Industry Responds to Gove’s Cladding Crisis Announcement

British Safety Council responds to Government’s cladding announcement

Commenting on an announcement today (10 January) by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing, in which he set out plans to raise £4bn to replace combustible cladding on buildings of heights between 11m and 18m, Mike Robinson, Chief Executive of British Safety Council said:

“Today’s announcement is a positive step forward as it will hopefully take the burden off many thousands of leaseholders facing large costs to replace unsafe cladding. It is also of course right that the construction industry continues to play its part in helping to resolve these issues.

“The Government must also shoulder its own responsibilities, having overseen the regulatory framework that led to Grenfell and other similar tragedies. We need to see all sides taking a positive and constructive approach to discussions between now and March.

“The sad truth is the funds announced today may also not go far enough. They will not pay leaseholders’ costs for other issues beyond cladding that aren’t included in these plans, such as balconies on a building that have been built with flammable material.

“The Grenfell fire showed how broad the building safety crisis is, spanning not just construction but design, manufacturing, fire safety and building management. However, there is no excuse for it having taken over four and half years to get to this point and these other issues also need to be approached with urgency.”

 

LGA Responds to Gove’s Cladding Crisis Announcement

 

Responding to warnings by government that developers must pay to fix cladding crisis, Cllr David Renard, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents 350 councils across England and Wales, said:

“No leaseholder should have to pay the costs of making their homes safe and the Secretary of State’s threat to use the legal system to ensure developers meet their responsibilities to leaseholders is a positive step in the right direction. However, leaseholders are not the only innocent victims of the construction industry’s failure to build safe homes.

“The construction industry must also be made to fix the fire safety defects it has built into blocks owned by councils and housing associations. Unless the Government forces the industry to act – or provides funding – we are concerned that the costs of fixing social housing blocks will fall on council housing revenue accounts and housing associations.

“This will reduce the funding available to meet the Government’s ambitions for improvements to social housing, net zero and the provision of new social housing, leaving tenants and those on the waiting list to suffer the consequences of decades of industry failure and poor regulation. Like leaseholders, council tenants and those on the waiting list are innocent victims and the Government needs to help them too.”

 

 

 

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Builders Shares Slump as Gove says Repair Unsafe Buildings

House builders lost more than £1 billion in value today after the government gave the industry just a few weeks to come up with fully costed plans fix the £4 billion cladding scandal.

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, today wrote to industry chiefs telling them to draw up plans to fix issues with building cladding by early March.

Builders are being asked to contribute £4 billion to a fund that will repair unsafe buildings between 11 and 18 metres tall. Developers must also fund and fix any issues with buildings over 11 metres that they have worked on and provide the government with data on developments done over the past three decades. Gove threatened legal action if companies fail to comply.

Shares in house builders slumped. Persimmon was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, down 3.1%, while Redrow dropped 3.3% on the FTSE 250. Other major developers registered similarly sharp falls and £1.3 billion was wiped off the sector’s market value in early trade.

UBS analyst Gregor Kuglitsch said the cost of the new measures was “significant”.

LGA RESPONDS TO ANNOUNCEMENT

“The current market cap of the sector is around £40bn so a £4bn cost would equate to ~10% on a pre-tax basis,” he and his team wrote in a note to clients. “This assumes the listed sector would bear the brunt of the cost, although there are likely some private companies that will also need to pay.”

Gove’s announcement comes on top of the building safety levy and residential property developer tax. Both were announced last year to help fund the government’s £5 billion commitment to tackling the problem.

The new measures are an about turn on the government’s previous position, which had seen the leaseholders shoulder the burden of fixing cladding issues on tall buildings.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation said: “The largest UK based house builders, who only built a minority of the affected buildings, have already spent or committed approaching £1bn to remediate affected buildings and the recently announced Property Developers Tax will raise billions more.

“We will engage directly with Government but any further solutions must be proportionate, and involve those who actually built affected buildings and specified, certificated and provided the defective materials on them.”

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The Government has already introduced one industry specific cladding tax, and now another is on its way. This piecemeal approach is confusing, unnecessarily complex and will likely impact the number of homes built.

“It’s also worth pointing out that the developer paying for remediation will almost certainly not have been responsible for the cladding put on the property – most of which was retrofitted long after construction and has nothing to do with the developer.

“Another construction industry related tax is neither fair, nor proportionate and industry will be dismayed at this scatter gun approach to fixing an issue that several governments set the regulation for.

“Perhaps all MPs will sacrifice a percentage of their salary and pensions to help fund remediation, see as the real responsibility lies with legislators?”

A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey said it has “acted on this already for its customers” and “made sure Taylor Wimpey customers do not have to pay for these improvements.”

“We trust that we will not be penalised for our early action to do the right thing,” the company said. “There are many organisations involved in the issue of fire safety, including large business in our supply chain and indeed Government themselves, and so the proposed response must recognise this.”

Gove said: “Some developers have already done the right thing and funded remedial works and I commend them for those actions. But too many others have failed to live up to their responsibilities.”

Only 12 tower blocks from the many requiring removal of the unsafe cladding have seen this remediation financed by the £5 billion fund released from the taxpayer and annoucned by the Chancellor in February 21.

Source: Evening Standard

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Wellington ‘Gets Building’

The plans for the former New College site in Wellington and nearby flats owned by Wrekin Housing Group will see more than 70 affordable rented homes built, in part thanks to a £2.38 million boost from the government’s Getting Building Fund.

Telford & Wrekin Council has now agreed to step in and push through the acquisition with a compulsory purchase order (CPO) of the last few occupied flats, on Glebe Street and High Street, if deals cannot be reached with the occupiers.

The council says that while every effort will be made to negotiate the sales, it may be necessary to rely on the order to ensure the project is not delayed.

This is because the project must be completed by March 2025 in order to secure the grant money.

A report seeking approval for the CPO, presented to the council’s cabinet at a meeting on Thursday, said agreements were yet to be reached on 12 of the 130 flats.

Councillor Lee Carter, cabinet member for neighbourhood services, regeneration and the high street, said the scheme was a “once in a generation opportunity” for Wellington.

Opposition Conservative group leader Nigel Dugmore welcomed the report, saying: “It desperately needs doing and the sooner the better.”

Liberal Democrat leader Bill Tomlinson said it was important to be sensitive to the residents affected.

Councillor Carter said: “As an authority we will work very closely with the housing group to make sure the processes and procedures as part of this CPO will be followed, but also that Wrekin Housing Group do offer that care and attention to existing residents.”

The report to cabinet said the council had a “compelling case in the public interest” to exercise its CPO powers, which can only be used as a last resort.

Once all the flats are vacated, the blocks will be demolished ready for the work to begin. The New College site has already been cleared.

The report said: “Despite the progress made to date with regard the remaining interests, and the fact it is likely that agreement can be reached with the remaining parties, the legal advice continues to be to progress with the making of the CPO to mitigate the risk of delays to the delivery programme to enable contractual GBF outputs to be met.

“The certainty of a CPO will also provide the comfort and ratification of a statutory framework to support affected parties with compensation entitlement.”

Cabinet unanimously agreed to make the CPO. All costs will be covered by the housing group.

A spokesman from the housing group said: “The Wrekin Housing Group are making a landmark £13m investment to make this development a reality.

“This project will ensure that Wellington continues to be a place where people want to live, work, shop and socialise, which is essential to ensure that our communities continue to bounce back from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“These affordable homes will make it possible for local people and young families to remain in their community and close to their families.

“We are grateful to Telford & Wrekin Council for their support in finalising agreements with the last few remaining private interests.”

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Seasonal ease in construction matched with supply chain improvement

Weakness centred on commercial and civil engineering segments

House building regains its place as fastest-growing category

Supplier delays are now the least widespread since November 2020

Data were collected 6-22 December 2021.

December PMI® data pointed to another solid increase in business activity across the UK construction sector, but the rate of expansion slipped to its lowest since September.

On a more positive note, the number of construction firms reporting supplier delays dropped from 47% in November to 34% in December. Meanwhile, around 5% of the survey panel reported shorter lead times among vendors (up from 4%). The resulting index signalled the least marked downturn in supplier performance since November 2020.

Fewer supply shortages contributed to the slowest rate of input price inflation for nine months.

The headline seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI® Total Activity Index posted 54.3 in December, to remain above the crucial 50.0 no-change threshold. However, the latest reading was down from 55.5 in November and signalled the weakest rate of expansion for three months. Some survey respondents noted that tighter pandemic restrictions and rising COVID-19 cases had acted as a brake on recovery, especially in the commercial sector.

Residential construction activity saw the strongest growth (index at 55.3) and was the only category to gain momentum in December. Commercial building lost its position as the best-performing segment, with the recovery easing to its lowest since September (index at 53.6).

Meanwhile, civil engineering activity decreased slightly at the end of 2021 (index at 49.1), which ended a nine-month period of expansion.

Customer demand was relatively resilient in December, despite some reports citing delayed decision-making due to the Omicron variant. In fact, the latest rise in overall new order volumes was the strongest since August. Higher levels of new work have now been recorded for 19 consecutive months.

A sustained rebound in construction orders helped to boost employment numbers during December. The rate of job creation eased only slightly since November. Survey respondents often commented on extra staff hiring as part of new protect starts and long-term expansion plans.

Higher fuel, energy and raw material prices continued to push up average cost burdens across the construction sector in December. However, the overall rate of inflation eased for the fourth month running to its lowest since March.

An improved alignment between demand and supply helped to soften inflationary pressures at the end of 2021. Purchasing activity increased at the slowest pace for three months, while supplier lead times lengthened to the least marked extent since November 2020. Where longer wait times were reported, this was mostly linked to international shipping delays and shortages of haulage drivers.

Looking ahead, just over half of the survey panel (51%) forecast a rise in business activity during 2022, while only 9% predict a decline. Although signalling upbeat sentiment for the year ahead, the degree of optimism was the joint-lowest reported since January 2021.

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WELCOME BACK MATT

GEZE UK is delighted to welcome back Matt Gregory as Specification Manager for the north.

 

Matt will be responsible for assisting architects and specifiers with compliant solutions for all products in the GEZE range which includes automatic doors, window technology and manual overhead door controls.

In addition, he will produce detailed and risk assessed NBS specifications which are supported with BIM objects and present GEZE’s RIBA approved CPD to help architects and specifiers expand their knowledge.

Matt first joined GEZE in 2017 and after a spell outside the industry he returns to the company bringing with him extensive knowledge of entrance systems and automatic doors from his time as Automatic and Industrial door engineer and previous sales management experience.

Said Matt ‘I am pleased to be back working with GEZE and their respected and varied product range, they have a strong brand and excellent reputation in the door industry. I look forward to working closely with architects and specifiers, creating strong collaborations with them and providing a quality service.’

Richard Richardson-Derry, National Specification Manager added ‘It’s great to be working with Matt again, he brings enthusiasm and extensive experience to the team. He will be an important part of the company’s continued growth.’

 

For more information about GEZE UK’s comprehensive range of automatic and manual door and window control products visit www .geze.co.uk

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Saniflo parent company SFA Group wins social responsibility award

SFA Group –Saniflo UK’s parent company – has been awarded a Bronze Medal for Corporate Social Responsibility from EcoVadis, the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. This result places the SFA Group among the top 50% of companies assessed by EcoVadis.

 

The EcoVadis assessment is built on international sustainability standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, and the ISO 26000, covering 200 spend categories and 160+ countries.

 

SFA Group was rated based on a sustainability scorecard which illustrates performance across 21 indicators in four main categories of environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

 

Saniflo UK Head of Marketing and Product Management, Ann Boardman, says: “At Sanifo UK we uphold the same high standards set by our parent company, SFA Group in France. We pride ourselves on our ongoing commitment to being the best we can be in all ways, always. This Bronze medal is well deserved.”

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SIKA LAUNCHES NEW LOW ODOUR BALCONY WATERPROOFING RANGE

Responding to the continual growth in popularity of versatile liquid applied waterproofing solutions, Sika has launched Monoflex LO, an innovative low odour waterproofing range for balconies, walkways and terraces.

Developed at Sika’s world-leading Global Technology Centre in Preston, the new liquid applied MonoFlex LO range harnesses Sika’s pioneering patented i-Cure technology within its polyurethane waterproofing element. This improved system maintains its high performance, workability and curing time, but with the odour-causing components engineered out. With this comes the benefits of lower emissions, reduced hazard classification and reduced occupational health risks during application.

By using this new advanced technology, which is now included in over 50 patented Sika products worldwide, Monoflex LO systems have a number of advantages for the architect, contractor, client and end user. Most notably, building occupants are not disturbed by unfamiliar odours during the application and curing of the solution. Whether that be on access walkways for sensitive areas such as social housing, hospitals or schools, buildings can remain occupied while external works are being carried out, meaning less logistical hassle for all parties.

Highly durable, Monoflex LO has a life expectancy of 25 years and comes in a range of colours, coatings and surface finishes, such as textured for slip resistance or buried beneath decorative tiles, allowing the architect to have design freedom.

It has also been launched with an ETA certificate covering the waterproofing element, providing third-party verification of high performance.

 

Fiona Irvine, Sika Product Engineer for liquid and bituminous membranes, said: “Unlike some systems in the marketplace that claim low odour utilising masking components, we’re proud that the new MonoFlex LO range is truly low odour, as evidenced by its Olfasense certification — an independent, comparative, sensory analysis service.

“It has also been tested across a wide range of performance criteria during our rigorous product development process to ensure it is incredibly safe and hardwearing, as is demanded for areas such as balconies and walkways. This means that we can subsequently offer this system with a range of attractive guarantee options.”

 

Manufactured here in the UK at the Sika facility in Preston — one of Sika’s key manufacturing sites in northern Europe exporting globally — specifiers and contractors can be confident that production and delivery will be both reliable and dependable.

Sika’s cold-applied liquid waterproofing membranes are part of Sika’s Roofing product portfolio, which provides three distinct roofing solutions for its customers: single ply membranes, liquid applied membranes and bituminous membranes from its leading brands — Sika Sarnafil, Sika Liquid Plastics, SikaBit and Sika-Trocal. From refurbishment to new build, Sika has the roofing system to perfectly fit the application and client requirements.

 

For more information about Sika’s products and services call 01707 394444, email enquiries@uk.sika.com or visit www.sika.co.uk/roofing

 

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WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

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LC International to rebrand as BBI Services

Business improvement specialists LC International has rebranded and unveiled a new name, BBI Services which is effective from Friday 10 December.

 

The name change to BBI Services, which stands for Building Business Improvement, is intended to truly reflect the organisation’s purpose, capabilities and business impact. It comes at a significant time for the business which has recently increased its scope of services and work within the built environment in the UK and overseas.

 

CEO of LC International/BBI Services, Mark Worrall, said: “We work to build business improvement with clients, contractors, suppliers and consultancies and we impact at every level.

 

“Our way of thinking is fundamentally based on lean principles and effects the end-to-end life cycle of project delivery, and every function or area within an organisation.

 

“We have embarked on a rebrand to make sure our business name better reflects what we do and truly ‘does what it says on the tin’ so people understand we’re here to build business improvement across the built environment.

 

“Our team has a great breadth and depth of knowledge to support clients and our new name demonstrates this. We recognise and understand the existing challenges in the industry and our portfolio of services is designed to tackle them head on.

 

“We focus on programme betterment, productivity, quality, skills, sustainability and do this in a collaborative integrated way. We work with you to deliver transformational performance improvement to support the construction and production mindset.

 

“From specialist support to word class training and coaching, at BBI, we’re driven to unite the power of people, performance and processes to help your business succeed.”

 

For more information about BBI Services and how the specialist team can support your teams and business, visit:  www.bbiservices.com  

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CLEAR SAFETY CONSULTANT JOINS CIBSE HNC REGISTER

Clear Safety is delighted to announce that its team of specialist consultants for heating systems now includes a certified CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) Heat Networks Consultant.

Clear, which specialises in safety, compliance and risk management consultancy is regularly involved in the review of heating solutions for its clients, which includes a number of high-profile housing associations. District heating systems which are designed to generate energy efficient heat from a centralised location which is then distributed amongst multiple buildings, is fast becoming a popular choice due to the lowered carbon footprint and improved pollution control associated with this method of heat supply.

Commenting on Clear’s inclusion on the Heat Networks Consultant register, Matt Westby said, “Our role at Clear is to provide our clients with guidance on the most up to date and innovative operational solutions to not only ensure adherence to both current and impending regulations, but also to enable them to demonstrate a responsible and proactive approach to reducing carbon and pollution emissions by adopting best-in-class environmental practices. We actively encourage our team of consultants to seek out the highest and most relevant industry certifications so that we are in a position to offer superior, future perfect oversight on a broad range of compliance management matters.”

In addition, Clear is working towards becoming a CIBSE Certified Low Carbon Consultant, to demonstrate industry recognised competency in improving the energy performance of both new and existing buildings.

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