The City of London is closing Tower Bridge for three months for structural repair and maintenance works. Above: Tower Bridge The works on the bridge will be paid for by the Bridge House Estate, the charitable trust tasked with maintaining five bridges that cross the Thames in the City, and
Just 75 days after the result of the referendum to exit the EU was announced, RICS revealed that activity in the UK housing market had “settled down” and stabilised. Whether you’re a homeowner, landlord, auction house or property developer, this will be music to your ears. The Royal Institute of
The plan for Queens Park Rangers’ new stadium has moved a step closer after plans were approved for the £175 million Old Oak regeneration project in West London. The Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) approved the plans put forward by QPR and the Genesis Housing Association, in
More than half of office workers in the UK are unhappy with technology in their workplace, according to the latest study released by Savills and the British Council for Offices (BCO). The research found that just 43% of employees are satisfied with the quality of wireless connections in their office,
Gatwick Airport is set to spend a further £200 million on construction as part of the airport’s transformation scheme, which will include the upgrade of shopping facilities and the expansion of the north and south terminals. The injection of cash will take the airport’s spending to more than £1.2 billion
Eight top performing building service companies and electrical firms picked up major accolades at the 2016 ECA Gala Dinner Awards at Celtic Manor in South Wales. The awards evening was attended by hundreds of industry leaders and was supported by headline sponsor LEDVANCE. The night’s award winners were: ECA Large
Construction and infrastructure firm, Morgan Sindall, has begun work on the £13.7 million leisure extension to the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds. Land Securities awarded the 65,000 sq ft design and build contract to the company, which will be delivered by the major contracts team at Morgan Sindall, whose
Ineos is aiming to accelerate its shale gas development in the UK by lodging up to 30 planning applications to drill test wells over the course of the next six months. The $50 billion petrochemicals firm is controlled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, and one of its directors, Tom Crotty,
2016’s Top Interior Design Trends – by Internal Panel Systems Survey data from PropertyWire shows that 94% of British home owners are more interested in renovating their home than moving. As this year’s interior design and decorating trends show, many are putting this into practice with a variety of interesting
The City of London is closing Tower Bridge for three months for structural repair and maintenance works. Above: Tower Bridge The works on the bridge will be paid for by the Bridge House Estate, the charitable trust tasked with maintaining five bridges that cross the Thames in the City, and carried out primarily by BAM Nuttall. Scope of work includes replacement of the decking on the bascules, corrosion prevention and repair, replacement of worn expansion joints and resurfacing of fixed roads and walkways. In addition, the approach viaducts will be re-waterproofed and key mechanical and lift components will be overhauled. Work will start on 1st October 2016. Subject to final design and agreement with the local authorities, the bridge will remain open to pedestrians for all but three weekends of the three months of planned works, during which time it is proposed that a free replacement ferry service be provided. The viewing gallery along the walkways of the bridge will remain open to visitors for the entirety of the works, and exhibitions will continue as planned. Every day more than 40,000 people cross over Tower Bridge, including 21,000 vehicles, making it a critical connection in crossing the Thames, the City of London Corporation said. This daily heavy use has had an effect on the timber decking of the bridge, which was last refurbished in the 1970s. Chris Hayward, chairman of the planning and transport committee, said: “This decision to close Tower Bridge to vehicles has not been taken lightly, and this course of action has been taken after extensive consultation and planning in conjunction with numerous stakeholders. “We will use this time to repair, refurbish, and upgrade London’s most iconic bridge, which has gone without significant engineering works for more than 35 years.” This article was published on 2 Jun 2016 (last updated on 2 Jun 2016). Source link
Just 75 days after the result of the referendum to exit the EU was announced, RICS revealed that activity in the UK housing market had “settled down” and stabilised. Whether you’re a homeowner, landlord, auction house or property developer, this will be music to your ears. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the world’s leading professional body for standards in land, property, infrastructure and construction, went further to say both sales and prices are expected to rise in the coming months. Despite the scaremongering in the run-up to the Brexit vote in June, confidence in the UK housing market appears to be back already, with the industry body claiming that, for the first time since April, its surveyor members were expecting house prices to increase over the next three months. For those looking long-term, the expectations are even better, with members forecasting that house prices will increase 3.3 per cent a year for the next five years. The figures from RICS echoed the Nationwide House Price Index for August that found the average price of a home rose 0.6 per cent to £206,145. Here at Together, recent research of ours found that, despite the uncertainty in the wake of Brexit, the majority of people still have confidence in the value of their property, with only a quarter of those surveyed concerned that property prices could fall. To have good news so soon after the referendum is only going to increase people’s confidence in the market. Source link
The plan for Queens Park Rangers’ new stadium has moved a step closer after plans were approved for the £175 million Old Oak regeneration project in West London. The Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) approved the plans put forward by QPR and the Genesis Housing Association, in the OPDC’s first major planning application. The mixed use regeneration scheme will cost £175 million and include 605 new homes in what is being described as a “new creative neighbourhood” that will hope to attract technology firms to relocate there. The scheme will also open up regeneration of the wider area as it will provide a link road into Old Oak, where 65,000 new jobs and 25,500 new homes could be created at Park Royal and Old Oak over the next 30-40 year period, as well as being a transport interchange for HS2 and Crossrail. The Oaklands site is situated south of the Grand Union Canal on the western part of the Old Oak regeneration area and is currently a vacant site which has been unoccupied for the last 10 years having formerly been used as a hostel and offices. QPR and Genesis are working together as the football club has strategic land interests in the Old Oak site and would like to build a new stadium as part of a wider development, while Genesis controls the Oaklands site. The proposed project will now be sent to the London Mayor for final review, while work is set to commence before March 2017 and is estimated to take three years to complete. Tony Fernandes, QPR Chairman, said that the project is just the beginning of a long term strategic investment for QPR at Old Oak and shows the club’s commitment to the area. He added: “Whilst our primary interest is securing the future of the club through the construction of a new stadium, we will only be able to deliver this by taking equity interests in wider regeneration projects such as Oaklands.”
More than half of office workers in the UK are unhappy with technology in their workplace, according to the latest study released by Savills and the British Council for Offices (BCO). The research found that just 43% of employees are satisfied with the quality of wireless connections in their office, while 33% of those surveyed say they are not provided with the technology they require to work flexibly. Some 65% of workers do not feel comfortable with employers using wearable technology to track them within the office, although older workers are a bit more amenable to being monitored. The report is entitled ‘What Workers Want’ and shows that workers are unhappy with workplace technology, despite 74% of respondents saying that “good quality wireless technology” is either important or very important to them, which was ranked as being more important than their office having good public transport connections (ranked as important by 71%), food facilities (60%) or available meeting rooms (56%). The poll was conducted among 1,132 UK office workers to investigate the most important factors for employees in the workplace, and the extent to which those requirements are being satisfied by their current working environment. The author of the report and research director at Savills, Steve Lang, commented: “This disconnect between the importance in which workers hold a wireless connection and what employers actually provide demonstrates that workplaces have generally failed to keep up with advances in personal technology, which is surprising given the ever-increasing importance of connectivity in enabling them to function.” Of the respondents, 65% said they felt uncomfortable with the prospect of their employers using technology to track their movements, although somewhat surprisingly, older employees seem more open to the concept than younger ones with 12% of employees aged over 55 said they would be ‘very comfortable’ being monitored, while only 5% of those aged 25-34 selected this option.
Gatwick Airport is set to spend a further £200 million on construction as part of the airport’s transformation scheme, which will include the upgrade of shopping facilities and the expansion of the north and south terminals. The injection of cash will take the airport’s spending to more than £1.2 billion by 2021, and will take the airport’s spending since 2009 to over £2.5 billion. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, unveiled the investment plans at an event at the airport, where he backed plans for a second runway at Gatwick, which he believes will bring “substantial economic benefits.” The recently appointed mayor has previously spoken out against the proposed expansion at Heathrow, has said that a decision must be made quickly on the Gatwick proposition and urged new Prime Minister Theresa May to support the scheme. Chris Grayling, who is the MP for Epsom and Ewell, which lies just 31 km away from the airport, was appointed Transport Secretary last week as part of Mrs May’s cabinet reshuffle, and he will now be tasked with the decision on whether to expand Gatwick. However, he is yet to publically voice his opinion on the proposed expansion of either Gatwick or Heathrow, although it was reported in 2009 that he privately voiced concerns over the Conservative party’s opposition to Heathrow. Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier in the week that Gatwick Express is the most delayed rail service in Britain. In the last six months, over 8,100 services ran late between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport. Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which is already under scrutiny after it recently announced its intension to scrap 341 Southern trains per day, operates the premium priced service. The five worst routes in the UK are run by GTR, with the second worst service – the route from London to Brighton – operated by Southern, which saw 32.8% of its services (almost 35,000 trains) arrive late in the last six months.
Eight top performing building service companies and electrical firms picked up major accolades at the 2016 ECA Gala Dinner Awards at Celtic Manor in South Wales. The awards evening was attended by hundreds of industry leaders and was supported by headline sponsor LEDVANCE. The night’s award winners were: ECA Large Contractor of the Year Award (sponsored by Schneider Electric) Winner: W T Parker Group Services Highly commended: Imtech Engineering Services Central ECA Contractor of the Year Award – up to £20 million turnover (sponsored by Electrium) Winner: Haydon Mechanical & Electrical Highly commended: Braham Electrical ECA Contractor of the Year Award – up to £5 million turnover (sponsored by Hager) Winner: Amalgamated Highly commended: DES Electrical Contractors UK ECA Contractor of the Year Award– up to £1 million turnover (sponsored by Edmundson Electrical) Winner: Power Electrics (Bristol) Highly commended: Panks Engineers Ltd and Elsym Installations Best Client/Contractor Partnership Award (sponsored by ECIC) Winner: DES Electrical Contractors UK Innovation in Contracting Award (sponsored by Eaton) Winner: Marshall Land Systems Best Health and Safety Initiative Award (sponsored by ABB) Winner: Imtech Engineering Services Central Ltd Highly commended: Darke & Taylor Ltd Excellence in Training and Development Award (sponsored by JTL) Winner: Quartzelec Ltd Highly commended: Bebbington & Wilson Ltd and N Smith Electrical Ltd Steve Bratt, Chief Executive Officer at ECA, congratulated the eight winners of the ECA Annual Awards, who saw off stiff competition from a number of high quality entries, while also congratulating the commended and other shortlist candidates. This year’s award saw a record breaking number of entries, which were then assessed by an independent judging panel which included Electrical Industries Charity MD Tessa Ogle and CEDIA’s Wendy Griffiths. After this, 34 entries were nominated for the awards, across the eight award categories. Bratt added: “This year’s ECA Gala Dinner and Awards proved to be a fantastic evening for everyone who attended, and I’m delighted that thousands of pounds were raised for good causes in our industry.”
Construction and infrastructure firm, Morgan Sindall, has begun work on the £13.7 million leisure extension to the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds. Land Securities awarded the 65,000 sq ft design and build contract to the company, which will be delivered by the major contracts team at Morgan Sindall, whose regional office is based in the Hunslet area of Leeds. The contract will also provide for a 15 month maintenance period. Included in the project is a plan for an 11 screen cinema, which will be operated by Cineworld IMAX, along with a number of attractive public realm features and six family friendly restaurants. The cinema will feature the latest in IMAX technology and will have a 44,269 sq ft net internal floor area, while the plans will also feature the installation of specialist padding around the steel work to allow for the very best acoustics. Chiquito, TGI Fridays, Wagamama and Pizza Hut have already been confirmed as tenants in the six retail units which will total 25,000 sq ft. Upon completion, it is estimated that 350 new full and part time jobs will be delivered to the area thanks to the extension. Morgan Sindall Area Director, Barry Roberts, said that the project is a fantastic one to be involved in and will benefit a significant number of people in West Yorkshire and beyond. He added: “It will be a remarkable addition to the family leisure offering of the region and we understand our responsibility in making the vision of the developer a reality.” Meanwhile, Land Securities Portfolio Director, Rob Jewell, explained that the decision to appoint Morgan Sindall in the delivery of the latest improvement to the White Rose Centre was an easy one to make because of the company’s excellent previous work on the project. It is hoped that the new extension will be in use by the summer of next year.
Ineos is aiming to accelerate its shale gas development in the UK by lodging up to 30 planning applications to drill test wells over the course of the next six months. The $50 billion petrochemicals firm is controlled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, and one of its directors, Tom Crotty, said that the company has plans to begin drilling in the north of England early in 2017, while gas extraction could start in 18 months through the controversial fracking process. The plan has been announced at a time when the group is ending a six year tax exile with the opening of a new London headquarters for its upstream oil and gas operations which are based primarily in the UK. Ratcliffe was the UK founder of the company, which he took to Switzerland in 2010 as it was struggling to pay its taxes following the global financial crisis, while he has now also returned to live in the UK. Ineos’ primary concern now is to continue its free trade with the EU, in particular with Norway, where the firm has a significant petrochemical business, which Ratcliffe says “is a model that works for us.” The company has been built up over more than a decade through a number of acquisitions and last year moved into gas production after its $750 million acquisition of 12 North Sea fields from Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman. The group also owns the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and has ambitions of becoming a major producer of oil and gas, in particular shale gas. Over the last year, Ineos has backed a very public campaign to persuade the Scottish government to remove its moratorium on fracking. However, the campaign was unsuccessful and has resulted in the group bidding for licenses in England and now has rights covering 1m acres, primarily in North Yorkshire, the North Midlands and the Cheshire basin.
2016’s Top Interior Design Trends – by Internal Panel Systems Survey data from PropertyWire shows that 94% of British home owners are more interested in renovating their home than moving. As this year’s interior design and decorating trends show, many are putting this into practice with a variety of interesting decor ideas. Warm metals, “rough luxe” and a renewed focus on energy efficiency are some of 2016’s most popular interior design trends. Below, we’ve listed seven of the year’s top trends suitable for the bathroom to the bedroom. Warm Metal Materials Brushed metal may have a reputation for looking and feeling a little cold, but warmer metals are making their way into many of today’s most modern homes. Brands like Dornbracht have made materials like copper and gold — once viewed as out of date — stars of interior design. From kitchen and bathroom fixtures to countertops, industrial-inspired furniture and more, warm metals are making their way back into the home, both as eye-catching points of interest and as everyday home decorating accessories. Mid-Century Modern Furniture Mid-century modern furniture has always had a passionate following, but it’s only recently that it’s come back into fashion. Famous mid-20th century items like the Eames recliner, surfboard coffee tables and others are making their way into many decidedly 21st century homes. While the original items from Herman Miller and other brands command high prices, Mid-century inspired furniture and decor accessories from other brands have put the style of the 50s and 60s within reach for a mass audience in 2016. Smart Appliances Smart appliances, such as internet-connected ovens and tumble dryers, were a fun fantasy for technology gurus just a few years ago. In 2016, they’re making their way into homes around the world as the Internet of Things becomes a reality. From June, a countertop smart oven, to competing products from established appliance brands such as Breville and Samsung, smart appliances are more than just tech — they’re a statement that your home or apartment isn’t just stylish, but hooked 24/7 into the Internet of Things. “Glamily” Rooms Why can’t a family room be glamourous? The glamily room, which popped up in Design Sponge and House Beautiful in 2016, is a family room that combines comfort and functionality with sleek and modern interior design. Staples of the glamily room include a mix of contemporary, modern and classic furniture, bright and powerful colors, and a design approach that’s just a little more extravagant than the typical family living room. Coloured Steel Appliances When Samsung, KitchenAid and LG all release their own series of black stainless steel kitchen appliances, you know a trend is in the making. Coloured stainless steel mixes the great texture of stainless steel with colors like black, bronze, copper and others for a more eye-catching look. Whether as a visual statement or to match the colour scheme of your kitchen, coloured stainless steel is undoubtedly one of 2016’s top interior decorating trends. If ultra-modern is your look, it’s hard to compete with a black, brushed stainless steel kitchen. Statement Mirrors As minimalistic interior design took off over the last decade, mirrors stopped being statement and started to serve just two purposes: pure function — such as a bathroom mirror — and add size and presence to a relatively small interior space. In 2016, statement mirrors are well and truly back. From the avant garde to the classic, iconic mirrors that do more than just reflect are one of the year’s top interior design trends, especially for small and cosy modern apartments. Mosaic Tiles From the kitchen to the bathroom, mosaic tiles are a common sight in interior design inspiration guides for 2016. Materials like marble, and even Designer Wall Panels, have become popular in both the kitchen, the bathroom and the living room. Of 2016’s interior design trends, mosaic tiles are arguably the most versatile. Whether marble in the living room, glass as a kitchen backsplash or ceramic in the bathroom, mosaic tiles have the ideal combination of versatility and style for decorating your home or apartment in 2016.
