Almost eight in 10 (78%) electrical and building services firms say turnover increased or remained steady in the second quarter of 2016, according to new research from the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA).   The findings cover the period leading up to the EU referendum, and the week following the landmark result. The ECA is currently working on a separate Brexit survey, which is open until Tuesday 6 September. ECA CEO Steve Bratt commented: “The ECA’s business survey for Q2 indicates that electrical and building services firms have been doing more business, despite potential challenges in the wider economy.” Looking at Q2 2016, the ECA’s Building Engineering Business Survey, conducted in association with Scolmore, also found: • Small businesses (turnover £201k – £1m) had a positive quarter, with nearly 3 in 4 firms (72%) reporting turnover remaining steady or increasing, up 7% on the previous quarter. • Medium-sized firms (turnover £1.1m to £5m) also enjoyed a strong quarter, with 8 in 10 businesses (80%) seeing turnover rise or remain steady, also up 7% on Q1. • Large companies (turnover £5.1m to £20m) had a fair Q2, with over 8 in 10 firms (83%) indicating that turnover increased or remained steady, up slightly on the last quarter. • Very large businesses (turnover over £20m) saw turnover hold steady, with over 5 in 10 firms (53%) reporting turnover remaining the same, while 35% had an increase. Looking to Q3 2016, the period immediately following the EU referendum result, the outlook from building services firms remained positive. Over 8 out of 10 respondents (82%) expected turnover to increase or stay the same compared to Q2, which is similar to forecasts in the previous quarter. ECA members were surveyed for their views in early July this year, with the response rate from members the highest in nearly five years.       Source link

A new survey which polled 10,000 people in the UK has revealed the key reasons that first time buyers are struggling to get a foot on the UK property ladder. The survey asked what they believe is the single greatest barrier to saving for a deposit on their house – with rent prices, the cost of living and a lack of well-paid employment opportunities taking the top spots. The study, conducted by Tiles Direct, revealed that 38% of Brits – and over half of 25-34 year-olds – believe rent is too high to save for a deposit on a house. The cost of living came in second, with 21% of respondents declaring this the biggest barrier for first-time buyers – as salaries become more and more thinly stretched. According to 18% of those surveyed, a lack of well-paid job prospects is to blame – with over a fifth of women considering this their greatest hurdle on the path to homeownership. Generation Rent Across the board, inflated rent prices were held responsible for the first time buyer’s struggle to save for a deposit – as the average cost of renting in London has reached almost £1500, according to recent data from HomeLet. In spite of the capital’s spiralling rent prices, just 31% of Londoners considered this the greatest block to buying a house – versus a huge 59% of people living in the North East. As UK house prices continue to outstrip average salaries, the Chief Executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, Campbell Robb, predicts that “Generation Rent will be forced to resign themselves to a life in expensive, unstable private renting”. The Y factor While rent and living costs took the lion’s share of the vote, some respondents felt that Generation Y were the architects of their own downfall – with 6% blaming the irresponsible spending habits of first-time buyers. With 9% of the vote, a lack of motivation to save money was also cited as a serious barrier to buying a home – and 18% of 55-64 year-olds consider this the root cause. Surprisingly, 17% of 18-24 year-olds also took this stance – citing an inability to save (10%) and reckless spending (7%) as two of the primary roadblocks. 15% of over-65s held the poor interest rates offered by banks accountable for our inability to scrape together a deposit, as the financial incentive to keep money in the bank hits rock bottom. Other responses included Britain’s acute housing shortage, escalating house prices and a domination of the UK property market by rental accommodation – highlighting the perfect storm of socioeconomic factors affecting first-time buyers nationwide. Topline results In your opinion, what is the single biggest barrier blocking first-time buyers from saving for a deposit on a house? • Rent is too high to save for a deposit: 38.0% • Higher cost of living: 21.0% • Lack of well-paid employment opportunities: 18.2% • Lack of motivation to save money: 8.8% • Irresponsible spending amongst Generation Y: 6.4% • Poor interest rates on savings accounts: 6.0% • Other: 1.6% Source link

APHC holds radio day with The Apprentice winner Joseph Valente Published:  23 March, 2016 On 11 March 2016, APHC teamed up with The Apprentice 2015 winner and APHC member Joseph Valente for a radio day to promote its latest research findings on attitudes towards apprenticeships and trade professions. Speaking on World Plumbing Day and just before the start of National Apprenticeship Week, Mr Valente drew on his experience as a former apprentice, plumber and now plumbing employer to provide his views on some of the key issues existing around apprenticeships and training in the plumbing and heating industry. Across the course of 13 individual radio interviews, including four with regional BBC stations, the Impra Gas founder discussed the benefits of learning a trade and the need for apprenticeships to be explored in schools as an alternative to higher education. John Thompson, chief executive at APHC said: “We’re delighted with the outcome of the radio day, which has been hugely successful in promoting our message about the many advantages of learning a trade and the need to dispel outdated stigmas around apprenticeships being the poor relation of higher education. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Mr Valente for doing such a great job of promoting the new research and for being such a great spokesperson for our industry.” Mr Valente will be speaking at PHEX+ on 18 May. Visitors to PHEX+ will have the opportunity to put their questions to Mr Valente and snap a selfie with the man himself after his talk. For more information and to book your free ticket, visit www.phexshow.com. Source link

A new report from Lloyds Bank has found that the ratio between city house prices and gross local earnings has hit the worst levels in eight years. According to the data, average UK city house prices have risen by 8% from £196,229 in 2015 to its highest ever level of £211,880 in this year. This has resulted in average affordability in the nation’s cities worsening in the last 12 months from 6.2 to 6.6 times gross average annual earnings; the third successive annual decline in affordability. The latest figures from Lloyds Bank also reveal a significant North – South divide. As expected, the majority of the least affordable cities are in the South of the country, 17 of the 20 – with only Lichfield, Leicester and York appearing in the Top 20 outside of the South. By contrast, all of the 20 most affordable cities for homebuyers are outside of southern England. Affordability in UK cities is, on average, now at its worst level since the average house price to earnings rose to 7.2 at the height of the last housing market boom in 2008. Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank Mortgage Products Director, commented: “House price rises in the past three years have risen more steeply than average wage growth, making it more expensive to buy a home in the majority of UK cities. This has also widened the North – South divide, as house prices in the South have generally seen stronger growth than in the North. Winchester has recorded the biggest gains over the past decade, whilst London, not surprisingly, has seen the largest growth during the economic recovery of the last five years.” Source link

The project will include three new buildings: one 150,000 sq ft office tower and two residential blocks. Muse is working alongside Network Rail and Manchester City Council to ensure the scheme complements neighbouring developments, including the rail operator’s £44m transformation of Victoria station. The plans are part of Network Rail’s commitment to unlock publicly owned land for new housing. Network Rail head of residential Tim Dickinson said: “Network Rail’s £44m investment at Manchester Victoria station has clearly provided a major catalyst for wider regeneration in the city, delivering much-needed jobs, homes and development opportunities. “This deal with Muse will support Network Rail’s commitment to unlock land for housing while generating income to be reinvested back into the railway.” Muse development director David Burkinshaw added: “New Victoria presents a unique opportunity to deliver a landmark development next to the city centre’s prime leisure and retail attractions and one of the North-west’s main transport hubs. “New Victoria offers an unparalleled location and an outstanding development opportunity.” Source link

Despite typically having to pay for the privilege of having a background check conducted on themselves, most renters don’t perform the same due diligence on their potential landlord, leaving them at risk of renting from dodgy or criminal landlords. The study, by London removals firm Kiwi Movers, also found that renters in London are the least likely to research a potential landlord, with the highly competitive property marketing cited as the number one reason for not doing so. The study also found that only 20% of UK renters do any sort of check on their landlord before agreeing a tenancy and this figure drops to just 8% for London with almost half of renters in the capital saying they’re prepared to ‘take what they can get’.   Interestingly, also revealed was that more than a quarter of renters would prefer to rent from a female. According to the data, 44% of women would prefer to rent from another woman. Women are more likely than men to background check a landlord – 24% of women vs 15% of men Other key points highlighted were: • 1 in 5 believe renting from an agency meant they didn’t need to worry about landlord credentials or history.   • 18% of those who did find useful negative information on a landlord say it affected their decision to rent from that person.   • Renters in Liverpool most likely to check out a landlord online before renting.   Of those that have researched a potential landlord, 43% said they found some useful information, with 18% of those saying they found ‘negative’ information. More than half (53%) of those that found negative information, in the form of a review, news article or details of legal issues, said it influenced their decision to rent from that person.   Just 8% of London residents do any kind of background check on their landlord, 62% below the national average of 20%. London residents are also the least likely to act on information about a potential landlord, with fewer than half (44%) of them saying negative the information had influenced a housing decision. In other words, the need to secure a property was greater than their need to rent with confidence.   Renters in Liverpool are most likely to carry out background checks on their landlord. A third of the city’s residents say they’ve performed a background check on a landlord before agreeing to move into a property. Cities with renters most likely to check out a potential landlord City % of renters who have checked out a landlord before renting (national average – 20%) Liverpool 33.30% Swansea 31.63% Southampton 26.83% Leicester 24.33% Glasgow 24.07% Sheffield 23.37% Brighton and Hove 23.30% Cardiff 23.00% Portsmouth 21.73% Birmingham 21.00% Case study: Billie Gianfrancesco a PR manager has been renting in London since 2008 and is on her fifth rental property. “In my experience, female landlords tend to work more closely with property managers or put a system in place whereby tenants can resolve any issues quickly without needing to bother or chase them. I’ve found that male landlords prefer to try and resolve the issue themselves first. This often means repeat visits in person, which makes any tenant nervous, and a greater recurrence of botched DIY repairs. In one situation an upstairs bath was leaking, and our male landlord visited four times attempting to fix the issue himself. Because of this, the problem wasn’t resolved for over a month. I faced a similar issue a couple of years later with a female landlord – she called in a professional and the issue was resolved within a week As a female tenant, I also prefer to deal with a female landlady as in my personal experience, I have at times felt intimidated by male landlords. This is particularly true when dealing with the inventory check out and deposit negotiations at the end of a tenancy. I have in the past felt patronised by certain male landlords quoting ridiculous prices for repairs (for example £768 to replace a chipped slate tile on an outdoor porch, and £1,020 to replace a 20 year old alarm system with a brand new one, when multiple technicians had confirmed it was broken due to age) and as recently as this year, I was threatened by a male landlord for disagreeing with his deposit deduction demands above. I’ve never had this experience with a female landlord! I’ve also had a great male landlord. It’s just that if I had a preference it would be a female.” Source link

The nine, who were first shortlisted in March this year, have all been invited to tender for the civil engineering package for phase one of HS2, covering London to Birmingham, worth up to £8.6bn (see box, below). Later in the tendering process, successful firms will also be eligible to bid for a further £1.8bn-£3.3bn of work for phase 2a, which covers works from Birmingham up to Crewe. The firms have been invited to tender for the following works packages: Lot S1 – Euston tunnels and approaches (£600m-£900m)   Lot S2 – Northolt tunnels (£850m-£1.4bn)   Lot C1 – Chiltern tunnels and Colne Valley viaduct (£800m-£1.3bn)   Lot C2 – North Portal Chiltern tunnels to Brackley (£800m-£1.3bn)   Lot C3 – Brackley to Long Itchington Wood Green tunnel south portal (£600m-£900m)   Lot N1 – Long Itchington Wood Green tunnel to Delta Junction / Birmingham Spur (£900m-£1.5bn)   Lot N2 – Delta Junction to West Coast Main Line tie-in (£800m-£1.3bn)   Civil engineering contracts covering the 225 km phase one are expected to be signed in 2017, with work starting on site a year later. In total, the first phase of the project is forecast to create 14,600 construction jobs and apprenticeships. Tenderer name Parties (where a consortium or single party, where applicable) Tender list(s)   Align Joint Venture     Bouygues Travaux Publics   VolkerFitzpatrick   Sir Robert McAlpine     Lot S2   Lot C1   Lot C2   Lot C3     ASL     Acciona Infraestructuras S.A.   John Sisk & Son (Holdings)   Lagan Construction Group     Lot C3     Balfour Beatty VINCI BeMo (BBV)     Balfour Beatty Group   Vinci Construction Grands Projets   Vinci Construction UK   Vinci Construction Terrassement   BeMo Tunnelling     Lot C1   Lot C2   Lot N1   Lot N2     Catalyst     Bechtel     Lot C3     Carillion-Eiffage-Kier (CEK)      Carillion Construction   Eiffage Genie Civil   Kier Infrastructure and Overseas     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot C2   Lot C3     Fusion     Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure   Bam Nuttall   Ferrovial Agroman (UK)     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot N1   Lot N2     LFM     Laing O’Rourke Construction   FCC Construccion   J Murphy and Sons     Lot C1   Lot N1   Lot N2     Momentum Infrastructure     Dragados SA   Hochtief Infrastructure   Galliford Try Infrastructure     Lot S1   Lot C2   Lot C3   Lot N2     SCS     Skanska Construction (UK)   Costain   Strabag AG     Lot S1   Lot S2   Lot C1   Lot N1   Source link