Using British produced masonry homes is “vital” to plans by the Housing Secretary to shake-up the country’s planning system and create more quality houses, says the Managing Director of Besblock.
Andrew Huxley is in favour of Robert Jenrick MP’s proposals to get Britain building, by making a series of key changes to the planning system, but wants there to be a deeper consideration of the method of building.
The announcement follows a package of measures announced in yesterday’s Budget to help more people onto the housing ladder by building more quality affordable homes and speeding up the planning process to deliver the 300,000 homes a year the country needs.
There will be more help for those that want to build their own home and for parish councils and neighbourhood forums wanting to build a small number of homes that will allow their community to grow.
“Of course we are in favour of any help out there to keep the house building industry moving,” said Andrew. “But when we talk about the quality of build then we really do need to consider masonry and traditional house building methods.
“According to the Building Alliance masonry construction has a design life of at least 150 years, creating a built environment for future generations,” said Andrew. “This compares with timber and steel building systems which have a design life of 60 years.”
Besblock, which is based in Shropshire, has invested millions across all of its departments over recent years to expand the business and enable block deliveries to go further afield, currently the firm’s fleet of lorries travel more than 840,000 kms during their deliveries, unloading an average of 1,261 tonnes a day.
