Savills, on behalf of a private vendor, has brought to market Oakwood Lodge Park in the Elan Valley in Powys, Wales at a guide price of £1.895 million. The luxury lodge park, which is set across 19 acres (7 hectares) of land, comprises eight two bedroom and six three bedroom Norwegian style lodges with planning permission for a further two dwellings, subject to consent. Also on site is Oakwood House, the owner’s accommodation, which includes five bedrooms and a private garden. Situated in the heart of the Welsh countryside, Oakwood Lodge Park is just two miles to the east of the market town of Rhayader. Easily accessible, the property offers a rural base from which to explore the picturesque Elan Valley, with its wildlife reserve, lakes and mountain walks, making it a popular tourist location. Richard Prestwich, associate director in the leisure team at Savills Chester, comments: “Oakwood Lodge Park provides an excellent opportunity to purchase a well established and profitable business, which has the potential for future asset management and is operational all year round. The high quality accommodation combined with the excellent location and top local attractions mean the park is never short of visitors.” Source link

RIBA Competitions is pleased to announce the launch of a competitive selection process on behalf of Islington Council for developing the St Luke’s Area. The site contains the Finsbury Leisure Centre, football pitches, a nursery and public space. The Council wishes to deliver an exemplary civic building that will be designed and built to serve local people. It will be unique: bringing together leisure, childcare, healthcare and local energy production under one roof. Much needed affordable homes, some market sale homes and improved public space will be provided on the rest of the site. The anticipated construction cost is anticipated to be in the region of GBP £49m for the overall scheme. Islington Council wishes to appoint an experienced design team capable of developing an exemplary set of proposals that delivers the Council’s ambitions within the site’s constraints and opportunities. The appointed design team will also be expected to engage and excite the local community in the development of proposals for the new civic building and the rest of the site. Cllr James Murray, Islington Council’s executive member for housing and development, said:“This is an exciting and ambitious project to deliver leisure, health and childcare facilities under one roof, as well as new council homes for local people. Good public buildings and well-designed council homes improve people’s quality of life. We want the new buildings to be high quality so they can serve the local community in St Luke’s in the 21st century. Through the design competition we will also make sure that local people and people who use our services are involved at the earliest possible stage of the project.” An equal honorarium of £7,500 (+VAT) will be paid to each of the five design teams short-listed to participate in the tender and design concept phase of the competition.  All short-listed proposed designs will be exhibited at a public exhibition, where members of the local community will have the opportunity to comment on them. It is the intention that the successful design team will be appointed by the Council to develop detailed designs leading to submission of a planning application.  It is anticipated that should planning permission be obtained and development of the site proceeds, the architect may be asked to supervise the build out of the development.  This may involve novation of the appointment to the successful constructor / developer. In the first instance, Expressions of Interest are invited in accordance with the requirements set out in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire available from the London Tenders Portal at: https://www.londontenders.org The deadline for submissions is 14.00hrs (BST) on MONDAY 19 October 2015.   – Ends –   Notes to Editors: Islington Council – Members of the public can find further information about the design competition and the wider redevelopment of the site on Islington Council’s website – www.Islington.gov.uk/stlukes    Please ensure RIBA Competitions are credited when mentioning the above competition.  Competitions deliver exciting buildings and projects.  They drive up quality, stimulate creativity and innovation and generate a range of options improving choice.  RIBA Competitions is the Royal Institute of British Architect’s unit dedicated  to organising architectural and other design-related competitions.  For further details visit  www.architecture.com/competitions Posted on Monday 14th September 2015 Source link

Scotland’s “vibrant renewable sector” and “bold policy approaches” will take the country beyond the UK’s ambition on climate change and help deliver a 61 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said. In a new report – Scottish emissions targets 2028-2032 – the CCC says the Scottish Government should maintain its high-ambition pathway towards emissions reductions of at least 80 per cent by 2050, by taking strong action on national decarbonisation.  CCC chair Lord Deben said: “Scotland is leading the UK in its ambitious approach to tackling climate change and is to be commended for doing so. There is a lot of positive action already underway in Scotland, driven by both its vibrant renewable sector and its bold policy approaches. This must now be accelerated. “New policies will be required to meet these ambitious but achievable carbon objectives. With these actions Scotland can continue as an example to the rest of the UK in its approach to address climate change.” Heat and transport Scotland has made good progress in emissions reduction to date – in 2013, emissions had fallen by 38 per cent on 1990 levels, putting the country on track to exceed the 42 per cent target by 2020 set in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act. The Scotland Act calls on emissions reductions that go beyond those in the UK Act, which has a target of reducing emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, from the same 1990 baseline. The CCC’s recommended emissions target for Scotland in the 2028-32 timeframe continues along that more ambitious trajectory, putting the country on track for an eventual reduction of at least 80 per cent by 2050. Specifically, the CCC says strong action will be required in a number of key areas, including: – Low-carbon heat in about 30 per cent of homes by 2030, with widespread uptake of heat pumps, low-carbon heat networks, domestic insulation and energy efficiency measures. Low emission vehicles comprising about 65 per cent of new car and van sales by 2030. Afforestation involving 16,000 hectares per year of new forest planting. Electricity decarbonisation to reduce emissions from 220 gCO2/kWh to below Scotland’s legislated target of 50 gCO2/kWh. Commenting on the new report, Jim Densham from campaign group Stop Climate Chaos Scotland said: “The advice from the UK CCC describes a rapid transition away from fossil fuels towards a clean, renewable energy future. This means by 2030 electric cars need to be the vehicle of choice; renewable heat must be common place across our buildings and all our homes energy efficient.  “This is a massive opportunity to not only cut emissions but also deliver new jobs in sectors like home insulation and renewable energy across Scotland, improve public health, create investment in new industry and help tackle fuel poverty. “This is a powerful reminder that all political parties need to step up action on climate change and commit to policies in line with the Climate Change Agreement all Scottish party leaders signed up to last year.” Holyrood calling Ahead of the Scottish elections on 5 May, a recent YouGov survey revealed overwhelming public support for the continued development of clean energy over fossil fuels and nuclear. The results showed that 70 per cent want more renewable sources such as wind, solar, wave and tidal to be supplemented with a strong policy environment.  WWF Scotland director Lang Banks recently told edie of his hope that the upcoming election will see the major parties set out an ambitious green agenda.“In 2015, Scotland missed yet another annual climate change target underlining the need to ensure we do much more address carbon emissions from other sectors including our homes, businesses and transport,” Banks said. “In the run up to May’s Holyrood election, we’ll be particularly keen to see each of the political parties set out their plans for tackling climate change that will create jobs, improve health and reduce inequality.” A version of this news story originally appeared on edie.net Source link

©PA Choosing to pay a higher or a lower price for an identical product ought to be a no-brainer. Yet that is not how things work in practice in the UK’s gas and electricity market. Fifteen years on from the sector’s deregulation, a majority of retail customers have never — at least, not to their knowledge — switched to a different power supplier. Most sit for years on a default tariff that can cost them several hundred pounds more than the cheapest deal on offer. The six suppliers that serve 90 per cent of the market have been happy to exploit the apathy. They lure new customers through cheap tariffs that rank well on price comparison websites — subsidised by the higher default rates, which even bargain hunters tend to pay for a few months when fixed-term deals expire. This dual market is especially unfortunate, because the poorest customers — whose gas and electricity bills represent almost 10 per cent of household spending — are the least likely to seek out the best prices. This is the situation exposed by a long-running investigation by the competition authorities — whose proposals Ofgem, the energy regulator, is now seeking to implement with a package of measures it describes as a “watershed” for the industry and consumers. The watchdog is rightly proposing an interim cap on tariffs for customers on prepayment meters, who are offered a more limited choice and may be unable to switch supplier if they have a poor credit history. But Ofgem has not acted on earlier proposals to cap prices for the market as a whole. Instead, it plans to run trials of various ways to prompt, prod and pester people into switching. These range from simple interventions, such as stipulating how energy suppliers present the options when they bill customers, to a more controversial proposal to create a database of customers who consistently pay over the odds, who would then, unless they opted out, receive offers from rivals. Ofgem’s cautious approach is probably the right one for now. Regulating prices for all customers would be tantamount to admitting that the market had failed. It could also, in practice, lead to a convergence of prices around the cap — as has been seen with UK universities, who almost all charge students the maximum fee permitted. Competition in the gas and electricity market clearly leaves much to be desired at present, but it is not at all clear that prescriptive regulation would achieve a better outcome. Indeed, Ofgem is proposing to scrap a recent rule limiting suppliers to offering just four tariffs. This was meant to make billing simpler but it simply led to the withdrawal of cheaper deals and stifled innovation with little benefit. Moreover, any regime put in place now will to an extent be a temporary one. By 2020, all 26m UK households are meant to be equipped with smart meters. There are still technical hurdles to overcome, but once in place, smart meters should make billing more transparent, because suppliers will be able to measure actual consumption, rather than issuing estimates based on infrequent meter readings and typical customer profiles. It is to be hoped that customers will also start to care more about their energy bills, when they can track how much power they are using in real time. Beyond the benefits to their own pockets, there is a wider public interest in making people more responsive to price signals — variable pricing should be a tool to help the UK achieve other goals on energy security and climate change. Policymakers should be wary of measures that invite a deluge of marketing. But testing out new ways to nudge people into taking a more active interest would be worthwhile. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link