The project will include three new buildings: one 150,000 sq ft office tower and two residential blocks. Muse is working alongside Network Rail and Manchester City Council to ensure the scheme complements neighbouring developments, including the rail operator’s £44m transformation of Victoria station. The plans are part of Network Rail’s commitment to unlock publicly owned land for new housing. Network Rail head of residential Tim Dickinson said: “Network Rail’s £44m investment at Manchester Victoria station has clearly provided a major catalyst for wider regeneration in the city, delivering much-needed jobs, homes and development opportunities. “This deal with Muse will support Network Rail’s commitment to unlock land for housing while generating income to be reinvested back into the railway.” Muse development director David Burkinshaw added: “New Victoria presents a unique opportunity to deliver a landmark development next to the city centre’s prime leisure and retail attractions and one of the North-west’s main transport hubs. “New Victoria offers an unparalleled location and an outstanding development opportunity.” Source link

Despite typically having to pay for the privilege of having a background check conducted on themselves, most renters don’t perform the same due diligence on their potential landlord, leaving them at risk of renting from dodgy or criminal landlords. The study, by London removals firm Kiwi Movers, also found that renters in London are the least likely to research a potential landlord, with the highly competitive property marketing cited as the number one reason for not doing so. The study also found that only 20% of UK renters do any sort of check on their landlord before agreeing a tenancy and this figure drops to just 8% for London with almost half of renters in the capital saying they’re prepared to ‘take what they can get’.   Interestingly, also revealed was that more than a quarter of renters would prefer to rent from a female. According to the data, 44% of women would prefer to rent from another woman. Women are more likely than men to background check a landlord – 24% of women vs 15% of men Other key points highlighted were: • 1 in 5 believe renting from an agency meant they didn’t need to worry about landlord credentials or history.   • 18% of those who did find useful negative information on a landlord say it affected their decision to rent from that person.   • Renters in Liverpool most likely to check out a landlord online before renting.   Of those that have researched a potential landlord, 43% said they found some useful information, with 18% of those saying they found ‘negative’ information. More than half (53%) of those that found negative information, in the form of a review, news article or details of legal issues, said it influenced their decision to rent from that person.   Just 8% of London residents do any kind of background check on their landlord, 62% below the national average of 20%. London residents are also the least likely to act on information about a potential landlord, with fewer than half (44%) of them saying negative the information had influenced a housing decision. In other words, the need to secure a property was greater than their need to rent with confidence.   Renters in Liverpool are most likely to carry out background checks on their landlord. A third of the city’s residents say they’ve performed a background check on a landlord before agreeing to move into a property. Cities with renters most likely to check out a potential landlord City % of renters who have checked out a landlord before renting (national average – 20%) Liverpool 33.30% Swansea 31.63% Southampton 26.83% Leicester 24.33% Glasgow 24.07% Sheffield 23.37% Brighton and Hove 23.30% Cardiff 23.00% Portsmouth 21.73% Birmingham 21.00% Case study: Billie Gianfrancesco a PR manager has been renting in London since 2008 and is on her fifth rental property. “In my experience, female landlords tend to work more closely with property managers or put a system in place whereby tenants can resolve any issues quickly without needing to bother or chase them. I’ve found that male landlords prefer to try and resolve the issue themselves first. This often means repeat visits in person, which makes any tenant nervous, and a greater recurrence of botched DIY repairs. In one situation an upstairs bath was leaking, and our male landlord visited four times attempting to fix the issue himself. Because of this, the problem wasn’t resolved for over a month. I faced a similar issue a couple of years later with a female landlord – she called in a professional and the issue was resolved within a week As a female tenant, I also prefer to deal with a female landlady as in my personal experience, I have at times felt intimidated by male landlords. This is particularly true when dealing with the inventory check out and deposit negotiations at the end of a tenancy. I have in the past felt patronised by certain male landlords quoting ridiculous prices for repairs (for example £768 to replace a chipped slate tile on an outdoor porch, and £1,020 to replace a 20 year old alarm system with a brand new one, when multiple technicians had confirmed it was broken due to age) and as recently as this year, I was threatened by a male landlord for disagreeing with his deposit deduction demands above. I’ve never had this experience with a female landlord! I’ve also had a great male landlord. It’s just that if I had a preference it would be a female.” Source link

The nine, who were first shortlisted in March this year, have all been invited to tender for the civil engineering package for phase one of HS2, covering London to Birmingham, worth up to £8.6bn (see box, below). Later in the tendering process, successful firms will also be eligible to bid for a further £1.8bn-£3.3bn of work for phase 2a, which covers works from Birmingham up to Crewe. The firms have been invited to tender for the following works packages: Lot S1 – Euston tunnels and approaches (£600m-£900m)   Lot S2 – Northolt tunnels (£850m-£1.4bn)   Lot C1 – Chiltern tunnels and Colne Valley viaduct (£800m-£1.3bn)   Lot C2 – North Portal Chiltern tunnels to Brackley (£800m-£1.3bn)   Lot C3 – Brackley to Long Itchington Wood Green tunnel south portal (£600m-£900m)   Lot N1 – Long Itchington Wood Green tunnel to Delta Junction / Birmingham Spur (£900m-£1.5bn)   Lot N2 – Delta Junction to West Coast Main Line tie-in (£800m-£1.3bn)   Civil engineering contracts covering the 225 km phase one are expected to be signed in 2017, with work starting on site a year later. In total, the first phase of the project is forecast to create 14,600 construction jobs and apprenticeships. Tenderer name Parties (where a consortium or single party, where applicable) Tender list(s)   Align Joint Venture     Bouygues Travaux Publics   VolkerFitzpatrick   Sir Robert McAlpine     Lot S2   Lot C1   Lot C2   Lot C3     ASL     Acciona Infraestructuras S.A.   John Sisk & Son (Holdings)   Lagan Construction Group     Lot C3     Balfour Beatty VINCI BeMo (BBV)     Balfour Beatty Group   Vinci Construction Grands Projets   Vinci Construction UK   Vinci Construction Terrassement   BeMo Tunnelling     Lot C1   Lot C2   Lot N1   Lot N2     Catalyst     Bechtel     Lot C3     Carillion-Eiffage-Kier (CEK)      Carillion Construction   Eiffage Genie Civil   Kier Infrastructure and Overseas     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot C2   Lot C3     Fusion     Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure   Bam Nuttall   Ferrovial Agroman (UK)     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot N1   Lot N2     LFM     Laing O’Rourke Construction   FCC Construccion   J Murphy and Sons     Lot C1   Lot N1   Lot N2     Momentum Infrastructure     Dragados SA   Hochtief Infrastructure   Galliford Try Infrastructure     Lot S1   Lot C2   Lot C3   Lot N2     SCS     Skanska Construction (UK)   Costain   Strabag AG     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot C1   Lot N1   Source link