Mole Valley in region's top ten areas for home improvements (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Mole Valley in region's top ten areas for home improvements

12:29pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News

House-proud homeowners in Mole Valley have taken the district into the top ten areas for home improvement in the South-east.

For Mole Valley residents' appetite for doing up their homes has landed the district tenth in the region's top ten for home improvement.

In turn, the South-east comes in second only to London in the UK when it comes to the number of applications made for home improvements.

Tunbridge Wells in Kent topped the South-east chart with the local authority receiving more than six applications per 100 homes in 2012 for every private house in the borough. The figure is almost four times the national average of 1.64.

Elsewhere in Surrey, Elmbridge and Guildford ranked fourth and ninth respectively in the table with 4.39 and 3.48 applications per 100 homes in 2012 for every private house in the borough, respectively.

However, at 3.45 applications per 100 homes in 2012 for every private house in the borough, Mole Valley was only just behind Guildford.

The figures came out of research into planning applications in the South-east carried out by expert provider of market intelligence for the built environment, Barbour ABI.

Its new analysis across the English regions, Scotland and Wales, was revealed this week for the property and construction industry show Ecobuild at ExCel in London. Adam Valentine, group content director at Barbour ABI, said: “Over-all, the South-east ranks second as a region to London when it comes to the number of applications made for home improvements, with 2.25 applications per hundred private homes against London’s 2.6, and a national average of 1.64.” The South-east follows the national pattern with the richer areas coming out on top of the home improvers list. It was no surprise that South Bucks, by far one of the better-off boroughs, came in second on the list of top home improvers in the region.

The Government’s Family Spending survey suggests that households across the UK on average spent across 2010 and 2011 about £1,000 a year on altering and improving their homes. The average amount spent in the South-east was more than £1,500 - higher than in any other region including London.

The complete top ten South-east districts for home improvement were, in order, Tunbridge Wells, South Bucks, Sevenoaks, Elmbridge, Chiltern, Windsor and Maidenhead, Oxford, South Oxfordshire, Guildford and Mole Valley.

Barbour ABI is the leading provider of construction intelligence products, providing UK companies with sales leads, contact data, Customer Relationship Management software and market intelligence.

Its reputation is built and maintained by the in-house team of market researchers who have working relationships with planning authorities and other relevant information providers, including Government departments.

Barbour ABI was recently made responsible for publishing data for the UK Government’s Construction and Infrastructure Pipeline, which outlines future construction and infrastructure projects where public funding is agreed.