A Love of DIY is the Real Lockdown Legacy

It’s great to see the nation take to DIY while they’ve been at home, and hopefully that’ll continue over September!

National Home Improvement Month / BHETA

• New research reveals that 39% of Brits made changes to their house over lockdown
• National Home Improvement Month begins this month
• Win £1,000's of DIY Prizes to get you started

This September is National Home Improvement Month (NHIM), and as the name suggests - it’s an awareness campaign organised by the British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) encouraging people to improve their homes during the month of September.

And it comes at exactly the right time as research conducted by BHETA found that the lockdown has encouraged much of the nation to dabble in DIY. Prior to the months of social isolation, only 1 in 10 Brits felt confident enough to tinker with their homes themselves. That, however, seems to have changed as 39% of the UK have made improvements to their homes over the course of lockdown.

What’s more, with more time and more money on their hands, it seems a new generation of DIY-ers has been born. In fact, over half of those who made changes to their home were found to be aged 25-34, with the second largest grouping being under 24s. Similarly, over two thirds of those aged 24-34 revealed that they felt more confident in their DIY skills as a result of the time spent tweaking their homes over lockdown.

The research also revealed what Brits were doing to improve their houses, with close to a third (31%) choosing to update their home’s style over improving its the value (18%), increasing its energy efficiency (12%) or upping its security (11%).4 Indeed, there’s been an 84% increase in online searches for ‘home décor’ since lockdown began, a doubling in UK searches for ‘garden tools’ in the same period, and a similar picture across DIY products and projects.5
And NHIM have called upon home-dwellers to continue this DIY fervour and make just one change – big or small – to their house in September.

This has been echoed by NHIM ambassadors Craig Phillips (TV presenter, DIY expert, Silverline Tools ambassador and former Big Brother winner) and Georgina Burnett (TV presenter, The Home Genie Blogger, and DIY interiors expert), who hope to see this interest in DIY expand further still, with those new to the hobby making just one change to their homes to get started.

“It’s great to have National Home Improvement Month roll around again, especially after what’s been a tough time for pretty much everybody across the country,” Craig commented. “It’s great to see the nation take to DIY while they’ve been at home, and hopefully that’ll continue over September!”

In addition, Georgina Burnett said: “So many people lead busy and often stressful lives, so the emotional benefits of improving your home environment are immeasurable. We all need a home that supports our day to day living.”

Stephen Richardson, Marketing Manager of BHETA, echoed the pair’s sentiments, adding: “National Home Improvement Month is always an exciting time for us, and we’re thrilled to be helping people the country over to improve their homes.”

A home is what you make of it, and to celebrate NHIM, we are challenging you to make one change with the opportunity to win over £1,000 worth of fantastic home improvement goodies from National Home Improvement Sponsors Nilfisk, House of Mosaics, QEP, and Schneider Electrics.

The lucky winner will receive £1000 worth of useful products to give your house a facelift this September!
All you have to do is email us a picture of your home improvements to info@homeimprovementmonth.co.uk, along with the reasons that you decided to #MakeOneChange (in no more than 30 words) before 30th September 2020.

As the saying goes, ‘Home is where the heart is,’ and with lockdown easing and gatherings of family and friends becoming ever more frequent, National Home Improvement Month is the perfect time to put the finer touches on your home.

- Ends –

For information on the #MakeOneChange challenge please visit the National Home Improvement Month website.
For further information, images or a copy of the full research, please contact Phil on Phil.Browne@relationsgroup.co.uk or Phone: 020 3958 7085|DDI: 020 3958 7170

NOTES FOR EDITORS
National Home Improvement Month is supported by the British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA), the leading UK trade association for manufacturers, suppliers and distributors in the home enhancement market, including home improvement (DIY), garden, housewares and small electricals.
1 National Home Improvement Month survey (2,011 adults).
2 https://www.insightdiy.co.uk/articles/getting-to-the-heart-o...
3 https://www.insightdiy.co.uk/articles/getting-to-the-heart-o...
4 National Home Improvement Month survey (2,011 adults).
5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52708947

ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The research was commissioned by BHETA. The research sample comprised 2,011 UK home owners. All research conducted adheres to the UK Market Research Society (MRS) code of conduct (2014) and all research processes comply with the DPA (1998).