Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, has announced that 1,500 different UK organisations have signed the Armed Forces Covenant. This Covenant is a pledge by those organisations to treat Service personnel and veterans fairly. The 1,500th signature was made by Travis Perkins during the third annual Partnering with Defence conference for employers at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. Travis Perkins is a Building materials supplier That has now agreed to provide Armed Forces personnel and veterans with a mixture of different work experience placements throughout their organisation. This covenant is designed to make sure that the people who have served or still serve our country are supported in an increasingly better way. The covenant has reached a significant milestone by engaging with 1,500 organisations who hope to help forces personnel and veterans by utilizing their unique set of skill and experience. Travis Perkins is pledging to support members of the Royal Engineers in gaining NVQ qualifications for construction skills. The Building materials supplier currently employs nine reservists and members of the Armed Forces community across the country. The company is able to provide military personnel with the opportunity to build a career outside of the military, as well as allow them to use the skills they already have. Prior to this announcement, the Defence Minister announced that the UK’s main broadband providers, that represents 95% of the broadband market in Britain have agreed to waive fees on contracts for personnel that have had to cancel their subscription when posted away. This posting usually happens with very little notice. The broadband providers doing this are Virgin Media, Sky, Talk Talk, BT, EE and Plusnet. Other positive outcomes from the covenant includes better motor insurance, better access to banking facilities. There has also been improved access to mentoring and work experience places, as well as improvements to the credit rating system, to put former personnel in a better position when looking for a mortgage, or having to rent their home when posted overseas.

John Carleton, who was appointed earlier this month to head up the consultant’s housing and regeneration team in Manchester, told Construction News that the firm would bring organisations together to make projects more attractive to funders. These organisations include local authorities, developers, housing associations and land owners. “There’s a sense that there’s a wall of money waiting to get out there into housing,” he said. “What it’s looking for is investable projects; it needs ourselves together with private and public sector partnerships to shape [them].” He said partnerships between local authorities and the private sector, alongside masterplanning of major projects, would be the key to unlocking investment. “There are a number of aspirational organisations in the North of England that want to work with local authorities and developers,” he said. “The role for Arcadis and for me is to make that happen, and to bring those organisations together.” Major regeneration schemes in Manchester include the masterplan for Holt Town Waterfront, stretching from New Islington near the city’s Piccadilly Station, to the sports city complex and the Etihad Stadium in the east of the city. Holt Town will be a mixed-use, residential-led development phased over 15 years, with a total size of 38 ha, and is being led by developer Cibitas. Mr Carleton added that the “onus is on the public sector” to both engage with the private sector and to release more land to help development get underway. “A big part of the equation is land – particularly public sector land – and there is a really strong onus on the public estate, because ultimately all these projects, and all this money, needs land,” he said. He added that Network Rail’s decision to release land for 12,000 new homes by 2020 was “fantastic” for developers. The organisation has identified 200 sites that are suitable for housing development across the UK, while Manchester and the North of England will see land for 3,600 homes unlocked as part of the plan. “If you think of the land that [Network Rail] owns, and the impact that investment in stations has in the surrounding area – you only need to look at what’s happened since Manchester Piccadilly has been improved,” said Mr Carleton. “20 years ago if you were getting a train from Manchester Piccadilly you’d be there five minutes before your train. Now it’s a destination, in the same way that King’s Cross is a destination.” However, he added that the changing role of housing associations would be put under the spotlight in the coming years with the sector “probably not delivering to the government’s expectations”. Mr Carleton, formerly managing director at London-based housing association Genesis and a former director at the Housing Corporation, said a cross-subsidy model would be a crucial to helping housing associations build more homes. “Some housing associations have substantial asset bases that they really need to utilise,” he said. “The cross-subsidy model has to be developed more and more. There isn’t enough public money to provide the level of subsidy that was around in the past. “If we are going to build affordable housing – by definition housing that can have a value less than its cost – we have to have ways of creating that subsidy.” He said the model was more readily used in the South of England and used Genesis’ partnership with Berkeley Homes and Hackney Council to deliver over 5,000 homes in London as one example. Housing groups in the North have already begun to examine the model, with social housing provider ForViva launching its own development arm to build homes for outright sale and market rent to fund its social housing programme. However, Mr Carleton said more housing associations needed to step up to help address the housing crisis. “What that means for housing associations is that they have to accept a higher level of risk,” he said. “Some of them may have the balance sheet and the weight to do that themselves, but increasingly it’s about partnering. “It’s about bringing together local authorities, private developers and housing associations and creating those strong partnerships.” On the Greater Manchester mayoral race in May next year, Mr Carleton said candidates needed to understand the importance of having a balanced housing market.  Current frontrunner and Labour MP Andy Burnham has pledged to use the devolved £300m housing fund for affordable rent and rent-to-own properties, rather than luxury homes, but Mr Carleton said the focus should not be “on one or the other”. “He has recognised that we have a polarised housing market that doesn’t deliver that much choice,” he said. “But we can’t ignore the fact that, as a growing economy, we need to have aspirational housing as well. “The North needs more houses but in a lot of cases it needs better houses and different types of houses; it needs different tenures.” He added that more mixed-tenure developments would need to be developed to meet different housing need across the North, where the housing demand is “more nuanced” than in the South. 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Share your pictures of the Water Label and be in for the chance to win an iPad! Published:  28 June, 2016 The European Water Label is running a competition to highlight the strength and visibility of the Label across the UK and Europe. Installers are invited to participate and help track the label in the market place by uploading a picture of the label – whether this be in a magazine, at a trade show, displayed in a stockists or even printed on packaging or product literature. When you share your pictures, use the hashtag #EWLspotted stating where you have seen it, be it retailer, merchant, manufacturer and also the country or area you saw it in. This will provide the evidence of how the label is used within the marketplace and one lucky participant will be chosen at random to win an iPad. www.europeanwaterlabel.eu Source link

Yorkshire Water has announced it will issue “good will payments” to customers in Thorne and Moorends, where a Boil Water Notice has been in place since Saturday and will not be lifted until Thursday at the earliest. Director of service delivery Charlie Haysom said: “We understand this situation has been very inconvenient for our customers in Thorne and Moorends, and that’s why we’ve decided to give them a £30 good will payment to thank them for their patience. “We’re still asking residents to boil their water before drinking or cooking with it, and we hope to return to normal service as soon as possible.” Customers at around 3,600 properties have been instructed to boil their water before drinking and cooking after high levels of bacteria was discovered on Friday. Haysom said: “We’re still investigating the cause of the incident and we’re continuing to focus on the Coulman Industrial Estate as a potential source of the problem.” The boil first instruction will remain in place until further sample results are received. Sample results on Sunday were encouraging but Yorkshire Water is being “extra cautious” and will not remove the Boil First instruction until further samples confirm the water is fully safe to drink. This article first appeared on wwtonline Source link

Approximately 625,000 sq ft (58,063 sq m) of office space in Manchester is set to be refurbished over the next two years as the market responds to continuing levels of healthy take up, according to international real estate advisor Savills.  The firm reports that Grade B has accounted for an average of 62% of the city’s annual take up over the last 10 years, and with Grade A supplies running low the proportion could be even higher in 2016 as occupiers and landlords look to ‘plug the gap’. Despite growing demand for Grade A office space in Manchester over the last three years, annual take up has consistently been under pinned by larger Grade B occupiers seeking to balance high quality offices with value for money.  As a result, Savills expects the current planned refurbishment pipeline to last little over two years.  Increased competition for the space is already driving secondary rents upwards, for example at Acresfield in St Ann’s Square where rents have moved from £16.50 per sq ft (£178 per sq m) to £18.50 per sq ft (£199 per  sq m) in just over 12 months.  In terms of occupiers, Savills reports that the TMT sector has taken more Grade B space in Manchester than any other sector over the last five years, with deals totalling 710,889 sq ft (66,042 sq m).  This is a significant increase on the 294,631 sq ft (27,371 sq m) of secondary space let to TMT occupiers in the previous five years.  Grade B demand from professional services and business and consumer services firms has also been significant, with deals totalling 595,665 sq ft (55,337 sq m) and 546,738 sq ft (50,792 sq m) respectively since 2011. Clare Bailey, associate director in the research team at Savills, comments: “Much has been made of the TMT sector as a rising star and it has indeed grown significantly.  However, the term encompasses such a breadth of occupiers that it is perhaps more accurate to think of the growth of ‘new’ occupiers, namely those seeking to capitalise on technology developments and new media.  Many operate within long-standing sectors such as finance and insurance but are now seeking more creative workspaces. The challenge for landlords and designers, given the rate of construction inflation, is to create these workplaces at a commercially viable cost for such businesses which often have immature financial covenants and need shorter term leases to allow them to grow.” James Evans, head of Savills Manchester, adds: “This year’s winners will undoubtedly be landlords who can deliver space to the market quickly and therefore capitalise on the current under supply across all sectors.  Opportunities for large-scale occupiers within the Grade B market are very limited and with continued growth forecast for the financial tech sector in particular, buildings which can provide flexible and interesting workspaces will succeed.  However, solid fundamentals remain key and large floor plates in accessible locations will continue to perform very well.”   Source link