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Half-built schemes lose more value to missing paperwork than to the debt itself. When compliance evidence is missing, the fix isn't a valuation, it's re-measuring what's actually built, proving it, and pricing what it costs to finish.

A 20 per cent charge sits on almost every extension, rewire, re-roof, damp repair and loft conversion carried out on the 29 million homes we already have. This is a decision, and it is the most distorting feature of the tax system as it applies to the built environment. The anomaly is simple. Demolish a house and build a new one, and the work is zero-rated, with VAT on inputs recovered in full. Repair, extend or retrofit that same house, and it's taxed at 20 per cent, with th

Andy Burnham has promised Britain's biggest council housebuilding programme since 1945. That is the headline everyone has taken from his first week in office, and it is worth pausing on the word "council," because it points to a shift in who commissions housing in this country, not just how much of it gets built. For most of the last two decades, private housebuilders have set the pace. They chose the sites, ran the programmes, and instructed the consultants. Councils and reg

Homes England's figures for 2025/26 landed last week, and the temptation in Whitehall to call this a turning point will be strong. The agency enabled just over 40,000 completions, its best year since 2020, alongside more than 42,000 starts on site, and it beat two of its three government targets while lifting completions for social rent by 65 per cent, the tenure that matters most to people in greatest need. For an agency that has spent much of the past decade fielding critic

Keir Starmer resigned this morning. Andy Burnham is now the overwhelming favourite to replace him and could be in office within weeks. For those working in development, cost consultancy and investment, it is worth being clear about what that means commercially. Burnham is not anti-development. His record in Greater Manchester is evidence enough: house prices rose 63% over the past decade against London's 7%, and major schemes like Victoria North and Mayfield were delivered on

Most people assume the value in project monitoring shows up when something goes wrong. A contractor in difficulty, a programme slipping, a cost plan that no longer adds up. That is when the reports matter, obviously. But the work that makes those reports useful happens much earlier. The initial review is the part we take most seriously. A drawdown pack arrives, often with pressure to turn it quickly, and the temptation is to skim, tick the boxes and move on. We do not do that

NatWest's £250m Section 106 loan fund, matched by Homes England, takes the total available for S106 acquisitions to £500m. It is good news for a market that has badly needed it. Around half of England's affordable housing is delivered through the S106 cross-subsidy model. When registered providers stopped buying, whole sites stalled. Private plots sat behind unsold affordable phases, and housebuilders mothballed schemes that were viable on paper but couldn't clear the afforda

We are pleased to share that Axo Consulting has been appointed on a new instruction across our full Project Monitoring Plus service, covering monitoring, cost consultancy and development management on a single scheme. The 'Plus' is what matters, and it is what took us a while to articulate properly. Most monitoring firms are surveyors. Most cost consultants are surveyors. Most development managers are, you guessed it, surveyors. We are too, and proudly so, but the Axo team is

Geography has become an excuse in this industry. Firms carve the country up between them as though expertise were a local resource, and everyone calls this discipline when really it is just habit. The result is a market that limits itself for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of advice on offer. Spending time in Leeds for UKREiiF brought this into focus. It is a brilliant city with real energy, particularly around Kirkgate, and a good reminder that the best wor

How AI is affecting projects for SME developers.

The Axo Running Club set off from Carnaby Street for a steady jog to Primrose Hill and back. It was well worth the early alarm, helping us clear our heads after the Bank Holiday and setting a positive, focused tone for the week ahead. It’s a simple format that works. A manageable route, a steady pace, and good company along the way. The run up to Primrose Hill gave people the chance to catch up properly, with the climb adding just enough challenge to wake everyone up. The vie

What developers, investors and planners still need human commercial judgement to do in an LLM-driven market AI is moving into property faster than expected. Feasibility summaries can now be produced in seconds. Planning policy is scanned instantly. Cost benchmarks, market commentary and risk registers arrive fully formed, written with a compelling level of confidence. For developers, investors and advisers operating under time pressure, this might feel like progress. The ques

By the time a scheme reaches committee, many of the most influential decisions have already been settled. Development consultants working at this stage rarely make fundamental changes to a scheme, but those involved earlier can shape outcomes while options remain open. The real cost drivers of a site are often set early, before they appear on drawings. Access, topography, services, heritage and context can dictate viability if they are treated as assumptions rather than varia

Recent major London schemes show that commercial projects are no longer shaped at planning committee. The critical decisions now happen earlier, through safeguarding constraints, infrastructure consultation zones, political risk, fiscal exposure and cost assumptions formed before design begins. JPMorgan’s proposed Canary Wharf headquarters illustrates this shift. Progress depended not only on architectural ambition but on early engagement with London City Airport over height

I spend a lot of time looking at homes, prices, cost plans, and all the small details that shape how people actually live. At Axo, we work with families, developers, planners, and everyone who has to operate in the real world rather than the textbook version of it. And although there are some well‑known pressures in the housing market, there are also moments of genuine progress that often get lost in the noise. What has become clear over the last year is that the challenge is

There is a point in every market cycle when you feel the shift. It does not come from a panel or a presentation. It comes from the change in energy on the ground. Across the UK property world, that shift is happening now. It is driven by the industry pulling in the same direction again. It is visible in the work being done by agents, planners, architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, funders, occupiers and facilities teams. Agents unlocking momentum Deals are moving. Opport

Everyone keeps saying UK housebuilders are in trouble. The FT quietly made a more interesting point this week: things don’t need to get “good” for the sector – they just need to stop getting worse. Three reasons why that matters: Planning is finally (slowly) moving.
After a decade of dysfunction, the direction of travel is changing. Mandatory targets are back, green belt flexibility is creeping in, and planning certainty – even marginally – has a big impact on land value and

At Axo, we believe deeply in the power of good housing. A safe well-designed home can create stability, dignity and opportunity. So when we first came across Haig Housing Trust and their mission to support military veterans and their families, it immediately resonated with us. Our relationship with Haig Housing Trust began when we noticed their development in Morden. The quality, purpose and care behind the project stood out, and it encouraged us to learn more about the organ

Every so often a report comes out that makes you stop and think. The latest HBF analysis is one of those moments. £9bn sitting unspent £3bn held for more than five years £2bn allocated for schools £700m set aside for affordable homes These numbers are not alarming to me. They are energising. They show how much potential is already in the system and how much can be turned into real schools, real homes and real community benefit. One line in the report stood out: “There is a gr

Every construction project begins with a clear idea of what it should become. Yet for many SME builders and developers, the journey from vision to delivery is where challenges start to appear. Rising costs, unclear scopes and misaligned professional teams can quickly derail even the best intentions. At Axo, we work with SMEs who want the benefits of experienced commercial support without the overhead of a full-time in-house team. Our goal is simple: to help you deliver projec