start of the year, which ● severely affected progress on building sites across the country.
“There are anecdotal reports from some house builders that up to 30 days were lost on site in the first quarter of the year as a direct result of the arctic conditions.”
They said that other factors include the well-documented shortages in skills across the house-building industry, caution around Brexit and short-term market fluctuations.
NHBC chief executive Steve Wood said: “New home registration figures for the last financial year have reached the second highest level in a decade, despite a challenging start to 2018, with freezing weather conditions affecting building sites up and down the country.
“Business confidence in both the private and affordable sectors remains high with clear routes to continued growth in 2018, and NHBC will continue to help support house builders to build the high quality new homes that people across the UK need.”