In the short term we believe that both prices, and rents, will remain stable, but we cannot be certain about the next quarter as political instability, and market unrest, could lead through into prices in the housing market The British people have cast their vote and we are to leave the EU. As a cloud of uncertainty unfolds over the UK housing market, Property Reporter takes at look at how the market has reacted with comments from those within the industry. David Cox, managing director of Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and Mark Hayward, managing director of National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), commented: “The outcome of today’s EU referendum will create a period of uncertainty among homeowners, buyers, investors, landlords and developers.  We can expect international investors to look a lot harder at the UK as a market; this will have a consequential impact upon the house building sector as investment may be stalled.   In the short term we believe that both prices, and rents, will remain stable, but we cannot be certain about the next quarter as political instability, and market unrest, could lead through into prices in the housing market. We believe that the UK housing market is resilient, as is the supply chain that drives it.  But as we indicated in our Brexit report1 last month, the bigger impact may well be in the skills necessary to drive UK housing development, and this is now a major concern for UK buyers and renters.” Stuart Law, Chief Executive of Assetz Property, comments: “Today’s result to leave the EU has only increased the cloud of uncertainty cast over the British property market, but it is not the time to just sit back and watch the events unfold. Now is the time for buy-to-let investors to turn their attention away from the Capital, which could experience difficult times ahead in terms of economic and currency uncertainty. Cash rich investors should instead look to the Northern Powerhouse, which still remains a strong contender for those seeking to protect capital and produce an income well above bank interest rates. We still expect prime London prices to continue falling and many of the tens of thousands of luxury homes in the pipeline to be mothballed as demand from all over the world fails to meet that potential level of supply. The rest of London will definitely be hit by a perfect storm of several factors hitting house prices which is great news for house-buyers but not for investors and homeowners. We know that the City is going to relocate large numbers of highly paid bankers to Paris, Dublin and the rest of Europe and the loss of these highly paid house buyers and renters can only have a negative effect. Add that to the new buy to let mortgage interest tax and we see no appeal for speculative house price growth and negative cash-flow in London for the foreseeable future. The rest of the country, however, is likely to be far more stable and we expect house prices to be very slow to react, if at all, as a minor economic slow-down is balanced by low mortgage interest rates and huge demand for housing. Rents outside London will remain strong and continue to grow steadily, created by a modest reduction in house building as the banks reduce lending again.” John Phillips, group operations director at Spicer Haart and Just Mortgages, says: “It will be an interesting time over the next few days, I expect people to panic like mad and then things will calm down again.  Similarly there will be a slight economic slow down while people decide how things will affect them and then it will pick up again after a brief period of adjustment.   The mortgage market had been racing away again reminiscent of pre-2007, but then slowed down a little bit in the couple of months building up to the referendum back to more normal levels and I think that this is what we will stay at until the end of the year. In some ways this is a positive for the housing market as it will bring more normality back to the market. We still have a chronic shortage of houses so I don’t think that house prices will drop or that people will stop buying or selling.  What we still need it for house builders to up their level of building again, although this may stay depressed for a little while to come. The beauty trade wise is that in the next two years we have the best of both worlds, we will still be in the EU but we will also be able to start trading freely with the rest of the world.  There are already calls for referenda in other EU countries, so in the next two years the EU is likely to look like a very different place.” Russell Quirk, CEO of hybrid estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, had this to say: “Many will be running to their nuclear bunkers now that the apparent end of the world is nigh. But before they do, they might want to take a breath and sit tight. We’ve voted to leave the EU and regardless of personal views we must respect the democratic position of the populous. We don’t anticipate any tangible difference where the UK property market is concerned and the supply and demand balance that is currently dangerously out of kilter will see little sign of stabilising itself. Going forward the UK market will go from strength to strength, perhaps with wobbly knees at it emerges from the clutches of the EU, but it will soon find its feet again. There may be many buy-to-let landlords and second homeowners rushing to list their property for sale in order to maximise their profit, before the “Armageddon” on the horizon destabilises the pound. Ironically it will be these people flooding the market with additional stock that may see prices cool ever so slightly.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is today (15 July 2015) calling for expressions of interest to design its new Research Medal, part of the President’s Research Awards Scheme. The new award will sit alongside the other prestigious President’s Medals – Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The competition is an opportunity for architects, designers and craftsmen to submit designs that reflect the history of the President’s medals, the importance of research to RIBA’s mission and activities and the impact of research on architectural practice more broadly. RIBA President Stephen Hodder said: “The new President’s Medal for Research will recognise and celebrate world class architectural research. For 10 years, the RIBA has taken seriously the achievements of students and researchers in original technical and cultural research through our research awards programme. The medal will reflect the important contribution and impact that research has on innovation in practice, and the heritage of our own history of medal commissioning. We welcome thoughtful and bold designs for this unique opportunity.” The competition will be held in two stages. For the first, the RIBA is seeking expressions of interest from individuals and teams for the design of the new medal. Entrants are asked to provide information regarding relevant experience and, where possible, examples of previous work in this field, as well as a brief statement outlining their design proposal. Entries will be anonymised before the judging panel invites six shortlisted candidates to provide full drawings and proposals for the medal. Honoraria of £250 will be awarded to the shortlisted competitors, and a prize of £2,000 awarded to the overall winner. The competition will be judged by an eminent panel including Philip Attwood, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum and President of the British Art Medal Society, and the RIBA President and past President. The deadline for expressions of interest will be 09:00AM (BST) on 10 August 2015. The deadline for shortlisted candidates will be 09:00AM (BST) on 14 September 2015. – Ends – Notes to editors 1. For more information members of the press should contact: Gagandeep Bedi, Press Officer, RIBA: gagandeep.bedi@riba.org 020 7307 3814. Non press queries should be sent to MedalComp@riba.org.2. Full Competition Guidelines and a registration form for the open stage of the competition are available at www.architecture.com/ResearchMedalComp 3. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members www.architecture.com 4. Follow us on Twitter for regular RIBA updates @RIBA  Posted on Wednesday 15th July 2015 Source link

A distillery in Oldbury has been fined after an employee was engulfed in flames in a fire that destroyed the warehouse and its contents. Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how ethyl acetate (highly flammable liquid) was being transferred from a bulk storage tank into an intermediate bulk container when an employee was engulfed in flames. The 21-year-old sustained twenty percent burns to his head, neck and hands. The fire, at the Alcohol Limited distillery on Crosswell road in Oldbury, destroyed the warehouse and caused damage to nearby cars and houses. West Mercia Fire and Rescue Service were called to bring the fire under control. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 26 November 2012 found that the most likely source of ignition was a discharge of static electricity generated by the transfer of the liquid. There was poor maintenance of pipework and associated valves. There was a failure to competently inspect the equipment or monitor the systems of work. Alcohols Limited, of Charringtons House, The Causeway, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £270,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,009. After the hearing HSE inspector Kieron Jones said: “Companies that fail to ensure the integrity of their safety critical equipment place their employees, members of the public, emergency services and their entire livelihood at risk of serious harm. “Poor management of highly flammable liquids can have catastrophic results both for individuals and businesses.” 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

Almost three quarters of pensioners in the UK who have an investment property said they would struggle to make ends meet if they didn’t have the income from their buy to let, new research shows. Overall 72% would struggle and 81% of those aged over 65 said that their properties provide an important, even vital, boost to their retirement income, according to a poll carried out by Responsible Equity Release. The poll also found that 92% are worried about the changes to mortgage interest tax relief and the impact on the profit they make from their investment property. The buy to let tax changes coming into force have left many pensioner landlords considering whether it’s worth holding onto their property and 41% said although their buy to let property was a valuable income generator, they are now thinking seriously about selling it. ‘For many pensioners, having a buy to let property has been a life saver in this low interest environment. While their savings have languished, earning very little interest, and pension income has been hit hard by falling share prices, property income has remained strong,’ said Steve Wilkie, managing director at Responsible Equity Release. ‘Without the income boost from their buy to let, many would really be struggling to make ends meet. But the Chancellor has yet again ignored UK’s retirees when he announced changes to the way buy to let would be taxed,’ he pointed out. ‘George Osborne was so focused on taxing the rich, he forgot that a new tax on buy to let won’t just hit the wealthy, it will also hit those honest, hardworking people, who may have a single buy to let property and were just hoping it would earn them a little extra income in retirement,’ he added. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link

A ground-breaking Passivhaus project is insulated with Recticel. PIR insulation from Recticel has been specified for a ground-breaking Passivhaus project for its cost effectiveness and performance characteristics. Recticel’s premium Eurothane GP insulation was specified for the floors of Lime Tree Lodge in Swaffham, Norfolk, by the town’s Parsons + Whittley Architects and was installed by award-winning Norfolk contractors Grocott & Murfit on their first Passivhaus project. The two-bedroomed bungalow is curved on plan to accommodate the dominant lime tree it is named after. The Recticel Eurothane GP insulation has been used throughout under an oak engineered timber floor or porcelain tiles and 22cm chipboard deck with vapour control layer. The £250,000 home was constructed in eight months of traditional cavity wall on a mini-piled raft with mono-pitch zinc roof in the garden of a private client who was downsizing. Faced with both brick and timber it has an external U-value of 0.096 W/m2K for the timber-faced walls and 0.098 W/m2K for the brick-faced ones. Eurothane GP is lightweight and easy to cut, handle and install. Available in a variety of thicknesses, 40m2 of two layers of 150mm were used at Lime Tree Lodge. Architect Chris Parsons said the Eurothane GP was specified because it was “cost effective insulation.”He added: “Passivhaus requires high levels of insulation and the avoidance of thermal bridging which the Recticel product helped to achieve.” Grocott & Murfit director Jody Murfit said: “The project generally was quite challenging due to the curve but the Recticel insulation was easy to install. We just cut it to size, doubled it up and taped it.”Lime Tree Lodge had to be built to certified Passivhaus standards but was inhibited by a tight site that was further constrained by the protected lime tree. This impacted on the layout of the site as the presence of a deciduous tree can enhance Passivhaus design by providing shading in summer to avoid overheating while allowing winter sun to penetrate and provide passive solar gain. Having established the spread and root protection zones of the tree, the bungalow is designed as an annulus segment centred on the tree, spaced outwards to avoid the root protection area. The circular nature is then emphasised by three concentric segmental sections of outer brickwork, each shielding the main dwelling, associated smaller rooms and finally the rear wing and covered areas. These latter two are roofed by a GRP flat roof to reduce the mass of the dwelling. The main dwelling is roofed by the mono-pitch zinc roof falling towards the tree. This shape presents a south-facing gable which was fully glazed both for the passive solar gain as well as the view. Lime Tree Lodge was shortlisted for the Passivhaus Trust Awards 2016. See http://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/passivhaus_awards/uk-passivhaus-awards/ ENDS  Source link

The shock announcement came just hours after French energy giant EDF made a final investment decision to go ahead with the £18bn project, paving the way for construction to start. On Thursday evening, EDF board members had voted in favour of the project by just 10 votes to seven, only for the business and energy secretary Greg Clark to announce shortly afterwards that the government was delaying its final decision on whether to support the scheme.  The government insisted its stance on nuclear hadn’t changed, but that new Cabinet ministers needed more time to look at the project methodically and in greater detail.  However, the announcement came as a shock to EDF, which had planned an event at Hinkley on Friday 29 July to begin signing contracts and celebrate the launch of the project.  Mr Clark said on Thursday evening: “The UK needs a reliable and secure energy supply and the government believes that nuclear energy is an important part of the mix. “The government will now consider carefully all the component parts of this project and make its decision in the early autumn.” Just last week, Mr Clark had welcomed EDF’s announcement that it would make a decision at Thursday’s board meeting, saying it would show that the UK was “open for business”. EDF had earlier stated that the final investment decision had given it authorisation to sign off all contracts and agreements necessary to build the two nuclear reactors. It added that the decision would now enable the group to mobilise all its significant nuclear engineering skills for the future. Both of these moves now look likely to be put on hold. EDF’s final investment decision was initially thought to have ended years of delays to the Somerset project, which has the potential to provide 7 per cent of the UK’s energy when finished and was slated to be fully operational by 2025. The decision was viewed as a demonstration of confidence in the infrastructure sector and in the UK as a place to invest following uncertainty after the EU referendum outcome.  It had also briefly come as a relief to dozens of contractors that are signed up to carry out more than £2bn of work at the plant. The plant’s construction would create more than 25,000 jobs across its nine-year build programme. In 2013 the government and EDF agreed on a strike price, with the French energy giant promising to secure a final investment decision by July 2014. By March 2014 it emerged that this could not be achieved, with a decision being pushed back to 2015. More dates for FID came and went, with some questioning whether the project would go ahead at all. Last October EDF said it expected to make a final investment decision on the plant by the end of the year, but this target was missed. In March EDF chief financial officer Thomas Piquemal stepped down due to concerns over the impact building Hinkley would have on EDF’s financial position. Doubts over the project intensified following Brexit, despite the EDF board saying Britain’s vote to leave the EU would have no impact on its decision. Source link