HOW COVID-19 IS IMPACTING ON CONSTRUCTION IN CANADA

There’s a lively debate taking place in the construction industry across North America, including Ontario, as stakeholders and policy makers grapple with the effects of the coronavirus on the sector.

“There is a lot of panic,” said Craig Lesurf, president of Gillam Group. “Everybody wants to know what is going on. Some people are saying we are not reacting enough and some are saying we are reacting too much.”

One thing appears certain amidst the ferment in the sector — the pandemic is causing significant stresses as managers and workers take stock of slowdowns that are already happening and contemplate next steps in construction offices and particularly on jobsites.

A crucial discussion is whether construction jobsites should be exempt from shutdowns that have affected many other workplaces in the province. Ontario Premier Doug Ford specifically excluded the sector March 17 in announcing the mandatory closure of a long list of activities and businesses as part of the provincial state of emergency. Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development spokesperson Janet Deline issued a statement when asked for clarification: “The orders associated with yesterday’s declaration of emergency only apply to the specific establishments listed, as well as organized public gatherings. Private workplaces like factories are currently exempt.”

 

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In the U.S., the Associated General Contractors of America issued a statement that argued, “Halting construction activity will do more harm than good for construction workers, community residents and the economy.”

‘Worker health and safety must be paramount and flattening the curve is our highest goal,’ — Ian Cunningham, Council of Ontario Construction Associations

But the mayor of Boston has called for a city-wide suspension of all regular construction activity as a means of keeping workers safe and stopping the spread of the virus, and across the continent, B.C. Construction Safety Alliance executive director Mike McKenna asked whether keeping construction jobsites in operation outweighed safety considerations.

“Is getting a building finished essential? A hospital is maybe essential, but I can’t think of an instance where finishing a mall or a three-storey walkup is essential. What is essential is keeping those workers safe,” McKenna told the Journal of Commerce.

Council of Ontario Construction Associations president and COO Ian Cunningham said he does not believe construction sites should be shut down at this time but argued that the construction sector should not be exempt from the collective responsibility being thrust on other sectors to stop the spread of the virus.

“Worker health and safety must be paramount and flattening the curve is our highest goal,” he said. “I am advocating for the most stringent precautions possible on construction sites to safeguard our workers. The last thing we need at a time when there is already a severe shortage of skilled construction workers is to put them at risk.”

Cunningham said only certain construction activities should be considered essential such as maintenance work on power plants or hospitals.

“But other construction work I don’t see as essential,” he remarked. “The last thing we want is to spread the virus to a construction site that further exacerbates this thing. Let’s get this thing with a sledgehammer.

“We are all part of this. Ignoring the advice of public health authorities only presents an opportunity for the further spread of the thing we are trying to avoid.”

‘We have to look at this on an objective basis and not panic,’ — Craig Lesurf. Gillam Group

Lesurf serves as chair of the Ontario General Contractors Association’s safety committee and his firm’s fact sheet on dealing with the virus was identified in a recent OGCA newsletter as representing best practices. The newsletter noted that a number of jobsites have been disrupted by the virus. Lesurf said he anticipated more disruptions to come.

“Every site has been affected directly or indirectly,” he said. “People are distracted, they are not focusing on the tasks at hand as much as they could be or should be, not everybody is showing up, there is a supply chain that is affected. I am worried about the deliveries I am going to be getting months from now, that aren’t being made because a factory is shut down somewhere, or if I have Italian marble coming, I am not getting it.”

Gillam Group has taken extensive steps to protect its workers and stop the spread of the virus at its administration offices and Lesurf said by being “smart” workers on jobsites can be protected as well.

“I have said this before, leaders need to lead,” he said. “One of the things we need to do is not instill panic but we instill the educational things people need to do as the situation changes.”

Lesurf said shutting down workplaces would be highly detrimental to the economy.

“If you look at the overall numbers, the odds are very, very low that you are going to come into contact with someone who is one of those cases,” he said. “It is about not hitting the panic button, not as a construction thing but as a country, we have to realize that if we shut down, restarting our economy is very, very tough. Companies will be hurt.

“In construction, we try to keep a civil head. That is one of the things we do, we manage risk for a living. We put plans in place, we organize.”

And people still need to pay the bills, he argued.

“I get that we have to be safe and I am all for it,” he said. “It is about being smart. We have to look at this on an objective basis and not panic.”

 

Source: Daily Commercial News

 

 

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COVID-19: Government must Help Britain’s builders now more than ever

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It would probably be easier to list the things that haven’t affected by Coronavirus. This crisis has touched us all, pressing pause on progress overall. Now, small and medium-sized construction building companies need urgent and immediate additional support from the Government to prevent wide-scale insolvencies and job losses, according to industry experts. Buildingspecifier’s Joe Bradbury investigates:

 

How long will this go on?

 

“At this point, the answer to this is anyone’s guess. In Boris Johnson’s opening statement from yesterday’s press conference on coronavirus, the PM stated “I want to begin by thanking everyone, by thanking you, in the media, and also thanking everyone for the huge efforts that the country is making to comply with the advice that we’ve been given.

 

“We’re asking such a huge amount, asking students to put their education on hold, we’re asking people not to socialise in the normal way, and already we can see the impact that this is having on the UK economy and on business, on great, great companies.

 

“It’s vital that we in Government stand behind them when what we are asking everyone to do is so crucial for saving literally thousands of lives by defeating this virus.

 

“I am conscious as the days have gone by that people will want to know how long we are expecting them to keep it up and I wanted to try to say something about how I see the timescale of this campaign and where we’re going and what we need to do.

 

“I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks.”

 

Builders have reported the following impacts on their firms:

 

  • Three-quarters (76%) say projects have been delayed or cancelled;
  • Just under two-thirds (64%) have seen a drop in enquiries;
  • Almost all (98%) estimate that one quarter (25%) or fewer of their staff can work from home; and
  • Almost one in ten (8%) have already had to make redundancies, representing 58 individuals now without jobs.

 

The Federation of Master Builders is calling on the Government to:

 

  • Provide a three month tax holiday on VAT, PAYE and CIS payments. The Government must also delay the implementation of Reverse Charge VAT by one year;
  • Extend the £25,000 cash grant currently only provided to retail and hospitality to construction firms;
  • Provide the equivalent rate of Statutory Sick Pay to the self-employed who fill 37% of industry jobs;
  • Ensure that the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme is quick and easy to use, and is launched as soon as possible.

 

The FMB is also calling on the Government to work with the CITB to help employers keep their apprentices; provide clarification to builders and householders whether social distancing means all domestic building work must stop even if all concerned are well; and start to issue construction industry-specific guidance.

 

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Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said “The Government has overlooked the market in which small builders operate. Builders working in the domestic sector simply cannot work from home and are already feeling the impact of the pandemic as a result. The Government must intervene as a matter of urgency if small building companies are to protect their workforces, avoid further job losses, and prevent building companies going to the wall.”

 

“We musn’t allow a repeat of the 2008 recession when one in three SME construction firms left the industry. Building new homes and levelling-up infrastructure will be key to rebuilding our economy after the virus has passed, and the Government will need an army of builders in place to deliver that.”

 

“The FMB is supporting its 7,500 members during this difficult time, through its dedicated helplines, tailored communication and guidance, and insurance services. We are also working closely with the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) as well as other industry bodies to ensure the industry is united through this crisis. I’m calling on the Government to match our efforts and ramp up their support for builders immediately.”

 

Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders, added “The situation is extremely serious, especially for the elderly, people with underlying health conditions, pregnant parents or very young children. Government and the construction sector needs to also recognise the risk of mass absence from construction sites and the potential impact of delayed payment resulting in the need to lay staff off or make redundancies. A pragmatic and dynamic risk based approach, supported by government is needed.

 

NFB is working hard to ensure its members are supported with the relevant guidance on the coronavirus, for example on statutory sick pay, commercial legal advice on construction contracts and general business advice of mitigating the risk for essential construction work.”

 

So far, several NFB members have reported issues of absence through self-isolation. However, with government advice and guidance pointing to a substantial increase on the current 1,500 cases, it is clear that things will change rapidly in the coming days and weeks.

 

In summary

What is happening now is unprecedented. Brexit and the election, once permanently on everybody’s lips have been replaced with a chronic sense of fear and uncertainty. We don’t know how this will affect construction over the coming weeks and months, but we do know that the impact will be profound. In order to survive, we will need to put our differences aside, let go of old rivalries and work collectively as an industry. It seems a strange irony to end on at a time where social distancing is being actively encouraged, but we need to pull together, now more than ever. Future success may very well depend upon i

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COVID-19: construction can capitalise in the aftermath

Marcus Taylor, founder of recruitment firm FifthEdge, says, despite panic, the construction industry will keep moving

With the COVID-19 outbreak impacting sectors globally, the recruitment industry has taken a major hit as well, leading to much discussion about companies implementing hiring freezes in response to the phenomenon. 

Speaking to Construction Week, founder of construction and engineering recruitment firm FifthEdge, Marcus Taylor, said: “Employers need to put a plan in place to control the current situation and have a ‘plan B’ in reserve. The smart ones will take this opportunity to ensure they capitalise from the aftermath.

“While some companies learnt from the aftermath of 2008, those who are unwilling to do things different, will go through the same costly actions they did before, until they find out that the database of candidates they have built up is out of date and worthless.”

FifthEdge, which was launched in February 2020, matches companies to candidates, and allows companies to select candidates from a live talent pool, using an artificial intelligence-driven recruitment platform.

“COVID-19 isn’t exactly what we had in mind when we designed the platform, but if there was ever a scenario where FithEdge could have the biggest impact for employers and candidates, this is it.

 

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“While we are seeing and witnessing an understandable slow down on active recruitment across the whole sector as companies freeze hires and are taking time to consolidate, this is an ideal time for organisations to be proud of what they have overcome with a ‘hopefully’ once in a lifetime scenario,” Taylor said, emphasising that employers must understand how to capitalise on the situation, without burdening oneself with vast amounts of work “when the employer is not in a position to actually recruit, yet.”

Basing its recruitment mantra on timeliness, FifthEdge is focusing its energies on ensuring that candidates are engaged with companies, to avoid a demand lag at a later point.

While there is a lot of fear and panic currently surrounding the construction industry, “companies — supported by the government’s initiatives — will keep the region’s industry moving.

“Some of the projects may be shelved, but there will still be substantial portfolios that need to be delivered, including Saudi Arabia’s ambitious mega and gigaprojects. Even if only half of these projects were to proceed, that would still be a massive requirement for qualified, experienced construction professionals,” Taylor concluded.

 

Source: Construction Week

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COVID-19: US CONTRACTORS ARE PROVIDING MODULAR HEALTHCARE

US container-based structure specialist SG Blocks has responded to the coronavirus pandemic by introducing a new product line of units designed to enable safe isolation.

SG Blocks, which designs and fabricates container-based structures, has introduced health and safety modules to help support the medical response.

It said that potential applications for the container-based product line include external patient care rooms, staff testing and re-testing centres, housing for hospital staff, offices for those requiring quarantine or monitoring and first-responder units. They could also be used for screening and quarantine at airports and venues.

“We believe these products can offer states, cities and employer’s options for those in their care or custody,” said Paul Galvin, Chairman and CEO of SG Blocks. “They are designed to help students, patients, health professionals and others exposed to Covid-19 isolate in a safe place. Those that work in the service economy, especially emergency and medical personnel, should have an option other than going home to risk infecting loved ones.”

Source: The Construction Index

 

PARTNERNING TO BEAT THE VIRUS

Two contractors are partnering to quickly add capacity to hospitals and medical facilities, and are waiving management fees on COVID-19 related projects. At least one hospital addition has already been completed — in less than a day.

Plaza Construction and Central Consulting & Contracting Thursday said they are to offering the service to hospitals in Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York and the mid-Atlantic. Both are based in New York, but Plaza has a significant Miami presence.

The firms are using prefabricated materials to quickly adapt used spaces, add wings and create freestanding units. They have contracted with Brooklyn-based FullStack Modular to fabricate and ship modular units for time-sensitive orders.

For COVID-19-related projects, they will charge only labor and materials, said Plaza President Brad Meltzer.

“We have a rich history in healthcare construction and the construction sector. We recognize the severity of the situation. We want to put our staff and people to work, ” he said.

“The modular can be shipped out of the factory and put in place in a turnkey fashion,” Meltzer said.

Already, Central Consulting has built modular units with hospital beds for a New York City client, according to Central Consulting President Richard Simone. The hospital wanted to partition off space in the emergency room and adapt it for isolation rooms for COVID-19 cases. A team worked around the clock, using modular units to build seven rooms in 23 hours, he said.

“In that example it is very quick because they had the correct outlets, ventilation — everything was there and we just made separation rooms, which are not as complicated as a full intensive care unit,” Simone said.

Plaza also has experience with assisting in emergency relief efforts, Meltzer said, working with New York officials after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and New Jersey officials in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.,

Both companies will continue to work on existing projects, said Meltzer and Simone. But they do expect headwinds and delays on projects outside of the healthcare system.

“We anticipate that some construction projects will be shut down due to government shutdowns. [But] we expect that these [healthcare system] projects will be allowed to continue on while we are controlling this pandemic,” Meltzer said.

Central Consulting was founded in 1986. Past clients include healthcare systems in the northeast. It has branches in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and, as of 18 months ago, Florida.

Plaza was founded in 1986. The firm has been active in South Florida since 2004; its recent projects include One Thousand Museum. It has regional offices in New Jersey, Washington D.C., Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Los Angeles, and San Jose.

 

SOURCE: Miami Herald

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KEEP CONSTRUCTION IN OPERATION

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has urged the prime minister to ensure that all construction sites across the UK are able to remain open as long as possible as the Covid-19 crisis escalates.

The CLC and other leading trade bodies CECA, Build UK and the Federation of Master Builders, have jointly written to the prime minister to outline the difficulties faced by the construction and infrastructure sector, and how the industry can help to ensure the UK economy is resilient in the face of the ongoing pandemic.

In particular, the CLC has urged that the government:

  • Ensures all construction sites across the UK are able to remain open, as long as they are able to do so responsibly.
  • Instructs all public sector construction clients to continue to pay their contractors and supply chain.
  • Consider implementing financial measures, such as the deferral of VAT & PAYE payments, that will reduce the burden on business and keep cash moving as long as possible.

Andy Mitchell, co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council, said in the letter: “We welcome the guidance you issued yesterday which encourages people to practice social distancing, alongside allowing essential industry to continue to operate. During this challenging time, it is vital that our construction sites are able to remain open.

“Should the coronavirus cause a ‘shut down’ of the construction sector, we will face unprecedented challenges that we know from previous downturns will cause many companies and individuals to face significant financial repercussions.

“Many construction companies will not have enough cash available to continue to pay suppliers and wages, even if there is a relatively limited period of economic inactivity.

“Our requirement is that we are able to keep our construction sites operational during this time, in order to avoid many thousands of job losses, the closure of thousands of businesses and delays and cost increases on crucial programmes and projects.

“If construction activity comes to halt, given the scale of employment provided by our sector, there would be an immediate need for the government to provide emergency financing to keep the construction industry operational and prevent irreversible damage to the economic security of millions of people.

“To minimise the requirement for any government support, it is critical that our supply chain is able to stay in place and keep working as long as is possible – and that will in turn maintain readiness and help to drive recovery efforts.

“We will ensure our sites are operational and providing employment for millions so as long as we are able – but your backing to keep our projects open will be vital to enable that. We look forward to working with your government to discuss the detail of the support that is required.”

Click here to read the full letter from the Construction Leadership Council, which has also been signed by the chief executives of CECA, Build UK and the Federation of Master Builders.

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BUILDINGS – Can Help Fight Corona Virus

In 1974, a young girl with measles went to school in upstate New York. Even though 97 percent of her fellow students had been vaccinated, 28 ended up contracting the disease. The infected students were spread out across 14 classrooms, but the young girl, the index patient, spent time only in her own classroom. The culprit? A ventilation system operating in recirculating mode that sucked in the viral particles from her classroom and spread them around the school.

Buildings, as this historical example highlights, are highly efficient at spreading disease.

Back to the present, the most high-profile evidence of the power of buildings to spread the coronavirus is from a cruise ship — essentially a floating building. Of the 3,000 or so passengers and crew members onboard the quarantined Diamond Princess, at least 700 are known to have contracted the new coronavirus, a rate of infection that is significantly higher than that in Wuhan, China, where the disease was first found.

What does that mean for those of us who are not on cruise ships but are concentrated in schools, offices or apartment buildings? Some may be wondering if they should be fleeing to the countryside, as people have done in the past in times of epidemics. But it turns out that while dense urban conditions can aid the spread of viral illness, buildings can also act as barriers to contamination. It’s a control strategy that is not getting the attention it deserves.

The reason is there is still some debate about how the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is spread. This has resulted in an overly narrow approach taken by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. That’s a mistake.

Current guidelines are based on evidence that the virus is transmitted primarily through respiratory droplets — the large, sometimes visible droplets expelled when someone coughs or sneezes. Thus the recommendation to cover your coughs and sneezes, wash your hands, clean surfaces and maintain social distancing.

But when people cough or sneeze, they expel not only large droplets but also smaller airborne particles called droplet nuclei, which can stay aloft and be transported around buildings.

Previous investigations of two recent coronaviruses showed that airborne transmission was occurring. This is supported by evidence that the site of infection for one of those coronaviruses was the lower respiratory tract, which could only be caused by smaller particles that can be deeply inhaled.

This brings us back to buildings. If managed poorly, they can spread disease. But if we get it right, we can enlist our schools, offices and homes in this fight.

Here’s what we should be doing. First, bringing in more outdoor air in buildings with heating and ventilation systems (or opening windows in buildings that don’t) helps dilute airborne contaminants, making infection less likely. For years, we have been doing the opposite: sealing our windows shut and recirculating air. The result are schools and office buildings that are chronically underventilated. This not only gives a boost to disease transmission, including common scourges like the norovirus or the common flu, but also significantly impairs cognitive function.

A study published just last year found that ensuring even minimum levels of outdoor air ventilation reduced influenza transmission as much as having 50 percent to 60 percent of the people in a building vaccinated.

Buildings typically recirculate some air, which has been shown to lead to higher risk of infection during outbreaks, as contaminated air in one area is circulated to other parts of the building (as it did in the school with measles). When it’s very cold or very hot, the air coming out of the vent in a school classroom or office may be completely recirculated. That’s a recipe for disaster.

If air absolutely has to be recirculated, you can minimize cross-contamination by enhancing the level of filtration. Most buildings use low-grade filters that may capture less than 20 percent of viral particles. Most hospitals, though, use a filter with what’s known as a MERV rating of 13 or higher. And for good reason — they can capture more than 80 percent of airborne viral particles.

 

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For buildings without mechanical ventilation systems, or if you want to supplement your building’s system in high-risk areas, portable air purifiers can also be effective at controlling airborne particle concentrations. Most quality portable air purifiers use HEPA filters, which capture 99.97 percent of particles.

These approaches are supported by empirical evidence. In my team’s recent work, just submitted for peer review, we found that for measles, a disease dominated by airborne transmission, a significant risk reduction can be achieved by increasing ventilation rates and enhancing filtration levels. (Measles comes with something that works even better that we don’t yet have for this coronavirus — a vaccine.)

There is also ample evidence that viruses survive better at low humidity — precisely what happens during winter, or in the summer in air-conditioned spaces. Some heating and ventilation systems are equipped to maintain humidity in the optimal range of 40 percent to 60 percent, but most are not. In that case, portable humidifiers can increase humidity in rooms, particularly in a home.

Last, coronavirus may spread from contaminated surfaces — things like door handles and countertops, elevator buttons and cellphones. Frequently cleaning these high-touch surfaces can also help. For your home and low-risk environments, green cleaning products are fine, (Hospitals use E.P.A.-registered disinfectants.) Whether at home, school or the office, it is best to clean more often and more intensely when infected individuals are present.

Limiting the impact of this epidemic will require an all-in approach. With significant uncertainty remaining, we should be throwing everything we have at this highly infectious disease. That means unleashing the secret weapon in our arsenal — our buildings.

Source: New York Times

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LONDON UNDERGROUND – HOT AIR

The Bunhill 2 Energy Centre has started capturing excess heat from the London Underground to help warm over 1,000 buildings in the UK capital.

A perforated red-metal pavilion by Cullinan Studio distinguishes the Bunhill 2 Energy Centre, which occupies the site of the disused City Road tube station that once formed part of the Northern Line.

It provides heating and hot water for hundreds of homes and several public buildings in the borough of Islington, helping to reduce heat bills, carbon emissions and air pollution in the capital.

It claims to be the first heat network of its kind in the world.

Bunhill 2 Energy Centre relies on a large underground fan that extracts hot air from the Northern Line tube’s tunnels, and uses it to heat water that can be transferred to the neighbourhood.

The project has been led by Islington Council, which commissioned engineering firm Ramboll to design and develop the system that is marked above level by a metal shroud by Cullinan Studio.

“Capturing waste heat from tube tunnels and using it to supply heating and hot water to thousands of local homes hasn’t been done anywhere in the world before,” said London Underground’s managing director Andy Lord.

“This ground-breaking partnership with Islington Council is a really important step,” he added.

“Heat from the London Underground has the potential to be a significant low-carbon energy source and we are carrying out further research, as part of our energy and carbon strategy, to identify opportunities for similar projects across the Tube network.”

Cullinan Studio’s structure encloses the energy centre in prefabricated panels, which are mounted on a glazed brick base.

The structure was developed in collaboration with McGurk Architects to encase the machinery and ensure that it could be easily maintained.

 

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According to Cullinan Studio, its striking finish makes use of “attractive materials” to challenge the traditional aesthetic of civic industrial architecture to reflect the ingenuity of the scheme.

“The client challenged us to make this more than just an enclosure to screen plant but celebrate this new form of energy generation,” explained Alex Abbey, partner at Cullinan Studio.

“They wanted a building that would be robust, long-lasting and celebratory of this new typology for our cities,” he told Dezeen.

“They directed us towards the Victorian civic architecture of the water and power industries and the sense of functional, yet understated pride of purpose these demonstrated.”

The cladding forms part of a prefabricated, panellised structure designed to easily and fully removable to accommodate the need for machinery maintenance.

It also ensured that its construction time was quick, helping to reduce disruption to the local community as it was built.

The structure’s deep red colour was chosen as a nod to the oxblood-coloured tiles found on London Underground station, and also the copper pots of gin distilleries that used to be located near the site.

Their perforated patterns reflect the activity behind the cladding, and the “sense of dynamic, rising warm currents of thermal energy”. This also helps to ventilate the energy centre.

The brick base of the pavilion was developed by the studios to be resistant to graffiti and damage, and is brightened by artwork by Toby Paterson that is made of cast aluminium panels.

These panels feature block-shaped motifs that echo the layout of flats within the adjacent King Square Estate, which the heat network now serves.

Plans for the Bunhill 2 district heating system were first revealed in 2019, and the scheme was expected to reach completion in the same year.

It is the second phase of Islington Council’s Bunhill Heat and Power scheme – a heat network in Islington that was established in 2012 to warm approximately 800 homes and two leisure centres. Bunhill 2 extends this network to an extra 550 homes and a primary school.

 

 

Source: Dezeen

 

 

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MUSK’S ELECTRIC BET

More than two years after winning an electricity bet, Elon Musk’s resulting Australian solar and wind farm is an almost total success.  The facility powers rural South Australia, whose population density falls between Wyoming and Alaska, the two least dense U.S. states.

In 2016, South Australia experienced a near total blackout after “an apocalyptic storm— involving 80,000 lightning strikes and at least two tornadoes,” Vox explains. In the aftermath, a Conservative politician blamed the push for renewable energy for the extent of the blackouts.

For those even passingly familiar with Musk and Tesla’s online presence, the rest won’t be surprising. The head of batteries at Tesla said he was sure the company could do better, an Australian billionaire asked if he was serious, and Musk jumped in to promise his team was.

 

The rest is history. Musk reached his goal 40 days early, and the Australian billionaire funded the project as promised. We can argue about whether or not private citizens should have to rely on a billionaire angel investor to get a steady supply of power or make the shift to renewable energy, but in this case, the bet benefited a shortchanged rural population beginning almost immediately.

 

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What’s the secret? Well, there truly isn’t one. TheNeon-owned Horsdale Power Reserve is literally a facility full of Tesla PowerPacks that receives and stores energy from nearby wind and solar farms. By storing power up to its capacity of 100 MW, this “battery” can absorb brief blips in the grid surrounding it, reducing outages for residents and easing the burden on businesses or facilities that lose money, product, and more during those outages. It could also reduce the amount of fossil fuel burned to power backup generators.

 

Source: Popular Mechanics

 

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BE BOLD ON HOUSING

Budget message from Randeesh Sandhu, CEO of Urban Exposure

 

“Every Government of recent years has talked the talk on boosting UK housing, but walking the walk has proved much harder. The National House Building Council (NHBC) recently revealed that 161,022 homes were built last year, and while housing completions have steadily increased year on year, the statistics still bring into focus how far there is to go to get to the Government’s 300,000 annual new homes target by 2025.

Societal changes are driving an ongoing shift in the categorisation of what a “home” is, so we’d like to see an innovative Government housing policy to reflect this. Accordingly, the new Chancellor’s first Budget and the new Housing Minister must look for ways to embrace modern methods of construction (MMC) and delivering new types of residential units such as Retirement living, Co-living, Build to Rent and social rent. On ailing high streets and town centres vacant retail properties are prime for reconfiguration into new housing, offering further opportunities to increase supply by creating mixed environments with community focussed planning and delivery. Delivering more social housing is critical, and empowering councils to build and source the types of homes their local communities need would be the most effective way of driving development.

This week’s Budget will not solve the UK’s housing shortfall overnight. But we hope it will outline a clear, ambitious path to addressing it. With a majority in Parliament of the kind not seen for over a decade, this newly strengthened Conservative administration has a real opportunity to be bold on its housing policies and to see them through.”

 

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WOMEN IN BUILDING – Lynsey’s Story

Lynsey Allen, group procurement assistant manager for Inland Homes, explains what it is like to have a career in housebuilding, and why more needs to be done to encourage more women to consider this industry as an exciting career opportunity.

Lynsey joined Inland Homes in 2018 and works from their head office in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Having gained a Diploma in Business and Economics at West Herts College and securing qualifications that would allow her to go to university, Lynsey decided that a student lifestyle wasn’t for her. With the support of her family, Lynsey stepped into an apprentice position which allowed her to study whilst earning a salary, and gain valuable work experience that has enabled her to move up the career ladder at Inland Homes.

26-year-old Lynsey explains: “When I was at school, the fact that the construction industry wasn’t something that was openly discussed as a career path made me want to look into it. I completed my diploma and after discussing my options with my family, going to university just wasn’t going to be for me. My parents had instilled in me a strong work ethic, my Mum worked as an architect when I was young and my Dad has worked in housebuilding his whole life. He has been a big inspiration to me and my decision to work in the construction industry. I often go home to visit my parents, it’s so lovely to be able to sit and talk to my Dad about my role, it makes us both realise how much I have learnt and it has created a mutual understanding about our jobs.”

Lynsey adds: “I do feel there is a lot more that needs to be done at an education level to get more women into the industry. It has certainly improved over recent years, but schools should be giving young girls the opportunity to learn more about housebuilding and the career opportunities available to them. There is a natural assumption that it’s all hard hats and muddy boots – in reality there are so many roles to choose, from customer care and office work to quantity surveying, labour and obviously procurement, and there are many rewards for those who work hard.”

 

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Explaining more about her role at Inland, Lynsey comments: “A typical day in the procurement department involves many tasks. I speak to our established suppliers on a regular basis regarding the products they supply across all our development sites. I oversee any stock issues and explore potential new products for our homes. I liaise very closely with all the internal teams – the sales team to ensure we pick the right products, the technical team to make sure that the property designs work with the products we select for the build, and from a commercial point of view, I need to take into consideration that the price point is right for us as a company, ensuring we are purchasing products that are not only competitive but are right for the development and local market.

“I am also closely involved when it comes to writing the development specifications listed within a development brochure, this is something I personally find particularly rewarding. As a housing developer we are providing people with a new home, often one of the most expensive purchases they will ever make so to be involved with selecting the products and features that go into our homes is really important. I also work closely with the pre-construction team at a very early stage of the build regarding costings for materials and supplies for the final project budget.”

Now in a management position with Inland Homes, Lynsey supports her own apprentice: “Being able to assist my own apprentice has been a highlight of my career to date. I love to manage people and pass on the knowledge and skills I have learnt from my own mentors. It is extremely satisfying and I firmly believe that with the right mind set and willpower, people can go far and excel in whatever career path they choose.”

“One of my main achievements was purchasing my own house last year, which I wouldn’t have been able to do had I chosen to go to university first. Being able to earn an income whilst studying gave me the opportunity to save enough money for a deposit for my first home. It wasn’t easy and I did have to make sacrifices, but if you are willing to persevere, and have a passion to fulfil your goals, you can do it and Inland is a company that fully supports that initiative.”

Commenting on what the future holds, Lynsey continues: “No day is the same, and I’m lucky to have such a varied role, and that is what initially attracted me. I have a job that I love, a set routine and a career that I believe I will excel in for life. Over the next few years I would like to progress and move on to being a procurement manager. At Inland Homes there is certainly room for this sector to grow, and who knows, I could potentially even get to a director level which would be amazing!”

 

Source: Showhouse

 

 

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