Book Course HSL is to run a 1 day course on HSE Inspectors’ Guide to Electrical Safety. 14 September 2016 This workshop will be delivered by current and former Specialist Electrical Inspectors with extensive industry experience including giving guidance to duty holders, experience with serious incident investigations and enforcement action. The workshop is based on HSE’s practical enforcement experience which arises out of the businesses it inspects, generally those in the higher risk industries but also those where although the hazards can be high, the risks are thought to be well-controlled.   The workshop will give you a practical understanding of what HSE inspectors are looking for in the control of general electrical safety risks, including the risk and appropriate controls. You will review known high risk electrical safety issues together with the appropriate controls based on HSE’s investigation experiences and understand the practical application of HSE’s Enforcement Management Model. Relevant legislation, guidance and industry best practice. High-risk and priority issues an HSE inspector will focus on in general electrical safety. Managing electrical distribution networks and controlling risks to third parties; legislation, guidance. How to reflect on and plan for any necessary improvements in the control of risks associated with electricity before an HSE inspector calls. Electrical safety issues that are likely to trigger enforcement action. What happens when things go wrong? (An insight into forensic investigation) Health and Safety Professionals responsible for managing or advising on the interface between businesses and the HSE.  Business owners, senior managers and technical specialists responsible for managing and controlling general electrical safety risks. Owners and operators of both public (licenced) and private (unlicenced) electrical distribution networks. The course will be run at the HSL laboratory in the spa town of Buxton. Buxton is in the heart of the Peak District and has good links to mainline train stations and Manchester International Airport. Details of hotels in the Buxton area can be found at www.visitbuxton.co.uk The cost of this course is £495 per person (includes course notes, lunch and refreshments). Book Course     Please note the invoice option is not available within 4 weeks of the course date, or for overseas customers.  If you are selecting the invoice option for payment, it will be mandatory to input a purchase order/reference number as we are unable to process booking forms without this. For further dates and additional information email: training@hsl.gsi.gov.uk or contact the Training & Conferences Unitat HSL directly on +44 (0)1298 218806. Back to Health & Safety Training Courses Back to the top Source link

©Bloomberg Millions of square feet of UK shopping centre space will never be built despite having planning permission, as a challenging retail environment makes developments unviable, according to a new report. The rise of online retail and a drop in high street footfall mean the cost of building or redeveloping many centres would exceed their value, property consultancy Colliers International found. More On this topic IN Property It said more than 10m sq ft of new-build centres and expansions to existing shopping malls scheduled to be built in the next three years would not be completed. “Shopping centres typically take 10-20 years to put together, and many of them hit the building stage during the depths of the recession,” said Mark Phillipson, head of retail at Colliers. “Although we’re in a much more stable economic environment now than in 2008, the market is still not buoyant enough to start building brand new shopping centres. They’d need a prolonged economic boom for that to happen.” The report follows some of the most high-profile failures on the UK high street in nearly a decade. This month BHS said it would close after 88 years, with the loss of 11,000 jobs and 164 stores. Formal menswear retailer Austin Reed, whose suits had been worn by celebrities and dignitaries, also closed, with analysts pointing to the rise of strong online competitors as a factor in their demise. Richard Hyman, an independent retail analyst, said: “In the last 10 years, online alone has added the equivalent of 110m sq ft of trading space — that’s roughly equal to 65 additional Westfield London shopping malls. An increase in supply of retailers, with no increase in demand, has left the industry massively oversupplied.” Nevertheless, the Colliers report found that for prime retail locations across the UK, commercial rent prices were almost unanimously rising for the first time since the recession. “It’s the rosiest picture for prime locations since 2008 — only 5 per cent of prime locations have reported a slide in rents in the last year,” Mr Phillipson said. Developments that are going ahead are primarily in affluent areas, and are extensions to existing sites rather than new builds. Westfield shopping centre is expanding by 800,000 sq ft in a £1bn project that will make it the largest shopping centre in Europe. “It used to be a case of ‘build it and they will come’, and retailers were working on that principle when they planned new stores 20 years ago,” Mr Hyman said. “But the market has changed so much since then, and with a few notable exceptions such as Westfield, there’s not enough demand to justify those new builds today.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

24 August 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Robotic cleaning holds “significant promise for unobstructed areas but has yet to gain a significant foothold” in the industry, says a report about local authority building cleaning services.   The State of the Market 2016 report by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) shows that only 5.5 per cent of respondents say they are using these methods in school buildings (down by 2.1 per cent since last year).   The report’s figures reveal that manual methods of cleaning are still the most prominent, although most respondents also use mechanical cleaning in a range of buildings (other municipal buildings – 66.0 per cent, school buildings – 63.6 per cent, administration buildings – 57.7 per cent, depots – 55.6 per cent, care homes and day centres – 52.6 per cent, kindergartens/pre-school buildings – 52.3 per cent).   Owing to the increased focus on value for money and productivity, 77.2 per cent of respondents are expecting reduced hours/frequency per building over the next year, 56.6 per cent are expecting to renegotiate specifications, 67.3 per cent are expecting reduced cleaning staff numbers, and 52.7 per cent are expecting reduced management numbers.   APSE conducted an online survey during April 2016 and 58 responses were received with 55.2 per cent from England, 29.3 per cent from Scotland, 12.1 per cent from Wales, and 3.4 per cent from Northern Ireland.   Of those completing the survey, 87.9 per cent were ‘in-house service providers’ of whom 62.7 per cent expect to remain as in-house providers in two years’ time. Of these, 8.6 per cent were ‘council owned, arm’s-length wholly owned companies’ and 5.2 per cent were ‘private contractors’. Source link

Home ownership in the United States has slowly fallen in recent years to currently its lowest level since 1965 but new research from the National Association of Realtors suggests that could be halted. The research shows that there are many affordable metro areas and a large segment of current people who rent their home earn enough income to qualify to buy a property.  NAR reviewed employment growth, household income and qualifying income levels in nearly100 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas across the country to determine which areas with employment gains above the recent national average also have the largest share of renters who can currently afford to buy a home. Of the top 10 metro areas with the highest share of renters who earn enough to buy, nine were either in the South or Midwest, including three cities in Ohio. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, pointed out that there has been a significant increase in renter households both among young adults and those who lost their home since the economic downturn, especially in metro areas that have seen robust job creation and a resulting influx of new residents. ‘Even in a time of expanding home sales, steady job growth and historically low mortgage rates, the homeownership rate recently tumbled to its lowest level in over five decades as many renters struggle to juggle escalating rents without commensurate income gains,’ he said. ‘However, this new study reveals that there are several affordable, middle tier markets with solid job gains and a large segment of renters who earn enough to buy,’ he added. Meanwhile, a separate report suggest that across the largest rental markets in the United States almost 14% of renters have strong credit scores, relatively high incomes and could afford to buy the median home in their market. As the homeownership rate has declined over the past decade, a broader socio-economic swath of Americans are renting than at any time in recent history, according to the report from Zillow and the real estate firm says that means people who could afford to buy are renting instead, increasing competition for limited available homes for rent. San Jose, San Diego, and San Francisco have the largest segments of on-market renters who have the credit score and income necessary to purchase a home, making those metros highly competitive for renters. Los Angeles, New York and Seattle also made the list of metros with large segments of current renters who are financially qualified to buy a home. To determine which markets have the highest number of financially stable and thus most competitive renters vying for the attention of landlords and property managers, Zillow examined the self-reported credit scores and incomes of renters who were on the market during the first half of 2016. Zillow also looked at regional median rental and home values and competition to determine the markets with the highest share of renters who reported a monthly income equal to or greater than necessary to afford the typical rental and median home in the metro area. The report also points out that there are long term demographic trends impacting renter qualifications and competition: young adults, both the affluent and otherwise, are renting longer than ever before as they delay many of the hallmarks of adulthood that typically lead to home ownership, such as finishing their education and starting families. In general, markets with lower home ownership rates have higher proportions of on-market renters with both strong credit and high incomes. That said, even when controlling for the home ownership rate, booming markets closely associated with the tech industry, such as San Jose and San Francisco, tend to have exceptionally high proportions of highly qualified, on-market renters. At the other extreme, markets that tend to have higher home ownership rates, such as Houston, and metros that were particularly hard hit during the housing bust and foreclosure crisis, including Cleveland and Detroit, have lower shares of renters who report both strong credit and high incomes. ‘When faced with hurdles of high prices and low inventory, first-time homebuyers are renting longer than ever before even if they are qualified to buy,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. ‘San Jose, San Diego and Seattle are among the most competitive places for buyers, and the going isn’t any easier for renters as they are competing against throngs of financially sound applicants with strong credit and high incomes. This is a conundrum for many young people who move to those cities because of their strong job markets, only to find tight inventory and steep competition standing between them and their dream home,’ Gudell added. The top 10 metro areas highlighted in NAR’s study were all outside of the West Coast and each had a share of renters who qualify to buy that was well above the national level of 28%. Top is Toledo in Ohio and Little Rock in Arkansas both with 46%, followed by Dayton in Ohio at 44%, Lakeland in Florida, St. Louis in Missouri and Columbia in South Carolina all at 41%, Atlanta at 40% and then Columbus in Ohio, Tampa in Florida and Ogden in Utah all at 38%. According to Yun, it’s no surprise that many of the markets with the most renters qualified to buy are in the Midwest and South. The median existing home sales price in these two regions continue to be lower than the Northeast and West, and while many of these areas were slower to recover from the recession, improvements in their local labour markets in the past year have pushed their hiring levels to at or above the national average growth rate. ‘Overall housing affordability and local job market strength play a pivotal role in a renter’s decision on whether to buy a home or sign another lease. The good news is that other recent NAR survey data shows that those residing in the two regions were the most likely to say that now is a good time to purchase a home,’ Yun explained. ‘With

©Bloomberg Kazakhstan’s state oil company is seeking to tighten control over its UK-listed subsidiary over the opposition of its independent directors, setting the stage for another boardroom battle at a Kazakh company in London. National Company KazMunaiGas, which is 100 per cent owned by the Kazakh state, on Friday called an extraordinary general meeting to revise the relationship agreement between it and KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, the London-listed subsidiary in which it holds a 63 per cent stake. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas It also offered to buy out any minority shareholders who were unhappy with the changes. The independent directors of KMG EP said they would resign if the proposals were approved, arguing that they would “significantly weaken the protections afforded to independent shareholders”. The KMG EP directors said the proposed buyout price of $7.88 per global depository receipt — a 12.6 per cent premium to Thursday’s closing price — “significantly undervalues the company”. The tussle between the state oil company and its subsidiary echoes the long battle between miner Eurasia Natural Resources Corporation and its UK independent directors. ENRC departed the London market in 2013 under a cloud of boardroom battles and — in its case corruption allegations — dealing a hefty blow to Kazakhstan’s international reputation. The fight will also will be a key test of Kazakhstan’s approach to international investors as it prepares for an ambitious privatisation programme. Last year the central Asian country announced plans to float minority stakes in some of its largest companies, including NC KMG. The relationship agreement between the state oil company and its subsidiary was drawn up to protect minority shareholders when KMG EP listed in 2006 and gives significant power to the company’s three independent directors. Now NC KMG is arguing that changes to the agreement are needed to reduce bureaucracy and to allow it to push through plans to make KMG EP’s operations more efficient. It said the alterations would “maintain, and in some areas significantly enhance” protections for minority shareholders. The changes require the approval of half the minority shareholders voting at the EGM to be held on August 3. “KMG EP is hampered by excessive bureaucracy, with too many layers of decision-making and considerable duplication,” the chairman and chief executive of NC KMG said in a joint letter to shareholders on Friday. KMG EP, which owns several Soviet-era oilfields in Kazakhstan and is the country’s third-largest producer, has suffered a drastic decline in profitability amid the fall in oil prices, reporting a $288m operating loss last year. However, it holds $3.1bn of cash on its balance sheet, while its parent NC KMG is highly indebted and last year was forced to seek a bailout from its parent sovereign wealth fund in order to avoid breaching debt covenants. NC KMG offered to buy out minority shareholders in KMG EP in 2014 for $18.5 per GDR, but ran into stiff resistance from the latter’s independent directors over the price of the deal. As oil prices tumbled last year, NC KMG withdrew its bid but began putting increasing financial and operational pressure on its subsidiary, people close to KMG EP say. Directors representing the parent company on KMG EP’s board voted to pay no dividend this year, rejecting proposals from the company’s management and the recommendation of the independent directors. And at the start of this year, the parent company slashed the prices it paid KMG EP for supplies of oil on the domestic market. It has not paid a settlement to KMG EP relating to a dispute on domestic pricing last year, according to two people familiar with the matter. NC KMG said it was “not seeking to acquire any significant additional holding in KMG EP through [the buyout] offer”, but simply to give a way out to shareholders who did not support the proposed changes. China’s sovereign wealth fund, CIC, will have a key role in the vote as it holds an 11 per cent stake in KMG EP out of a total 37 per cent held by minorities. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

Consolidation alone is not the answer; capacity must also shrink for the sector to look attractive ©Bloomberg In the three years to 2013, China consumed more concrete than the US used in the 20th century, according to the academic Vaclav Smil. China’s economic growth has since slowed. Cement demand will never be as strong again. There remains, however, enough cement-making capacity in China to fill the peak appetite. If it is to earn positive economic returns, the industry has no choice but to shrink.  Chinese cement companies know this and believe that consolidation is the answer. The market may concur. On Monday, shares in West China Cement rose nearly 6 per cent on news that a sufficient majority of option holders had agreed to an acquisition by largest listed Chinese peer, Anhui Conch Cement. The deal should have the government’s blessing, too. Last week, the State Council reiterated its desire for a more concentrated industry. It wants the top 10 players to control three-fifths of industry capacity by 2020. This is even less radical than it sounds. HSBC points out that the top 10 cement producers already controlled 54 per cent of the market as of the end of 2015. Nor will mergers achieve what the industry needs most: outright reduction in supply.  Consolidation has already been showcased elsewhere. Last July European giants Holcim and Lafarge merged to become the world’s largest cement producer. Economies of scale did not spare the merged entity from having to announce a reduction in capex by November. Despite expected savings of $1.6bn by 2017, and anticipated improved pricing power, the maiden set of results highlighted the need to conserve free cash flow. HeidelbergCement has been faring far better. It has, at last, digested its own overblown 2007 acquisition.  Enthusiasts for a cyclical China trade might point to a near term pick-up from stimulus-led demand. Last week, the government said it would spend nearly 7 per cent of gross domestic product ($722bn) on infrastructure projects over the next three years. Construction activity has already improved as housing starts have rebounded. Yet supply is more than adequate to satisfy more demand. Fitch Ratings points out that clinker production capacity last year was 2bn tonnes, compared with output of 1.3bn. So, despite an increase in cement output of 13 per cent in the four months to April, prices over the same period actually dropped one-tenth. They look likely to keep sinking. Email the Lex team at lex@ft.com Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

Stamp duty change is more of an issue for the prime central London sales market than the UK leaving the European Union, new research suggests. However, the vote to leave the EU has created a backdrop of short term uncertainty that is affecting behaviour in the prime central London property market. As a result prices are now down 1.5% compared to a year ago and the number of new prospective buyers has fallen by 6.2% over the same period, according to the latest index from real estate firm Knight Frank. The index report also shows that the number of exchanges, including new build properties, fell by 10.5% in the first half of 2016 but the number of viewings was 40.8% higher than in 2015. However, the sub-£1 million market registered a relatively stronger performance, with annual price growth of 1.1%. According to Tom Bill, head of London residential research, early indications suggest the Brexit vote is reinforcing existing pricing trends and viewing the referendum in the context of the preceding two-year period is helpful. In June 2014, annual growth in prime central London was 8.1%, the last peak before a period that saw growth fall steadily to -1.5% in July 2016. ‘This slowdown was a natural consequence of strong price rises between 2009 and 2013, however the process was accelerated by two stamp duty increases and a series of other tax measures,’ said Bill. ‘Despite the widespread media coverage devoted to the EU referendum and its potential impact on house prices, the primary factor curbing demand in prime central London remains stamp duty. The result of this two year slowdown is that vendors had already begun to adapt to the new pricing environment and in many cases Brexit has been a trigger to make overdue reductions to asking prices,’ he explained. ‘Indeed, had the result of the referendum been a victory for Remain, it is likely there would have been a similar mismatch between expectations and reality that followed the 2015 general election. Following the formation of a majority Conservative Party government, high stamp duty costs acted as a brake on demand that was widely expected to surge. Since the vote, a number of buyers have requested discounts due to the climate of political and economic uncertainty,’ he pointed out. ‘However, where the asking price was set at an appropriate level before the vote, deals are proceeding with no reductions. In other cases, the Brexit vote has encouraged vendors to show increased flexibility. It is too early to say whether the reductions are likely to trigger higher transaction levels,’ he added. Bill also pointed out that there is no uniform picture across London and the situation is compounded by thin trading during seasonal summer lull. However, it is possible to see the benefit of recent downward repricing in some markets. In Belgravia overly ambitious vendor expectations, which had led to weak trading over the past two years, has been replaced by a more realistic approach from sellers. Combined with an effective 10% discount that US dollar denominated and dollar pegged buyers have compared to before the EU vote, the result has been a pick-up in activity over the last month. Similarly, in Knightsbridge, the market which has seen the largest price declines in prime central London over the last 12 months, activity has been relatively strong since 23 June, with no discounts on appropriately priced properties. Across prime central London while the number of new prospective buyers was down slightly in the first two quarters of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015, strong viewing volumes give some confidence regarding future sales volumes, which are currently down by around 15% year on year. Bill added that the referendum has also brought pre-existing dynamics into sharper relief in the new build market. ‘Price sensitive buyers have been increasingly driven by the quality of developments and amenities over a desire to buy in a specific London neighbourhood,’ he said. ‘Though transactions have declined in recent months towards levels that are more in line with historical norms, they have been more resilient at appropriately priced schemes with high quality amenities,’ he concluded. Source link

17 May 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Waste management company B&M Waste Services is advising SME organisations on changes to the legal definition of ‘waste’ in new published guidance. The guidance, issued jointly by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency, the Welsh Government, Northern Ireland’s Department of the Environment and Natural Resources Wales on 5 May, can be used to determine if a material is waste or not, and whether it is subject to waste handling laws. It includes details of the waste duty of care to which businesses that import, produce, carry, keep, treat or dispose of waste must adhere, as well as the producer responsibility rules for producers of packaging, electrical equipment and batteries must apply. Additionally, the guidance also details when waste rules cease to apply, such as when a material meets ‘end of waste’ status.  Neil Curtis, managing director at B&M Waste Service, said: “This latest guidance helps small and medium-sized companies understand their waste, and in particular we urge customers to consider how they are disposing of their waste electrical and electronic equipment and batteries.” The published guidance can be found here.   Source link