Greetings!
Welcome to this month's edition of the Marketing Newsletter. With the election finally over we can now start to anticipate the impact of the budget cuts on construction. Let's hope the effect is not too severe on the industry's slow recovery detailed below.
The next opportunity will be the introduction of Approved Documents L and F, both of which come into effect on 1st October. I have included links so that you can download copies. This change will create a significant specification sales opportunity, providing the chance for a dialogue with architects explaining how the new regulations can be met with your products. To help focus your thinking around this approach I've included details of two events about the specification sales process.
Finally I've included an article explaining sustainability which I recently wrote for RIBA Insight.
|
| Construction Market Activity |
With the election over we can look forward to some stability, but not just yet. Expect uncertainty for a while as policy changes are implemented and there are changes of personnel amongst the civil servants and quangos that operate in our sector.
But all of the news in the past month has been positive. Housebuilder Barratt's chief executive Mark Clare reported that forward sales had increased by 32%, now exceeding £1bn, the highest level reported for two years. This would seem to be representative of the sector as the NHBC reported that following a strong March, first quarter registrations in 2010 are 72% up on the same quarter last year, with the strongest performance coming from London and the West Midlands. This looks to have continued into April with RICS reporting that the average number of completed sales increased during the month.
This recovery in the housing market contributed to an April increase in the Construction Purchasing Managers' Index also helped by a rise in commercial activity. Property agents Knight Frank are forecasting selected growth in the M25 office market thanks to rapid growth in the communications, financial and business services sectors.
Meanwhile, in their interim management statement issued last week wholesaler Wolseley reported that new residential and RMI markets are expected to continue to improve. Final encouragement comes from RIBA's Future Trends survey amongst architects for February which showed expected workload increases in private housing, the public and commercial sectors.
|
| Approved Documants L and F |
Publication of the revised 2010 version of Approved Document L of the Building Regulations will take effect from 1 st October 2010. All four parts (L1A, L1B, L2A, L2B) of the new version are now available for download from the Planning Portal website.
Approved Document F (Ventilation) will also come into force at the same time and this is also available for download.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a summary of the responses it received from the consultation for amending Part L and Part F and this can also be downloaded. At 255 pages it is hardly a brief summary, but it does provide background to the changes.
|
| Specification Selling |
If you use specification selling as a means of demand creation, there are a number of useful events over the next few months.
RIBA Insight (formally RIBA Enterprises) will be holding one-to-one consultancies on 29th June in London and 6th July in Manchester. Free to their customers, others can participate for £85.00 + VAT.
CIMCIG will be running an afternoon seminar Marketing to Architects on 22nd September, this has just been announced and speakers have still to be finalised, but the format will include a review of the regulations, an explanation of the design process, presentation on the role of the Quantity Surveyor and explanations by architects of small, large and PFI projects. Discounted prices for booking before 31st August are £80.00 +VAT for members of CIMCIG and £95.00 + VAT for non-members.
These events are always popular so it is worth booking early.
In the Autumn I will be running my one day open training courses at the Building Centre in London; Effective Specification Selling on 11th October and Marketing in the Construction Industry on 14th October 2010. So why not take the opportunity to top-up on your personal development.
|
| The Sustainability Jigsaw |
Sustainability has come a long way in the last few years, from the periphery for tree huggers to mainstream. There is now a much greater understanding of what it means, but still many misconceptions and confusions. For example, how can so many alternative and very different products, such as timber and steel all claim to be the most sustainable?
The explanation is that sustainability covers seven key areas. A products' sustainable nature should be judged on its performance in each area, which is what BRE have tried to do with their Green Guide to Specification, consolidating the findings into simple ratings. But this is very difficult to do, especially when the same product can be supplied from different factories. Continued
|
|
Chris Ashworth
Competitive Advantage Consultancy Ltd
Phone: 0844 6698728
|
|
|
|
Tel: 0844 6698728
Chris Ashworth |
| | Our Services |
The following Research Reports are available Online:
|
|
|
