What's New

Chartered Institute of Housing Conference 14th-18th June 2004

The Housing Forum stand at the CIH conference this year attracted many of the visitors to this annual event, notably Keith Hill MP Minister for Housing, who spent some time finding out what the Housing Forum is currently doing. This conference, which attracts some 10,000 delegates and visitors annually, was an occasion for the Housing Forum to make new contacts and catch up with old ones. The following activities were opportunities for the Housing Forum to make its mark:

• Judith Harrison chaired a very successful seminar on the latest partnering developments for sustainable communities. Presentations from Jon Watson from the Home Group, Keith Lindup from CityWest Homes, Martin Reed from Pennine Housing 2000, Janet Sharpe from Sheffield County Council and Mike Kay from South Somerset Homes provided useful information and provoked lively debate.

• We launched our web based Partnering Toolkit, sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, at one of the policy platform sessions. Visitors to our stand were encouraged to try out the toolkit and we received some constructive feedback.
  The Partnering Toolkit is currently on our website as a grey site, so don't forget to have a look.

  You can click here



We aim to make the toolkit as user friendly as possible and would therefore appreciate any feedback you have. Please send your comments to Zoe Le Grand or call 020 7592 1100 and speak to Zoe Le Grand or Krystyna Blackburn.

Housing Sector is Top Performer in 2004 KPIs

Housing Construction companies continue to improve ratings across all KPI categories, according to the 2004 results. Of these categories, client satisfaction was the most notable achievement, with the number of clients scoring 8 out of 10 for satisfaction with product and service rising to 86% and 80% respectively. In 2003 the number of clients scoring 8 out of 10 for product was 81% and 74% for service.

In addition to these rises, the housing sector achieved a 5% improvement in the measure of defects, with the proportion of clients rating satisfaction with the level of defects at 8 out of 10 or over increasing to 78% this year, and on projects delivered on time by 3% to 49%, and cost predictability, with the number of projects delivered at cost or better rising to 60% from 49% in 2003.

A further improvement for the housing sector this year was profitability. Median profitability improved to 8.2% from 5.9% in 2003. Productivity - median value added per employee - remained static at £32,000.

The full press release is available in the Press Centre on our website, www.constructingexcellence.org.uk

Collaborations with Other Organisations

The Housing Forum is involved in a series of collaborative working arrangements with other organisations:

• Pre Fabulous Homes, with Design for Homes and the Building Centre Trust, took place on 5th July 2004. The event was chaired by James Pickard, Cartwright Pickard Architects, and the following participated and gave presentations: Craig Casci of Hamilton Associates, John Blyde of Live-in Quarters, Michael Edwards of Thermonex, Tim Venables of Imperial College Business School, Paul Jeffrey of architects Bowker Sadler, Richard Ingham of Lovell Partnerships and Jeff Tomlinson of Kingspan. It was attended by around 95 delegates.
• BRE and NHBC
  Work is proceeding on a fast track Accreditation system and Quality Assurance framework for Modern Methods of Construction.
• House Builders Federation
  The Housing Forum is represented on the HBF working group on Modern Methods of Construction. An initial meeting was held on the 15th July to discuss terms of reference and working arrangements.
• CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association)
  A Housing Interest Group is exploring topics for future research.
• nCRISP (new Construction Research and Innovation Strategy Panel)
  Topics of current research will be mapped to identify possible topics for future research.

Open Day Events

The Housing Forum is holding a series of Open Day Events for members and prospective members to visit our new offices and find out about what we are currently working at and our plans for the future. Our first Open Day was held on the 15th July from 8am until 10am. Despite the early start we had a full board room and once Steve Lidgate, the Chairman, had welcomed everyone, Dennis Lenard, the Chief Executive of Constructing Excellence, outlined the future of the Housing Forum and Constructing Excellence as a whole. The delegates were then invited to visit displays and meet the teams involved with Best Practice, Productivity and Innovation working with the Housing sector, within Constructing Excellence. It was good to meet up with our members and new potential members and some productive discussions were held over a croissant or two. We still have places left at two further open days, the 22nd July 12-2pm and 29th July 4-6pm. It would be great to see you there!

Membership News

Why become a member of the Housing Forum?

What are the benefits? Click here to link to the membership section of the Housing Forum website and find out ...

Events

Membership Drive Events - London 22 and 29 July
All held in the Warwick House Boardroom. See you there!

Contact details

The Housing Forum has moved to Constructing Excellence's new offices. They can now be found at 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0PP.

The following people can be contacted through the switchboard number
020 7592 1100:

UNSUBSCRIBE

This newsletter is provided as part of your Housing Forum Membership package. If you would prefer not to receive future issues, you can unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to Zoe Le Grand with 'Unsubscribe me from Housing Forum E-News' as the subject line.