Alistair Darling’s Pre-budget report was hardly great news for the property market. Stamp duty is set to revert from its concessionary level of £175,000 to its ‘pre-holiday’ level of £125,000. Robert Sinclair, director of the Association for Mortgage Intermediaries, said: ‘The housing market is showing signs of recovery but a further stimulus is required.The government should also carry out a full review of the stamp duty regime. At present, it both distorts the housing market and places a disproportionate burden on first-time buyers.’ Read the rest of this entry »

After nearly two years of talking, an agreement on how the world should move forward on climate change is set to be thrashed out in Copenhagen as delegates from 192 countries gather today for the opening of the long-awaited UN summit. Concern is rising about climate change around the world, according to a new poll by for the BBC. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I was at the RIBA lecture on bricks, give by Maxwell Hutchinson, a past RIBA President. Better known as a broadcaster and writer, he provided an amusing delivery on an important topic as he challenged architects to see the potential of bricks as a modern method of construction. In the UK we tend to use brick to provide traditional options for housing and other projects. Read the rest of this entry »

A safety review of all 1,800 bridges in Cumbria is being carried out after severe flooding caused extensive damage to homes and roads in the county. Six bridges have already collapsed and others have been condemned. Our thoughts are with the many thousands of people facing a massive clear-up operation after the floods swamped homes and business and cut transport links. Though these floods are the result of ‘once in a thousand year deluge’ they have still prompted more discussion on flood prevention. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I reported on my visit to Batimat in Paris, the largest building show in Europe. The feedback from readers included many expressing general disappointment with Interbuild this year. A number of exhibitors suggest that, at the very least, it should become, like Batimat, a biennial event if it has any chance of surviving. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I was in Paris at Batimat 2009, Europe’s biggest building show where over 400,000 visitors packed the event. Among nearly 3,000 exhibitors were names familiar to the UK market, for example Schuco, Mapei, Autodesk, Technal, Dupont, Dow Corning, Brett Martin, Wienerberger, Fakro and many more. It was a sad reflection on UK exhibitions that none of these companies were at Interbuild. Read the rest of this entry »

Lyndon White writes: I was interested to read about the Scottish Building Federation’s (SBF’s) contribution to continued calls for a cut in VAT in order to boost the sector. Michael Levack, chief executive of the SBF, said: ‘Encouraging homeowners to spend more money on building works to improve their home would make a huge contribution towards sustaining the jobs of thousands of apprentices and tens of thousands of other construction workers in Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »