Archive for category: General News

After steering the economy and more specifically, the Government’s fiscal response to the Covid crisis over the past two years, today’s Budget will have widely enhanced Rishi Sunak’s reputation for imagination and compassion.

Furlough may have finished but the Chancellor chose to include a range of announcements within his autumn statement which either continued relief for the hardest hit sectors and the lowest paid, or set out new spending plans to boost investment in the UK’s infrastructure and services. The construction industry should see a number of real opportunities to increase its output, as well as encouragements to invest in its personnel and new innovations.

Some existing spending was re-announced or confirmed, but there were billions in new money for the NHS to cut waiting lists by building new facilities, as well as refurbishing existing buildings and boosting pay.

Housing has been a big winner with a £24Billion multi-year commitment to constructing some 180,000 new homes, with a further £1.8 Billion set aside to make brownfield sites across our towns and cities ‘shovel ready’.

5Billion will be made available – partly paid for by a tax on residential property developers with profits of over £24million – to help replace sub-standard cladding currently trapping many leaseholders in homes they cannot sell. And a move to tackle rough sleeping as well as homelessness generally receives £640million.

Transport was another major beneficiary of Treasury spending with £5.7 Billion for “London style settlements” plus a £2.6Billion pipeline to address local road improvements; and £3.8 Billion for the biggest prison building programme in a generation.

There is much needed reform to often crippling business rates with £750million to encourage landlords to make upgrades such as fitting solar panels, or for hotels to add more rooms; by deferring tax rises.

The skills shortage was also tackled with £3.8Billion for training and T courses as well as a new adult numeracy programme – named ‘Multiply’– being unveiled. Education spending also extends to investment in creating 30,000 new places for those with special learning needs and upgrades on school buildings across the sector.

The “Rabbit in the Hat” relief, as normal, was left to the end with Rishi Sunak announcing a cut in tax on Universal Credit Payments, as people’s actual earnings rise, from 63 to 55 pence: meaning a working mother will keep £1,200 a year more of her wages, while a couple with one partner working part-time will be around £1,800 a year better off. That’s a £2Billion a year tax cut which will encourage people to work more hours for their employers.

And for anyone who feels like celebrating, there were a number of changes to help level up alcohol levies: removing disproportionate duty on sparkling wines & cider and even cutting 3P off a pint of draught ale.

Main announcements relating to construction:

Housing – £24billion multi-year investment

184k new affordable homes

£1.8b to prepare Brownfield sites

£5b to remove unsafe cladding, partly raised from a tax on developers with profits over £25m.5

£4.7B for schools

Committing £3.8b for the largest prison building programme for a generation

Hundreds of regional museums and galleries to be renovated

£20b on Research and Development

£5.7 b for London-style transport settlements. Plus £2.6 b for a pipeline of local road improvements
Enough to fill one million more potholes a year!

The plans for jobs will include investment of £3.8b in training and T courses. Plus they’re launching a new numeracy programme for adults called Multiply.

£750m investment relief to encourage businesses to specify green energy such as solar panels – in line with requests from the FSB and British Property Federation.

New hub improves access to ROCKWOOL resources for education construction

As UK Governments place further investment in the quality of school buildings, ROCKWOOL UK has developed a new education hub to support specifiers in using non-combustible stone wool insulation to deliver thermal, acoustic and fire safety performance. The ROCKWOOL education hub contains a series of useful tools and guides covering exemplar case studies, product specifications and school building regulations.

The new hub grants easy access to ROCKWOOL for Education Environments, a comprehensive guide that assists the design and construction of learning spaces. From sector specific building regulations and best practice to case studies and future trends, ROCKWOOL for Education Environments is the go-to resource for construction stakeholders.

The education hub also enables specifiers to explore the ROCKWOOL Interactive City virtual school. The environment makes visualising and selecting insulation solutions quick and easy, while keeping teaching and learning experiences at the forefront. Through features like zoom, 360º views, pan-able application build-ups and augmented reality, users can explore the ROCKWOOL insulation range across a wide range of facades and applications within education settings.

For real world examples and inspiration of how stone wool insulation helps designers to create high-quality schools, colleges and universities, visitors to the education hub can also read a series of notable case studies.

Paul Barrett, Head of Product Management at ROCKWOOL, says: “The ROCKWOOL education hub acts as a central source of knowledge for professionals involved in school building projects, and will enable them to access all the relevant guidance and specification support they need to deliver outstanding education environments. We will continue to update the hub to ensure that specifiers always have access to the latest information and guidance, and to offer new resources which reflect developments in education construction.”

CLICK HERE TO  VISIT the ROCKWOOL education hub and download the ROCKWOOL for Education Environments guide today:

The production of renewable energy is increasing every year. But after analysing the growth rates of wind and solar power in 60 countries, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and Lund University in Sweden and Central European University in Vienna, Austria, conclude that virtually no country is moving sufficiently fast to avoid global warming of 1.5°C or even 2°C.

“This is the first time that the maximum growth rate in individual countries has been accurately measured, and it shows the enormous scale of the challenge of replacing traditional energy sources with renewables, as well as the need to explore diverse technologies and scenarios,” says Jessica Jewell, Associate Professor of Energy Transitions at Chalmers University of Technology.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified energy scenarios compatible with keeping global warming under 1.5°C or 2°C. Most of these scenarios envision very rapid growth of renewable electricity: on average about 1.4 per cent of total global electricity supply per year for both wind and solar power, and over 3 per cent in more ambitious solar power scenarios. But the researchers’ new findings show that achieving such rapid growth has so far only been possible for a few countries.

Measuring and predicting the growth of new technologies like renewable energy is difficult, as they do not grow linearly. Instead, the growth usually follows a so called S-curve – at first it accelerates exponentially, then stabilises to linear growth for a while, and in the end slows down as the market becomes saturated.

“We came up with a new method: to use mathematical models to measure the slope of the S-curve, that is, the maximum growth rate achieved at its steepest point. It is an entirely novel way to look at the growth of new technologies,” says Jessica Jewell.

When analyzing the 60 largest countries the researchers found that the maximum growth rate for onshore wind power is on average 0.8 per cent of the total electricity supply per year, and 0.6 per cent on average for solar – much lower than in the IPCC scenarios. Sustained growth faster than 2 per cent per year for wind and 1.5 per cent for solar has only occurred in smaller countries such as Portugal, Ireland and Chile.

“It is likely that faster growth is easier to achieve in smaller more homogenous countries, rather than in large diverse systems,” says Jessica Jewell.

“Among larger countries, only Germany has so far been able to sustain growth of onshore wind power comparable with median climate stabilization scenarios. In other words, to stay on track for climate targets, the whole world should build wind power as fast as Germany built recently. There may be limits to how fast wind and solar can be expanded and thus we should systematically analyse the feasibility of other climate solutions, especially for fast growing Asian economies such as India and China,” says Aleh Cherp, professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University and Lund University.

The article “National growth dynamics of wind and solar power compared to the growth required for global climate targets” was published in the journal Nature Energy, written by Aleh Cherp, Vadim Vinichenko, Jale Tosun, Joel A.Gordon and Jessica Jewell.

Kentec Electronics, a leading manufacturer of life-critical control systems, has welcomed Fortus Group Holdings (‘Fortus’) to its Kentec Authorised Distributor (KAD) scheme, providing the fire and security distributor with dedicated product training and support, enhancing its ability to provide comprehensive solutions to installers.

The KAD scheme is a global network of specialists, experts and trained fire alarm distribution companies, that are recognised for their high levels of Kentec product knowledge and provide a full range of Kentec systems to suit all applications and building types.

This exclusive network of distributors has been carefully selected to ensure installers and end-users receive expertly specified goods, and by holding stock locally ensures fast delivery and supply of products.

Fortus recently doubled its size following the simultaneous acquisition of Enterprise Security Distributor, a leading UK based distributor, and RE:SURE Intelligence, a remote CCTV monitoring specialist, providing the business with an even wider range of expertise.

Sammy Steel, Head of UK Sales at Kentec, says with such a significant footprint across the UK and Ireland, Fortus is a business that is looking to grow: “Our goal is to make our distributors and installers’ lives easier through supporting their sales cycle, and the training and support delivered through the scheme achieves just that. We feel they are an important new addition to the scheme.”

Mark Massie, Managing Director UK at Fortus, says becoming a KAD is further evidence of the business’ commitment to its customers: “Our KAD status shows our customers that we have the product knowledge and expertise to work with the most sophisticated Kentec systems, and that we value furthering professionalism in the industry through increased training.”

Fortus is the largest privately owned B2B security supply chain company in the UK and Ireland, specialising in CCTV, intruder alarms and fire systems. Its expertise covers tailored solutions, project management and support for installation business of all sizes.

www.kentec.co.uk