Panattoni, the largest logistics real estate developer in the UK and Europe, has begun speculatively developing 1.3 million sq ft of logistics space, which will include the UK’s largest-ever speculative logistics building, in Avonmouth, Bristol. The £280 million development, Panattoni Park Avonmouth, comprises of two units a 406,000 sq ft
Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, Leo Quinn, has taken home the ‘Outstanding Industry Leadership’ award at London Build’s inaugural awards ceremony. The UK’s leading construction show, London Build – which welcomes over 35,000 attendees and more than 500 speakers each year – praised Leo for his significant contribution to the
Plans to redevelop the northeast part of the Grahame Park Estate in Colindale and deliver 505 new homes passed at a Housing and Growth committee meeting in Hendon Town Hall last night 16 November. Barnet Homes will work as the agent for the council and will be replacing the existing
An insulation specialist is backing a call for billions of promised government funds to be released ahead of the planned deadline to help ease the financial burden of soaring energy bills on tenants living in social housing. Actis, whose products are used in new-build and retrofit scenarios, agrees with the
Market analysis by Unlatch, the new homes sales progression and aftercare platform for developers and housebuilders, reveals that a -16% drop in construction workers is just one of many challenges currently facing Britain’s housebuilding industry; a list that includes the rising cost of materials and the notorious EWS1 form. A
Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive at Transport for the North responding to the announcement of the approval of the A57 Link Roads, said: “Transport for the North welcomes the Secretary of State’s support for this scheme, which will see work start on site next spring. Transport for the North has long-supported the
Caddick Construction has announced that it has reached the end of its work on the £8.2 million Tawd Valley Centre retail outlet in Skelmersdale, West Lancashire. Part of the wider regeneration plans for the town centre, the outlet plays an important role in the revival of the local community. “Caddick
McLaren Construction has been appointed by ExCeL London to deliver the expansion of its conference, event and exhibition facilities. The builder is taking over the job from Sir Robert McAlpine, who were awarded the first three Phases of the expansion contract. After being awarded the main build contract, McLaren will
A specialist agent lead management, automation, and phone answering platform has been awarded a prestigious award, despite it launching only 18 months ago. The revolutionary software system, designed specifically for the sales and lettings industry, is being used by hundreds of agents across the UK. Agent Response, the software, helps
Panattoni, the largest logistics real estate developer in the UK and Europe, has begun speculatively developing 1.3 million sq ft of logistics space, which will include the UK’s largest-ever speculative logistics building, in Avonmouth, Bristol. The £280 million development, Panattoni Park Avonmouth, comprises of two units a 406,000 sq ft and 882,000 sq ft. The larger of the two will be the UK’s largest-ever speculatively built warehouse. Both units are being built in one phase and are expected to be completed in September 2023. ISG has been appointed main contractor. The units will be built to a targeted BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ and an EPC rating of ‘A’ and benefit from extensive 50m yards, 17m + clear internal heights, generous car and lorry parking, and 8MVA of power. Panattoni Park Avonmouth is strategically positioned for local and national distribution, London and the wider south east markets, Avonmouth Docks, Royal Portbury Docks, Bristol Airport, Avonmouth Rail Freight Terminal and Bristol Parkway train station, given the quick access to both the M4 and M5 motorways. The development is located close to leading logistics occupiers such as Amazon, DHL, The Range, TESCO and Lidl. James Watson, Head of Development Southern England & London, Panattoni UK, said: “We closed the purchase of this site despite the current macro-economic challenges, but have conviction the logistics occupier market will continue to perform. Our continued commitment to the ‘big box’ market is shown with this being the largest speculative development in the UK. We are glad to be on-site with construction, providing much-needed space for such a supply constrained market. Practical Completion of Panattoni Park Avonmouth is September 2023.” Robert Dobrzycki, CEO & Co-owner Panattoni Europe and India, said: “Developing the largest-ever speculative logistics building in the UK is testament to our global strategy of scaling up our developments at the highest level of quality and reflects our continuing confidence in the logistics sector as well as our desire to provide much-needed space for our international client base. Quality and a proven investment model – not just price competitiveness – are becoming our distinguishing factors in the real estate market”. Agents for Panattoni Park Avonmouth are DTRE, Savills, JLL & Colliers. For more information please visit panattoni.co.uk/avonmouth Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, Leo Quinn, has taken home the ‘Outstanding Industry Leadership’ award at London Build’s inaugural awards ceremony. The UK’s leading construction show, London Build – which welcomes over 35,000 attendees and more than 500 speakers each year – praised Leo for his significant contribution to the construction and infrastructure industry. Since Leo took the helm, Balfour Beatty has seen a dramatic transformation with a robust balance sheet supported by a £17.7 billion order book. In addition, the company saw its highest ever employee engagement score this year, which now sits at 79%, and is testament to the Group’s evolved culture. As well as reshaping Balfour Beatty and positioning the company to capitalise on the growing infrastructure market, the award also recognises Leo’s leadership of the sector. Leo represented the industry on the Government’s Build Back Better Council which ran throughout the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on unlocking investment, boosting job creation and levelling up the whole of the UK. During the pandemic, Leo also led the Tier One industry group and was instrumental in navigating Balfour Beatty and its stakeholders through the pandemic, keeping sites open for business as employees and supply chain partners continued to execute contracts safely with secure employment, whilst also ensuring maintained liquidity for the company’s valued supply chain partners. In addition, Leo was commended for founding The 5% Club in 2013, a dynamic movement of employers committed to providing ‘earn and learn’ positions. The movement now boasts over 750 member companies representing more than 1.6 million employees, 70,000 apprentices, 16,000 graduates and 7,500 sponsored students. Today, Balfour Beatty has over 6% of its UK workforce comprising apprentices, graduates and trainees. In recognition of his contribution to business, Leo was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the College of Business and Social Science at Aston University in Birmingham in 2021. Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, said: “Having started my career as a graduate at Balfour Beatty over 40 years ago on the New Haw Viaduct in Surrey, and now as Group Chief Executive, my career is an example of the prosperous, lifelong opportunities that our industry can generate. “But I would not be here today without the incredible people I work alongside every day, those who make up our company and our supply chain – those who work tirelessly every day to shape our skylines, connect communities and grow the great leaders of tomorrow.”Selena Moseley, London Build Event Director, said: “It’s our absolute pleasure to hand this award to Leo for his outstanding support in developing opportunities for young people across the industry and for driving the incredible transformation of the UK’s leading infrastructure group” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Plans to redevelop the northeast part of the Grahame Park Estate in Colindale and deliver 505 new homes passed at a Housing and Growth committee meeting in Hendon Town Hall last night 16 November. Barnet Homes will work as the agent for the council and will be replacing the existing 157 homes in this part of the estate and, by bringing this work forward, could save up to £650k in maintenance. Using a £22.4m Greater London Authority grant, the scheme will deliver 50:50 affordable housing including social rent, London living rent which will work towards the 1,000 homes manifesto pledge, shared ownership, build to rent plus two new commercial spaces. Cllr Ross Houston, Barnet Council’s Housing and Growth committee chair, said: “The residents of Grahame Park have been asking for this development to be done for a long time and so we’re very pleased to be able to bring this forward. “Not only are we maintaining our pledge to work towards well-built affordable rental housing, but this work will also lead to a cost saving of over six hundred thousand pounds. “We care about our people in Barnet. We care how they live and how their homes are built so we can also make great spaces while ensuring money saved goes back to residents and not to developers.” The grant for £22.4m comes from the Greater London Authority’s Affordable Housing Programme 2021-26 and has been formally approved. Community engagement has started, with an early focus on the most affected residents, and feedback has been incorporated into the design. The future engagement strategy for the next stage of work includes opportunities for designing together with residents where possible. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
An insulation specialist is backing a call for billions of promised government funds to be released ahead of the planned deadline to help ease the financial burden of soaring energy bills on tenants living in social housing. Actis, whose products are used in new-build and retrofit scenarios, agrees with the National Housing Federation (NHF) that the government’s £3.8 billion Social Housing Decarbonation Fund, designed for phased release until 2030, should be allocated to social landlords as soon as possible to help them plan large-scale retrofit projects. In a report issued this month, the social housing provider trade association said social housing residents in England, three-quarters of whom rely on benefits to top up their income, would see their heating bills reduced by 42% if their homes were insulated and draught-proofed. It stated that while some housing associations are pressing ahead with retrofit programmes, there are still more than 1.2 million energy-inefficient social homes across England. . And, with the country’s housing stock among the oldest and least efficient in Europe, producing more carbon each year than all of the country’s cars, it is calling on the government to allocate the remaining £2.8bn of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund as a matter of urgency. The NHF’s research revealed that a family in an energy-inefficient social home with an EPC of D to G will spend on average of £1,343 a year on heating bills, based on the October Price Guarantee, and more once this ends in April 2023. Actis UK and Ireland sales director Mark Cooper said: “More than 25% of the UK’s housing stock is more than a century old. It makes financial sense to ensure that the existing building fabric is as energy efficient as possible – and with rising energy prices the need has become more urgent. For so many people faced with the choice of heating or eating, it is imperative that they are made as energy efficient as possible. Insulation is generally among the most cost effective and long-lasting measures and, as well as tackling the cost-of-living crisis, a reduction in energy use is good for the environment.” For technical information and advice contact technical@insulation-actis.com. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Market analysis by Unlatch, the new homes sales progression and aftercare platform for developers and housebuilders, reveals that a -16% drop in construction workers is just one of many challenges currently facing Britain’s housebuilding industry; a list that includes the rising cost of materials and the notorious EWS1 form. A declining workforce Over the past five years, the size of Britain’s construction industry workforce has shrunk by -3%, falling from 2.27m in 2017 to 2.21m in 2022. Even more startling is the decline that Britain has seen in the number of self-employed members of the construction workforce which has fallen by -15.9%. In 2017, there were 852,000, today there are just 693,000. In the past year alone, the number of self-employed workers in the industry has fallen by -3.9%, but there is a glimmer of hope as over the past year the size of the full-time construction workforce has grown by 1.6%. This five-year decline can be attributed to a number of factors, but a major cause is the inability to attract new, young people to the industry. Complications brought on by Brexit means that a lot of skilled labour has now left the UK and those who remain are rapidly ageing. To solve this challenge, the industry needs to work on attracting new people to the sector through more appealing career options, an increased number of apprenticeships, and better skills development. But workforce issues are not the only challenge currently facing the construction industry in 2022. Here is a rundown of a few more. Increasing costs Brexit and Covid have teamed up to make it much more difficult to source primary construction materials. Languishing supply chain issues and a shortage of core materials means prices have increased by 24% in the past year. To overcome this challenge, the industry needs to consider more flexibility in the stock it holds and begin to fastidiously plan for impending demand in order to avoid falling victim to supply chain shortages. The practice of establishing supplier loyalty also has a role to play and is even more important today than ever before. Poor build quality A lack of skilled labour and increased material costs are combining to result in reduction in build quality. New-build homes need to be of better standard. Refined building codes, a strong review process, and adoption of digital technology are a few ways that can support this improvement. Low productivity According to the ONS, productivity levels in the construction industry are consistently below the UK national average, based on factors such as low output, late project delivery, and reduced profits. What’s more, labour wages and worker compensation in construction sit below that of the rest of the economy. EWS1 form In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the External Wall System Fire Review certificate (EWS1) was introduced in late 2019. It was designed to be a way for money lenders to assess the external wall safety of buildings, most notably high-rise flats and offices. However, one major problem facing housebuilders is the fact it takes up to a year to process an EWS1 and, without one, many mortgage providers are refusing to lend to potential buyers. This is causing a backlog in sales transactions which in turn causes a backlog in the delivery of new developments. Mothballing land sites and a rise in Build to Rent With purchasers potentially preferring to rent a little longer due to increasing interest rates and mortgage costs, developers may prefer to not start building until there is further clarity on these factors. Of course, this could see an even higher rise in BTR within developer and housebuilder businesses, where we have seen a huge rise on this side of the industry since covid lockdowns. Lee Martin, Head of UK for Unlatch says: “It’s an astonishingly complex ecosystem out there at the moment. For housebuilders and developers, there are challenges both old and new waiting around every corner and, with each passing day and political decision, new challenges are created. The only way such challenges can be well and truly overcome is for central decision makers to step up and make major changes to industry standards and best practice. But individual developers can go some way to improving their own fortunes by implementing smaller internal changes such as investing in digital technology to improve quality while reducing timelines and costs. At Unlatch, our primary goal has always been to help developers create a more sustainable and accelerated sales approach through our unique PropTech software. In doing so, we’ve managed to reduce the average exchange timescale to 25 days from point of reservation, providing a more seamless purchasing experience for both developer and buyer, whilst using the data and analysis we gather to save even more time for the marketing departments of our clients. So while the sector remains susceptible to a myriad of challenges that we are yet to find a solution to, there are other ways that the nation’s developers can streamline their existing processes in order to improve performance.” Data tablesData tables and sources can be viewed online, here. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive at Transport for the North responding to the announcement of the approval of the A57 Link Roads, said: “Transport for the North welcomes the Secretary of State’s support for this scheme, which will see work start on site next spring. Transport for the North has long-supported the need to better connect Manchester and Sheffield, through investment in the rail and road links between two of the North’s most important City Regions.The A57 Link Roads project will bring substantial benefits for local communities, reducing noise and levels of air pollution and creating new and improved facilities for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, and will deliver much more reliable connectivity for traffic on this busy Trans-Pennine route, bringing significant economic benefits and improving opportunities for strengthening business and trade links between Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Caddick Construction has announced that it has reached the end of its work on the £8.2 million Tawd Valley Centre retail outlet in Skelmersdale, West Lancashire. Part of the wider regeneration plans for the town centre, the outlet plays an important role in the revival of the local community. “Caddick is delighted to have completed on this important scheme that is already having a transformative effect on Skelmersdale town centre and the local communities. Investment and vision are important if we want to see local town centres revitalised and attract new retailers in with the right location and premises. It’s great to see Tawd Valley Centre is already delivering for Skelmersdale,” said Ian Threadgold, North West Managing Director of Caddick Construction. Trading on the scheme already are major retails brands, such as Lidl, B&M Bargains and Poundstretcher, with the area adjacent to the retail park also enjoying an upgrade to include a new play area in Tawd Valley Park. A new high street has been provided to link West Lancashire College with the rest of the town centre, while improvements are also being made to the public areas outside Skelmersdale Library to make them more attractive spaces for residents to enjoy. “The new town centre development will bring economic and social benefits for the Borough’s communities long into the future and will greatly enhance the Borough’s appeal as a great place to live, work and invest, providing increased opportunities for many. This development is a significant step towards a future where everyone in West Lancashire will be able to take advantage of a positive economic outlook and vastly improved health and wellbeing outcomes. The people of West Lancashire deserve this and I’m delighted we have delivered it,” added Councillor Yvonne Gagen, Leader of West Lancashire Borough Council. The town centre redevelopment scheme is a partnership between the Borough Council and developer St. Modwen and is supported by the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership and Growth Deal Funding. Building, Design and Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
McLaren Construction has been appointed by ExCeL London to deliver the expansion of its conference, event and exhibition facilities. The builder is taking over the job from Sir Robert McAlpine, who were awarded the first three Phases of the expansion contract. After being awarded the main build contract, McLaren will now complete the project by extending the existing facilities by up to 25,000 square metres. The expansion at the carbon neutral venue will create additional state-of-the-art ICC convention facilities, exhibition halls and conference rooms, together with stunning outdoor spaces, all helping to put London at the forefront of the global events industry. “The wealth of expertise and sector knowledge that the team at McLaren will bring to the main construction phase will ensure that we meet the needs of our customers by providing world class venue spaces and guest experience, on time and on budget, as well as ensuring we deliver our commitments to the local community,” said ExCeL London’s CEO Jeremy Rees. Part of the new event space is a12,000sqm exhibition space on the ground floor, which will be seamlessly integrated into the existing venue. This will be complemented on the upper level with high-end convention space, modern meeting rooms and catering facilities. A priority for ExCeL regarding this project has been the sustainability side of it. In line with its current ESG strategy, the company aims to create the most sustainable scheme possible and will be targeting a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating of ‘Excellent’ – surpassing the recognised industry standard. As with the current venue, the electricity supply will be 100% from renewable sources. As part of the project, a substantial investment will also be made in the public realm including new greenery along the dock edge, improved landscaping for pedestrians and cyclists, and a new pocket park. The project will also create permanent and temporary employment, both in the construction process – including apprenticeships – but also indirectly once complete. McLaren Construction have been appointed to deliver the next phase of construction works, commencing in January 2023. McLaren has extensive experience of delivering UK major projects, including Leicester City Football Club’s new training ground, The Financial Times’ Bracken House’ headquarters, and a major fulfilment centre for warehouse giant SEGRO. McLaren will work alongside key project partners who have already delivered the design and enabling works phase of the project, including Gardiner & Theobald, Grimshaw Architects, Hoare Lea and Campbell Reith. Building, Design and Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
A specialist agent lead management, automation, and phone answering platform has been awarded a prestigious award, despite it launching only 18 months ago. The revolutionary software system, designed specifically for the sales and lettings industry, is being used by hundreds of agents across the UK. Agent Response, the software, helps sales and lettings agents generate increased revenue from sales leads, pre-qualify lettings leads, and improve operational efficiencies, saving both time and money. The company behind the system was crowned the Best Supplier in the Small Business category in the EA Masters Best Estate Agent Guide (BEAG) Awards. “We’re hugely proud and absolutely thrilled to have been recognised by such a prestigious award as the BEAG. Having worked as a Sales and Lettings agent for well over two decades, I knew from my personal experience that there is a huge gap between data and delivery. Many agents were, and still are, having to spend so much of their time filtering enquiries and identifying those that are genuine from those that aren’t, before then being able to move further through the Sales or Lettings process,” said Mike Nettleton, Co-Founder of Agent Response. “Agent Response essentially takes a huge load off lettings agents by asking pre-qualifying questions and capturing valuable data before an enquiry is even made – ensuring that only those who are genuinely interested and suitable for a property are sent to our users. For Sales, it harnesses the data to boost revenue potential that may otherwise be missed, and makes the process as straight-forward as possible.” The BEAG guide is produced annually by Property Academy in partnership with Rightmove, and independently assesses over 90% of UK estate agents, making it one of the most inclusive and extensive data-driven reviews in the industry. “We’re not only over the moon about our own award win, but the fact that 50% of the four overall winning agents across the nation use Agent Response which is fantastic! While we’re under no illusion that our tool is the sole reason for their award success, it’s great to note that many of the processes, automation, and operational efficiencies they’ll have been judged on will be directly influenced by what the Agent Response tool does. We’re hugely excited to see the platform continue to grow and to be recognised in this way by an industry event which recognises the best of the best,” concluded Leon Blair, Co-Founder at Agent Response, who heads up the technology and automation behind the platform. Building, Design and Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
