The pandemic would appear to have had limited impact on the construction sector in the south east of England. Business has remained brisk through the lockdown periods and the stamp duty holiday ending does not appear to have had any adverse effect on supply and demand.
The bigger areas of growth for us are around the northern Home Counties, including Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire, with some larger availability of land. It's no coincidence that these areas are part of or adjacent to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc that the government sees as a strategic development region, with consultations now running on land use, infrastructure and future development.
There's also increasing take up of modern methods of construction and the use of off-site, prefabricated houses. This might be because of the rising costs of traditional building materials and shortages of skilled labour. This is still a difficult approach to get right and as a key player in the housing sector we are working hard with stakeholders to standardise the acceptance of modern methods and systems as much as possible.
LABC Warranty is working with Hill Group on 158 social apartments and homes as part of Hightown Housing Association's Heart of Maylands development.
The development's second phase will be Hightown's largest-ever development and includes several commercial units.
This 135-unit private rental scheme next to Greater Brighton Metropolitan College will be a much-needed housing addition to the city.
Builders Geoffrey Osborne benefited from early support from our Major Projects team.
The project is helping to fund a £16m extension to the college across the street.
Trinity Homes is working for Optivo, one of the UK's largest housing associations, to provide 63 houses for rent and shared ownership. The site has recently won a LABC Warranty Site Recognition Award for outstanding site management and workmanship.
There's no reason to believe that the buoyant first six months of 2021 won't continue into the second half of the year. Assuming we can avoid any more lockdowns and the economy returns to something closer to pre-pandemic levels, I think we'll continue to see strong growth across the south east with significant interest in the commuter belt areas to the north of London.
Its easy access to the capital and continental Europe still make it a very desirable region in which to live and work.
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