Simon White

Insulation scandal: Damp and mouldy homes excluded from help Help to fix unsuitable insulation under government schemes only applies to work done since 2022.

Big story in retrofit today - Insulation scandal: Damp and mouldy homes excluded from help - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

No excuses to not build 1.5m new homes, Rayner says The deputy PM says she's

BBC analysis shows the number of new homes in England continued to fall during the first six months Labour was in power www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

House prices at new high ahead of stamp duty change, says Halifax The UK's biggest mortgage lender says there remains

UK house prices have hit another record high with the average property price reaching £299,138 - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Housebuilding plunges to lowest in a year in setback for Angela Rayner Promise to deliver 1.5m new homes at risk after slump in construction activity

Residential construction activity slumped for the fourth month in a row in January, according to the S&P Global UK construction purchasing managers index (PMI). www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202....

10 Year Infrastructure Strategy Working Paper (accessible)

10 Year Infrastructure Strategy

The Treasury has published a working paper setting out the Government’s plan for its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Migrant labour needed to solve UK housing crisis, construction industry warns The National Federation of Builders say Labour’s goals are unachievable because there is a shortage of more than 200,000 construction workers in UK

The construction industry wants a special visa to be created to import enough workers it says are critical to solving the housing crisis:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Heathrow's third runway can be built in 10 years, Reeves says The chancellor says she wants to see planes start using the new runway in the next decade.

BBC News - Heathrow's third runway can be built in 10 years, Reeves says - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump administration faces lawsuit over pause on federal grants and loans Memo says social security and Medicare are excluded but congressional Democrats express ‘extreme alarm’

Just 1452 days until the next president replaces Trump www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

DeepSeek has released a new set of multimodal AI models that it claims can outperform OpenAI’s DALL-E 3.

The models are part of a new model family that DeepSeek is calling Janus-Pro. They range in size from 1 billion to 7 billion parameters.

Read more here: tcrn.ch/40Bc5Qm

China turned the entire U.S. stock market into a bloodbath with DeepSeek AI. Crazy time to keep up with tech.

1 trillion USD lost

UK construction contract awards were up 15% in 2024 – but all is not as it seems “Infrastructure has been carrying the rest of the industry on its’ back in 2024” – with big money contracts throughout the year But housing spend rem

The UK construction industry saw a 15% increase in contract awards in 2024, reaching £79.5 billion. The biggest regional gain was seen in the East of England at 52%. But housing spend remains flat at 1% growth with new housing applications continuing to fall. bdcmagazine.com/2025/01/uk-c...

London's social housing waiting lists at 10-year high Data shows 336,366 households were on social housing waiting lists in 2024 across London's 32 boroughs.

London's social housing crisis is growing. In 2024, over 336,000 households are on waiting lists, the highest in 10+ years! That's a 32% rise since 2014. With all 32 boroughs facing the strain, what's the solution? #LondonHousing #SocialHousing #Crisis
www.bbc.com/news/article...

A more secure pipeline makes it easier to invest in the future though - whether that is workforce or innovation to overcome capacity issues.

Let's not forget Trump signed dozens of executive orders whilst everyone was speaking about this.

Streeting sets out revised timetable for New Hospital Programme with some projects delayed beyond 2037 Health secretary contrasts "honest, realistic, deliverable timetable" to Boris Johnson's original pledge

Wave 1 begins in 2025, focusing on RAAC hospitals due to safety risks, while others face significant delays. Hospitals will follow the innovative, sustainable "Hospital 2.0" design. www.building.co.uk/news/streeti...

The revised New Hospital Programme has been unveiled, with some projects delayed to the 2040s. Health Secretary Wes Streeting promised an "honest, deliverable" plan to build or refurbish 46 hospitals in five-year waves, contrasting Boris Johnson's "unrealistic" pledge of 40 by 2030. #NHS #Healthcare

I think ultimately major housebuilders are going to have to be the ones to take on MMC to help (potentially) improve their margins , rather than new companies coming into a market that is so flat at the moment. The risk/reward is just too high for smaller businesses. It's a shame!

Construction insolvencies: Subbies still the biggest casualties The construction industry experienced the highest number of insolvencies last year, with specialist firms still overrepresented.

Construction saw 4,103 business insolvencies in 2024, the highest of any sector in the UK. constructionwave.co.uk/2025/01/21/c...

inside of a data centre.

Let’s face it, Data Centres are going to wipe out any green energy gains over the next few years to power AI. They were already hitting 2% of world energy use in 2022 and places like Ireland are expecting data centres to use 32% of their energy by 2026. We need to find another way.

A lot is going to have to change for house building in 2025 if we have any chance of hitting the 1.5 million target.

A 100% tax on Brits buying homes in Spain sounds satisfying – but it won’t solve our housing crisis | María Ramírez Making visitors pay more may bolster Treasury revenues, but it’s no match for building more houses Last October, tens of thousands of people marched through Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and other big Spanish cities demanding affordable housing. Protesters…

A 100% tax on Brits buying homes in Spain sounds satisfying – but it won’t solve our housing crisis | María Ramírez

What have I missed?

Water utilities are beginning a new AMP cycle with lots of works being planned to upgrade networks. It's a great time for companies in adjacent sectors to see if they can offer services into utilities work.

Green energy and power projects are very much on the menu with a lot of approvals being pushed through by Labour. It's a good time to learn about the construction process in this segment and see where there might be gaps in supply.

Housebuilding targets are back and the gov is making efforts to free up planning. Is this the year supply finally stabilizes?

AI will likely drive a massive surge in data centre construction, which can already be seen in the planning data. It's a great opportunity for UK firms to get into this fast moving market.

How to look for and find confidence in UK construction A few weeks into 2025 and already it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the relentless bad news cycle. Here are some bright spots on the horizon

Noteworthy attempt by Chloë McCulloch over at Building to provide some positives in the outlook for UK construction this year. It can be difficult to see through the doom and gloom to see opportunities. What should we be looking out for? Few ideas from me below ⬇️ www.building.co.uk/comment/how-...

sometimes a picture (or magazine cover) is all you need

Winner of first-ever Stirling Prize set to be demolished in Salford Salford City Council has approved the demolition of the University of Salford's Centenary Building, which won the inaugural RIBA Stirling Prize in 1996.

The first ever winner of the Stirling Prize is set to be demolished. Interesting debate about when modern buildings should be protected. www.dezeen.com/2025/01/13/s...

Artificial Intelligence: Plan to 'unleash AI' across UK revealed Leading tech firms are said to have committed £14bn towards the project, which could create more than 13,000 jobs.

Part of Starmer's plan to "unleash" AI is building data centres, but no one is asking how we are going to power these energy guzzlers when the power network is already strained and undergoing a transition to net-zero.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...