January 17, 2019

Regency Court Receives Planning Consent

Planning consent for the design of a new high quality residential scheme in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets has been secured by FBM Architects. The new development for Gateway Housing Association will provide 32 homes across the site located near Medway Conservation Area in Bow. FBM Architects’ carefully thought

Read More »

31% British Homeowners Have No Rainy Day Fund

A study undertaken by the team at www.MyJobQuote.co.uk found that nearly one third of British homeowners are not prepared for household emergencies as they don’t have a ‘rainy day fund’. 2,561 people over the age of 18 disclosed that they owned their own home, and have lived in it for at least

Read More »

New Homes to Arrive in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire will see the construction of two residential schemes that will bring around 8,500 homes, as well as schools, leisure and commercial space. After securing a £70 million loan from Homes England under its £4.5 billion Home Building Fund, the schemes will move forward. “I am delighted to hear shovels

Read More »
Latest Issue
Issue 322 : Nov 2024

January 17, 2019

Stress, anxiety and work pressure are the leading causes of absences in workplaces

As per statistics shown in Britain, anxiety, work-related stress and depression account for most of the absences in workplaces. In fact, overall 18 million working days were lost in the year 2017-2018 due to this condition and this shows a hike from 13 million in the year 2016. This is almost equivalent to 58.3% of the 27 million work days that were lost to poor health, both physical and mental as per figures recorded by HSE or Health and Safety Executive. This increase has been driven by a few new long-standing cases where workers reported excessive job pressure, stress and anxiety of meeting deadlines to be the few reasons behind such increased absences. There was another study done, which included thousands of employee’s general physician’s sick notes. It was seen that 40% of all of who were surveyed wrote about mild to moderate mental health illnesses like stress, anxiety and depression. Workers in social work and education are at the highest risky positions In the US, it’s just as bad, if not worse. There have been a number of studies conducted on people who work in social work and education, and their cases of stress, anxiety and depression in the work place. Employees who are working in the education industry are especially susceptible and pose the highest risk, as there are around thousands of long-standing cases of workers who suffer from one of these mental illnesses. This can be seen in the data lone. It was reported that 41% of teachers left the profession within the first 5 years of their career. While it’s true that the job is extremely demanding, it’s no secret that depression, stress and anxiety play a role in the mass exodus here. Though they can search for a therapist here who can help them deal with their stress, anxiety and depression issues, unfortunately there are very few educators who have done this. Back to Britain Someone from HSE also commented after he saw these figures. He said that stress, anxiety and depression are the 3 main causes of so many absentees from offices, which is proof of the fact that the employees need to take immediate action. We need to take a more proactive approach in initiating a conversation with educators and educational employees on a whole regarding their mental health issues and stress. We need to speak about the issues which lead to so much pressure among these employees and how we can develop solutions to prevent them from getting mentally ill. At the very least, we need to at least start with identifying those who need help. The problem is that the education system isn’t currently doing anything right now to help reverse this course. So, if you fall within this categorization of educators who’s having issues keeping their mental health in check, you should firstly speak with a counselor or a therapist who can give you the best possible advice regarding the ways in which you can resolve such issues and get back to work. There are a number of things you can try to reduce your stress levels, ranging from cbd gummies to therapy. The problem is now known. It’s only a matter of time until the education system puts in a plan of action to keep educators at their place of work through the elimination of their mental health issues.

Read More »

Regency Court Receives Planning Consent

Planning consent for the design of a new high quality residential scheme in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets has been secured by FBM Architects. The new development for Gateway Housing Association will provide 32 homes across the site located near Medway Conservation Area in Bow. FBM Architects’ carefully thought out design complements the urban and historic setting, whilst providing homes for contemporary living. The new scheme, its height defined by the strong parapet line, offers a continuous three-storey frontage along Norman Grove and Saxon Road, relating to the character of the Medway Conservation Area and the locally listed Saxon Lea Court. A generous space between the two buildings on the eastern part of the development ensures a soft transition in height from three to four storeys, and creating the entrance to the new apartments. The building line is set back from the street, re-establishing a typical scale for the Victorian streets in the immediate neighbourhood, while successfully solving the issue of overlooking between the existing and proposed houses on Norman Grove. Ordered fenestration patterns with tall, generous window proportions further underpin the scheme’s connection with Victorian architectural legacy. The inclusion of arched entrances to individual dwellings introduces an intimate, human-scale character that echoes this distinctive feature of the surrounding streets which contain arched openings to windows and front doors. Full height windows and doors further reinforce the connection between the external and internal spaces. A buff/brown coloured brickwork provides a contextual, robust appearance that unifies the scheme. The ground floor apartments benefit from private terraces facing onto the central courtyard. The upper floor apartments have private amenity space in the form of deep balconies that act as an extension of the adjacent rooms. The central courtyard provides landscaped open space and includes a playground while a wide green strip of front gardens on Norman Grove and Saxon Road ties Regency Court to its neighbouring context. The scheme is fully car-free, given the excellent proximity to local transport links and supportive of local policy that encourages sustainable modes of transport. Dedicated cycle storage is provided within the courtyard that is accessible to all residents.

Read More »

31% British Homeowners Have No Rainy Day Fund

A study undertaken by the team at www.MyJobQuote.co.uk found that nearly one third of British homeowners are not prepared for household emergencies as they don’t have a ‘rainy day fund’. 2,561 people over the age of 18 disclosed that they owned their own home, and have lived in it for at least two years. Initially, all respondents were asked if they currently had a ‘rainy day fund’ – i.e. money set aside in case of household emergencies, such as a boiler breakdown. 69% revealed that they did indeed have an emergency fund, whilst 31% said they did not. Respondents with emergency savings were then asked where they kept their savings, to which just over a quarter (27%) revealed it was cash somewhere safe, while 73% choose to keep theirs in a savings account or bank. Those with rainy day funds were asked how much they had saved up for emergencies, with the average amount found to be £1,800. Broken down further: 18% had saved between £0-£500, 15% had £500-£1,000, 26% had £1,000-£1,500, 24% had £1,500-£2,000, and 17% had over £2,000. With the average cost of replacing a boiler at £1,500, 59% of those with an emergency fund would not have enough set aside to cover the cost. Added to the 31% without any savings, this means that 72% of all respondents would not have funds the saved to replace a boiler should they encounter any issues with theirs. Following on from this, all respondents that do not have an emergency fund were then asked the reason why they did not have one, and the most common answers were found to be ‘I/we don’t have enough money to put aside’ (30%), ‘I’m/we’re not worried about having an emergency fund’ (23%), and ‘I/we have enough income coming in to cover any last-minute emergencies’ (17%). Of the participants currently without a rainy day fund, 41% said that they had previously had one, but had needed to dip into it and were yet to replace the amount. When asked what they would do in case of an emergency, 40% said they had no contingency plans, 21% said they would pay out of their current account, and 14% said they would consider a short term loan.

Read More »

New Homes to Arrive in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire will see the construction of two residential schemes that will bring around 8,500 homes, as well as schools, leisure and commercial space. After securing a £70 million loan from Homes England under its £4.5 billion Home Building Fund, the schemes will move forward. “I am delighted to hear shovels are already in the ground as builders set about delivering 8,500 much-needed homes so more people can realise their home-owning dream. We are making the housing market work, and Homes England’s £70 million loan will unlock the development so we can invest in the properties our country needs,” said Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Housing. Moreover, the Kettering and Wellingborough developments will create around 3,000 jobs in the areas. Roads, utilities and other works will also be delivered to enable the delivery of homes at Kettering and at phase one of the site at Wellingborough. Speaking of Homes England’s role in delivering the sites, Sir Edward Lister, Chairman of Homes England commented: “We’re working with partners across the country to ensure land is available to build more new homes where they’re most needed. Providing infrastructure upfront is key to unlocking significant housing growth and Homes England’s investment in Kettering and Wellingborough will enable two major housing projects to be delivered after many years of delay.”

Read More »

£35m Castle Retirement Living completes its first project of 135 new homes on time and to budget

The £35m Castle View Windsor urban retirement development has been completed on time and to budget following a two year build and fulfilling a dream by entrepreneur and developer, Robin Hughes, who wanted to create a retirement home ‘good enough for Mum’, 85 year old Betty Hughes. One of the largest and most innovative urban retirement villages in the UK, the Castle Retirement Living development comprises 64 apartments including five rooftop penthouses, along with its neighbouring 72 bed care home, which is being operated by Care UK. From his original dream ten years ago, the founder and CEO of Castle Retirement Living, Robin Hughes spent years buying and assemble different pockets of land in Windsor to create the three-acre urban retirement development site – and originally just armed with a £10k retirement cheque to create his business, won multiple planning permissions, raised the £35m and ran the build with main contractors Castleoak and funding partner Octopus. Says Robin Hughes, Founder and CEO, Castle Retirement Living, who worked in the property and care sector for over 20 years before creating his own vision as an independent retirement developer: “For me, everything about the development from start to finish has been attention to detail in every aspect which has to be ‘good enough for Mum.  It had to be right and we couldn’t be late. “Having built four previous retirement villages as development director for Richmond Villages and Shelbourne, I was confident from the outset that with Castle View Windsor, we would finish the project on time to budget and schedule.  Many sector projects of this size have been late which is inexcusable. Working collaboratively with Castleoak, our team of 130 contractors on site each day and our excellent project manager, Sam Grimbaldeston, we did it. “Everyone working on the project knew how important quality and completing on schedule was to me, as well as its personal nature.  We hosted regular contractor lunches at key stages of the project, the best of which was fish and chips on the roof for the team before the Royal wedding. Good communication is crucial and along with our project update meetings I was on site daily so any issues could be quickly ironed out.  We also regularly thanked our construction team for all their hard work and celebrated key project milestones. My Mother is delighted to be in her new home.”

Read More »