The Live Wire

Traditional Housing Bureau

Established in the 1980s the THB is a lobbying body for the modern masonry construction industry communicating all the performance advantages of brick and block construction to the consumer and housing industry.


Traditional housing construction accounts for approximately 85% of the current UK new build housing market. The THB's membership comprises 95% of all modern concrete masonry producers and as such represents an important sector of the construction industry.

The THB's present activities are centred on informing and educating the debate on off-site construction methods, believing that modern masonry construction with its long lifespan, adaptability and cost efficiency - of up to 10% alternative methods - makes for a far more sustainable and long lasting future for our communities than lightweight prefabricated methods.

Promoting the public's -Right to Know- the construction method of their home is an ongoing campaign for the THB and one which it feels is vital as the trend for property investment as a long term investment in place of pensions grows.

The THB believes that sustainable communities can only be created by building solid, durable homes that can be adapted to suit contemporary living requirements - something that brick and block housing has already been doing for far longer than 60 years - enabling them to last for generations.

Others are starting to question the push towards untried methods of construction as the solution for the housing crisis:

  1. Barker Report, Jan 04
  2. NHBC comment
  3. Association of British Insurers
» For more information please visit the THB website «

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