Daily News: 10/02/2025
Major new plans to modernise home buying and selling aim to save people time and money, with additional measures to improve the lives of leaseholders. GOV.UK
Carmarthenshire County Council’s three-year Housing Investment Programme 2025-2028 has recently been approved at a meeting of Full Council. More than 1,000 Housing Executive (NIHE) tenants are waiting for adaptations to their homes — in some cases for four years or more. People in Oxford are, on average, waiting for more than five years for social housing. Carmarthenshire County Council, Belfast Telegraph, and Oxford Mail
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has stated there are “no excuses” for not building the 1.5 million new homes Labour promised in its election manifesto. BBC
Wiltshire Council has bid for £13 million to help make hundreds of homes more energy efficient. This funding is part of the successor to the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) phase two programme, which is set to retrofit 86 homes by the end of March. Wiltshire Times
Housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing has agreed multiple deals with Vistry to pave the way to build 323 homes at the £1.2bn Clapham Park regeneration scheme in South London. Peel’s housing arm, Northstone, has submitted a reserved matters application and initiated the first contractual phases with Wirral Council to develop 242 homes on a former Ministry of Defence site in Bromborough, empty for more than 20 years. Housing association SNG and housebuilder The Hill Group have announced they are expanding their strategic investment partnership to accelerate the delivery of new homes across England. Construction Enquirer, Place North West, and Housing Digital
The Building Safety Regulator has pledged to clear by April the backlog of 122 projects awaiting clearance to start construction. Construction Enquirer
The retrofitting of energy-efficient windows and doors is vital to bringing millions of social homes in line with net zero and thermal performance standards, a new report has claimed. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (now known as DESNZ) is considering its approach to decarbonising heat and improving the energy efficiency of non-domestic buildings, with 60% of the 1.66 million buildings in England and Wales being privately rented. HQN, GOV.UK
Fewer construction firms entered administration in January than in any month in three-and-a-half years, with only 10 firms going under, according to the latest data from Creditsafe. Global construction costs are set to rise by up to 7% in 2025 due to continued uncertainty. Construction News, Currie & Brown
A former biofuels site next to the River Mersey and close to Bromborough Dock in Wirral will become a new housing development comprising 975 homes, as approved by the council. A major regeneration development of 207 new homes in Newark, after years of delays, will be considered by the council. A decision is imminent on the controversial proposal for more than 150 homes in a New Forest village. Plans for 147 homes on a brownfield site in Old Trafford, once home to three large tower blocks and a pub, are set to be approved. Liverpool Business News, West Bridgford Wire, Bournemouth Echo, and Messenger