Prop-arazzi

NEW PROPERTY GROUP CALLS FOR ACTION PLAN FROM BANKS

The newly-formed Construction & Property Group is calling on banks in Northern Ireland to engage in urgent discussions with the property sector and government to produce an agreed action plan aimed at injecting life into the local economy.

The group, which continues to recruit members from across the North, is to hold its biggest meeting yet in Cookstown on Wednesday August 20 and will be urging immediate involvement from Northern Ireland’s main lenders in its bid to protect the thousands of jobs at risk from the marked downturn in the construction and property sector.

Construction & Property Group spokesperson Brendan Cunnane said the organisation already had over 70 members from across Northern Ireland and that new members were signing up every day.

According to Mr Cunnane:

“The Executive is now beginning to engage with the problem and at a local level banks are showing a willingness to work with the constriction sector. But what is really needed is a clear action plan that is plain for everyone to see and which has the full support of the banks as well as government.

Over the past three weeks another 500 jobs have gone in the sector and many believe there is worse to come. This is not just affecting builders and developers. Suppliers are now making staff redundant as are solicitors, architects and estate agents.

Urgent action is needed to prevent total market failure”.

The Construction and Property Group is calling for
• A  commitment from all the major financial institutions that they will not take any steps which would further destabilise the market;
• Local financial institutions to reintroduce liquidity into the market by ensuring that affordable mortgages are available, particularly to first time buyers;
• The reintroduction, and adequate funding, of co-ownership by the Executive;
• An urgent review of the comprehensive spending review by the Executive to improve availability of social housing and shared equity schemes
The Construction & Property Group, which holds its second major gathering at the Glenaven Hotel in Cookstown on Wednesday 20th August, was created following a series of public meetings during July, bringing together developers, builders, contractors, suppliers and those involved in the professional services affected by the crisis in the residential construction sector.

The group is now looking to increase its membership and is calling on those involved in the construction industry across Northern Ireland to join the group.

 The next meeting of the Construction & Property Group will take place at the Glenavon Hotel, Cookstown on Wednesday 20th August 2008 at 7.30pm.  Please contact Weber Shandwick Northern Ireland on 028 90 347 304 if you require a membership form before the event.

NI CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY JOBS PLUNGE

The number of workers employed within Northern Ireland’s residential construction industry plunged by around 70 per cent in the year to end-June, according to the results of an indicative survey carried out by the Construction & Property Group.

The powerful new industry body, set up in response to the ongoing crisis in the construction sector, said a poll of 50 of its member companies shows that more than 1,550 jobs have been lost among them since June 2007.

Brendan Cunnane, the Secretary / Treasurer of the Construction & Property Group said today:

“The results of our straw poll show just how serious the situation has become. Using our figures, we believe that tens of thousands of jobs have already disappeared or they are most certainly at risk. We have reached a position where building on many sites across the province has completely ground to a halt. This is having a major impact on the local economy and it is imperative that all participants in the sector act collectively to get this key area of the local economy moving again.

“Otherwise there is a real fear that there will be total market failure in Northern Ireland and a sustained period of recession. In particular we are asking the Assembly, Executive and the local banks as key enablers in the sector to work with us and resolve these issues by finding a zone of possible agreement to move forward.”

“We need to urgently seek a solution to inject life back into the sector and restore employment and market confidence.”

The Construction & Property Group was created following a series of public meetings during July, bringing together developers, builders, contractors, suppliers and those involved in the professional services affected by the crisis in the residential construction sector.

Its main goal is to highlight the turmoil in the property and construction sectors and to engage with the Assembly and Executive and to work in collaboration with the major banks to introduce liquidity into the housing market to avert total market failure.

The group constitutes a cross section of the property development and construction industries across Northern Ireland and has also drawn interest from a number of professional services that supply and advise the property sector.

Since its inception the group’s meetings have been attended by over 400 individuals representing some of the largest and well know property development and construction companies in Northern Ireland.

Brendan Cunnane said:

“It is critical that everyone involved in the house building sector pull together to seek a way out of this crisis. We are seeking to avoid further turbulence and we have proposals which we would like to discuss with the elected representatives and the banks that have the potential to correct the market and set it on an even keel.

These include:

• A  commitment from all the major financial institutions that they will not take any steps which would further destabilise the market;
• A serious effort being made by the local financial institutions to reintroduce liquidity into the market by ensuring that affordable mortgages are available, particularly to first time buyers;
• The reintroduction, and adequate funding, of co-ownership by the Executive;
• An urgent review of the comprehensive spending review by the Executive to ensure social housing investment and shared equity schemes are more available to low income house seekers.
The group is now looking to increase its membership and is calling on those involved in the construction industry across Northern Ireland to join the group.

A delegation from the group recently met with the Assembly’s Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee and has also held meetings with representatives from all the major parties.

The Law Society of Ireland has submitted a document to a number of stakeholders on eConveyancing which aims to ‘reduce to five days the process of buying and selling property from one person to another with a new mortgage’.

The Law Society document states that the existing system as it stands should not be transferred into an electronic record but that the entire process should be re-engineered to suit the electronic and online environment presumably to cut down on the lenght of time it takes for the essential documents top be passed through the churn of the good old mail system.

According to the Irish Times the document has been submitted to the stakeholders for discussion in the context of the Law Reform project.

The Communities and Local Government Committee will publish its Eleventh Report of Session 2007-08, Planning Matters—labour shortages and skills gaps, on Thursday 24 July 2008. Stay tuned until we get a look at it ourselves and we will pull out the most relevant bits.

This graph from the BBC website says it all:

The Northern Ireland Construction Group was formally set up and met this morning to provide a forum for MLAs from across the political divide to discuss current issues relating to the industry.

Constituent Members include among others:

Construction Employers Federation (CEF) / Quarry Products Association Northern Ireland (QPANI) / Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Some of the topics that the group will discuss will include:

Planning / Housing / Government Construction Expenditure and Building Programme / Training / Design Quality / Regeneration and the Review of Public Administration.

It is proposed that the NI Assembly Construction Group will meet three times a year….in the current climate we think they might be up in Stormont a little more!

Joe Irvin former Special Adviser to John Prescott has been picked to replace Fiona Gordon as No10 Political Secretary. This presumably leaves a position to be filled on housing and planning issues in the Policy Unit. 

In the Republic of Ireland the Environment Minister John Gormley TD has forwarded proposals to exempt entirely heat recovery, biomass and composting developments from planning regulations. This will mean in theory that the developments will be goverened by the same planning regulations that cover kitchen extensions, conservatories and porches.

We can see this thinking causing a stir over the next few weeks prior to the Dáil committee meeting set up to see if this is nothing but hot air.