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.

Planning With Half a Mind; Why Planners Resist Emotion

Many planners ignore people’s emotions when they analyse social problems, and as a result planners often get things wrong, according to ‘Planning Theory & Practice,’ published by Taylor & Francis.’

Planners aim to change how people act including where they live, locate a business, send children to school, with whom, how, and where they travel, and where and on what they spend money.

Planning successfully depends on understanding what motivates people. However most planners continue to ignore how people think and act emotionally, despite social sciences and other professions waking up to the power of emotions as they recognise their influence on how people act. In the article, ‘Planning with half a mind: Why planners resist emotion’ published in Planning Theory & Practice, Howell Baum indicates that the few planners who recognise emotional concerns are more successful than the planners who ignore them.

So, if emotions matter, why do planners ignore them?

Historically, planners gained authority for their profession by claiming to solve problems rationally, without giving any attention to residents’ emotions or their own. As a result, planners who identify with the profession must ignore emotions if they want authority. Crucially, the reason society values planners’ claim to ignore emotions and gives them authority for doing so comes from the culture of the Enlightenment, which regards emotion as a threat to reason and encourages people to pretend they have no emotions. Baum posits that by its very nature, planning as a profession will always resist thinking about emotions, resulting in unrealistic and ineffective planning.

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World’s largest offshore wind farm to be built in the UK

DONG Energy confirms a positive Final Investment Decision for Hornsea One offshore wind farm off the coast of Grimsby in Northern England.

This morning, Wednesday 3 February, the board of directors at DONG Energy confirmed a positive Final Investment Decision for Hornsea One offshore wind farm off the coast of Grimsby in Northern England, meaning that construction can now go ahead.

Located 75 miles off the Yorkshire coast and capable of powering over one million UK homes with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, Hornsea One will be – by a considerable margin – the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

The project has the potential to create around 2,000 jobs during its construction, with up to 300 additional jobs supported throughout its 20-25 year operational phase. A new Siemens blade factory in Hull, due to be built by the end of this year, will support the project, boosting a Northern and UK wide supply chain.

Hornsea One is expected to be fully operational in 2020.

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said “Thanks to Government support the UK is the world leader in offshore wind energy and this success story is going from strength to strength. Dong Energy’s investment shows that we are open for business and is a vote of confidence in the UK and in our plan to tackle the legacy of under-investment and build an energy infrastructure fit for the 21st century.”

“This project means secure, clean energy for the country, jobs and financial security for working people and their families, and more skills and growth boosting the Northern Powerhouse.”

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Considerate Constructors Scheme launches new Monitoring Checklist

The Considerate Constructors Scheme – the national Scheme to improve the image of the construction industry – has launched a new Monitors’ Checklist.

The Checklist is the key method which Scheme Monitors use to assess and score sites, companies and suppliers’ performance against the Code of Considerate Practice. It comes into effect from 1 February 2016, but there will be a three month transition period until 1 May 2016, to ensure all Scheme registered members have sufficient time to familiarise themselves with the new requirements before any changes affect their scores.

As the Scheme carries out around 18,000 sites, companies and supplier visits every year, the information gathered within the Monitors’ Checklist provides an essential barometer of how the industry is improving and the key issues it must tackle.

Whilst the 2016 Checklist has undergone changes in all five sections of the Code, the most significant changes are within the ‘Value their Workforce’ section. A number of new questions have been introduced to help the industry tackle the critical issues such as combatting illegal workers and modern slavery on site and in supply chains, as well as attracting and retaining a skilled and diverse workforce.

New questions include:

    1. How does the site assess and monitor the legitimacy and competency of the workforce?
    2. What is the site doing to improve its image and the overall image of the industry to attract and retain the workforce necessary for the future of construction?

Commenting on the new Checklist, Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said: “Our work to stamp out illegal working involves close collaborative working with lead industry bodies. We are fully supportive of genuine efforts, such as this scheme, to drive compliance with the rules.

“Employers within the construction sector have a crucial and ongoing part to play in helping to combat illegal working by ensuring they carry out the straightforward ‘Right to Work’ checks on potential employees.”

Chief Executive Edward Hardy said “Scheme registered sites, companies, suppliers and their clients are demonstrating a continued eagerness to keep raising the bar of considerate construction and improve industry standards across the UK. The new Checklist will be a significant driver in helping to achieve this goal.”

Mr Hardy added “The Checklist is reviewed annually to ensure it remains current, relevant and challenging. The new questions including those around the legitimacy of the workforce and attracting and retaining skills are clearly crucial issues for the future of the industry. The Considerate Constructors Scheme is delighted to be at the forefront of challenging the sector to improve performance in these areas.”

Find out more about the new Checklist here.

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Could offsite construction attract new home grown talent?

Ministers have today announced that they want the construction industry to focus efforts on attracting, developing and retaining home grown talent into the industry and remove barriers currently preventing more young people from entering the sector.

This involves looking at how companies recruit and train, but also at how adopting modern technologies and methods could help to keep our sector interesting, up-to-date and attractive to the next generation of budding construction professionals.

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis and Skills Minister Nick Boles have stressed that they want the construction industry to re-evaluate their current business models to see if there is enough attention being paid to recruitment. The ministers suggested that businesses should also consider other methods of construction – such as offsite manufacturing – to help diversify the industry.

The Construction Leadership Council has been called upon to review what skills the construction industry need to provide enough homes to meet national demand and tackle the housing crisis effectively.

The Council has asked Mark Farmer, of real estate and construction consultancy Cast, to identify actions that will help bring more workers to the industry.

Views are being sought on how to best train a workforce which has a high level of self-employment and bring about greater use of off-site construction. The review will also look at how the industry can introduce measures that encourage more investment and new ways of working.

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said “The number of new homes is up 25% in the last year – and this is further proof we’ve got the country building again and delivering the homes the nation wants.”

“This means thousands of jobs are now up for grabs and we’re determined to make sure that there are enough skilled workers to get the job done.”

“Construction offers an exciting and rewarding career and we need to build a new generation of home grown talented, ambitious and highly skilled construction workers.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles commented “The government is committed to getting Britain building. We are investing in measures to cut red tape and increase the number of young people doing apprenticeships and traineeships to ensure we have a pipeline of skilled workers.”

“As leaders in the industry, the Council is best placed to advise on how to boost productivity in the sector and build the houses and infrastructure our nation needs.”

Mark Farmer, chief executive officer at Cast, added “I’m delighted to be asked to lead this review. The construction industry’s skills shortfall has been growing progressively and its ageing workforce now means affirmative action needs to be taken to avoid more acute issues in the future.”

“A healthy and robust construction sector is vital to underpinning the government’s commitment to delivering critical new housing and infrastructure projects. It will also ensure the unrivalled economic multiplier effect related to construction activity continues to play its part within the wider UK economy.”

“The industry needs to seize the opportunity to celebrate the vital contribution it makes and, in partnership with government and other key stakeholders, ensure it overcomes the current barriers to fulfilling its potential.”

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VIDEO: 5 of the most amazing examples of construction equipment

Last week saw a giant 157m long, 22m wide, 1,500-tonne machine bridge building machine begin work on Mersey Gateway Bridge.

Described as looking like a giant Meccano structure, Trinity is a movable scaffolding system that will attach to the bridge piers and enable the elevated approach viaducts to be built over the Mersey estuary.

In the wake of such an impressive machine roaring into existence, we wanted to share with you 5 other examples of extraordinary equipment. Watch the video below to see them in action!

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Builders bear the brunt of building site crime

Power tools are the most stolen item from building sites and workers in the construction trade, with small traders suffering most from crime in the industry.

A national security equipment installation and servicing company has found that smaller, easy-to-fence items are more likely to be stolen, but there are still significant numbers of thefts of large plant and machinery.

The Yorkshire-based CCTV.co.uk company says that while site and contractor van security has improved greatly in recent years, the “inside job” is still one of the major risks to any building site.

CCTV.co.uk surveyed 75 building firms, from large companies down to sole traders, and found that the ten most stolen items in 2015 were:

  1. Power tools
  2. Bags of cement
  3. Ladders
  4. Plant machinery
  5. Wheelbarrows
  6. Building materials and other supplies
  7. Cable
  8. Metals
  9. Personal items – radios, phones, cash
  10. Hand tools

Ratcliffe notes that power tools are far and away the most vulnerable item because they have a high resale value, and they’re usually very portable. Such is the specialised nature of the stolen goods, they can only be resold to rogue traders looking to equip themselves cheaply and with little care to the crime victims in their own profession.

“A determined gang of thieves can steal thousands of pounds worth of decent quality gear from a single trader and put him out of a job for months,” he says. “Even taking every precaution to safeguard your property, it only takes a minute with your guard down for your livelihood to be taken away.

“Buying stolen professional tools on the quiet isn’t a victimless crime.”

While targeted theft from contractors is a major problem, the biggest proportion of construction industry crime comes from theft of supplies, materials and plant from building sites. Unfortunately, no site manager can rule out the risk of the “inside job”, CCTV.co.uk says.

“Only a proportion of this kind of activity is ‘dead of night’ thieving,” Ratcliffe says, “Instead building sites haemorrhage material through petty theft and stealing-to-order.”

These stories from victims of construction industry crime speak volumes:

“Like the sign on the van, I never keep tools in there overnight, and they’re always well secured at other times. Instead, someone broke into the van when I parked up at the supermarket on the way home. £3,000 lost in 20 minutes, we couldn’t have a holiday because I had to buy new gear.” – Barry, sole trader

“We always have to budget in a little bit of theft of materials, because you can’t stop the odd opportunist thief. But one job was losing metals, cable and supplies hand-over-fist, almost like they had a shopping list. That probably means somewhere there’s a house built out of our profits.” – Terry, company manager

“I hate it when the small stuff goes missing, like your radio or mobile phone. That means you are working with a thief, and I don’t like that. It happens too much.” – Pavel, bricklayer

Ratcliffe says that sometimes extreme measures have to be taken to protect property. One study in 2011 found that painting plant and equipment pink deters thieves, as it makes it harder to sell on.

“Of course, if everybody painted their gear pink, we’d all be back to square one, which is why technology such as smart water is so effective,” he says. Scaffolding companies know this to be the case, with each local company using a different colour, meaning that stolen equipment is easily identified.

“Construction sites can be chaotic places, which make the ideal for the criminal,” says Ratcliffe. “All it takes is equating crime just as high as safety, and we can save both personal livelihoods and company profits.”

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UK construction set for growth – with 230,000 jobs to be created

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is calling for more apprentices as it releases new figures today which forecast annual average growth of 2.5% for the next five years – and a massive 232,000 jobs to be created.

CITB’s Construction Skills Network (CSN) report – the industry’s most comprehensive and up-to-date – predicts sustained growth from 2016-2020, driven by infrastructure and private housing.

Steve Radley, Policy Director at the CITB, says,“All types of training, and especially apprenticeships, will be vital to delivering this pipeline of work. This positive forecast should inspire more people to start apprenticeships, and more firms to take them on.”

New nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point, Somerset, and Wylfa, Anglesey, alongside rail projects such as Crossrail and HS2, will drive year-on-year infrastructure growth of 6.1%. The commercial construction sector will experience growth of 3.4% per annum, while private housebuilding will also experience sustained growth across the forecast period. Output in the housebuilding is expected return to pre-recession levels by the end of the forecast period, reaching £26bn by 2020.

UK construction growth is set to be fourth in Europe up to 2017, with British builders outstripping those in Germany, France and Spain.

Annual growth is predicted in all the UK’s regions and nations up to 2020, with Wales faring best with year-on-year growth of 7.1%, followed by the South West (4.4%), London (3.5%), and the North West (2.6%).

In response to the ongoing skills challenge, the CITB is in 2016 launching a series of new partnerships with local and regional training providers to make sure the right training takes place where it is needed most.

It is also continuing to work closely with the construction industry to further develop Go Construct, an industry-led web portal, to showcase the opportunities in the industry and encourage more people to join the sector. This should help construction firms recruit the talent they need to grow, and help workers learn about all of the great career opportunities available.

Steve Radley, Director of Policy at the Construction Industry Training Board, said “We can’t build the Britain we want without growing apprenticeships – and the careers they lead onto. That’s why it is vital that these new statistics, showing solid, sustained growth, inspire more people join the construction industry.

“We also want to attract workers who have left the industry to return, and upskill those currently in the sector, so we can deliver major projects and new housing faster and better.”

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Fall in workloads for small builders

Workloads for small builders across the country took a downward turn towards the end of last year, the Federation of Master Builders’ (FMB) latest State of Trade Survey has revealed, amid worries over wider economic uncertainty.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said “The building industry remains confident of continued growth but the slowdown we saw in the last quarter is a cause for concern. Undoubtedly, the adverse weather experienced in large parts of the country has played its part, by causing projects to overrun and costs to spiral. However, the fact that both current and expected construction workloads are down in every region is worrying given some of the gloomy predictions being made about the wider economy.”

“Most concerning is that the last three months of 2015 represent the first quarter in nearly three years in which private sector SME housebuilding showed a negative balance. Even if this is a temporary blip, it comes at a time when merely managing to tread water would be inadequate in tackling the housing crisis. We need firms of all sizes firing on all cylinders if we’re going to address the chronic under-supply of housing but, unfortunately, a complex set of problems continue to constrain smaller developers. A concerted effort to tackle ongoing issues around access to finance, availability of suitable small sites and shortages of skilled labour is vital. The survey findings underline the latter point, showing 52% of our members reporting difficulty in finding carpenters and joiners, and 50% continue to have trouble hiring quality bricklayers.”

“We still expect to see growth in our sector continue throughout 2016 and we are optimistic that businesses can bounce back from what appears to have been a disappointing end to the year. However, the coming 12 months still hold in store considerable headwinds, not least the fears over the wider economy slowing down. If 2016 starts in anything less than a positive fashion, we could see growing fears that the hard-earned gains made by the construction industry over the past two or three years are indeed under threat.”

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VIDEO: Giant bridge building machine begins work on Mersey Gateway Bridge

A 157m long, 22m wide, 1,500-tonne machine called Trinity has begun work on the Mersey Gateway crossing.

Described as looking like a giant Meccano structure, Trinity is a movable scaffolding system that will attach to the bridge piers and enable the elevated approach viaducts to be built over the Mersey estuary.

The machine will act as a giant concrete mould for the deck of the approach viaducts, which will be constructed in sections (known as ‘spans’) of approx 70m in length. It will take up to two weeks to build each span.

Trinity started construction work in Widnes on Thursday with a concrete pour for the first deck section of the northern approach viaduct, which will lead to the new bridge. The first pour lasted 24 hours and consumed an impressive 160 truckloads of concrete, poured into the 1,170 m3 formwork mould.

It took three months to assemble her on site from 1,200 component parts held together by more than 60,000 bolts. She will now be on site for the next 14 months.

General Manager of the Merseylink contracting joint venture, Hugh O’Connor said “This is a hugely exciting time for our construction teams. An enormous amount of effort has gone into preparing and testing Trinity ahead of today’s concrete pour. We are delighted to achieve this important milestone and get this next phase of the project underway.”

Once the bridge is complete, the equipment is set to be dismantled and recycled. Making it an innovative and sustainable one of a kind!

See how the machine works in the below video:

Watch the full version of the 3D fly-through of the plans for the Mersey Gateway Project below. This includes a look at the route, the main crossing and the construction methods.

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Report shows surge in energy efficiency projects

A surge in the number of energy efficiency projects commissioned has been reported in the latest UK Energy Efficiency Trends report published by EEVS energy analysts and Bloomberg New Energy Finance today.

Over 80% of those responding to the survey confirmed they had authorised new programmes in Q3 of 2015. This is the highest proportion of new projects recorded in a single quarter since the survey began in 2012. It also shows a significant uptick in commissioning, exceeding the long term trend of 70%.

Consumer technologies

Of the technologies being used, lighting continues to outperform other energy saving technologies (Figure 11, below). The specification and use of lighting controls grew, with a noticeable increase during Q3. Boiler controls also experienced growth, perhaps due to seasonal influences, as did projects that included efficiency measures to a building’s fabric. There was a fall in the number of measures specified for heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.

Click here to download this graph: EET Jan 2016 Figure 11

Consumer finance

Survey responses showed that the capital cost profile of energy efficiency projects remained volatile. Q3 saw a strong volume of smaller scale projects (up to £50k) and large projects (over £500k), but the core mid-range (£50 – 500k) was down, accounting for only one in five projects.

Financing arrangements remained stable, but a trend that has emerged throughout 2015 has been the use of combination funding (a mix of in-house and external finance).

Financial payback periods returned to the long term trend of between three and four years, driven by a growth in longer five to 10-year payback projects.

Supplier landscape

Energy efficiency suppliers reporting rising national orders dropped to an all-time low in Q3, whilst overseas orders picked up for 28% of respondents. Supplier demand however remained the biggest single sectoral concern at 31%. When combined, however, 35% of suppliers were concerned about government impacts on performance, with regulation (14%) and subsidy/policy uncertainty (21%).

Corroborating these findings, Jason Thackray, Head of Energy Services at Bellrock FM, said: “In the last six months there has been significantly more interest in energy reduction technologies across the supply chain. This is a really encouraging sign that organisations are focusing on energy and therefore carbon reduction. Bellrock works closely with the supply chain to ensure our clients get the best possible return on investment.”

David Lewis, marketing manager, energy efficiency, Schneider Electric said “It is clear from this report that uncertainty around subsidies and policies exists and this remains a key challenge for the energy efficiency industry. More than this, however, it supports the argument for greater education of existing personnel within organisations, and improved optimisation of existing energy assets, alongside capital investment in technologies and services. In order to successfully fuel continued growth in energy efficiency projects, suppliers must enable greater use of information across their products and services, ensuring that businesses are equipped to make better decisions of an investment or operational nature when it comes to energy consumption.”

Commenting on the findings, Ian Jeffries, Head of Performance Management at EEVS, said “This set of quarterly market results points to something of a ‘a tale of two sectors’.

“On the one hand we have bullish consumers reporting an upbeat set of results and, in particular, an 82% commissioning rate for new energy saving products and services.”

“On the other hand, this buoyancy has not trickled down to our supplier respondents that posted a largely downbeat set of results driven by flat domestic sales and continued concerns over future demand, alongside what is increasingly felt to be an unsupportive policy and regulatory landscape.”

“Taken together – and bearing in mind the wider macro-economic picture and major global uncertainties that will also influence respondents – it is clear that there is a raft of business uncertainties to deal with. Now could be a good time to be on the consumer side of the tracks.”

Of the consumer opportunity, Michael Rudd, co-head of the International Energy Management Team at Bird & Bird LLP, said “The private sector in the UK is pioneering the delivery of energy management solutions. Funders are creating multiple, increasingly sophisticated funding products – there is good, available money in the energy efficiency space. Together with progress in creating bankable project income streams, bespoke insurance products and commoditisation of contractual documents, we are creating a very accessible energy management industry.”

Compiled from the results of a confidential, quarterly industry survey, the UK Energy Efficiency Trends Report clearly evidences industry trends and has become one of the sector’s leading sources of market intelligence. The report covers both energy suppliers and consumers, providing differentiated results for each market sector.

The report is delivered by a research partnership between EEVS and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and supported by Bird & Bird, Bellrock and Schneider Electric.

Download the full report here.

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