The ONS has released its figures for Output in the Construction Industry January 2014 and New Orders Q4 2013. These figures show that the estimate of construction output in January 2014 has risen by 1.8% compared to December 2013; this increase includes a rise of 0.8% in new work and a larger rise of 3.5% in repair and maintenance.  

 

These ONS figures also show that new orders in construction for Q4 2013 were 1.5% higher than Q3 2013. The figures are led by double digit growth in both public non-housing and private industrial, and a 7.2% increase in private new housing supported by the Help to Buy scheme.  

 

Government figures show that in the first 11 months of the Help to Buy scheme up to February 2014, there were 16,465 homes bought through Help to Buy. The scheme has now been extended to 2020, just one of the announcements made in the 2014 budget that support construction.

 

 

The Nationwide House Price Index has reported that house prices increased by 0.4% in March 2014 making them 9.5% higher than March 2013, although still 3.0% below the peak in 2007. But the Halifax House Price Index reported a fall in house prices of 1.1% in the month of March 2014.

 

At the CIMCIG Chairman's debate last month most agreed that the recovery we are seeing is sustainable but all agreed that more can be done by government, associations and industry to drive the recovery on.  

The Government are conducting a review of building regulations for housing standards, the aim is to save time and money for the industry. The NBS provide a good overview of the changes for 2014.

 

Version 3 of the Green Deal Code of Practice has just been published by DECC, they have also published a draft of version 4, that will replace version 3 in due course. There are calls for the Green Deal to be thrown a lifeline with only 33 plans being recorded in February. The Government is providing funding of £88 million to 24 local authorities, with the aim to help around 32,000 households install energy efficiency improvements.  

 

 

The European Commission has just released the Blue Guide 2014.  This covers all aspects of the New Approach Directives including CE marking.

 

A new BIM Specification has been released, this covers information management for the operational phase of assets.

 

BRE has issued for consultation its proposed methodology for materials (Mat 01) under the new BREEAM refurbishment and fit-out scheme.  The consultation closes 17 April. 

 

Finally it has been reported by the Build Show that the UK's construction industry feels let down by the government, with 71% of builders and contractors claiming they do not feel supported by Whitehall policy.

At the end of March the inaugural meeting of BIM4M2 was held. This is the group, representing manufacturers, that now forms part of the government's BIM Task Force. It is early days, but hopefully the group will be able to influence the standardisation of practices, including templates for BIM objects, so that it is easier and less expensive for manufacturers to provide BIM objects.

From the manufacturer's perspective it should be a matter of when to adopt, not if. This blog explores the implications of BIM for the manufacturer.

  Read the full blog article

ConstructUK has launched a new website and their A-Z of Construction Marketing is now available in a new fully responsive online format. We are pleased to be able to offer our readers a 20% discount, simply enter Cadvantage1 on ordering.

 

Pauley Creatives' blog provides a useful check list for construction marketers to help you focus on what's important. We certainly agree with point 2, conducting regular research is vital to informing your strategy. This point is forgotten in the recent blog by Klaxon Marketing on the effective marketer kit,

about what makes a modern B2B marketer.    

 

In a recent blog Hubspot has provided some insight into how social media can inform your strategy. And with Twitter having it's eighth birthday Su Butcher looks at Why 44% of Architects use Twitter.  

 

The Content Marketing Institute is now providing online training.

 

The Construction Marketing Awards 2014 will soon be open for entries! The Construction Marketing Awards are free to enter and you may enter any number of categories. This year there are a total of 19 categories. A new category has been added to this year's awards: Best Construction Blog, where entries are by nomination.

 

For a full listing of forthcoming events visit our website.