As the popularity of working from home continues, so does the need for a separate working environment away from the hustle and bustle of the main house. Garden rooms have been filling this niche for some time, but now these truly habitable spaces are becoming a popular choice for home
Industry bodies address mental health challenge Published: 10 June, 2016 Industry bodies are joining forces with the Samaritans on a campaign to address the growing problem of mental health and workplace stress in the building engineering services industry. This joint initiative between the Building Engineering Services Association (the BESA), the Electrical
The client will instead focus on its Birmingham and London developments, which include the 1.8m sq ft office-led Paradise redevelopment and the high-profile 27 ha King’s Cross transformation. Argent has been heavily involved in Manchester’s development boom in recent years, delivering schemes including the 280,000 sq ft One St Peter’s
Winter power prices have spiked upwards after EDF cut its projection for nuclear output due to safety tests at a number of its reactors in France. The price of baseload contracts for the first quarter of 2017 rose by 7.5 per cent between Tuesday and Wednesday. On
Vinci has been chosen for a £73m student accommodation job at Coventry University. Source link
Worker loses life after fall from roof Published: 05 May, 2016 A Birmingham maintenance company has been fined after a worker died as a result of falling from the roof of a five-storey building. Birmingham Crown Court heard how H20 Plumbing Services were contracted to carry out repairs to two
ECA links up with socially responsible construction body to promote best practice Source link
The future of energy is hard to determine, even for experts in the industry. At the 2017 Future Energy Scenarios event, the efficiency and future use of shale gas and biomethane was brought into the discussion. Here to analyse how the UK might benefit from both these forms of energy
OCS has been awarded a five-year multi-service contract with The Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The contract is part of the government department’s integrator service delivery model, and will service the MoJ, Crown Prosecution Service, Department for Education, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government and the Department for International Trade.
GFW, the Lancashire-based wholesale furniture supplier, has received a £10 million investment, provided by HSBC, to help with its growth plans. The funding package enabled the company to acquire its trading premises in Eccleshill and secure the site as its permanent home. “We’re delighted to receive financial support from HSBC.
As the popularity of working from home continues, so does the need for a separate working environment away from the hustle and bustle of the main house. Garden rooms have been filling this niche for some time, but now these truly habitable spaces are becoming a popular choice for home owners who want to extend their living space for a multitude of uses including hobby rooms, home studios or even relaxing areas to unwind in their spare time.Why are garden rooms so popular and what are the benefits of owning one? Here garden room specialists Oeco Garden Rooms talk us through some of the advantages of owning a garden room as well as advice on the materials used in their construction. Why choose a garden room? More space – Garden rooms create additional space without taking up any more room within the home or having to build a lengthy and expensive extension. Multiple uses – A garden room can be used for a multitude of things including as an office, hobby or games room, music studio or just a place to relax and unwind away from the distractions of the main house. No planning permission – In the majority of cases, garden rooms do not need planning permission to be built, but it is always important to check with your local authority before starting work. Minimal ground work needed – Specially designed concrete pads and heavy duty steel feet mean that a garden room can be installed just about anywhere in the garden with a minimal amount of ground work, saving money and time during the project. Bespoke customisation – A garden room can be customised to your specific needs and come complete with a comprehensive electrics package and lighting as standard. Some of the customised options include installing sound proofing, adding additional internal walls and doors, or fitting a toilet, sink or shower into the room. You can even choose where external windows and doors are located. Cheaper than the alternatives – Garden rooms can be a lot cheaper than an extension or loft conversion, and because it is situated in the garden, the disruption to the main home is greatly reduced. Quick to build – Even with a range of optional extras, garden rooms can be built in a matter of days compared to loft extensions and conservatories which can take weeks to complete. Use all year round – Superior insulation means that the garden room can be used all year round, staying warm in the winter and cool during the summer months. On-site installation – Due to the modular nature on garden rooms they can be installed just about anywhere without the need for specialised machinery. Garden rooms can also be installed in areas with limited access as all of the building components will fit through a standard door frame. Materials used PVCu windows and doors – Manufactured to the highest levels of security, these windows and doors will keep your belongings safe and secure when not in use. These windows and doors feature a great level of thermal insulation keeping the room warm in the winter and cool in the summer for all year round use. Western Red Cedar external timber cladding – Western Red Cedar is the perfect choice for finishing the outside of the garden room. This cladding is obtained from sustainable sources and features a tongue and groove design which ensures water tightness. Western Red Cedar also has a natural resistance to rot and decay-causing fungi meaning that it does not need any additional chemical preservatives. Timber framed – Each garden room uses heavy duty structural graded timber frames to provide strength and durability to the structure. These timbers are pressure treated to protect against rot and insect attacks to ensure a long life. Thermal insulation panels – Interlocking metal roof panels with a thermal core and Kingspan rigid thermal insulation panels are used for the roof and walls of the garden room. This ensures that the room can be used all year round, is waterproof and is capable of providing a truly habitable space for years to come.Electrics & Lighting – Each garden room comes complete with a comprehensive electrics package which includes a consumer unit, double electrical sockets, lighting and light switches. These electrical components can be placed anywhere in the room to suit your individual needs. Garden rooms are a great choice for those who want to add more living space to their property without the hassle of having to get planning permission and the expense and disruption of building an extension or loft conversion.END Link: http://www.oecogardenrooms.co.uk/ Oeco Garden Rooms is a family run business and have been manufacturing and installing timber framed structures for over 10 years. The company was initially founded to satisfy the growing number of people who work from home and the essential need for more space and a separate working environment away from the main house. However over the years our garden rooms, offices and studios have been purchased by customers from all backgrounds to extend their living space for a multitude of uses. Source link
Industry bodies address mental health challenge Published: 10 June, 2016 Industry bodies are joining forces with the Samaritans on a campaign to address the growing problem of mental health and workplace stress in the building engineering services industry. This joint initiative between the Building Engineering Services Association (the BESA), the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) and the CIBSE Patrons, along with the Samaritans, will begin with a jointly hosted seminar, to be held in central London. BESA chief executive Paul McLaughlin, who will chair the event, said that 80% of engineering services firms believe that workplace mental health will have a serious impact on their businesses over the next five to ten years. This worrying statistic emerged from an occupational health survey carried out by the BESA and the ECA, which also revealed that 31% of companies found on-site mental health issues ‘hard to manage’. “Mental health is the forgotten health and safety issue,” said Mr McLaughlin. “As an industry, we have made impressive progress on workplace safety in the past 20 years, but on health – and mental health in particular – we still have a long way to go.” Samaritans regional partnerships officer Will Skinner, who will lead an interactive session at the seminar, pointed out that the vast majority of calls received by the charity are from people who are not suicidal, but just desperately need to talk to someone about how they feel and why they are struggling to cope. He added that everyone could play a part in helping work colleagues to deal with depression and suicidal feelings. Callers to the Samaritans range from individual tradespeople to senior managers feeling the isolation of leadership. Many small and medium-sized firms are also struggling to cope with stress created by tight deadlines and cash flow issues. CIBSE Patrons chairman David Fitzpatrick pointed out that the impact of stress was apparent throughout the supply chain. “For an industry that already has serious recruitment issues, tackling mental health has to be a priority,” he said. “In order to make construction-related professions more attractive to a wider section of the population – particularly women, ethnic minorities and school leavers – we need to make sure we cover all aspects of worker wellbeing.” ECA director of business Paul Reeve added: “With workplace mental health now an established issue, the sector needs to work together to help contractors manage these issues. “Unlike ensuring protection against physical health hazards, employees who face mental health challenges may be the least able to decide or follow the right course of preventative action, presenting additional challenges to firms.” The mental health seminar will take place at St Matthew’s Conference Centre in London on Thursday 21 July, from 5pm. Attendance is free to members of the BESA, the ECA and the CIBSE Patrons, who may bring a guest. Bookings can be made via a link at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/workplace-mental-health-a-cibse-patrons-besa-seminar-tickets-25716572962. Source link
The client will instead focus on its Birmingham and London developments, which include the 1.8m sq ft office-led Paradise redevelopment and the high-profile 27 ha King’s Cross transformation. Argent has been heavily involved in Manchester’s development boom in recent years, delivering schemes including the 280,000 sq ft One St Peter’s Square office building and the £1bn Airport City Manchester (pictured). But in February, Argent exited its role as development manager on the airport job, while last month it pulled out of the Mayfield Quarter development partner race, on which it was bidding in partnership with US property firm Related. Argent Related was one of three shortlisted bidders for the mixed-used Mayfield Quarter development but was replaced by regeneration specialist U+I after it exited the process. The revised shortlist includes an Carillion, Ask and Patrizia consortium, Urban & Civic, and U+I. Commenting at the time on the decision to exit the Mayfield Quarter race, Argent managing partner David Partridge said: “Given Argent’s longstanding and successful relationship with Manchester, this is not one which has been made lightly. “While we believe that the scheme is an exciting proposition for the city, Argent Related’s immediate focus is on our pipeline projects and other future projects where we are concentrating our resources.” Last February, Argent Related was chosen as preferred development partner for the 7,500-home Brent Cross Cricklewood South scheme for Barnet Council, as revealed by Construction News. Argent declined to comment on the closure of its Manchester office. Source link
Winter power prices have spiked upwards after EDF cut its projection for nuclear output due to safety tests at a number of its reactors in France. The price of baseload contracts for the first quarter of 2017 rose by 7.5 per cent between Tuesday and Wednesday. On the French market there was a 17 per cent increase. “This is the strongest shift in European power market pricing since 2011, and shows how much concern there is over supply in key European markets ahead of this winter,” said Zoe Double, the head of power at price reporting firm ICIS. “Price spikes and large day-on-day movements in contract values are usually seen on contracts delivered over shorter timescales, in the expectation that these supply shortages will be resolved. For the market to revalue power prices delivered over three months or longer is very unusual.” On 23 June the French nuclear regulator ASN ordered EDF to undertake safety tests on a number of its reactors in France to make sure they don’t suffer from a similar manufacturing anomaly to one uncovered at the Flamanville 3 reactor being built in Normandy. ASN said as many as 18 of EDF’s reactors could be affected. Last week, EDF announced that planned outages for refuelling had been extended because of the tests, in particular at its Tricastin 1 and 3 reactors. It said its target for nuclear output in 2016 had been cut from 395–400 TWh to 380–390 TWh and that it expected nuclear output in 2017 to be in the in the range of 390–400 TWh. Power prices shot up on Wedesday, seemingly after details of the safety checks and the resulting added maintenance were published in a French magazine. In France the price of baseload contracts for the first quarter of 2017 averaged €55.90, up from €47.90 on Tuesday. ICIS said it was the biggest day-on-day change for a three-month contract it has witnessed in 15 years monitoring the French power market. UK prices are often affected by developments on the French market due the 2GW interconnector connecting the two countries. The baseload price for the first quarter of 2017 rose from £47.65 to £51.23 between Tuesday and Wednesday, and the price of six-month contracts for the 2016/17 winter season jumped by 7.7 per cent. The last time there was such a big change in the price of three or six-month contracts was in 2008. There was a knock-on effect on the gas market as Britain’s National Balancing Point gas price rose by 5 per cent in anticipation of increased demand for fuel. On Thursday the baseload power price for the first quarter of 2017 fell to €53.85 in France but rose even further to £52.75 in Britain. Source link
Vinci has been chosen for a £73m student accommodation job at Coventry University. Source link
Worker loses life after fall from roof Published: 05 May, 2016 A Birmingham maintenance company has been fined after a worker died as a result of falling from the roof of a five-storey building. Birmingham Crown Court heard how H20 Plumbing Services were contracted to carry out repairs to two motor rooms situated on the roof of a building on Hagley Road, Birmingham. Two workers set up a station immediately outside of a protected area in which to mix some mortar due to lack of space. The mixing station consisted of a tarpaulin sheet placed on top of the roof with a plasterer’s bath placed on top. The corners of the tarpaulin sheet were weighted down with bags of rubble. At the end of the working day, the employees were cleaning up and as they moved the mixing bath, the sheet of tarpaulin blew open due to the wind and landed over the edge of the building. As one of the workers attempted to retrieve the sheet he stepped off the side of the building, falling 14 metres, suffering fatal injuries. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident, which occurred on 10 October 2014, found that H20 Plumbing Services failed to ensure the safety of its employees during the external repair work. After the incident, HSE Inspector Amy Kalay said: “This incident was obviously foreseeable. The employees of H20 working at the site were effectively left to their own devices with equipment and a system that was not wholly suited for the task at hand. “A suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk, suitable planning, implementation of suitable control measures and adequate and effective site supervision would have prevented this incident from occurring.” H20 Plumbing Services of Birmingham pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000. Source link
ECA links up with socially responsible construction body to promote best practice Source link
The future of energy is hard to determine, even for experts in the industry. At the 2017 Future Energy Scenarios event, the efficiency and future use of shale gas and biomethane was brought into the discussion. Here to analyse how the UK might benefit from both these forms of energy in the years to come is Flogas — a leading supplier of LPG storage tanks… The future of shale gas Shale and the fracking process are constantly in the news, with the idea of fracking production sites in the UK being a highly contentious issue. On one side, the UK government has argued that shale gas stands to deliver the nation with increased energy security, growth and jobs. However, there is a counter argument that the method for extracting shale gas — which involves water being injected into ‘shale’ rock formations at a high pressure to extract gas — runs the risk of having a ruinous impact on the environment. The process is also very expensive. Some criticisers of fracking have also made the argument that the process extends the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels. What’s more, others have said that it heightens the risk of water being polluted and has links to the number of earthquakes that take place. Steve Mason, of cross-party pressure group Frack Free United, commented: “This Tory government is backing fracking and forging on with a ludicrous dirty energy policy. It is time for them to wake up and listen to their own reports, the voice of the public in areas under threat and halt all fracking activity now.” However, few can argue with the success of fracking in the US, where it wasn’t too long ago that the country was importing large amounts of oil and gas. That changed when the US discovered the effectiveness of extracting shale gas, with the nation is now self-sufficient and exporting gas. Today, the UK finds itself in a similar situation to its allies across the pond, as it imports over 50 per cent of the gas it needs from overseas. However, a report by the British Geology Society published in 2012 suggested that there is a resource estimate of around 1,327 trillion cubic feet of gas found throughout the UK. Ineos’ CEO, Jim Ratcliffe (whose company has licences to frack in the UK in an area measuring one million acres) also said to The Guardian: “The future for manufacturing in the UK will look quite gloomy if we don’t exploit shale. I can’t see otherwise what is going to arrest the decline in British manufacturing.” The future of biomethane gas The bonus of biomethane for most is that it is a completely green energy source. This is because the gas occurs naturally from the anaerobic digestion of organic matter, which can be sourced from manure, organic waste, sewage and both dead animal and plant matter. Biomethane is also a sustainable method of sourcing gas that means those in the industry will not need to rely on extracting natural gas from the ground, as the two are the same type of gas. Already in the UK, we can read about major success regarding biomethane. For instance, Severn Trent Water was successful in opening a facility at its Minworth Sewage Treatment Works in 2014, whereby biogas from the anaerobic digestion process is converted so that it can be used within the domestic gas supply. The facility was the largest gas-to-grid plant found in the UK at the time of its opening, with 1,200 cubic metres of biogas able to be converted into 750 cubic metres of biomethane each hour. This biomethane can then be injected into the National Gas Grid. However, some people are still unclear as to how biomethane works and its general procedure as a sustainable energy source. Explaining the setup of the Minworth Sewage Treatment Works gas-to-grid plant, Severn Trent Water’s renewable energy development manager said: “As part of the sewage treatment process, sewage sludge is produced. At Minworth we feed this to our 16 anaerobic digesters, or ‘concrete cows’, which work like giant cow’s stomachs to digest the waste material to produce energy in the form of gas. “Currently, we use 40 per cent of this energy to make electricity, but more can be done – that’s where this new process comes in. With treatment, gas from sewage is made clean enough and at the right consistency to be injected into the gas supply network to power homes in the area. It’s local gas produced from local people.” Of course, like shale gas and fracking, biomethane has also hit the headlines. A year after the launch of the Minworth Sewage Treatment Works gas-to-grid facility, popular chain, Sainsbury’s, made its Cannock superstore the first to be powered entirely by the food waste created by the retailer. Prior to 2015, Sainsbury’s had the following principles: Any other unsold food was turned into animal feed. Any unsold food which was still suitable for human consumption would be given to charities. Any surplus unsold food was delivered to Biffa’s advanced anaerobic digestion facility, located in Cannock. When food is delivered to Biffa’s facility, it is broken down to create biomethane gas. This gas is then used to generate electricity. Soon, both Biffa and Sainsbury’s thought they could make use of the Cannock superstore’s close proximity to the advanced anaerobic digestion facility. As a result, the two companies created and installed a 1.5km cable between the pair of buildings so that the plant can provide a direct supply of renewable electricity to the superstore. Regarding prices, the investment was well worth the cost it took to create the set-up. £280,000 of investment was put towards the project — which covered the setup of power cables, switch gears and the covering of all legal fees — and Sainsbury’s estimated that it had the potential to save in the region of £140,000 in just one year due to relying less on the National Grid for day-to-day power supplies. Could this spell
OCS has been awarded a five-year multi-service contract with The Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The contract is part of the government department’s integrator service delivery model, and will service the MoJ, Crown Prosecution Service, Department for Education, Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government and the Department for International Trade. Under the contract, which has an estimated value of £17.5 million a year, OCS will provide security, catering and cleaning, as well as concierge, and mail room and reprographics services. The contract, which has an optional two-year extension, covers service delivery across four regions including London and the South East, the South West, Wales and the Midlands, and the Westminster Campus. The contract will cover more than 200 buildings including the MoJ headquarters and QE11 Conference Centre in Westminster. OCS UK, Ireland and Middle East chief executive Bob Taylor, said: “We pride ourselves on the quality of our public sector offering.”
GFW, the Lancashire-based wholesale furniture supplier, has received a £10 million investment, provided by HSBC, to help with its growth plans. The funding package enabled the company to acquire its trading premises in Eccleshill and secure the site as its permanent home. “We’re delighted to receive financial support from HSBC. We operate in a crowded marketplace and our customers demand an ever increasing range of furniture products,” said Jonathan Ponsonby, managing director at GFW. “By owning our premises we now have the platform from which to deliver a greater range and improved customer experience. We’re now expecting our turnover to increase within the next year.” Now, GFW plans to refurbish the premises and expand its warehouse facilities. It is also looking into increasing its product range by 20% by importing from China and other East Asian markets. The forecast after the investment is that the revenues will rise by 15% over the next 12 months, which will lead to extra staff needed as well. “We strive to help SMEs grow across the North West and we are proud to support GFW,” said Richard Beaumont, HSBC’s relationship director for Greater Manchester. “The company is a great example of the type of businesses we support – ambitious and focussed on growth. We look forward to seeing the business flourish in the future.”