An analysis of the insurance claims of big contractors reveals that insurance claims within the construction industry continue to rise. Insurance broker JLT surveyed 25 of the UK’s largest building and civil engineering contractors and analysed their insurance claims over a five year period between 2009 and 2014. This was
The employee-owned packaging company has announced plans to extend its network of regional distribution centres to service the North East of the UK, an expansion on their existing presence in the Midlands, North, Thames Valley, South Wales, South Coast and South East. The company’s existing regional distribution infrastructure and in-house
An acoustic system from Sto has been specified for a £7.5 million museum redevelopment project in London. The StoSilent Distance system has been installed in the Garden Museum, which is Britain’s only museum covering the art, history and design of gardens, located at the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth. “We specified
Unispace has made a senior hire to its project Delivery team, appointing Jason Cissell as Principal, Delivery for projects spanning the United Kingdom, based in its London studio. With more than 15 years’ experience across the construction sector, Jason brings real depth of knowledge to Unispace. In his new role,
A report by Open University showed that the UK skills gap is a major and well-publicised crisis that costs the country more than £2 billion a year. Further findings have stated 97% of organisations working in STEM and 96% of financial organisations have had difficulty hiring skilled employees over the
Northern Ireland architecture practice Hamilton Architects have landed the contract for the delivery of a £42m project which will help transform the City Campus for Canterbury Christ Church University. Hamilton will carry out the design and enabling works for an 18,000 sqm state of the art Science, Engineering, Technology and
Edenstone Homes’ first ‘green’ house is now on sale in Aberthin, with a promise that the Magor-based home builder will offer carbon zero homes across its developments by 2021. Its very first eco-friendly house has been built at its Llanfair Meadow development in Aberthin. The four-bedroom ‘Tewkesbury’ home is one
An analysis of the insurance claims of big contractors reveals that insurance claims within the construction industry continue to rise. Insurance broker JLT surveyed 25 of the UK’s largest building and civil engineering contractors and analysed their insurance claims over a five year period between 2009 and 2014. This was then compared to similar research carried out in 2014 which looked at claims made between 2007 and 2012. It found that, despite changes introduced to improve the way civil claims are handled, insurance claims within the construction industry had risen sharply. Against a backdrop of civil litigation reforms introduced in 2013 following the Review of Civil Litigation Costs, otherwise known as the Jackson Report, JLT found that claims made against construction firms between 2009 and 2014 increased by 19% compared to research carried out two years earlier. By contrast, the average cost of claims fell 3% during the same period – from £24,306 in 2014 to £23,700 in 2016 – possibly an early indication that the reforms are succeeding in tackling claims inflation. JLT’s Employers’ Liability Claims Benchmarking report also says that the average time it took to settle a claim rose 11% from 916 days to 1007 days, which it suggests could be a consequence of the changes to claimant solicitors’ business models as a result of the Jackson Report, which has subsequently increased caseload numbers. Dave Cahill, from JLT’s construction team, said: “Given the reforms introduced in the Jackson Report, the rise in claims frequency is surprising. It is unclear whether these legal changes are working effectively for major UK contractors, and it’s possible we may not see this reflected in the data for another couple of years. Contractors hoping for an immediate improvement in the claims landscape are clearly going to be disappointed. “Whilst this period of uncertainty continues, our advice to building contractors is to use claims defensibility techniques to identify any weakness in the claims process and deliver improvements to procedures. This will ensure that claims leakage is kept to a minimum and that the total cost of risk is minimised.” This article was published on 11 Oct 2016 (last updated on 11 Oct 2016). Source link
The employee-owned packaging company has announced plans to extend its network of regional distribution centres to service the North East of the UK, an expansion on their existing presence in the Midlands, North, Thames Valley, South Wales, South Coast and South East. The company’s existing regional distribution infrastructure and in-house specialist teams will work alongside the local team of experts in the North East to offer practical and cost-saving solutions to local businesses for their packaging. The expertise they offer includes corrugated re-design, a specialist Automotive & Aerospace design team, in-the-box solutions, load stability/stretch film solutions and compliance with the Packaging Regulations, providing customers with a packaging company that can offer them a comprehensive service & solutions capability. This comes after a successful year for the employee-owned packaging group, in which they released two industry white papers: focused on load retention and most recently on plastic packaging and a sustainable future ‘There is no planet B’. The two pieces really demonstrate the expertise that comes from within this highly regarded packaging company. 2018 also saw the launch of Kite’s mobile packaging test facility, the first of its kind in this industry. The truck enables Kite to develop solutions on-site at the customer. It is a fully-equipped mobile testing and demonstration facility in which Kite’s packaging technologists can develop bespoke packaging solutions, carry out stretch film audits for load stability and optimise pack design through QVE/VAVE. Kite’s new North East RDC based in Washington will be staffed by a highly experienced team from the industry with plans to expand the team further in the near future. For more information on Kite Packaging and its job vacancies, visit kitepackaging.co.uk.
An acoustic system from Sto has been specified for a £7.5 million museum redevelopment project in London. The StoSilent Distance system has been installed in the Garden Museum, which is Britain’s only museum covering the art, history and design of gardens, located at the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth. “We specified the StoSilent Distance system for a number of reasons,” explained Alun Jones of Dow Jones Architects. “The building work involved the creation of a cluster of copper-clad pavilions around a cloistered garden area. These house two new educational spaces and a cafeteria, and they are connected by a number of covered walkways. These spaces feature concrete floors and floor-to-ceiling glazing, so in order to achieve an acoustic environment with a reverberation time of less than 0.8 seconds we used a Sto seamless acoustic ceiling. Having used the Sto solution on a previous project we were confident that it would be perfect for the museum, and Sto worked closely with us to create a balanced acoustic system which would satisfy all the different requirements.” The StoSilent Distance system provides a modern, clean, monolithic alternative to the standard options. It is ideal for situations where, as with the Garden Museum, these surfaces must be suspended to accommodate services, and where the ceilings were being used as negative plenums for air extraction and movement. The StoSilent Distance system utilises its own Sto SC400 metal framework, and StoSilent Distance 110 boards. The boards are manufactured from 96% recycled glass and can be integrated with lighting, grills and other M&E considerations. StoSilent boards are permeable, and have a honeycomb-like structure which allows noise and sound to dissipate through a void space and so balance the acoustic environment. StoSilent Distance is a lightweight system, and unlike exposed grid and soft tile alternatives, the boards will not sag or delaminate. It can be used to create many different design features, including seamless, inclined planes or curves, or sharp and consistent joints. The benefit to the architects and end user is that the system can also be repaired and refurbished throughout the lifetime of the building without greatly negating the value of the acoustics, wherever the system has been installed.
Unispace has made a senior hire to its project Delivery team, appointing Jason Cissell as Principal, Delivery for projects spanning the United Kingdom, based in its London studio. With more than 15 years’ experience across the construction sector, Jason brings real depth of knowledge to Unispace. In his new role, he will be leading the project management team in the UK from Unispace’s studio in Southwark, working across projects such as Amazon, Cummins, Herbert Smith Freehills, and Sisk Healthcare. Barry Anderson, Regional Principal, Delivery, EMEA at Unispace, said: “It has been our strategy to hire leaders to the business, further enhancing Unispace’s regional footprint but also ensuring that our clients have the best advice from senior industry figures. Jason brings an excellent track record and significant experience with industry-leading clients to the Unispace project delivery team. We are very pleased to have him on board. “We are continuously working to ensure that we are elevating our delivery product and Jason will help us achieve that goal. He is passionate about quality, HSE, best practice site experience and alignment with brand.” Jason brings extensive industry experience having worked across projects such as the £45m Fujitsu’s Data Centre and Offices in Stevenage, an Aviation Framework and the London Luton Airport development. “Unispace’s unique model really sets it apart in the industry and created a very compelling reason to join the team. Unispace has developed in response to this new market and the brand’s growth in a short period of time is testament to its resonance with clients”, explained Jason Cissell, Principal, Delivery at Unispace. “This new role in the London studio is a chance to combine my experience across multiple sectors for Unispace’s client base and work with its world class local, European and Global teams
A report by Open University showed that the UK skills gap is a major and well-publicised crisis that costs the country more than £2 billion a year. Further findings have stated 97% of organisations working in STEM and 96% of financial organisations have had difficulty hiring skilled employees over the last 12 months. The research team at Bidwells has decided to find out more and compared industry vacancies against undergraduate enrolments in 2017 to uncover which areas have the most significant shortages. They found that a combination of valuable economic skills and high-level technical education is critical to meet the UK’s skills needs, yet despite growing student enrolment in fields like computer science and tech, new jobs in these high-growth sectors still outweigh the number of skilled workers to fill them. The analysis of the university enrolments demonstrates the mismatch between market demand for skills and the future supply of talent is particularly acute in knowledge-based industries. This suggests current vacancies in professional and scientific tech positions are three times higher than the total number of university enrolments in these subjects. Science and tech jobs are predicted to grow twice as fast as other occupations, with 142,000 new jobs in science, research, engineering and tech anticipated by 2023. Looking further ahead, The London Datastore projects the information and communication sector will be the second highest growing sector over the coming decade in the UK, with an estimated 45% increase in employment growth by 2050. According to the Industrial Strategy, these sectors are the most significant to the UK’s economic future, but the shortages of suitably qualified, high-skilled labour will present a brake on the UK economy unless addressed. Will Heighman, Lead Partner for Science and Technology at Bidwells, suggested the solution would be investing in local and foreign talent. “The UK urgently needs to put in place measures to both deliver homegrown talent for the future as well as ease the process for attracting the best in class globally,” he concluded.
Northern Ireland architecture practice Hamilton Architects have landed the contract for the delivery of a £42m project which will help transform the City Campus for Canterbury Christ Church University. Hamilton will carry out the design and enabling works for an 18,000 sqm state of the art Science, Engineering, Technology and Health teaching facility, one of three new buildings planned for the old Prison Quarter site. Building work on the STEM facility, currently known as Building 2, is currently onsite with a delivery date of 2020, but the overall redevelopment of the university estate will take up to 15 years to complete at a cost of over £150m. “Hamilton Architects are delighted to have won the contract to deliver this prestigious project against stiff national competition,” said Mark Haslett, Partner and Project Lead. “It is one of 18 education projects, valued at over £150m, which are currently on our books. “We are very happy with how the project is progressing following the significant development of a design we inherited which has appreciably increased the amount of usable teaching space. “With all approvals now in place our team is on site one to two days a week and we have forged a partnership with architecture practice Hazle McCormack Young to act as our representatives in Canterbury.” As well as Belfast and Derry, Hamilton also have offices in London, where the practice is on five design frameworks – for the Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Housing, North River Alliance, Orbit Housing and the Central and North West London NHS Trust. “We are very pleased at how well the expansion of the practice into London and the south-east is going,” Mark added. “We are nearing completion of a social housing project for Ealing Council and are currently carrying out a refurbishment of six police stations for the Metropolitan police.” While education projects of all sizes are a speciality of the practice, Hamilton also handle a broad portfolio in projects in the health, sports, commercial, social housing and conservation sectors, including work for DAERA’s new headquarters in Ballykelly. Other live education projects include the new £29m South West College, on the site of the former Erne Hospital in Enniskillen, a £7m redevelopment for Methodist College Belfast, a £25m new school for Holy Trinity College, Cookstown, an Irish language primary school in Omagh and a 600 pupil secondary school in Crossmaglen.
Edenstone Homes’ first ‘green’ house is now on sale in Aberthin, with a promise that the Magor-based home builder will offer carbon zero homes across its developments by 2021. Its very first eco-friendly house has been built at its Llanfair Meadow development in Aberthin. The four-bedroom ‘Tewkesbury’ home is one of the first new build zero carbon homes to be released for sale in Wales, designed to produce more energy than it will require over the year. “When people think of a zero carbon home they tend to assume that it will have a much more contemporary design, but that doesn’t have to be the case. The zero carbon home we have built at Llanfair Meadow looks just like the other homes, but has the ‘hidden’ benefit of being kinder to the environment. It has a dual benefit in that while saving energy, it should also save on running costs,” said Martin Taylor, Managing Director of Edenstone Homes. “We are committed to sustainability and take our environmental responsibilities very seriously. Our vision is that by 2021 we will have carbon zero homes on every development we create,” he added. The zero carbon home includes 27 PV panels capable of producing 8.64kW of energy, with an innovative home battery system to store the electricity generated. Hot water and heating will be provided by an air source heat pump and there is even an electric car charger built in to the garage. Edenstone has calculated that someone buying the zero carbon home would pay £1,399 less on running costs compared with if they bought the same property built to current regulations. Priced at £535,000, the carbon zero Tewkesbury is one of the final few homes to be released at Llanfair Meadow. Featuring a lounge to the front, with combined kitchen, dining and family room spanning the width of the property, the Tewkesbury also provides a practical utility and convenient cloakroom. With the master and second bedroom each having an en-suite, just two bedrooms will be served by the main bathroom. The master also benefits from a dressing room. Perfectly positioned on the edge of Aberthin, the homes at Llanfair Meadow are surrounded by a beautiful scenery, enabling homeowners to embrace modern village living at its very best.
