Two incidents at the Haverhill site of Jan Cavelle Furniture Company have led to three companies being fined for health and safety failings. Ipswich Crown Court heard how in the first instance an employee of the company sustained serious injuries when operating a biscuit cutter and the rotating blade made contact with his hand, cutting his thumb to the bone. The second incident occurred when an employee sustained injury to his hand whilst using the cutter of an overhead router and received serious lacerations and crush injuries to his right index finger. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incidents which occurred on 28 February 2014 and 2 June 2014 found that both incidents occurred due to the operators adopting unsafe working practices. This was due to a lack of training, inadequate supervision and insufficient and unsuitable risk assessments. In 2013, Worksafe Training & Consultancy Ltd had been commissioned by Jan Cavelle Furniture Company Ltd to review all risk assessments and work procedures and to provide updated risk assessments and procedures where required. This consultancy subsequently sub-contracted this work to Tony Baker of Leading Health & Safety Consultants Ltd who provided risk assessments and recommendations relevant to both the biscuit cutter and the overhead router. The risk assessments and procedures provided by Mr Baker were neither suitable nor sufficient to control risks arising from the operation of these two machines. Jan Cavelle Furniture Company Limited, of Rookwood Way, Haverhill, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £18,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £4,000. Workplace Training and Consultancy Limited, St Andrews Street South, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, were found guilty at trial to breaching two counts of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £22,500 and was ordered to pay costs of £22,500. Leading Health and Safety Consultants Limited, of Chaplin Walk, Great Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to breaching two counts of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £5,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £5,000. For further information on equipment and machinery visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/planning-organising-lifting-operations.htm Notes to Editors: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/  and guidance at HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk Journalists should approach HSE press office with any queries on regional press releases. Source link

Savills addressed the fundamental question of whether the real estate markets are “in danger of repeating past mistakes”, as it opened its 28th annual financing property presentations today, 07 June 2016, in the City of London. The international real estate advisor presented a case for a finance market that may have peaked, but noted that the factors present in 2007 before the GFC are currently absent from today’s market. Referring to presentations from the last 20 years, past mistakes are largely not being repeated, Savills says, although there are some potential risks if an unexpected interest rate rise triggers an increase in the cost of borrowing. Regulatory reform has been a positive force, Savills says, leading to 180 new lenders from a range of backgrounds having entered the market since 2013, contributing to a increasingly diverse, balanced lending market. By the end of 2015, insurance companies and alternative lenders had grown their respective shares of the market to 16% and 9% respectively. Savills forecasts that these will increase to 18% and 13% by the end of 2016, while the German banks, North American banks and other international banks will retain a 13% share each. The market share of the UK clearing banks is forecast to decrease from 34% in 2015 to 30% by the end of the year, compared to 70% at their 2008 peak. This is due to the banks’ increased regulatory responsibilities, which has increased the cost of capital while slowing the decision making process, but fundamentally has had a positive effect on the market, Savills says. Indeed, proportionally UK banks are still the most active in the market, with RBS being the biggest lender of 2015 according to research by De Montfort University (DMU). William Newsom, senior director of valuations at Savills, comments: “Looking back at many years of presentations, it is extraordinary to recall that in 2007 64% of all the lenders DMU spoke to thought a 80% LTV was ‘no risk’; something that, happily, we can’t even conceive of today. Regulatory reform has had the desired effect, diversifying the market and allowing new entrants including the alternative financiers, who Savills believes are set to lend approximately £7.5 billion by the end of the year, which is some 50% higher than reported by DMU.  Overall such lenders are not financing speculative development and therefore are not bringing extra risk into the market. There are now property owners who have a strong preference to borrow from alternative lenders due to a perception that they are faster, skilled and offer greater certainty of delivery. Borrowers are prepared to pay a higher interest cost for these advantages.” With the cost of money at a record low, and the yield spread high, property continues to be very financeable. Gross lending volumes in 2015 reached £53.7 billion, similar to the level seen in 2004/5 and up 19% on 2014, but net lending after repayments has only just returned to positive territory. Furthermore, lending to property comprises only 8% of banks’ total lending – the same level as seen in 2002.  Savills observes that loan terms have softened over the past 12 months with interest rate margins on senior debt increasing by between 20 and 50 bps since Q4 2015. Meanwhile, loan to value ratios (LTVs) have also come down due to macro-economic conditions, the current stage of the cycle and lenders’ increased costs. Newsom continues: “LTVs have decreased since 2015, although if mezzanine finance is included, this is capable of pushing total ratios to above 80%. This is of potential concern, but with the cost of money at a record low it can be comfortably achieved in today’s market. The issue comes once the cost of money rises. Once it goes up it’s a whole new paradigm, but some businesses are being built around the premise that today’s low cost environment will continue indefinitely which, frankly, it won’t.”  With regards to the commercial property markets, Savills observes that while many have suggested that the EU referendum has impacted on activity, investment levels reached £13.8 billion in Q1 2016, well above the long term average of £9.5 billion. Further to Savills 2015 predictions, there has been continued investment in the UK’s regional commercial property markets, which are projected to account for almost 62% of total volumes in 2016, with a record high of £10.9 billion invested in alternatives. This reflects the high price of core assets, although opportunities remain in specific sub-sectors such as sheds and central London offices.  Looking ahead, Savills projects that total property returns on all commercial property will fall from 12.9% in 2015 to 4.1% in 2017, before climbing to 7.9% in 2020, with rental growth remaining steady. Mat Oakley, head of UK commercial research at Savills, says: “Some sectors of the investment market may be softening, implying that it may now have peaked. However, the conditions of 2016 are very different to those of 2007: we’re not overbuilding, nor are we pricing secondary assets as prime, and investors and lenders alike have a heightened awareness of the risks in the market. With continued strong leasing activity across all the main sectors, we’re going to see a gentle drift back to income rather than capital growth, which bodes well for the future of the market.” In terms of the residential markets, Savills notes that as a result of increased  regulation, LTVs remain below the peak seen in 2007, with volumes of 90%+ LTVs forming only 2% of gross mortgage lending in Q3 2015, compared to 14 % in Q3 2007. Average loan to income ratios (LTIs)  have risen, however, as buyers have stretched themselves to make purchases, particularly in London.  Lucian Cook, head of UK residential research, says: “LTVs remain low, although in London the creeping increase in LTIs is a concern, leaving the market vulnerable to an unexpected interest rate rise. Overall, mortgage regulation has served its purpose: the key factors that preceded the 2007 crash are not present today, although we now face a different

The potential gains from domestic demand side response (DSR) are “limited”, an energy expert told delegates today at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. Domestic consumers are unable to shift their demand in the same way as industrial energy users and the savings on offer are therefore relatively small. “Their ability to actually shift their demand and so on I think is not that great, because most of the times in a household when you need energy, you need energy,” said Policy Exchange head of energy and environment Richard Howard. “There are a few things that you could shift; you could set your dishwasher to run at a different time and things like that, but you can’t set your lights to run at a different time because actually you need them to see.” Even when domestic customers are offered time of use tariffs and do their best to play around with their energy usage “over the whole year they might save £50”. “That’s not a level of saving a lot of households would find attractive for that amount of effort,” added Howard. He said the “big opportunities” could instead be found in managing the demand of large industrial energy users. Open Energi head of policy Lucy Symons agreed: “We started out in fridges, so we started making fridges demand responsive. But we were making three pounds per fridge per year which is just not a business case.” Nevertheless, she said the economics had “gotten better” and that domestic demand management is still worth pursuing in the long run: “I think we can stagger this. We don’t have to take on this challenge immediately.” Last week the Science and Technology Committee called on the government to be clearer on the benefits its hopes to secure from the smart meter rollout. The government lists 11 different objectives for the project, including saving customers’ money on energy bills. Source link