8 July 2016 | Jamie Harris A rationalisation of facilities management contracts in the NHS has saved £15 million to date, NHS Property Services has announced. The streamlined contracts, which reduced the number of outsourced deals from 2,300 to 249, and the number for suppliers from more than 1,000 to fewer than 20, have been put in place to ‘improve the provision of FM services’ across the NHS property portfolio. Dennis Markey, chief operating officer at NHS Property Services, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for our FM teams and marks a significant cost saving for the NHS. “By reducing the number of contractors we employ and setting a standard service specification, this process is already driving efficiencies for the NHS, with £15 million already saved and an expected total saving of £22 million by year end, which will be reinvested back into patient care.” More than 900 staff have been TUPE transferred into NHS Porperty Services. Mitie secured the £100 million hard FM services contract in March, where it is to provide building fabric and maintenance services over the next three years. Mitie secured 25 of the 31 lots. Other successful hard services bidders included Integral, recently acquired by commercial property services provider JLL for £226 million. The soft FM contracts were awarded to a number of firms, including OCS, PHS Group, Mitie’s security and pest control divisions, and Ideal Cleaning Services. Source link

Berkeley chairman Tony Pidgley said the UK needs “a balance” of housing tenure, adding that the government’s Starter Homes policy would not solve the housing crisis. “I don’t think you can have an ideology where everyone has got to own a house, we’ve got to have a balance,” he said. “The working class people and key workers in this country, they’re entitled to rent a property at rents that’s are affordable for their salary.” Mr Pidgley said the government had failed to get behind the build to rent sector, after imposing a 3 per cent Stamp Duty surcharge on second homes. “They [the government] have taxed it [the sector], I don’t think they encourage it. I don’t think you can have a perfect housing market, you can’t have it a hundred per cent homeownership and I’m a housebuilder,” he said. Tony Pidgley on: Offsite manufacturing: “We’ve got to crack it, all my life we’ve tried to cure it but we’ve ever really found the answer. “I’m not sure it’s the panacea, we need many silver bullets.” Timber Skyscraper plans: “It won’t work – those buildings move. We build skyscrapers and they move. “I built timber frame when I was 20 years of age, I like timber frame and it has a lot to be said for it in two-storey housing [because] it does take down the speed and it’s sustainable but you shouldn’t climb with it.” Cost inflation: “It’s horrendous, but it’s not just cost inflation, we’ve got a shortage of labour and when there’s a shortage, like anything when house prices go up, prices go up. But it is easing a bit.” “If the government doesn’t wake up to the housing [crisis] they [investors] will stop investment in the London market,” he added. “Whether you like investors or not, they [investors] come in and take the risk out of development. “If you can sell 30 per cent [on a development] it gives you the confidence to go on and do it [all].” Mr Pidgley was speaking at an event hosted by Barking and Dagenham council, which is undertaking a major regeneration of the borough. The Berkeley chairman used the borough as an example of where investors were needed. “They [Barking and Dagenham] have got the right leader [Cllr Darren Rodwell] but they need the investment to [grow]. “They will have some stiff challenges because currently house prices are almost at build cost levels so there’s no land value, so there’s no spare money to pay for infrastructure, so everyone is going it have to work at it.”   Source link

Coal generation fell to a record low in May, supplying just 1TWh of power during the month, new figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have revealed. It was down by 72 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter of 2016 at 4.3TWh. Its share of total output fell to a mere 6.8 per cent – the lowest level in 21 years. The fall was the result of a reduction in coal-fired capacity, the department said, in part due to Drax’s conversion of a third unit to co-firing biomass. Accordingly, bioenergy generation during the quarter rose by more than 10 per cent on same period last year to 4.1TWh.   The drop was offset by a 57 per cent increase in gas-fired generation. During April, May and June, gas plants supplied a majority of all power – 31.8TWh out of a total of 62.6TWh. In addition to the Drax conversion, coal capacity has also been slashed by a series of plant closures since the beginning of this year. Longannet and Ferrybridge both shut down in March and Rugeley closed towards the end of June. Eggborough has also exited the main energy market, although the plant has remained open to provide balancing services to National Grid over the coming winter via the Supplemental Balancing Reserve. Winds-generated supply fell to 5.9TWh during the second quarter – a 14 per cent decrease on the same period last year. Offshore generation was down 9 per cent at 3.3TWh, and onshore generation dropped by a fifth. The decline was the result of lower average wind speeds when compared with same period last year. An increase in installed capacity meant solar supplies were up 16.5 per cent at 0.7TWh, despite a drop in average sun hours. Reduced rainfall led a 42 per cent reduction in hydropower suppliers; at 0.6TWh, it was the lowest level in almost two years and the second lowest level this decade. Renewables’ collective share of overall generation was down by 1.4 percentage points at 18.1 per cent. The December closure of the Wyfla plant on Anglesey in North Wales resulted in a 1.5 per cent reduction in nuclear generation to 15.1TWh. Low-carbon generation (renewables and nuclear) supplied 42.3 per cent of the UK’s electricity during the second quarter. Interconnector imports accounted for 7.4 per cent of electricity supplies, down from 7.5 per cent a year ago. Source link