Building News is an information portal for all professional building specifiers. Here you can find all of the latest construction news from around the UK and the rest of the world.

Saint-Gobain named as Top Employer 2017

Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, leader in the construction materials markets, has been recognised as a Top Employer in the UK for the fifth year running, and in Ireland for a second consecutive year.

The awards, based on research conducted by the Top Employers Institute, recognises organisations that have achieved the highest standards of excellence in human resources, particularly in the areas of working conditions, learning and development opportunities, career and succession management and the overall culture of the organisation.

Mike Chaldecott, General Delegate and Regional Managing Director for Construction Products at Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, said “It is a great achievement to have been awarded this accolade once more. It recognises the steps we continue to take to ensure an open, collaborative and fulfilling environment, where our colleagues can thrive.

“We want all of our colleagues to enjoy their time with us, and also to feel supported, challenged, and fulfilled by an organisation that gives them the tools and creates the culture in which they can expand and develop their career for the long-term. With more than 30 businesses in the UK and Ireland, we are able to provide careers in a huge range of disciplines enabling employees to achieve a career without boundaries.”

For a second year in a row, Saint-Gobain has been certified Top Employer Europe and Top Employer Global – only one of 10 companies worldwide to receive this certification.

To find out more about the diverse and rewarding career opportunities available at Saint-Gobain in the UK & Ireland, visit http://www.saint-gobain.co.uk/careers/.

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New report urges industry to act now on skills training to meet smart meter deadline

The UK government’s energy policy requires suppliers to install smart meters in the homes of all domestic customers and small businesses by the end of 2020. But with less than four years to go, more than 48 million meters have yet to be installed.

To achieve the target, installation rates must increase fivefold from the current 200,000 a month to more than one million a month, but the industry has to address a drastic shortage of skilled installers, warns specialist training provider Develop Training Limited (DTL) in a new report.

Fundamental to meeting the deadline will be the availability of qualified meter installers, but the sector is already experiencing a chronic skills shortage. So fast, effective and accredited training programmes and initiatives are vital if suppliers are to boost installer numbers to meet their obligations and avoid penalties, says the DTL report.

DTL’s new whitepaper, ‘Smart Meters: training to meet the challenge of the UK rollout’, explores the issues relating to the UK smart meter rollout and the role training must play in helping to address them.

The report highlights that the shortage of suitably trained engineers is by far the biggest challenge facing an industry under pressure to meet the smart meter target. Research has shown that almost one in five domestic customers who arranged for a smart meter to be installed in their home experienced long delays because there were too few engineers available to carry out the work.

Steve Braund, Marketing Manager at DTL, explains: “Smart meters are an integral part of the UK’s plans to create a greener, safer and more reliable energy network, but the rollout programme is placing severe demands on the energy firms and their supply chain. Faced with the need to meet Government targets, industry must take urgent action to address the skills gaps of existing engineers and, more importantly, increase the number of qualified smart meter installers.

“Our smart meter report is the latest in a series of whitepapers DTL has published on a variety of topics, including electrical safety at work, confined spaces and legionella – all of which are freely available to download from our website.”

To download a free copy of the whitepaper, please click here.

DTL can provide specialist training at any one of its seven training bases nationwide, and can also deliver on-site solutions. Visit www.developtraining.co.uk for more information.

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Commercial buildings: “It’s all about value, not cost”

(Image: Sunny Landa, director at NG Chartered Surveyors)

It’s not often you’ll hear a commercial property agent quoting Oscar Wilde, but there is rarely a greater truism than the playwright’s famous “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

Wilde spoke these words in 19th Century, but the sentiment remains – especially in the commercial property sector in Nottingham.

For some time now there has been a growing trend amongst the local industry for undercutting of fees. Naturally, landlords are attracted to this, as it means they’ll get to keep a greater slice of the pie after their property is sold or let.

However, the practice of undercutting or lowering fees is not only ethically wrong, but also short-termism at its worst.

Landlords might be tempted down this cheaper route, but we’d ask: do you really think you’re getting value for money? There’s an old adage: ‘you get what you pay for’, and this is certainly true when it comes to instructing a commercial property agent to dispose or let your property.

If an agent is offering a landlord lower fees to try and entice them, the landlord should question who will be looking after the instruction? Will it be the seasoned, qualified property professional, or will it be a green graduate, eager but fresh out of university and woefully inexperienced in looking after a property portfolio. My experience tells me it’ll be the latter.

We’ve seen this is in the commercial property sector before; it usually happens when we’re coming out of recession and agents are battling it out to take advantage of a businesses who have a little more confidence in the economy and are looking to move premises.

This time, however, it’s a little different.

There has been such little speculative development in the last ten years that stock levels of good quality accommodation are incredibly low. Agents are fighting over instructions, and this is leading some to offer unsustainable rates.

While we can’t force developers to build offices and industrial units, as agents we mustn’t simply lower prices to maintain cashflow – that way lies madness, and sure fire way to devalue the industry and give it a bad name.

Surely it is better to offer a service that our fees warrant? At NG we don’t think about cost – we think about value. A landlord who is willing to pay the going rate to let or sell his or her property will get the best possible service. Can the same be said if s/he decided to take a chance on a cheaper alternative? I don’t think so.

At NG we pride ourselves on standing out from the crowd. We have a mantra of: “Our values decide our character; and our character decides our value”. Commercial property agents in Nottingham have a purpose of duty not to offer cheap alternatives which let down landlords (and ultimately occupiers), but to offer value on every instruction.

“Taking what we can get” can only lead to one outcome, and when we’re all in a desperate race to the bottom, not only does the image of our industry take a battering, but everyone loses out.
As Oscar Wilde also said: ‘Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing’.

Written by Sunny Landa, director at NG Chartered Surveyors.
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INFOGRAPHIC: Interesting facts about steel that you should know!

 

Steel is undoubtedly the backbone of our built environment. Steel is used in almost every sector of our industry, including energy, construction and housing (the largest consumer of steel), automotive and transportation, infrastructure and machinery – to name but a few. Seeing as the steel industry employs over 2 million people worldwide and can be seen everywhere around us, buildingspecifier thought it would be a good idea to delve a little deeper into the world of steel and shed light on a material that is so integral to our lives. We spoke to metal roofing experts, Country Towne who kindly put this infographic together, which highlights a few interesting facts about their favourite substance. Enjoy!
Steel

Infographic courtesy of Metal Roofing experts Country Towne.
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British citizens rank 53rd in Environmental Impact study

A new study from price comparison website MoneySuperMarket visualises the way people across the world affect the environment

  • Britain has a greener population than France, Germany and the United States – but is only 16th in Europe for green living and 53rd worldwide
  • Air pollution in the UK is more than double that of the US – and linked to 40,000 early deaths a year

A new study from MoneySuperMarket today reveals how people impact their environment, both in the UK and throughout the world. The new research highlights the individual contribution to the world’s climate – as well as highlighting areas for improvement for each country.

Britain managed to rank 53rd overall for individual impact on the world*, boasting a greener population than France, Germany and the United States. Overall, the UK is only 14% worse on an average score than Mozambique, the top-scoring country for environmental awareness, and 51% better than Trinidad & Tobago, the worst.

But the country shows up poorly when it comes to energy usage – only 22 per cent of UK energy is green, so even low usage has a higher impact in the world compared to Bhutan or Albania, where energy is nearly 100% green.

The French perform even worse, with green power at a low-ranking 17 per cent of their total usage. They also throw away seven per cent more waste than the UK every day.

And while Ireland is near the bottom of the rankings (99th overall) due to high waste and mid-level wastewater treatment, our air pollution is more than double. The United States, too, rank lower than Britain at 101st, but their air pollution is only 2.9µg/m3, compared to our 7.6µg/m3. This air pollution is linked to over 40,000 early deaths in the UK a year**.

Britain Among the Worst in Europe for CO2

Despite somewhat positive overall standing for per-person CO2 emissions, the UK’s results are poor compared with much of Europe, with 71% of other continental countries producing less of the greenhouse gas per capita.

9% of the UK’s CO2 emissions emanate from the capital each year, with industrial contributions only 22% higher than domestic.

Landfill Concerns

Previous UK policies have attempted to reduce the size of landfill, with limited success. Only 25% of municipal waste in the UK is recycled, with 49% being sent directly to landfill.

The average British citizen throws away 1.79kg of municipal solid waste a day – a higher amount than 50% of other European countries, including Sweden and the Czech Republic, and higher than anywhere in South America or Asia, with the exclusion of Sri Lanka.

As well as being an eyesore and damaging to the immediate local environment, landfills produce copious quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the effect on global warming of CO2.

“We wanted to know what our personal input to the environment was,” said Stephen Murray, Energy Expert at MoneySuperMarket.com, “Everyone wants to get their carbon footprint down, but now we can see exactly how the UK compares to the rest of the world – it really puts it in perspective.”

Using the interactive map you can view the breakdown of the different measurements that make up the average individual human impact in each country, including energy consumption, air pollution and reliance on non-renewable energy, see the MoneySuperMarket human impact interactive map here.

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Irvine Sellar, Shard developer passes away aged 82

The vision behind the Shard at London Bridge, Irvine Sellar has sadly passed away at the age of 82 after a period of short illness.

His son James, who has worked alongside his father for the past 20 years, will take over running of the Sellar Group, according to the statement released by the company.

Sellar will be remembered by his wife, three children and five grandchildren and his architectural legacy will continue through the buildings he helped create.

His most famous work, the Shard, dominates the London skyline and in its short life span has become a cultural icon of London and Great Britain overall. In memory of Irvine and as a celebration of his work, here are some fascinating facts about the Shard!

the Shard

It is 306 metres tall, briefly held the top spot for the whole of Europe before two buildings in Moscow overtook it within a year!
The average lift speed is 6 metres per second
The Shard is made up of 11,000 glass panels on its exterior
The area of the glass façade is 56,000 sq metres (602,779 sq ft), which equals eight football pitches.
Construction workers found a fox near the top, on the 7nd floor
95% of the construction materials are recycled.
20% of the steelwork is from recycled sources.
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Foundations laid for new state-of-the-art power link between Great Britain and France

A major new project to install a one Gigawatt (1000 MW) Direct Current interconnector linking the electricity markets of Britain and France via the Channel Tunnel has just put down its foundations. The foundation stone of the Folkestone Converter Station was laid this morning by Jesse Norman, Minister for Industry and Energy.

ElecLink, for which the investment in the construction is estimated at approximately €580 million, is based on a proven economic model and represents a strategic opportunity for the Eurotunnel Group. The project will generate approximately 300 new jobs during the construction phase together with ongoing jobs needed for the operations and maintenance throughout the life of the project.

The interconnector will provide enough capacity for more than 1.65 million homes per year, increasing the current Anglo-French exchange capacity by one half, and enhancing the security of electricity supply for industrial and business consumers. ElecLink will help to solve the ‘energy trilemma’ identified by the World Energy Council by maintaining security of supply, transitioning to a ”cleaner” economy and keeping prices low for consumers as future electric demand increases and adapts to population growth and the adoption of new transport modes for example electric cars.

ElecLink will have a very low environmental impact by making use of the existing Channel Tunnel infrastructure for its cable system, thus avoiding any interference with marine life. It is also expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 6 million tonnes by enabling demand in Britain and France to be met by the most efficient generating plants.
A project endorsed by the French and the British government and the European Commission, the project has been granted a 25 year exemption by regulators enabling ElecLink to operate as a private interconnector and to sell its electricity capacity over time.

It will be delivered with world leading partners. Siemens has been designated to construct the converter stations in both UK and France; the fabrication and installation of the DC cables inside the Channel Tunnel and the underground AC cables on the UK side is allocated to Balfour Beatty / Prysmian; RTE will undertake the installation of the underground AC cables in France.

Jesse Norman, Minister for Industry and Energy: “’As a Government, we are strongly supportive of greater electricity trading with our European partners in order to lower household bills and deliver energy security as part of our modern industrial strategy. We’ve created the right environment for cooperative projects like ElecLink to attract investment and compete in the market without needing financial support from our tax and bill payers.”

Jacques Gounon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Eurotunnel, said: “ElecLink further underlines how important the Channel Tunnel is to Britain and France. Not only is it a vital transport link, it is set to play an instrumental part in the supply of electricity to the UK, France and continental Europe. With the debate over the future of energy security brought into focus recently, ElecLink delivers a smart and environmentally friendly way to secure the electricity supply. We are proud to be inaugurating ElecLink this great project which will significantly benefit the economies and consumers in both France and the United Kingdom.”

The ElecLink interconnector is one of the most advanced new interconnection projects across Europe and the first of its kind between Britain and France since 1986, when the existing IFA (Interconnection France-Angleterre) interconnector was commissioned. It will use state of the art, tried and tested technology designed to achieve the highest possible standards of availability and reliability.

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Salaries of property professionals rise, but gender pay gap worsens

Salaries for property professionals remained robust in 2017, according to the latest survey by RICS & Macdonald & Company, but the gender pay gap has increased from last year.

  • Male property professionals earn, on average, £11,000 more than female counterparts (£7,000 in 2016)
  • Sector salary pay rises up 7.2% overall, above UK wage inflation
  • Average salaries down, but due to changing demographics of the survey

An evident gap

Male property professionals earn, on average, £11,113 more than their female colleagues (£54,931 versus £43,818). The gap is evident across the majority of age groups and is greatest for those aged 46–55, where the difference in average salary is 25.7%.

Encouragingly, the gender pay gap is now less evident in those starting out in property with females earning slightly more than males, a turnaround from last year where the pay gap was most evident in 18–22 year olds.

The survey indicates the attraction of property as a career choice. Of those who received a pay rise in 2017 in the industry, the average increase was 7.7% (up from 7.1% in 2016); this is far above UK-wage inflation, which sits at 2.7%. Considering the sample as a whole, the industry experienced an increase of +7.2% (6.5% in 2016), with 32% also believing that their pay and benefits will be positively affected by market conditions over the next 12 months.

The benefits of being qualified

Once again, the survey also shows the benefits of being professionally qualified. RICS professionals earn 40.6% more than those who are “not professionally qualified” — this has increased by 29.5% since 2016. Those with an FRICS designation earn 83.3% more than those who are not professionally qualified.

The survey recorded the average salary in 2017 as £52,362. While this is a 4.5% decrease compared to 2016, this may be largely explained by changes in the demographics of the survey this time around. Respondents with 10 years’ experience or fewer rose by 9% (from 31% to 40%), while those with 16 years’ experience or more fell 10% (from 56% to 46%).

Respondents working in Greater London continue to earn the highest average salary (£61,141) and command a premium of 15.5% over the South East, and 41.0% over Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland. The majority of regions have seen a decrease, but East Anglia (+3.4%), South West/Wales (+2.6%) and Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland (+1.4%) buck this trend with growth in average wages.

More positively, over half of respondents (53%) believe their organisation will increase headcount in 2017. 47% of respondents expect their organisation to modestly increase headcount, while 6% expect a significant increase in headcount in 2017.

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UK’s most polluted cities urge Prime Minister to act on air quality

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the leaders of the five UK cities worst affected by air pollution (Leeds, Derby, Southampton, Birmingham and Nottingham) have called on the Prime Minister to take urgent action to clean up the country’s toxic air.

Every year in Britain 40,000 people die early as a result of air pollution and research from London demonstrates the resulting health effects disproportionately impact the most deprived communities.

For the first time, Sadiq Khan and the leaders of Derby, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham and Southampton have written to Theresa May urgently calling for:

  • making vehicle manufacturers more accountable for emissions – with a zero-tolerance approach to malpractice, following the recent Volkswagen scandal;
  • national minimum emissions standards for private hire vehicles to ensure local requirements are not undermined;
  • greater regulation powers over the use of diesel generators;
  • a new 21st century Clean Air Act which will update existing legislation;
  • enshrining the ‘right to clean air’ in law after the UK leaves the European Union; and
  • unlocking new powers for local authorities, particularly regarding limiting construction and river emissions.

The letter describes the government’s current £3 million fund for local authorities to clean up their air as “woefully inadequate” and criticises the uncertainty around funding for transport schemes for preventing accurate and detailed planning in the long-term.

It also underlines the fact air pollution is not a problem local authorities can solve alone, they need government to devolve powerful fiscal incentives such as Vehicle Excise Duty and create a national diesel vehicle scrappage fund.

It comes as the government prepares to consult on a new national air quality plan to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide as soon as possible, following the recent High Court ruling against its previous plan.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said “The quality of the air we breathe, both in London and in major cities across the UK, is killing thousands of people every year and is creating a national health emergency. As city leaders, we are doing what we can to tackle this problem, but the fact is we are fighting with one arm tied behind our backs and lasting progress will only be made if national government matches the ambitious action we are taking. The time for urgent action is now.”

Leader of Birmingham City Council, Councillor John Clancy, added “Air pollution is now a public health crisis in this country and we need real leadership from the Government. Our towns and cities are keen to tackle this issue but we must be given the tools and funding needed to secure the future health of our citizens. The time for action is now.”

The Mayor of London has proposed to implement a wide-ranging package of measures to clean up London’s air, including a £10 toxicity charge – or ‘T-charge’ – for the most polluting vehicles later this year.

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Strong start for construction in 2017 as housebuilding flourishes

The construction industry has started 2017 strongly, with an increase in activity levels as the value of new building contracts awarded in January reached £6 billion, spearheaded by strong figures from the housebuilding sector.

According to the latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analysts Barbour ABI, housing figures increased sharply across January, with construction contract value reaching £2.7 billion, a massive 83 per cent increase compared with January 2016.

Housebuilding

Of all the type of projects across housebuilding, it was private housing that dominated in January, with 91 per cent of the total construction contract value in January, compared to just 66 per cent a year ago. Market conditions for private housing were also favourable for housebuilders in 2016, with Crest Nicholson recently reporting a 27 per cent increase in full year profits.
There are also currently £5.8 billion worth of housebuilding contracts that are nearing award status, suggesting this month’s growth is likely to continue over the next few months and beyond.

London unsurprisingly led all regions based on total construction contract value in January, accounting for 26 per cent. This was helped greatly by the £900 million One Nine Elms Twin Towers development, the largest project recorded on the month.

Commenting on the figures, Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: “Whilst the housebuilding sector is performing admirably, we expect to see its growth continue to flourish across 2017. However, other sectors now need to start producing more auspicious figures, such as the commercial & retail sector, which saw a year-on-year decrease of 40 per cent last month. Infrastructure, another traditionally big performing sector, is also in a slump with January figures being the lowest for 12 months.”

“On the positive side, the number of projects awarded in January jumped by 50 per cent compared with December and 25 per cent when looking at January last year. These figures are encouraging and would suggest that work is most certainly on the way.”

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