The NHBC Foundation has published a new report to highlight the importance of quality during the planning and build process, as the government strives to meet its 1.5 million new homes target.
Maintaining quality in the design and construction of 1.5 million homes is the result of a roundtable event with 16 industry stakeholders from 12 sector-leading companies and organisastions. Following discussions to identify positive recommendations for government and industry to ensure quality is maintained during the push to meet targets, the conclusions have been presented in the report.
‘I’d like to thank all the contributors to our round table discussion for their time, their valuable insights and the recommendations made’, said Richard Smith, head of standards, innovation and research at NHBC.
“With this report we hope to not only demonstrate that maintaining quality while increasing build volume is crucial but also support better decision-making and help promote the policies and drive the actions needed to deliver against the target of 1.5 million new homes.”
The report acknowledges that the concept and definition of quality is subjective and that there are different aspects of quality in homes related to areas including structure, design, compliance with minimum standards and the quality of the service provided through the purchasing process.
The NHBC explained:
“While this report focuses on quality during design and construction, maintaining consistent high standards throughout the build and avoiding latent defects, ensuring all homes meet regulatory requirements and consumer codes is the fundamental basis to improving quality within house building.
“As the industry prepares to increase housing output, the historic trend between increased volume and a reduction in quality must be broken.”
Maintaining quality in the design and construction of 1.5 million homes is available to download nhbc.co.uk/maintaining-quality.
