In Britain at the moment, there are not enough homes for all the people and families that need them. As a result house prices have risen and are becoming increasingly unaffordable for many first time buyers, the private rental sector has grown and rents have increased, and more people are on social housing waiting lists than ever before.
There’s a lot of talk about how we can fix this, but the only thing that will make a real impact is if we start building the amount of homes that are actually needed. We need to work with the government, local authorities and local communities to ensure that we all pull together and fix this problem.
But we need to make sure that the homes we build are not just four walls and roof. They also need to be great places for people to live in, providing more than just shelter.
So, as you might have guessed, the main job of a house builder is to build houses! But it’s not as simple as it sounds, and there are a lot of other things that we have to do before we can even start thinking about walls, roofs and gardens!
We have to think about how people will get to their homes, which means planning and building new roads and in some instances improving existing local infrastructure. Our teams also have to think about the consequences of the weather and how that will affect those living in the new homes. So if it rains a lot, for example, the homes, roads and public spaces won’t flood.
Importantly, we also have to make sure that the homes we’re building address existing local needs. If we don’t, we could end up with a lot of empty homes!
House building really is so much more than just building houses!
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