Challenges of New Builds

Adam Salt (AS): Planning permission is causing lots of delays. There’s a shortage of planning officers, so approvals take longer than they should. According to MHCLG, there were over 100,000 planning applications on hand in September 2024. All our industry partners are reporting delays, which makes it hard to price projects and secure material supplies.

Will Jones (WJ): Raw material costs have been unpredictable anyway, which makes things difficult enough before dealing with planning delays on top. A recent increase in timber prices caused issues. And steel shortages led to people storing it, which further pushed up prices.

WJ: There’s a perception that new-build quality is poor, but that’s not entirely fair. Technically and functionally, new homes are better. But issues with new homes get a lot of publicity and that feeds into the perception. Something to keep in mind for the future is that the more complex new homes become, the more difficult it will become to get it completely right – and so the more stories we’re likely to see.

AS: Across a site of several hundred homes, things will be missed or go slightly wrong. Even so, most new-build snagging issues do get resolved. Whereas if you buy an existing home, you’re buying the issues that come with it.

WJ: It depends what the individual wants. Someone who’s lived in new builds might only want to live in new builds; someone who wants an older property with character will be resistant to a new-build. A bugbear for me is the size of homes and the number of plots crammed on sites. Personal preference, maybe, but the UK does have smaller space standards than a lot of other countries. Developments are driven more by return on investment than what the end user wants or needs.

KP: There’s not enough affordable housing either, so how do you build housing that is both bigger and more affordable? We’re seeing incentives to develop brownfield land, and there are ways to remediate those sites. That will help with supply.

WJ: Sustainability requirements add to issues at planning. If we’re open about it, it’s not always easy to see the return on investment with some requirements. Homeowners pay a premium for new-build homes and then see their energy bills go up anyway. Maybe they wonder where the benefit is. Perhaps we need to strip things back a bit, understand the limitations more, and be realistic about expectations.

AS: Higher performance levels are a good thing, but they are a challenge to implement. In England, Part L is updating several times in the space of a few years. In Scotland, the Passivhaus equivalent should deliver better quality, but will drive up costs for housebuilders initially.

WJ: The way we build is often to maintain tradition, and that doesn’t go hand in hand with better performance. Europe has a very different approach compared to our brick and block cavity walls. We don’t make things easy for ourselves: homebuyers want brick, but you can use a different build system and still have a brick finish.

AS: The comparison with Europe is interesting. We still tend to do cold roofs whereas warm roof spaces are common there. Perhaps they see our roofs as wasted space.

AS: Timber frame is a starting point for a bigger drive towards offsite construction, especially panel systems. Then there are volumetric modular solutions too. When you’re building most of the structure offsite, it can help in catching up delays – especially as you can make sure you’ve got the material needed to meet the projects on order.

KP: Having a predictable timeline helps with budgeting challenges.

AS: Another factor is it’s a more appealing way of working that could encourage new talent into the industry.

WJ: Offsite manufacture isn’t limited by weather conditions. It improves the replication of design, leads to better tolerances, and delivers consistency of performance across homes.

Watch the full conversation on the A. Proctor Group YouTube channel, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Go to https://proctorgroup.com/all-products to learn more about our membrane products, offsite solutions, and ground gas barriers.