Forget about Hinkley Point, let us build houses that generate power from waste. Build enough and perhaps we don’t need as much expensive nuclear power, with its significant legacy issues, as some may think.
A recent article in Global Construction Review tells the story of a project to devise building blocks that can generate electricity from human and household waste. The research is led by Newcastle University, with involvement from SMEs in Italy and Austria.
The most striking thing is the paltry amount of funding, a mere €3.2m, or about £2.75m. It is a surprise a major house builder has not got into the project with a view to how this could be applied more widely. €3.2m is tiny when you look at the profits being made in house building.
"Despite a housing crisis, house builders are still holding back on expanding development while they assess the market. There is no mystery here. By any account housing is too expensive and I am sure if house prices came down, sales would go up."
Despite a housing crisis, house builders are still holding back on expanding development while they assess the market. There is no mystery here. By any account housing is too expensive and I am sure if house prices came down, sales would go up.
Another factor is whether house builders actually have capacity to build in the volumes we need. If you look at a recent report on new housing from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment, politicians are singularly unimpressed.
Increased volumes put pressure on quality, the standard contract is biased in favour of the developer and the warranty regime over-promises. Customer dissatisfaction is rising as volumes and profits increase.
This is made starker by comparison with the period around the financial crisis, when the number of houses sold was quite low, but the level of dissatisfaction was also low because builders had to get it right to make the sale.
The report, More Homes, Fewer Complaints, made a number of recommendations, for example a right to reject a property and not complete until all defects are rectified. Too many people complete before they would like to because there is the worry that delay would compromise the chain.
This often means that people complete with the promise that things will be rectified after moving in. The APPG report highlights the broken promises.
The report is a good place to start but I would also like to see a real effort by some of the major house builders demonstrating an interest in innovation, such as the smart bricks described earlier. For such a small investment the returns could be so much greater, not just in profit, but also the image of the sector and benefit to the environment.
