Newcastle Intermediaries has revised its range of mortgages available exclusively for self employed borrowers who have been trading for two years and under. The two year fixed rate products include free valuations (on properties up to and including £500,000) and are available through all of its key account distributors. An individual case assessment is applied, with either one year’s accounts or an SA302 form requested, not both. Steve Carruthers, Head of Mortgage Distribution at Newcastle Intermediaries, stated: “We understand that it can still be difficult to find a lender that understands the needs of self employed clients, especially those still in the early stages. “This new range with lower rates further supports these individuals.” Source link

Category: Construction Industry Today | Subscribe to Construction Industry Today Feed Published Wed, Apr 6th 2016 Sovini Property Services, part of the Sovini Group, has been appointed to five frameworks by Fusion21 and Lancashire County Council. Posted via Industry Today. Follow us on Twitter @IndustryToday Sovini Property Services, part of the Sovini Group, has been appointed to five frameworks by Fusion21 and Lancashire County Council. The frameworks include installation works, heating systems works and construction, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering repairs and maintenance. Sovini Property Services provides comprehensive repairs, maintenance and facilities management services to their partners One Vision Housing and Pine Court Housing Association, as well as a number of local authorities outside of the Sovini Group in the North West. The company launched in 2010 and has seen its turnover increase from £8m to £20m within that time, as well recruiting over 200 staff. The Fusion21 Installation Works Framework is a national planned maintenance framework worth up to £300m over a four-year period. The Fusion21 Servicing, Maintenance and Installation of Heating Systems Framework covers a variety of planned and reactive work on both domestic and commercial heating installations and is worth up to £200m over a four-year period. Sovini Property Services was also successful on several Lancashire County Council Repairs and Maintenance Frameworks including Mechanical, Electrical and Construction, covering Chorley and West Lancashire. Phil Pemberton, Managing Director of Sovini Property Services, said: “To be successful on five frameworks within the space of a few weeks is a fantastic achievement for the business. “We have surpassed our financial targets this year, and the business as well as our reputation has grown exponentially as showcased by these accomplishments.” Fusion21 Procurement Manager Nick Verburg said: “Part of our evaluation process measured the ability of bidders to deliver social value – and so Fusion21 members accessing these frameworks will benefit from working with contractors and suppliers who are committed to the creation and delivery of social value in local communities.” As part of the Sovini Group, capacity generated by Sovini Property Services is reinvested in the group’s not-for-profit social housing partners – One Vision Housing and Pine Court Housing Association – supporting their investment in new homes and developing local communities. The news comes just a couple of months after the company was appointed to a £1.2m framework by Blackpool Borough Council adapting homes for disabled tenants. Source link

Electrical earthing testing.  We are asked frequently – How do you test an Earth in London? Here’s the scenario.  You’re faced with Electrical earthing testing a substation that is located right in the middle of a heavily built-up area. With hard surfaces everywhere together with congested buried infrastructure in every direction. Any lead deployment is invariably obstructed by something, e.g. roads, cars, walls, buildings, etc.  And, assuming the leads can be accommodated. A test is likely to suffer in-ground noise and/or interference from the city’s / town’s infrastructure.  Not to mention the curious passers-by: who would like nothing more than to see you struggle for a laugh by stealing your test leads when you’re back is turned. We’ve posted a number of blogs on the importance of following best practice when doing Fall-of-Potential testing, and some of the pitfalls with the technique. But sometimes it’s simply not possible to deploy leads to the distance required to escape the area of influence of the Earth system while avoiding physical obstructions. This is quite common in built up areas like London. In situations like this, it’s really important to have an accurate soil model, using the Wenner method, and to use a bit of ingenuity. Perhaps you can’t deploy leads to fully escape the area of influence of the Earth system, but you can escape the area of influence of 1 rod, or maybe you can use a clamp meter. The key aim of these tests is to validate the soil model against what you actually encounter on site. If you can get good agreement between the resistances. You CAN measure on site and in the model. Then use the modelled Earth resistance as your “real world” earth resistance – you have effectively calibrated your model against the real world. This is another of these situations where the CDEGS version becomes really important. Only HIFREQ can accurately model the interactions between the test leads and the earth system, to give you full confidence that the model truly agrees with the measured results. These techniques, in combination with CDEGS, trained and accredited engineers allow us to deliver right-sized designs in the most complicated of environments.

North East family-run firm, Restaurant Design Associates (RDA), was selected by a premium Los Angeles, build-your-own-burger restaurant, to design and fit-out its first ever UK site, which opened in Glasgow this week. Following appointment by the new store management, Daniel Johns Group, who acquired the master franchise license to open The Counter restaurants throughout England and Scotland, RDA directors visited existing sites in the US before creating a bespoke, California-inspired design for the new branch, now open at The Quay, Glasgow. The restaurant, which can seat up to 100 covers, was designed and fitted by RDA to reflect the brand’s LA roots. In keeping with US dining culture, the focal point is of course the counter, which has a high-end marble effect finish. Bar, booth and banquette style seating invites guests to experience a more social format – inspired by American-style diners – whilst an open serving hatch also offers a ‘live’ experience from the kitchen. Nick Bradley, Director at Restaurant Design Associates, said: “The RDA team is thrilled to have helped bring US dining concept The Counter to Glasgow – its very first UK site. When we were initially introduced to the concept in Los Angeles at the start of this year, we felt the challenge would be to harness the key elements of US restaurant culture, and translate it for diners here in the UK. “To introduce some of the California sunshine to Glasgow, we’ve included a wall-long façade featuring Santa Monica Beach, paying homage to the first opening for The Counter in Los Angeles. This sits alongside the ‘Burger Love’ wall, which offers diners the perfect backdrop for selfies and social media snaps – inspired by the Los Angeles street art scene.” The Counter brings mouth-watering, premium burgers and ‘The Counter Culture’ to hungry diners in Glasgow. It offers a checklist-style menu of over 100 ingredients creating over a million possible combinations, through which guests are granted the freedom to build the burger or salad that suits their specific palates and lifestyles. From six proteins – vegan/veggie patty, beef, chicken, turkey, and salmon (single or double) – to the 14 cheeses, 23 sauces, 34 toppings, six buns, four bases (on lettuce blend, mixed greens or kale), and eight sides, guests have an abundance of options. Following the opening of The Counter at The Quay, Glasgow, further sites are to be announced.

Comelit will be showing its extensive range of video entry, home automation and CCTV solutions, featuring the best in contemporary Italian design at IFSEC International (20th-22nd June 2017, stand G1150, Excel, London). Also, being unveiled is the Quadra and Mini Wi-Fi ViP hands free kit. This features an HD camera and LED signalling on the external Quadra panel, plus an internal Mini unit with full duplex audio, echo cancelling and built in Wi-Fi to connect to the apartment LAN, saving cost on installation. The Quadra and Maxi ViP kit shares the same features, but includes a Maxi 7-inch Wi-Fi enabled monitor. Also on show will be the recently launched ultra-thin Mini-series of door entry monitors – the new Mini ViP hands free and Mini 2-wire models. With its smart, compact design, the series features a 4.3-inch 16:9 colour screen, contrast, colour and ringtone volume control and melody customisation. The units also have: Soft-touch buttons for lock release, self-ignition, switchboard call and privacy function management Integrated hearing loops Full duplex audio Door status LED indicators Both versions come with wall-mounting and backplate kits. Also being exhibited will be: Comelit’s award-winning, sleekly designed Icona monitors – made from transparent, scratch-resistant polycarbonate – with white backlit touch keys and swipe-activated secondary functions Maxi, the high-end door entry monitor: just 12 mm thick, featuring a 7-inch screen and cutting edge technology, and Quadra, the contemporary-styled compact and functional entry panel with high-performance loudspeaker and wide-angled colour camera. On the home automation front, the company will be exhibiting SimpleHome, its intelligent home automation system and winner of the access control (hardware) category in the Benchmark innovation awards 2016, where the judges said that, “the system elevates the package of access control (door entry), surveillance and alarm management into a lifestyle product”. “We are very excited about our product offering for IFSEC 2017,” said Francesca Boeris, Managing Director at Comelit UK. “This includes the launch of the innovative, high-end Maxi Android door entry solution and the Quadra and Mini ViP kits, providing a cost-effective entry solution where budgets are tighter. We’ve also continued to supply solutions to some very significant sites, including the prestigious and iconic Battersea Power Station development in London.”