Archive for category: General News

Seamus Hoyne, dean of flexible and workplace learning at the Technological University of the Shannon

With smart infrastructure and zero-energy building on the agenda, new skills are in demand right across the construction sector. Paradoxically, however, due to high demand for new buildings and diminished numbers of skilled workers, many people working in the industry are unable to access traditional training as they are simply too busy.

Seamus Hoyne, dean of flexible and workplace learning at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), said the sector was still suffering from the lingering effects of the 2008 financial crisis.

“There were a couple of impacts. Firstly, a lot of people became unemployed and went elsewhere, so we lost a lot of experience and know-how. The second thing is, many people who came to work here from elsewhere in Europe returned home as the economies there started to grow. Thirdly, it created an image problem for construction and enrolment in construction related courses,” he said.

At the same time, though, the sector has been revolutionised, both by a technological revolution and the introduction of new building energy standards. As a result, new skills are now needed on-site.

“There have been radical changes,” Hoyne said.

“We have modern methods of construction and we have a lot of digitalisation of the construction process, in particular of the design phase. Our architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are much more digitised”.

The traditional trades are changing, too, Hoyne said, notably with a greater number of integrated systems due to smart energy systems into buildings.

“The pace of development of technology is extremely fast and this means people need to keep learning. In the past, if you were a construction worker then you needed less up-skilling. Now you need to be updating your knowledge over the course of your career,” he said.

“When you graduate from your apprenticeship, or your engineering or quantity surveying degree, you absolutely need life-long learning because of changes that are going to happen in the near future,” he said.

However, considering both the major labour shortage in construction and demand for building, it is essential, Hoyne said, that education and training providers needed to change how they delivered skills.

“Really flexible delivery and provision is now critical, particularly in the construction sector where we have full employment nationally. The sector is desperately looking for workers, so people have less time for training,” he said.

Both the higher education and further education sectors were responding to this, with innovative and flexible approaches that suited both learners and businesses alike.

“We have blended learning, with a portion online and a portion as ‘block release’ where people can do the practical aspects. You also have micro accreditations, where you can do blocks of learning to get a major award,” he said.

TUS, for example, embeds micro credentials in its programmes, and has now developed a Level 8 Higher Diploma in Energy Retrofitting.

“It’s looking at fabric, systems, and retrofit management. People can do those certifications on their own, do the whole diploma, or add the three up to the Higher Diploma,” he said.

This was only one example of how education was evolving to meet the country’s needs, Hoyne said. Another is the deepening links between the further and higher education sectors.

“For example, we are working closely with Waterford-Wexford ETB, Laois-Offaly ETB and others and we are offering a certificate in training in Zero-Energy Building for people who work in ETBs,” he said.

TUS also brings students to the National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas to take advantage of its facilities.

Putting it on show

The next step is getting the information out there, both to employers and prospective students. In order to do this, Hoyne will be among the attendees at a major event next month looking at how technology and training are intersecting, representing TUS.

Organised by the Digital Academy for the Sustainable Built Environment (DASBE) with partners including Atlantic Technological University, Irish Green Building Council and Tipperary Energy Agency, the Transforming Construction Skills conference, to be held on 9th May at the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise, will bring together industry professionals, educators, professional organisations and researchers to discuss the range of upskilling available to construction professionals and to discover the latest trends and emerging technologies.

“We’ve three themes driving the content in the conference. One is around impact, one is around innovation, and the third is around integration,” he said.

Attendees will hear from students funded under the DASBE scheme as well as organisations and businesses who have collaborated in the development of programmes. Technologies on display will include virtual reality (VR) and digital twins.

“On integration, we’ll hear about how we have collaborated with ETBs [Education and Training Boards] on innovation, as well as on European initiatives,” Hoyne said.

Ultimately, he said, the conference will be a major step toward addressing both the skills shortage and the reality of how busy construction firms and their workers are.

“We don’t have enough quantity surveyors coming out of universities – they’re being snapped-up in third year or fourth year, [and] we don’t have enough people going into apprenticeships in plumbing and blockwork. We also have people working in the sector who need up-skilling who are very busy due to the shortage”.

The Transforming Construction Skills conference intends to put the solutions on show.

Source: Business Post

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner

are expected to set out their ‘golden rules’ for releasing green belt land (Jacob King/PA)

Labour to set out golden rules for grey belt in bid to boost housing

Labour is expected to set out five “golden rules” for building on the green belt in an effort to boost housebuilding while improving “genuine green spaces”.

The rules, to be laid out on Friday, include prioritising previously developed brownfield sites and areas of ugly or poor-quality land that the party has dubbed “grey belt”.

Labour has previously pledged to build 1.5 million homes over the course of the next Parliament, replicating the Conservatives’ 2019 promise to build 300,000 homes per year.

While the party has committed to a “brownfield-first approach”, its plans also include releasing some green belt land in areas without enough brownfield sites and where that land is of poor quality, such as in Tottenham where a development was blocked because a disused petrol station was designated as green belt.

We cannot build the homes Britain needs without also releasing some land currently classed as green belt – Sir Keir Starmer

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He said: “Labour supports brownfield-first policies. But we must be honest, we cannot build the homes Britain needs without also releasing some land currently classed as green belt.

“We’ll prioritise ugly, disused grey belt land, and set tough new conditions for releasing that land. Our golden rules will also ensure any grey belt development delivers affordable homes, new infrastructure and improved green spaces.”

By Martin Guttridge-Hewitt

Travelling via northern Sweden, we explore the potential of wooden structures to reduce carbon footprints, and ask if a new UK roadmap can finally unlock the material’s potential to drive net zero development.

It’s an early-February evening and Skellefteå is bathed in the glow of streetlights and pure white snow. Life here feels frozen in a moment, which at -15C on arrival, is completely understandable.

But appearances deceive, and this corner of the subarctic moves fast. As the region’s Market and Business Development Manager, Bo Wilkstrom tells us, specialised industries are fuelling rapid population growth, and turning this small town into Sweden’s net zero transition testbed. Authorities now have a big ambition to ‘become global frontrunner, take risks, and build a new society’ around principles of renewability and sustainability. Some people even come as tourists because they ‘want to see, want to know’ about the latest climate tech, transport, and energy developments.

Most visitors will arrive through the carbon neutral airport, which is also home to one of the world’s only electric aviation schools, using planes it is hoped will one day be the go-to modality for short distance commutes. Many take buses that run on entirely organic waste. All will use 100% renewable electricity for the duration of their time here, and the lucky ones might stay at Wood Hotel by Elite.

The second tallest timber-framed tower on the planet, this 20-storey prefabricated skyscraper also houses Sara Kulturhus, an arts venue with six stages, the largest seating 1,700 people, and a ground floor foyer doubling up as indoor public realm, serving everything from Sunday morning yoga to pre-theatre drinks, safely protected from the perishing conditions outside. Skellefteå’s municipal library is here, too.

Lumber had a huge impact on the footprint of this address. Considered among the most advanced timber buildings ever created, it absorbs more carbon dioxide (CO2) that it emits, even when all 205 rooms are occupied. In total, 12,000 m3 of wood was used, sourced from within 60km of the hotel. Forests that supplied other projects in town, like the historic Lejonströmsbron wooden bridge, dated 1737, and a modern three-storey car park made of plywood.

In Sweden, 70% of land is forest, and the timber industry is well managed and environmentally controlled. Producing 18million m3 of lumber each year, even with 13million bound for export there’s enough to produce 90% of all low-rise builds in the country. And larger scale developments are also becoming increasingly visible, like Stockholm’s aptly named Wood City.

‘There are timber buildings in London, but most have traditional steel frame and concrete core,’

Charlie Green, co-founder of The Office Group, says of the Black & White Building in an interview with Financial Times. The British capital’s tallest commercial address made from engineered timber, it has 37% less embodied carbon than it would, had denser materials, more commonly used in UK construction, been used.

Savings come from several aspects specific to structural wood. Timber is less energy-intensive to produce than concrete, and as lumber is far lighter it means shorter build times – on average 25% faster than heavier structures. As such, there are fewer journeys needed to transport the workforce and materials, less days when direct on-site emissions are produced, while particulate matter falls because there is no concrete being cut.

‘I was at a conference last week on constructing excellence in London, and completely unsolicited one of the speakers said to me: ‘the bottom line is we’ve got to use less concrete, less steel, and more timber’. That would have been my message, but for an independent procurement expert to talk like that, I think the penny has dropped in terms of benefits from timber construction,’

says Andrew Carpenter, Chief Executive of the UK Structural Timber Association. A man who clearly wants to see more wood in UK building stock, support from outside has rarely been higher.

In December, the UK Government published its Timber in construction roadmap, which aims to level up huge regional differences in the prevalence of timber buildings. In England, just 9% of new build homes have a wooden frame, go to Scotland and it’s 92%. The new plan will also help deliver on a legally binding target of 16.8% forest cover in England by 2050, helping support habitat recovery and reverse the country’s shocking biodiversity crisis.

Several steps are critical to meeting the objectives. These include improving data on timber and whole life carbon to ascertain more details on true benefits, promoting and improving access to sustainable and safe products, including ‘free from’ timbers which overcome indoor air pollution issues linked to certain glues and solvents, facilitating closer collaboration between stakeholders, and innovating new high performance construction systems.

‘After COP26 in Glasgow, the UK Government, headed by DEFRA, set up a working group to increase the amount of timber in construction because they recognise that if the UK is to meet its net zero target, construction materials must be a priority,’ explains Carpenter, who is now secretariat to the roadmap process, representing the timber industry. ‘Now there is a clear route, and we’re only a month or two in but the commitment Government is showing is first class.

‘I’ve put together the planned process to manage implementation and they seem to be behind that, so it’s early doors but the signs are good,’ he continues. ‘Other sectors [outside housebuilding] are also looking at timber. So, there is desire from the Department of Education to use timber in its school-building programme. The health sector is looking at timber for hospitals, we’re really beginning to see a lot of areas start to consider this frame as an option.’

Other parts of the economy – such as hotels and student accommodation providers – have longer histories with timber, although it’s only relatively recently the material fell out of favour with English developers, and buyers. A 2018 report in UK Construction Online suggests the market was growing pre-pandemic, but still hadn’t recovered from a huge crash in the 1980s driven by negative reports about quality and safety. The timber construction sector plummeted from 40% of new build market share to less than 10% in a single year, only reaching 28% again in the last decade or so. Faith is gradually being restored through hard evidence.

‘The first question that is often asked of us is around fire safety,’ Carpenter replies when we quiz him on concerns people might have with using structural timber. ‘We have significant results, for both timber frame and more recently CLT [cross-laminated timber], which show if a building is designed properly and built properly, in accordance with best practice, there’s no reason there should be any more fire risk than with other materials.

‘Cost is probably the second objection. But an independent test carried out by a quantity surveyor, RLB, looking at social housing developments, found timber frames were actually 1% cheaper than alternatives, and 19% faster to finish. Similar research has found it to be 2% cheaper, but the reality is on price materials are almost like-for-like,’ he continues, before revealing this data is now being expanded.  ‘As part of the new roadmap the Government has asked us to do a more comprehensive cost comparison, broadening the scope beyond social housing alone, so that should be interesting to see the results.’

In a world without silver bullets, Carpenter is clear that timber alone will not solve the quandary of how to continue making new buildings while protecting the planet and our atmosphere. So while ‘an ideal world’ for him might involve completely substituting concrete and steel, he says this is unlikely to prove practical. Instead, it’s as much about bringing more wood into the mix as it is pushing a ‘timber first policy’. Simply put, ‘you must choose materials appropriate for the given solution’.

‘We know there are going to be several barriers along the way, challenges that will need to be overcome. We’ve broken this down into seven working groups dealing with supply, demand, carbon, building safety, insurance, skills, and innovation. For the last two years we’ve had working groups looking at each of these, and that fed directly into the roadmap,’ Carpenter continues. ‘We’ve had industry experts involved every step of the way; you know?

‘From RIBA to the HSE, Home Builders Federation, the timber sector, wider industry, and so on. Nothing has been done in isolation. It’s been done with government departments, trade, but also the wider sectors,’ he adds. ‘So, I don’t think we’ve missed anything. The important thing now is we have a number of recommendations, some for government, some for industry, some for both. For me, it’s a question of ticking them off one by one and agreeing a plan for each to implement their steps.’

Of course, the outcome of the roadmap will only become apparent over the course of several years, but Downing Street clearly needs this program to deliver for many reasons. Not least tackling the 25% of total national greenhouse gas emissions that come from Britain’s built environment, bolstering efforts to increase tree cover in a country that’s among the world’s most biodiversity-depleted, and increasing the supply of new housing stock to help mitigate what now feels like a crisis in perpetuity.

It all seems like a win-win, but to be truly effective implementation must be focused on long term outcomes. Like growing a sustainable domestic industry, taking full advantage of the predicted rise in demand driven by this new Government initiative. And investing in improving and expanding the available workforce, with staff shortages currently the biggest non-climate challenge facing construction as a whole.

Perhaps most importantly, though, this roadmap must be met by a willingness to stay committed on all sides of the political sphere, or we risk taking two steps forward, and one step back, repeating the vicious cycle of false starts and abandoned ideas which has plagued environmental policy in the UK and globally. The outcome of which has been precious time wasted, squandered opportunities, and financial black holes. Patterns we can ill-afford to repeat.

Source: Environment Journal

GEZE UK is delighted to announce that the company has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer.

The real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate based on the cost of living. It is voluntarily paid by over 14,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage which meets everyday needs.

To achieve the accreditation GEZE UK had to confirm that the company pays the real Living Wage to all directly employed staff and have a plan in place to pay all contractors a Living wage – both of which the company has done.

Paying the real Living Wage is not only a benefit to staff but to the company too – it improves the employer brand and boosts staff productivity and motivation at work. It also helps employers to remain competitive, retain existing staff and attract new staff.

Rachel Boxall, Finance Director of GEZE UK, said:

“We decided to go for the Living Wage accreditation as we think it is an excellent way to demonstrate our commitment to being a responsible employer. By paying the real Living Wage (as opposed to the national living wage set by Government) we are voluntarily taking a stand to ensure employees can earn a wage which is enough to live on.

There is also growing evidence of the business benefits of becoming a Living Wage employer. This is demonstrated by the number of well-known and diverse companies already accredited such as Liverpool FC, Aviva, Oxfam and Ikea.“

Andrew Gordon, Programme Officer, Living Wage Foundation added

“We are delighted to welcome GEZE UK as an accredited member of the foundation. Basic fairness is at the heart of what the Living Wage campaign is trying to achieve and why great businesses and organisations chose to go further than the government minimum.”

CLICK HERE for more information on the Living Wage Foundation

For more information on GEZE UK CLICK HERE to visit the website

OR CLICK HERE to email GEZE UK

Following the ONS announcement that construction output had fallen by 1.9% in February, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has given its reaction to the data.

The organisation said the statistics were a warning that ‘the construction sector was still battling in a difficult economic climate.’

Brian Berry, CEO at the FMB said:

“It is concerning to see another decline in construction output of 1.9% this month, and this is compounded by the overall decrease of 1.0% in the three months to February.

“While growth had been seen in January, these figures underline the challenging winter period that UK construction has faced — it is particularly concerning that this decline was in part led by a drop in repair and maintenance work, a sector that had been doing well last year, comparatively to other sub-sectors.Bottom of Form

“Survey responses from the ONS research suggest that this was down to poor weather conditions, with heavy rainfall hindering many projects, and we’ll have to see if warmer spring weather brings a welcome boost for builders.”

“Despite overall GDP being up slightly this month for the wider UK economy, the decline in construction output is holding back substantial improvement.

“As we head into the drier months, the government needs to take this opportunity to help boost that construction activity, which could take the form of helping to step up house building and measures to help owner owners make their homes more energy efficient — these two measures would help drive economic growth.”

Source: Development Finance Today