As a government consultation on skills in the construction industry closed last week, the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) has said the review “unfortunately fails to tackle the main reason for low investment and productivity – which is fair and prompt payment.”   The government recently urged the construction industry, through the Construction Leadership Council, to “develop an ambitious action plan to address the skills pressures and other constraints that are limiting house building and infrastructure development”. However, ECA director of Business Paul Reeve said: “It’s widely known that engineering is inherently innovative, but while there are innovation hotspots in the wider construction industry, it is hardly endemic. This is mainly due to the prevailing industry approach to payment, which works against investment.  This problem affects building services engineering, and many of the other sectors it works with. “Skilled staff is definitely one way to achieve better productivity and innovation, but in a business environment where the priority for contractors is to be paid what they are owed, the investment tap is almost entirely turned off. “Unfortunately, the review does not focus on the main reason for low industry investment and productivity – which is fair and prompt payment. Ending the practice of ‘cash retentions’ would be an important next step. This would help to boost the balance sheets of smaller businesses in particular, allowing them to invest in the skilled workforce that this consultation is looking for.”   Source link

These recorded a £73.6m loss, but its remaining businesses – Portakabin, Poratsilo and Portastor – reported a £36.7m profit over the same period. With other income this gave a £35m pre-tax loss over the results for the 18 months covered by Shepherd’s changed reporting date. The group sold Shepherd Construction, Shepherd Engineering Services and Shepherd FM to Wates Group in October 2015 and offloaded Shepherd Homes to Galliford Try’s Linden Homes in May last year. Shepherd said it had wanted to reduce its exposure to higher risk businesses and concentrate on its other operations. The company said the profit recorded by these showed “a good indication of the future profit performance of the group unfettered by the higher risk activities of the former built environment businesses”. Chairman David Williams said: “The past is reflected in the losses arising out of a small number of very challenging legacy contracts experienced by the divested contracting businesses. “Our efforts are now very clearly focused on Shepherd Group’s future which is represented by the continuing success and profitability of Portakabin.” Shepherd still has its former construction division’s Colindale contract to complete, a £64m regeneration scheme started in 2013. It also has continuing liability for up to 12 years for completed Shepherd Construction projects. The company said management and resources were in place to deal with both.           Source link

Find answers to typical questions about health and safety in construction as a commercial client and as a small contractor in this live webinar. Webinar overview As a business you may need to choose a contractor for building or repair work on your premises. Both you, as a commercial client, and the contractor, will have duties to make sure the work is carried out safely and without causing ill health or injury. HSE and HMRC are working together to deliver a live webinar about the typical situations you are likely to face. The webinar consists of two presentations, the first from HSE and the second from HMRC which signpost the tools and guidance available to both clients and small contractors and includes a fictional case study to show how they work in practice. It looks at some of the questions you may have and guides you through the answers. Some of the topics that will be included in the webinar: Having construction work done safely Doing construction work safely Choosing a contractor Fragile roof work Who should attend? Small commercial clients Small building contractors Safety reps Those with an interest in health and safety Webinar date Once you have registered the webinar organizer will communicate with you regarding this event. Source link

A slump in the North Sea oil and gas industry has resulted in almost 8,000 job losses, according to the industry body. Statistics released by Oil and Gas UK also shows that 120,000 roles have been axed across the wider economy, as the industry fell from 41,700 employees in 2014 to just 34,000 currently. In addition, the amount of jobs reliant on the industry, such as caterers, hotel staff and taxi drivers, has suffered a similar fall from 453,800 to 330,400 across the same two year period. Oil and Gas UK says it anticipates a further fall in the amount of supported jobs to drop below 40,000 by the conclusion of 2016. The organisation’s Chief Executive, Deirdre Michie, said that the impact of the global downturn of the industry on the UK economy cannot be overestimated. She added that the personal toll on people who have lost their jobs due to the industry’s downturn cannot be overestimated either. The figured reflect the damaged suffered in the economy of North East Scotland over the last two years, as seen in the falling price in crude oil barrels from $115 to just $50 across the period. One of the world’s oldest oil basins and one of the most expensive for producers, the UK North Sea has been one of the hardest sites hit by the downturn. Over the past few months, a number of the world’s biggest oil producers have made significant job cuts, for example last month Shell announced that it was to cut almost 500 North Sea jobs, while BP declared earlier in the year that it was to remove 600 roles. As a result, the amount of people claiming unemployment benefit in Aberdeen has doubled over the last two years, while house prices in the city fell by 14% over the last 12 months.

A number of MPs have slammed the government for its failure to build adequate flood resilience. A report published by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has criticised the government’s ‘reactive’ approach and insists that not enough has been done to protect the communities most at risk of flooding. In particular, the report cited a lack of long-term planning in place for flood prevention and has urged the government to keep up with steady spending each year on flood defences. The committee argues that this approach would be better then the current system of fluctuating spending, and urged funding to be sustained in order to maintain the flood defences that are already in place as well as investing in new systems. The report has been produced in the wake of the severe storms that hit the UK between December 2015 and January 2016, which caused significant flood damage in Wales and the North of England, as well as some parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland. Between them, Storms Frank, Eva and Desmond resulted in an estimated £1.3 billion worth of damage and flooded 16,000 households. The Government says it is committed to protecting 300,000 properties in this parliament by spending a further £2.3 billion on the construction of new defences. However, the EAC says it is ‘sceptical’ about whether this will be achieved as it relies on optimistic efficiency forecasts. Mary Creagh MP, chair of the committee, said that the government’s ‘reactive’ approach to flooding is not good enough as flooding is expected to get even worse and occur more often over the next few years. She added that the communities hardest hit by flooding deserve more certainty about future flood defence plans from the government. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responded by saying that the review on national flood resilience will be published in the near future.