MODERNISING operational policing requirements, work has commenced on the £55m redevelopment of Hertfordshire Constabulary headquarters, delivering a flexible and agile workspace for 600 operational staff. The new space, which involves the demolishment and consolidation of five buildings, will be set across 9,000 sqm and provide a new home for services
Proposals to transform the underused Eastpoint Business Park in Oxford into a new flagship life science campus have been approved for planning by Oxford City Council. Designed by Scott Brownrigg for Railpen, the scheme will bring an additional 200,000 sq ft much needed life science space to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc
Leading retirement BTR developer launches its first London community after recognising high and growing demand for housing suitable for older people in the capital Birchgrove, the UK’s leading provider of rented retirement homes, has today opened the doors to its fourth development, its first to open in the Greater London
MULTI-DISCIPLINE principal contractor, Miller Knight, is set to host its first annual Building Safety Forum on 6 November at the iconic Villa Park, home to Aston Villa football club. The event will centre on some of the major challenges the construction and property management sector are facing, predominantly in light
The new government’s net zero priorities and the impact of a Trump presidency on global climate action will be top of the agenda at Net Zero Festival 2024 next week (October 22-23 at the Business Design Centre in London). The UK’s leading event dedicated to accelerating the net zero transition
Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has begun construction of its latest hotel development in Manchester at Rochdale Road to the north of the city centre. GMI Construction Group, which Whitbread appointed as principal contractor to the project in July 2024, will lead the
Last Energy, a US-based energy start-up, has announced ambitious plans to develop a £300 million micro-modular nuclear power plant scheme in South Wales. The project aims to deliver four innovative 20 MWe micro-modular nuclear units, generating a total of 80 MWe – enough to power approximately 244,000 homes annually. The
…New VDI environment avoids downtime worth £1.79 million, with staff costs totalling £35,000 saved using the ControlUp platform… ControlUp, at the forefront of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management, today announced that SimpsonHaugh Architects, a UK-based, award-winning and respected practice, is utilising the ControlUp DEX platform to monitor and optimise its
Croudace Homes has revealed ambitious growth plans over the next decade, with a target to more than double the turnover from its current £200m to £500m by 2033. The growth plans are spearheaded by Adrian Watts, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2023. Founded in 1946 by Jack
Environment Bank, the leading Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) provider, has announced the strategic expansion of its leadership team with the appointments of Jonathan Lydiard-Wilson as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Henry Burn as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). These key additions to the leadership team underscore the company’s commitment to driving
MODERNISING operational policing requirements, work has commenced on the £55m redevelopment of Hertfordshire Constabulary headquarters, delivering a flexible and agile workspace for 600 operational staff. The new space, which involves the demolishment and consolidation of five buildings, will be set across 9,000 sqm and provide a new home for services and departments including the major crime unit, victim services and dog unit, along with the senior leadership team and operational support staff. Targeting BREEAM Excellent for ultra-high sustainability standards, the building is also set to include heat recovery units, solar panels, and sustainable drainage systems, while the new building will also respond to modern working requirements by prioritising hot desking and wellbeing initiatives in its design. Multi-disciplinary consultancy Pick Everard, is behind the scheme, operating via Perfect Circle, in a technical advisory role from RIBA Stage 3 under the SCAPE Consultancy framework. The firm is working closely with Hertfordshire Constabulary and contractor Willmott Dixon to bring the project to fruition. Andy Robinson, director at Pick Everard, said: “This project recognises Pick Everard’s commitment to supporting the UK’s blue light sectors, providing industry-leading expertise that enables police, healthcare, and other emergency services to support its staff and the surrounding community effectively. “Policing is a job unlike any other, and with it comes its own unique considerations in design. Key to this is the thorough stakeholder management programme established on the project, which will result in a flexible workspace that responds to current need while being scalable for the future. “Working closely with Hertfordshire Constabulary and Willmott Dixon, we’re looking forward to the new space delivering a lasting legacy for police services across Welwyn Garden City.” As well as helping reduce the current Stanborough estate’s long-term running costs, the new building is also targeting a WELL Platinum Certification, a major benchmark for advancing health and wellbeing within a single building. Stewart Brundell, managing director at Willmott Dixon in North London and Northern Homes Counties, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside Hertfordshire Constabulary to deliver its new headquarters. As a proud Hertfordshire-based company, it is fantastic to be starting on site to provide a new facility for our county’s police force. “This project follows on from our successful delivery of the Bedfordshire Police’s new custody suite. The new HQ will provide Hertfordshire Constabulary’s people with a sustainable, flexible working environment which can be utilised for police and community groups as well.” Victoria Brambini, chief executive at Perfect Circle, said: “This project is a prime example of where Perfect Circle can add real value to the public sector. Commissioning our industry-leading consultancy experts at Pick Everard, we will provide the technical expertise for the redevelopment of the headquarters of Hertfordshire Constabulary, alongside ensuring the building will meet exceptional sustainability targets. “I’m delighted the project will be delivered through both SCAPE’s Consultancy and Construction frameworks, demonstrating that as SCAPE partners, we can provide all that is needed to deliver projects from start to finish.” Mark Robinson, group chief executive at the SCAPE group, added: “With sustainability in mind, the redevelopment of the headquarters of Hertfordshire Constabulary will provide a much-improved flexible work environment for the county’s police force. “This is a significant project for us as through the SCAPE consultancy framework, SCAPE and Perfect Circle will play an integral role in supplying consultancy services and expert advisory solutions in relation to the complexities of the project. SCAPE is also working in close collaboration with Willmott Dixon through the SCAPE Construction Framework, to deliver efficiency and cost savings throughout the project.” Designed by Vincent & Gorbing Architects, work will complete in summer 2026 on the new headquarters. For more information on Pick Everard and the services it provides, visit: www.pickeverard.co.uk/ Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Proposals to transform the underused Eastpoint Business Park in Oxford into a new flagship life science campus have been approved for planning by Oxford City Council. Designed by Scott Brownrigg for Railpen, the scheme will bring an additional 200,000 sq ft much needed life science space to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc and provide a focal point for interaction with STEM and educational outreach within the local community. The site for the new life science campus is located adjacent to The Oxford Academy, five miles southeast of Oxford city centre in the district of Littlemore. Three four-storey laboratory buildings and a single storey amenity building are carefully positioned to buffer noise and pollution from the A road to the North, define a new public space, and enhance permeability across the site. Each fully serviced building is designed to suit a range of tenants and provide flexibility in occupancy, with 55% CL2 laboratory and 45% office space to support cutting-edge research and collaboration. A contextual material palette with distinctive horizontal banding and vertical flues references Oxford’s history while ensuring comfortable and naturally lit spaces within and views out. An emphasis on facilitating safe pedestrianised movement, activating ground floor frontages, and provision of high- quality public amenities supports the creation of an inclusive environment that contributes positively to the social, ecological, and educational fabric of Littlemore. A ‘Learning Lab’ will provide local students with access to state-of-the- art facilities and interactions with professionals in the field, while a publicly accessible café, social hub and green space will create a communal focus at the heart of the site. The scheme targets BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, WELL, Wired and Smart Platinum and Cycle Score Platinum with features such as the ‘Travel & Energy hub’ to promote sustainable travel and pocket parks with integrated planting to enhance user wellbeing. A fabric first approach combined with the latest building technology, renewable energy, and biodiverse balconies and roofscapes will reduce embodied and operational carbon and enhance biodiversity on site. Ed Hayden, Director and Head of Life Sciences at Scott Brownrigg said: “Securing planning approval for the Eastpoint Life Science Campus is a significant milestone in our vision to create world-class research environments. This project not only addresses the growing demand for life science space in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, but also contributes to the community with its focus on education, sustainability, and wellbeing. We’re excited to see how this campus will foster innovation and bring global talent to Oxford.” The new Eastpoint life science campus development is a cutting-edge facility designed to attract to industry leading talent from around the world. With a flexible, community focused design and commitment to sustainability, the new campus is poised to become a leader in life sciences in the Oxford market. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Leading retirement BTR developer launches its first London community after recognising high and growing demand for housing suitable for older people in the capital Birchgrove, the UK’s leading provider of rented retirement homes, has today opened the doors to its fourth development, its first to open in the Greater London area. The development, Ayrton House in Mill Hill, North London, contains a mixture of 60 self-contained, one-, two- and three-bed apartments, all purpose built on the site of a historic former medical research institute. Communal features of the development include a restaurant, club room, licensed bar and wellness suite, as well as landscaped gardens. The development marks Birchgrove’s first Greater London community and was set in motion in September last year, when it acquired Ayrton House. It is also planning to open a development in West London, having now obtained planning permission for 50 apartments on a site it purchased in Chiswick in 2022. A further site being built in the Hampton Court Estate is also aimed at the West London market, with its location just a few hundred metres from the famous Hampton Court Palace in Richmond. Honor Barratt, Chief Executive of Birchgrove, said:“Birchgrove is going from strength to strength and we’re excited to have our fourth development now open, particularly as it is our very first in London, where we know demand for senior living is especially high. “It’s a common misconception among some sectors that once they get older, people want to move to the country or live by the seaside. Surveys frequently show that many retired people want to live in the bustling Capital with all its cultural attractions and this is particularly true for those who’ve lived there a long time. “We know from previous research that many older Londoners live in homes far too big for them, with over-75s in the Capital typically having at least twice the number of bedrooms they need. In a city with such a tight housing market, freeing up some of these homes could contribute to improving the overall housing situation across many demographics. “Many older people would be interested in moving to smaller properties if more suitable local options were on offer. By providing a thriving community as we open our first London development, we’re hoping we can attract more of these people into our development and eventually, roll out more London communities for those who want to continue to live in the Capital but without the burden of maintaining a property too large for them.” A report released by Age Concern in September last year revealed there were 1.4 million people aged over 60 living in London and that this group was the fastest growing demographic in the Capital. Of these, 59% felt positive about living in London, rising to 64% of those aged 75 and over. The report also found that many Londoners had deep connections to the area, with 76% reporting being happy with their family and community connections and only 16% often feeling lonely. The report also found that 70% of older Londoners owned their own home. However, many of those homes are underoccupied and could be put to better use if older Londoners had more suitable options for downsizing. Previous research carried out by Professor Les Mayhew of the International Longevity Centre and Bayes Business School found that over-75s in the capital had more than twice the number of bedrooms they needed, while those aged 65-74 had 70% more bedrooms than necessary. Birchgrove’s new Mill Hill apartments are exclusively available to independently minded people in later life. In keeping with other Birchgrove developments, all of the residences are future proof, with level-access bathrooms, wider-than-standard doorways and lifts. In addition, all Ayrton House apartments have been fitted with Nobi smart lights. These AI-driven intelligent lights are designed to detect, help prevent and even predict falls among occupants. The building is the centrepiece of the “Ridgeway Views” residential scheme, a 47-acre, 528-home project in Mill Hill’s conservation area, with many of Birchgrove’s residences having sweeping views over Totteridge Common. Founded in 2017, Birchgrove also operates three other retirement communities in the South-East, with one of these now at full capacity and operating a waiting list. It has a fifth development set to open before the end of this year in Godalming, Surrey, and four additional communities under construction. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
MULTI-DISCIPLINE principal contractor, Miller Knight, is set to host its first annual Building Safety Forum on 6 November at the iconic Villa Park, home to Aston Villa football club. The event will centre on some of the major challenges the construction and property management sector are facing, predominantly in light of the country’s legislative changes surrounding building safety and fire regulations. Bringing together industry leaders, the Building Safety Forum will serve as a platform to explore key regulatory updates, initiate conversations, and encourage collaboration, while aiming to create the future of a safer and more accountable built environment. With speakers from BB7, TFT, Quelfire, Blackhurst Budd, the Fire Protection Association (FPA) and Miller Knight’s team of experts themselves, attendees will gain insights into the changing regulatory landscape and the robust fire protection safeguarding solutions needed for the future. The event comes in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell disaster, which has been a catalyst for a stringent focus on building safety and compliance. The Building Safety Forum aims to ensure that the industry continues to use past failures as grounds to improve building practices that adhere to the highest safety standards. Wayne Woodland, business development director at Miller Knight, said: “We have all witnessed the devasting consequences of non-compliance. To ensure tragic events of the past are never repeated, we must take responsibility and unite the industry around a shared goal of safeguarding health and safety. “With the Building Safety Forum, we aim to move the conversation from talk to action. The event provides the much-needed opportunity for collaboration between key industry professionals, combining our expertise to create a safer, more compliant and sustainable future.” As a leading name in remedial fire protection and refurbishment, Miller Knight is known for delivering high-quality passive fire protection services across the UK. The company specialises in fire stopping, fire doors, and compartmentation services, ensuring that buildings not only meet current safety standards but are also future proofed against changes in regulations. The Building Safety Forum aligns with Miller Knight’s long-term commitment to advancing safety and compliance. By facilitating dialogue and sharing expert knowledge and experiences, the event will help to generate an industry wide conversation as a new regime of regulation continues to work its way into the process of remediation and refurbishment projects. For more information and to register for the event, contact: enquiries@miller-knight.com Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
The new government’s net zero priorities and the impact of a Trump presidency on global climate action will be top of the agenda at Net Zero Festival 2024 next week (October 22-23 at the Business Design Centre in London). The UK’s leading event dedicated to accelerating the net zero transition will bring together 2,000 business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and campaigners across two days to showcase the best of the UK’s green economy and explore strategies for turbocharging decarbonisation. New Labour MP and environmental campaigner Polly Billington, green entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince and Google’s sustainability lead Adam Elman are among the more than 150 expert speakers leading keynotes, panel discussions and workshops during the event. Other speakers will include: Now in its fifth year, the CPD accredited event remains free to attend, and will this year feature keynotes, presentations, panel discussions, and workshops across four stages: Inspiration, Action, Engage, and Showcase. Meanwhile visitors can upgrade their ticket to gain access new arena, the BusinessGreen Intelligence stage, which will provide a series of deep-dive sessions, offering exclusive insights into how to develop a best-in-class net zero strategy. James Murray, co-founder of Net Zero Festival and editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen said: “Action on climate change is more critical than ever, so this year’s Net Zero Festival promises to be our most impactful yet. “We’ve seen an incredible surge in interest in this year’s event, reflecting the urgency and importance of the net zero agenda and how serious it is being taken by our new government. Our focus now is to convert this enthusiasm into actionable collaboration during the festival and so we are bringing together a diverse group of leaders to collaborate on tangible solutions for a sustainable future.” Keynotes, panel discussions and workshops will include: To secure your place at the Net Zero Festival 2024, register at netzerofestival.com/register. Attendees can upgrade their free tickets to access the BusinessGreen Intelligence Stage for specialised content tailored to sustainability executives and green business leaders. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has begun construction of its latest hotel development in Manchester at Rochdale Road to the north of the city centre. GMI Construction Group, which Whitbread appointed as principal contractor to the project in July 2024, will lead the delivery of the 229-bedroom 10-storey Premier Inn. The company marked the start of construction with a ground-breaking event on-site. Whitbread acquired the consented Rochdale Road development site from Premcor in February 2024 as part of its ongoing strategy of investing in strategic locations where its hotel brands are under-represented. The hotel will feature Premier Inn’s very latest bedroom product, including its popular enhanced Premier Plus rooms, with a stylish integrated restaurant, bar, and reception space on the ground floor. Will Steward, Project and Programme Manager for Whitbread, said: “Manchester is a hot spot for Whitbread’s development team as we expand our hotel network in the places we want to grow. The Rochdale Road Premier Inn will bring our very best product to the north of the Northern Quarter – an area of the city where we are not heavily represented and where we know our customers want Premier Inn to be. “As an operating hotel business, our goal is to turn our development sites into popular hotels for our guests quickly. Since acquiring the Rochdale Road site in February, we have done an awful lot to enable the once stalled scheme to proceed including the appointment of GMI Construction as principal contractor in July. “With building work now underway, we are on our way to having a new location for our customers to enjoy in 2026, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to deliver the significant new opening.” Rochdale Road is the latest strategic investment by Whitbread in Manchester this calendar year. On 23rd September [2024] the company announced its intention to create the largest Premier Inn in the north of England at Manchester Airport with MIX MANCHESTER. In May, it announced the disposal of its Manchester City Centre (Deansgate Locks) hotel for redevelopment into alternative uses. When it opens its doors, the Premier Inn hotel at Rochdale Road will be one of Whitbread’s largest hotels in Manchester and adds to a portfolio of more than 20 locations across the city. Anthony Judge, Regional director for GMI Construction, said: “Following on from GMI and Whitbread’s collaboration in delivery of the nationally recognised and impressive Premier Inn development in Keswick, its brilliant to see our partnership go from strength to strength. This latest development in the iconic Northern Quarter of Manchester will be a striking new addition to the skyline with its remarkable brickwork façade. We are delighted to be a part of this major project and greatly look forward to progressing with this scheme.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Last Energy, a US-based energy start-up, has announced ambitious plans to develop a £300 million micro-modular nuclear power plant scheme in South Wales. The project aims to deliver four innovative 20 MWe micro-modular nuclear units, generating a total of 80 MWe – enough to power approximately 244,000 homes annually. The plants will be built in Bridgend County, on the former Llynfi Power Station site, with completion of the first unit expected by 2027, pending regulatory approvals. Last Energy’s cutting-edge technology promises a clean, reliable alternative to fossil fuels, marking a key step in the UK’s push for sustainable energy solutions. Boost for the Local Economy and Clean Energy Goals This project is not only a major development in the UK’s energy landscape but also a significant investment in the local economy. Around 100 full-time jobs will be created for the Bridgend community, with at least 10% of procurement sourced from local suppliers, injecting £30 million into the region. The micro-modular plants, known as PWR-20, are designed with advanced modular technology, allowing components to be pre-fabricated, transported, and assembled on-site in just 24 months – similar to assembling a “LEGO kit.” This approach ensures faster construction and lower costs, with the entire project funded privately, without public investment. A Strategic Step for UK Energy Security and Decarbonisation This initiative aligns with both UK and Welsh Government goals. By providing clean, reliable power to local manufacturers, it supports industrial decarbonisation and contributes to the Welsh Government’s 2030 net-zero targets. It also bolsters the UK government’s long-term strategy to expand nuclear capacity, enhancing energy security. With Last Energy’s investment, South Wales is set to play a pivotal role in the UK’s transition to a sustainable energy future. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
…New VDI environment avoids downtime worth £1.79 million, with staff costs totalling £35,000 saved using the ControlUp platform… ControlUp, at the forefront of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management, today announced that SimpsonHaugh Architects, a UK-based, award-winning and respected practice, is utilising the ControlUp DEX platform to monitor and optimise its new VDI environment in real-time. SimpsonHaugh is making a £1.21 million investment over several years to digitally transform by introducing VDI and AI technology to underpin the future development and operations of the business. Industry leading solutions have been installed including Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop, Citrix NetScaler, VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Dell Servers with vSAN storage, NVIDIA vGPU and ControlUp’s DEX platform which is providing VDI performance analytics and remediation. Adopting VDI was driven by a strategic decision to centralise IT on-premise at SimpsonHaugh’s headquarters in Manchester, improve remote-working, support a work-life balance for staff and boost project collaboration by not being constrained by physical workstations. The IT team also wanted to avoid the complexity, time and expense of managing systems over three locations given the practice also has offices in London and Birmingham. Furthermore, many workstations – high end PCs each costing up to £6,500 – were becoming end of life, unreliable, consuming a lot of power and needed to be upgraded. The new VDI platform supports agile working yet is optimised to run GPU-intensive architectural applications like Revit, Rhino, Enscape and SketchUp – crucial to delivering customer projects on time, in what is an ever-demanding industry. “Architecture is a heavy user of graphics-based IT. Building Information Modelling is now adopted pervasively, producing large volumes of data and consuming substantial compute. Clients recognise the technology improvements so the expectations about the visuals and data provided are growing,” says Dave Moyes, partner, information and digital systems. “Ten years ago, we might have created 500 drawings for a project. Today, it’s at least double. Projects are increasingly complex and time scales are tight. The pressure to be quick and agile while creating quality design proposals which optimise a client’s brief is therefore considerable. It is no exaggeration to say that ICT to support this is indispensable.” SimpsonHaugh’s ICT strategy involves keeping technology simple for staff to use. The business is project delivery and ‘time charge’ based. ICT system availability is paramount given downtime has material impact on this. UK managed service provider and digital workspace consultancy, ebb3, was selected to support with the roll out and have been instrumental in the design, implementation and management of the VDI environment. ebb3 also provides SimpsonHaugh technical 2nd and 3rd line support. “The transition to VDI is being phased. SimpsonHaugh is running a hybrid environment – both virtual desktops and physical desktops – so as to capitalise on its existing investment in expensive workstations,” explains Jav Fiaz, ebb3’s Technical Architect & Senior Platform Engineer. “A key project goal was to keep the compute and data as close as possible to minimise latency which we’ve delivered.” Moyes adds, “If virtual desktops aren’t resourced properly – and applications freeze or suffer from latency – staff will blame the “new system”. Guaranteeing the end-user experience is vital. Monitoring in real-time using ControlUp’s DEX platform identifies which applications are hogging resources so that remedies can be considered like adding RAM, GPU or ‘throttling down’ software which is compute intensive.” SimpsonHaugh is experiencing significant benefits through the combination of VDI and ControlUp’s DEX platform: Project next steps SimpsonHaugh is currently working to expand its VDI environment to cover the whole business. This will take 3-5 years to complete. The strategy is to replace workstations as they approach end of life rather than waste perfectly good IT equipment. In addition, SimpsonHaugh is upgrading its corporate network to a 25 Gigabit Ethernet backbone to further support the end-user experience. The practice is also purchasing higher resolution 2k and 4k screens for staff and introducing Nutanix data storage to manage the virtual server environment. SimpsonHaugh is also working on other ICT innovation projects such as introducing privately hosted AI using private data across the practice (where powerful networking and compute is paramount) – a key priority given the impact AI is making on the architecture profession. Private AI is the only option because of client project confidentiality issues – where strict NDAs are signed – with SimpsonHaugh using three types of AI engine: “The project to introduce VDI and our DEX platform has boosted operational performance at SimpsonHaugh and put in place infrastructure to support the practice’s needs in the future,” says Robert Ellis, UK Sales Director at ControlUp. “End-users cannot tell whether they are using a physical workstation or desktop served by VDI – the implementation has been that well managed – and the speed of roll out was fast and disruption minimal because of extensive pre-implementation design and planning work carried out by ebb3.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Croudace Homes has revealed ambitious growth plans over the next decade, with a target to more than double the turnover from its current £200m to £500m by 2033. The growth plans are spearheaded by Adrian Watts, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2023. Founded in 1946 by Jack Brotherton-Ratcliffe, Croudace Homes’ first sites were delivered in Surrey to meet the rising shortage of housing stock during the post-war building boom, before expanding across the entirety of the south-east of England in the 1980s. Today, the housebuilder has three regions in Caterham, Letchworth and the recently opened Theale. As part of the growth plans, a Midlands office is scheduled to open over the next few years, which will see Croudace Homes develop in this area of the country for the first time in its history. With more than 35 years’ experience in the industry, Adrian has held Director positions with housebuilding giants Bellway, Redrow and Persimmon prior to joining Croudace Homes in 2019. Adrian initially joined as Managing Director of Croudace Homes’ North Thames region, before being promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2022. Adrian comments: “I’m excited to share our growth strategy, which will increase our development portfolio from 600 homes per year to around 1,200 across all regions. Historically, the business has always looked five years ahead, but as we are targeting ambitious figures, it felt prudent to deliver a longer-term plan. We are pivoting our operations in a number of ways, such as increasing our long-term strategic land, investing in sustainable construction methods, and expanding our development patch across the entire South of England, and eventually beginning to head north to the Midlands. “A change of government has reinvigorated the housing market, particularly for SMEs such as ourselves. The proposed measures to the industry, in particular a reform of planning regulations, will reduce time-intensive and frankly expensive applications and instead incentivise developers to press on and deliver great quality homes.” Caspar Brotherton, the grandson of Croudace Homes’ founder and non-executive Group Chairman, comments: “We are ready to take the next step and set far-reaching targets to deliver growth over the next decade. We are confident that Adrian and the Board of Directors will successfully lead us through this exciting period of expansion whilst retaining our core company values for prioritising the wellbeing of our staff and building high quality sustainable homes backed up with a first-class customer service.” Croudace Homes currently has more than a dozen live developments, ranging from larger sites such as the 830-home Hermitage Park on the edge of ancient woodland in Maidstone, Kent, and 600-home mixed-use scheme Willowbrook Park in Didcot, Oxfordshire, to more boutique developments such as Wisteria Gate in Romsey, Southampton. To find out more about Croudace Homes, visit www.croudacehomes.co.uk Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Environment Bank, the leading Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) provider, has announced the strategic expansion of its leadership team with the appointments of Jonathan Lydiard-Wilson as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Henry Burn as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). These key additions to the leadership team underscore the company’s commitment to driving its mission of reversing biodiversity loss while scaling to meet growing demand for their high-integrity Biodiversity Units for the regulatory Biodiversity Net Gain and emerging voluntary nature markets. Jonathan (Jo) joins as CSO, where he will develop and execute Environment Bank’s strategic direction to position the business as the leading provider of nature-based solutions, utilising private investment to accelerate nature recovery at pace. Jo brings a wealth of experience in developing new business models that deliver long-term value in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and impact sectors. Formerly Partner at Accenture, Jo was the global lead for energy management and co-ordinator for the Energy Transition where he played a key role in driving the growth of Energy Transition Services across the business and was responsible for the coordination of key business channels. He was also the International CEO for a global energy and sustainability consultancy that was later acquired by Accenture. In addition, Jo has been a Trustee of the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). Henry Burn joins as CRO, bringing over a decade of experience in driving revenue growth and executing successful business strategies within high-growth start-up environments. Henry excels at building teams, infrastructure, and processes from the ground up, and has a proven track record in implementing innovative products and customer acquisition strategies that exceed revenue targets. Prior to joining Environment Bank, Henry was the Vice President of Commercial at Hubble where he oversaw profitability routes and commercial strategy to emphasise sustainable growth. In his new role, Henry will be responsible for unlocking new strategic opportunities for Environment Bank’s off-site Biodiversity Units, offering developers in England an effective solution for meeting its new BNG obligations that came into force this year. Environment Bank has already seen a £160m pipeline of Biodiversity Unit enquiries, demonstrating strong demand for its product. Commenting on the appointments, Catherine Spitzer, CEO of Environment Bank, said:“The appointments come at a crucial moment for Environment Bank, as we continue to expand our nature recovery efforts nationally. By bringing Jo and Henry on board, we strengthen our leadership team and position ourselves as market leaders in delivering nature-based solutions that help businesses meet their biodiversity goals with tangible and long-term benefit for the natural environment. “Jo and Henry’s deep industry expertise, strategic acumen, and proven leadership will be instrumental in shaping the future of Environment Bank. Their addition underscores the strength of our team and the significant progress we’ve made so far, while also highlighting the immense opportunity ahead as we execute deliver a sustainable legacy for future generations.” Environment Bank has already established a network of 28 Habitat Banks over almost 2000 acres across England – with more than 20 additional sites already in development. It has a team of 85 experts working across ecology, land management, planning, and legal services. Its clients comprise SME and major housebuilders alongside significant commercial, utility, energy, and infrastructure developers. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
