Briefing: future trends in UK housebuilding

Homes have more influence on the way that people live and behave in society than anything else they spend their money on. A house usually represents an individual’s largest ever single investment, and is expected to last for decades, if not indefinitely. In order to make the most appropriate investment today, however, people need to know how they will be living and working in the future, both individually and as a society. A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report The Future of UK Housebuilding, published in December 2010, investigates and debates this issue. This briefing discusses the implications of the report for municipal engineers and others. In particular, the issues of sustainability, zero carbon dioxide, offsite technologies, technology changes and community impact are discussed.