The changing role of builders merchants in the construction supply chain

Builders merchants are an integral part of the construction industry, yet rarely are they consulted when discussions take place on the future of the construction industry. Throughout history, builders merchants have played a dominant role in the construction industry, initially as an intermediary between the artisan and the buyer, and more recently as a source of working capital for contracting firms. The merchanting industry currently is undergoing considerable change. The depressed construction market and the failure of the housing repair and maintenance sector to recover in the first half of the 1990's as activity in the private non-housing repair and maintenance sector has increased, has raised competition between merchants. The major building merchants are becoming larger by acquisition and merger, the smaller merchants are seeking niche areas, and the medium-size firms are under serious threat from acquisition by the larger merchanting firms. The trend towards consolidation in the sector, driven by the need to reduce costs, has meant that the large merchanting firms now control around 60% of the building materials market sales. Factoring is a growing trend, particularly with smaller companies sourcing goods from the cheapest source. The larger merchants have to respond by sourcing goods from the lowest cost base, irrespective of whether they buy from overseas markets. This paper analyses the UK builders merchants sector and evaluates the important role played in the supply chain.     

Feasibility of zero carbon homes in England by 2016: A house builder's perspective

The UK government set itself a 60% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions target on 2000 levels by 2050. This commitment will require carbon reductions to be made by all industries including the housing sector which presently accounts for 27% of carbon dioxide emissions. The house building industry is the subject of numerous government policies and legislation, but none are as demanding as the Code of Sustainable Homes, which set a ‘world-beating’ target for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016. This paper sets out to investigate the feasibility of building zero carbon homes in England by 2016 from a house builder's perspective. A comprehensive opinion of the feasibility of zero carbon homes is gathered through a questionnaire survey and in-depth semi-structured interviews with the major UK housing developers. The research found that there are currently numerous legislative, cultural, financial and technical barriers facing house builders to deliver zero carbon homes in England by 2016. The house builders surveyed concurred that these challenges are not insurmountable provided that a swift, all-embracing and above all realistic strategy is adopted and implemented across the supply chain.     

House building and product differentiation: An hedonic price approach

This paper considers the extent to which the UKhouse building industry is competitive: anarea neglected by the existing housing marketand housing submarket literature. The paperpresents an analysis designed to test thehypothesis that house builders are able todifferentiate or `brand' their output. Statistics on private house building output andthe number of firms in the industry indicatethat it is dominated by large (volume) housebuilders in terms of output share. Theempirical analysis draws on a datasetcomprising 1,155 new housing transactions withphysical attributes and transaction prices forGlasgow between 1989 and 1992. Hedonicregression models are constructed and Chowtests are performed in order to test the nullhypothesis of product homogeneity between housebuilders. The results provide indications thathouse builders differentiate their output sincestatistically significant differences in houseprices that are not related to physical housingcharacteristics are identified.     

Residential Building in Australia, 1993–2003

The building of new houses is a significant urban activity. The built form, shape and liveability of Australian cities are directly influenced by the actions and characteristics of firms who build new dwellings (apartments and houses). Despite this importance, little is known about the types of firms that build new houses and apartments in Australia. This article provides a detailed analysis of the residential building sector in Australia between 1993 and 2003. Focusing on elements of the sector that have been identified as important for both theoretical and policy reasons, the article presents a fine-grained analysis of industry structure, levels of concentration and the characteristics of the sector's large firms. It finds that differentiations between residential builders across space and by type of dwelling constructed are increasingly important and that large residential builders increasingly share characteristics with firms involved in other property sectors. It suggests that diversified property conglomerates pose new challenges to urban governance and to international theories of residential building.     

Residential Building in Australia, 1993-2003

The building of new houses is a significant urban activity. The built form, shape and liveability of Australian cities are directly influenced by the actions and characteristics of firms who build new dwellings (apartments and houses). Despite this importance, little is known about the types of firms that build new houses and apartments in Australia. This article provides a detailed analysis of the residential building sector in Australia between 1993 and 2003. Focusing on elements of the sector that have been identified as important for both theoretical and policy reasons, the article presents a fine-grained analysis of industry structure, levels of concentration and the characteristics of the sector's large firms. It finds that differentiations between residential builders across space and by type of dwelling constructed are increasingly important and that large residential builders increasingly share characteristics with firms involved in other property sectors. It suggests that diversified property conglomerates pose new challenges to urban governance and to international theories of residential building.     

Promoting sustainability in the United States multifamily property management industry

Efforts to promote environmental sustainability in the real estate industry continue to proliferate throughout the United States in response to both economic and social forces. This trend has received a considerable amount of attention in the academic literature, yet relatively little is known about the importance of sustainability to third-party property management firms operating in the multifamily sector of the housing market. For those interested in promoting sustainability, an important question that arises is whether barriers to environmentally-friendly business practices commonly observed throughout the housing industry extend to the market for third-party property management services. A second question of equal relevance focuses on determining what sustainability initiatives third-party property management firms are actually using in their efforts to procure new clients or retain existing ones. The qualitative analysis presented in this paper is one of the first to the authors’ knowledge to explore third-party property managers’ perceptions about sustainability in an attempt to address the aforementioned issues. The findings of this study support two overarching conclusions. First, sustainability is increasingly being promoted by large, third-party property management firms in the multifamily housing industry. Nonetheless, numerous barriers are perceived to exist that may impinge upon future efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the rental housing stock. Second, some firms appear to be better positioned than others to take advantage of sustainability initiatives as a result of the types of properties they manage and the characteristics of the owners they represent.     

Defining and measuring housing affordability using the Minimum Income Standard

Abstract

There is growing concern about a crisis in housing affordability in the UK, renewing longstanding debates about what constitutes ‘affordable’ housing. The growing use of the private rented sector by low income households has also led to increased interest in understanding the impact of housing costs on living standards. This paper builds on existing work on ‘residual income’ measures of housing affordability, accepting that what households can afford to pay for housing is related to their ability to cover other costs, and so not directly proportional to income. It proposes a new approach to defining and measuring housing affordability, based on the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). The paper then uses data from the Family Resources Survey (2008/09 to 2015/16) to examine housing affordability within the rented sector across the UK, exploring the value of this measure both in revealing the scale of the ‘problem’ and assessing the likely impact of suggested interventions.     

Will global warming reduce the carbon emissions of the Yorkshire Humber Region's domestic building stock—A scoping study

There is evidence from the International Panel of Climate Change that the UK will experience a mean rise in ambient air temperature over the coming years. Such a rise in temperature will change the requirements for heating and cooling of domestic buildings. This scoping paper explores this issue with respect to the housing sector in the Yorkshire Humber Region of the UK and comes to the conclusion that the regions domestic sector poses major problems with respect to the stated carbon savings required by the UK Government.     

After Housing Policy: Housing and the UK General Election 2001

This paper describes the results of a review of the housing content of UK General Election 2001 manifestos. Housing policy was of little importance during the election campaign. The main British political parties had, essentially, a shared housing agenda--to promote and facilitate home ownership, support area and community regeneration, tackle homelessness, improve the private rented sector, and prevent building on greenfield sites. Many issues of importance to housing specialists received little or no attention, most notably that of low demand. Some policy variations within the UK were evident, for example in attitudes towards greenfield development, home ownership and stock transfer. The paper concludes that differences in housing policy are emerging within the UK as part of a new politics of devolution and that the days of a single housing policy approach for the UK are over.     

Housing supply,profit and housing production: The case of the United Kingdom,the Netherlands and Germany

This article investigates the relationship between housing production in the private sector and profitability in three European countries: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany. The relationship between private sector production and profitability is suggested by Ambrose and Barlow (1987) to be an important contributory factor to understanding levels of house building in Europe. The article utilizes a model of ‘profitability’ based upon three variables: house prices, land prices and building costs. The model is considered with other theories relating to housing production. These are: first, the way in which governments organize housing production, second, the mode of housing development; and third, motivations of house builders themselves. These issues are shown through the results to be significant in explaining why trends in the three countries are dissimilar. The conclusions are that a private sector functions better where government plays a strong steering role, particularly in the land market. The relationship between production and profit is weak where systems of supply exhibit a high degree of speculative activity or where new production relies upon the decisions of individual households rather than firms. The article raises particular questions of definition and comparison. These are in relation to the ‘private sector’ and to the profit model itself.     

An evaluation of the rationale of tenant satisfaction surveys

Over recent years the housing press in Britain has covered with increasing regularity details of surveys of tenant satisfaction in housing associations and local authorities. In the summer of 1989 the first article appeared in the specialist press of the UK market research industry related to a survey of tenant satisfaction (Roe and Martin, 1989). The article adds to the body of housing literature that assumes tenant satisfaction measures as the means of bridging the gap between the housing manager and the ‘silent majority’. Often incorporating explicit or implicit details of ‘how to do it’, such work has received little criticism. However, when setting out to measure any phenomena, we need to examine ‘What is the purpose of the measurement?’ and further: ‘What is the nature of the phenomena being measured?'; and ‘What utility do our measures possess?’. This paper examines these questions, related to tenant satisfaction. The concept of consumer satisfaction, the bedrock of the discipline of marketing, is examined in a business context to enable parallels to be drawn with the non‐profit‐making rented housing sector. This questions the rationale for conducting satisfaction surveys.     

Housing quality and the rescue of failed private housing schemes in England: a policy review

The global economic crisis impacted significantly on residential development in the UK, stalling some local projects as private companies encountered financial difficulty. In response, government put in place an array of tools for rescuing private schemes, including supplying the Registered Providers (RPs) of social housing with the means to purchase complete or partially complete private homes. What seemed an ideal solution—the private developer avoids bankruptcy and Registered Providers acquire much needed affordable homes—in reality has been complicated by several factors. Drawing on interviews with key actors in England and on examples of successful and unsuccessful transfers of housing stock from the private to the public sector, this review seeks to identify key impediments to this type of transfer, including the inability of RPs to acquire housing stock that does not adhere to particular ‘quality standards’.     

贫困分散还是再集中:收储公租房的效应研究——基于江苏常州的实证

从租赁市场筹集公租房,以社会存量房源代替政府新建房源是供给侧改革目标下我国城市住房保障方式的重大转型。通过对常州市收储公租房的实证考察,发现在城市尺度上,该做法促进了保障对象的整体分散,有助于避免统一外迁安置造成贫困人口的边缘化和过度集中。但在社区尺度上,该做法却加速了保障对象的局部再集聚,可能致使贫困人口的空间固化以及部分老旧社区的持续退化。政府基于经济效率筹集替代性公租房难以有效解决户籍贫困人口的住房困难,优化房源选择、加强社区建设和更新老旧社区将是完善该住房保障方式的必要补充。     

Assessing impacts of summertime overheating: some adaptation strategies

The UK is predicted to experience warmer summers in the future, but the domestic building stock in England was not designed to cope with this change. The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) 2009 is used to assess the current state of the English building stock in terms of its vulnerability to overheating. The English Housing Survey 2009 provided data for 16 150 dwellings which are weighted to represent the housing stock. SAP predicts 82% of dwellings are currently at ‘slight’ risk of overheating and 41% at medium to high risk. If summer temperatures become 1.4°C warmer, then 99% of properties are predicted to have a medium to high risk of overheating. Several potential adaptations to the housing stock were considered to reduce overheating. Although ventilation strategies had the largest positive effect, the use of solar shading and shutters which allow secure ventilation could reduce vulnerability to overheating in the current climate. In a warmer climate, although some dwellings would still be at slight risk, the results suggest that solar shading strategies could reduce the percentage of those at medium to high risk to 6%. Future energy efficiency programmes will need to include adaptation measures to prevent overheating.     

Energy performance and indoor environmental quality in Hellenic schools

School buildings constitute a major part of the non-residential building stock, though due to their operational characteristics, they represent a low percentage of the overall energy balance of the building sector. Although health and productivity of pupils and teachers is strongly affected by the indoor environmental quality of their school, poor indoor air quality has been reported in published literature, even so for recently constructed school buildings. The same applies for the energy consumption, with large amounts of energy being wasted because no energy saving measures are applied for the operation of schools. This paper presents the outcome of a study on the energy performance of Hellenic school buildings. The general features of the contemporary building stock are presented along with the results from an energy survey in 135 Hellenic schools. The derived energy consumption benchmarks are compared with published literature. Finally, the energy performance and indoor environmental quality of a representative sample of schools in metropolitan Athens are assessed in a holistic approach to the “energy efficiency – thermal comfort – indoor air quality” dilemma. The IEQ assessment was based on an objective evaluation by monitoring crucial indoor conditions and a subjective occupant evaluation using standardized questionnaires. The potential of several energy conservation measures is evaluated in terms of energy savings and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions along with the related payback periods.     

British home owners and housing change in rural France

Drawing on a survey of 406 home owners in France, expansion in British property ownership is shown to have increased the rural housing stock and to have improved rural housing quality. In all, 30 per cent of British home owners in France have added at least one dwelling to the housing stock, mostly by restoring a derelict property or bringing an unwanted farm building into residential use. Amongst other property owners, 55 per cent have undertaken significant renovations (extensions, major structural work, etc.), so more than two‐thirds of all British buyers have helped raise the quality of the rural housing stock. This has had little effect on house prices, partly because there is little French demand for the properties Britons buy. Given that British buyers are also reluctant to acquire homes from other Britons, a semi‐autonomous housing market is being created in which resales are difficult. This tendency is weakening slightly now, but British owners who wish to sell continue to rely on France being used as an extension of ‘British’ rural housing markets, wherein they can acquire a rural ‘dream’ home that is not only unaffordable but also unattainable in Britain.     

House building,profits and social efficiency in Sweden and Britain

The paper examines why the housing sector in Britain performs so badly in producing housing. Completion rates are decreasing, dwelling quality is getting worse, while both construction costs and consumer costs are increasing. It does this through discussion of alternative routes to profitability in house building, supported by a comparative analysis of two contrasting cases: Britain and Sweden. In Britain land development gains and speculative extra profits are significant profit sources for house‐builders. Making profits through building itself is neglected; the concomitant is a fragmented labour process, loss of scale economies, low capitalisation, inadequate technical innovation and stagnant labour productivity. In Sweden house‐builders do not have easy access to land development gains or extra profits. Moreover, they are faced by a well organised and well paid labour force. They are pushed onto the road of making profit through increasing labour productivity and through product improvement. The result is controlled construction costs, improving housing quality and the capacity for sustained output.     

西部贫困地区农房建设困境调查分析

基于对我国西部地区农民住房情况的实地调查和研究分析,阐述了西部贫困地区农村的社会主义新农村建设、危旧房改造工程的现状和发展,对当前农村工作开展中遇到的问题和困境作出深刻的分析和研究;并从西部农村建房的规划、选址、结构体系、建房材料和抗震措施等方面探讨了农村住房的抗震脆弱性,对危旧房改造工程中关于调整政策扶持力度、加强专业技术管理、提高房屋抗震性能和加大西部农房的研究力度等方面提出了合理化建议。     

Expert systems within the construction industry in the UK

The aim of this article is to establish a number of issues relevant to the applications of expert systems related to the UK construction industry. The following areas are discussed:

1. (1) Expert systems currently used in practical circumstances within the construction industry in the UK.

2. (2) The benefits of using expert systems in construction firms.

3. (3) The reasons affecting the acceptance of expert systems within the construction industry.

4. (4) The areas in which construction firms require expert systems development.

A questionnaire survey has been conducted involving a number of leading building companies in the UK industry to investigate to above points. A statistical analysis has been carried out and the results are presented and analyzed.     

Sun,surf and sustainable housing—cohousing,the Californian experience

Increasing environmental problems associated with the domestic sector and the decline of local social capital and resident participation in their locality has led the UK government to seek more sustainable housing models. Cohousing could provide one option. However, cohousing has been relatively unsuccessful in the UK so far. The author sets out to prove that cohousing is a more sustainable housing model (using international examples) and that it in fact achieves many of the sustainability objectives of the new urbanist movement. An international comparison of the experience of cohousing in the UK and California and the factors influencing success and failure of cohousing in both locations are then explored. Drawing on the Californian experience the author then tries to provide some indication of how the development of cohousing could be encouraged in the UK in the future.