Charitable housing association, Yorkshire Housing, has acquired an 18-acre development site on Boroughbridge Road in Knaresborough, where it now plans to build 120 homes that will be available through a wide range of ownership options. Dacre, Son & Hartley’s specialist agricultural and development division has managed the land, which forms
Food production could be in full swing by the end of the year at a giant new Derbyshire industrial site. That’s if a planning application submitted by SmartParc gets the go-ahead in the near future. The company has applied to create a 155-acre, hi-tech food manufacturing campus on the former
STANLEY Security, one of the UK’s leading security providers, has published its annual report looking at security industry trends, challenges and opportunities to look out for in the coming year. The 2021 Industry Trends Report is based on a survey of business decision makers to learn more about organisations’ perceptions
Midlands based company Biosite is working with HS2 developing the new initiative to boost health and safety and competency insight across the supply chain HS2 and its contractors have taken a major step in improving health and safety assurance across sites between London and the West Midlands by introducing a
A digital property management platform which promises to simplify property management transactions for buy-to-let landlords, tenants and trades will soon launch an equity campaign on Crowdcube, the leading crowdfunding platform in the UK. Clooper has been developed to bring property transactions into the 21st century and offers a multi-faceted platform
A property maintenance company is celebrating the academic success of its only female service manager. Stacey Bowling, who works at Platform Property Care – a subsidiary of one of the UK’s largest social landlords, Platform Housing Group – has recently passed an HNC in Construction with flying colours. Stacey – who manages the organisation’s unoccupied properties in both Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, began her
Employee-owned packaging business, Kite Packaging, has expanded its range of packaging for the food industry by adding wax lined boxes to their leading b2b ecommerce website. Wax lined boxes, also commonly referred to as ‘meat boxes’ are suitable for direct contact with food thanks to their PE (wax lining) and
Panattoni is delivering a 2.3 million sq ft logistics centre in Swindon for a major internet retailer which will be the biggest single-asset logistics letting, and funding deal, ever negotiated in the UK. The building in Swindon occupies a 68-acre site with dual carriageway access five minutes north of the
National engineering specialist, SES Engineering Services (SES), is set to save 8,000 labour hours by using offsite to deliver £23m of works at the Springfield Hospital redevelopment in Tooting, South London. Working alongside main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, SES will provide all mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) works for a
The Willows near Whitstable will provide 54 family units The area is a prime example of a location that will see significant extra pressure on housing post-pandemic as millions choose to work mostly from home Covid-19 is fuelling a rapid expansion in the commuter belt, with workers willing to go
Charitable housing association, Yorkshire Housing, has acquired an 18-acre development site on Boroughbridge Road in Knaresborough, where it now plans to build 120 homes that will be available through a wide range of ownership options. Dacre, Son & Hartley’s specialist agricultural and development division has managed the land, which forms part of the former Slingsby Estate, in the village of Scriven for more than 30 years and the company negotiated the sale together with a national development promotion company. Detailed planning for the development was approved in August 2020. Yorkshire Housing plans to start work on the two, three and four bedroom homes in January 2021 with the first homes ready to move into by January 2022. The housing association currently owns and manages nearly 20,000 homes throughout Yorkshire. Ian Cox, a director from Dacre, Son & Hartley, who heads up the firm’s agricultural and development team, said: “This is a prime, oven-ready development site that sits just over a mile from Knaresborough town centre, so it attracted interest from a wide range of housebuilders and developers. “Agreeing this sale with Yorkshire Housing will deliver a good mix of high-quality homes that will appeal to all demographics, including many who would otherwise find themselves priced out of the market in this part of North Yorkshire.” Andy Gamble, Director of Development at Yorkshire Housing said: “We are delighted to have completed the purchase of this site and are looking forward to starting our latest development. The 120 new homes will be mixed tenure and will provide homes for shared ownership, affordable rent, rent to buy and market sale. “We want to continue creating new communities that bring more, much needed homes to Yorkshire where our customers are proud to live and call home. The creation of 120 new homes in Knaresborough is another step towards us delivering on our strategic priority of delivering 8,000 new homes by 2030.”
Food production could be in full swing by the end of the year at a giant new Derbyshire industrial site. That’s if a planning application submitted by SmartParc gets the go-ahead in the near future. The company has applied to create a 155-acre, hi-tech food manufacturing campus on the former Celanese site at Spondon. It will provide state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, start-up incubation units and a potential location for a food manufacturing technology centre of excellence. The idea is to combine purpose-built food production units and a central distribution facility bringing food producers together on one campus. In the process, it is expected to create up to 5,000 direct jobs. The company’s ambition is to provide a sustainable blueprint for the industry. This will harness the latest developments such as vertical farming and smart technology to improve production and energy efficiency, reducing costs and increasing competitive advantage for the site’s tenants. Vertical farming is a new development and is where crops are grown indoors in stacked layers, mitigating the vagaries of the weather and eliminating the need for pesticides. Jackie Wild, SmartParc chief executive, said: “We are delighted to take another step forward in our plans to put Derby at the heart of the UK’s future in sustainable, efficient food manufacturing. “We are liaising closely with local residents and stakeholders to ensure their views are incorporated in our plans to regenerate the site and exploring SME business and university partnerships to bring our collaborative next-generation sustainable food ecosystem to life. We are proud to be partnering with D2N2 and the city council to re-energise the local region.” Plans for the £300 million SmartParc project were first unveiled last August. Money towards the project has come from the Government’s Getting Building Fund via D2N2 and there is £12 million to help launch the scheme. It is hoped that bringing food producers together will reduce food waste, lower carbon output and increase UK food security. The campus would include a shared energy plant, designed to reduce energy consumption by 30%, and would harness the latest technology to improve production and efficiency, lowering costs by 20%. Councillor Chris Poulter, leader of Derby City Council said: “We are hugely excited to see the SmartParc scheme progressing so quickly and positively. The project fits perfectly with Derby’s future ambitions. “Its focus on innovation and lowering carbon outputs ticks key boxes in our economic recovery strategy. If planning is approved, it would greatly assist our efforts to diversify the city economy. And, of course, the project would create thousands of new jobs and rejuvenate a previously blighted but strategically important site.”
STANLEY Security, one of the UK’s leading security providers, has published its annual report looking at security industry trends, challenges and opportunities to look out for in the coming year. The 2021 Industry Trends Report is based on a survey of business decision makers to learn more about organisations’ perceptions about, interest in and adoption of security technology. This years’ survey included 2,404 respondents across Benelux, France, the Nordics, United Kingdom and United States. Respondents represented organisations of all sizes. Collating and analysing the data from the survey, STANLEY Security has identified several trends that it considers will be increasingly important factors in organisations’ security considerations in 2021. Top of this list is the use of security to mitigate health & safety risks, which is a direct response to the global pandemic. It has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way organisations leverage security solutions to help them ensure the health of their people and visitors. From health questionnaires and temperature screening to contact tracing and controlling people flow, security solutions are now serving as organisations’ first line of defence against health and safety risks. Although these have been implemented in direct response to COVID-19 workplace safety, it will no doubt have a lasting impact on the way organisations view and use security for the foreseeable future. The pandemic has also led many organisations to deploy threshold management solutions – such as health questionnaires, temperature and face mask screening systems and wellness-based credential activation – that automate processes, enforce policies and integrate with other security and business systems. The balance of the focus has moved from visitor management to managing any individual crossing an organisation’s threshold, but without significantly impacting throughput and operations. Health and safety protocols – and the new social distancing norm – has accelerated a long overdue transition to touchless and mobile-first security solutions which will no doubt gain in popularity even more in 2021. These include touchless doors, mobile credentials or NFC-powered access control, automated screening systems and more. The rise of cloud solutions and the XaaS delivery model is a clear trend that has emerged, as more organisations have come to realise that cloud solutions are a lot more resilient than an on-premises service, leading to the accelerated adoption of both cloud-hosted solutions as well as remote services. This is creating more demand for the as-a-service (XaaS) delivery model, which offers cost predictability – particularly important for small to medium-sized businesses. Controlling costs is especially critical as businesses recover from the impact of COVID-19. Further trends highlighted in the report include the increased demand for outsourcing of security management; leveraging security data to help improve processes, increase efficiencies and make more informed business decisions; and an increased demand for flexible, scalable and integrated solutions that enable organisations to quickly adapt to changes in circumstance. Commenting on the release of the report and its contents, Dan Hindley, STANLEY Security UK Commercial Director, said: “Security solutions are more critical than ever to a business’ operations. As organisations continue to face an unpredictable future, we’ll see an increased demand for systems that can help them mitigate risks and future-proof their operations. Additionally, there is a pressing need to manage these systems remotely so that they can have 24-hour coverage – increasing the need for services, such as remote guarding and remote video verification to take over the duties of physical security guards.” To download the STANLEY Security 2021 Industry Trends Report, please visit www.stanleysecurity.co.uk/home/2021-industry-trends
Midlands based company Biosite is working with HS2 developing the new initiative to boost health and safety and competency insight across the supply chain HS2 and its contractors have taken a major step in improving health and safety assurance across sites between London and the West Midlands by introducing a new health and safety passport system. The new digital ‘Health and Safety Passport System’ (HSPS) will be used initially by all of HS2’s Main Works Civils Contractors to share vital health and safety information across contractors. The contract to develop and deliver the new system has been awarded to Solihull based company, Biosite Systems Ltd – the UK market leader in workforce management systems for construction.. HS2 contractors, and their staff, may be working across multiple sites and multiple contracts on the new high speed rail route and the new digital passport system will establish a central database of critical workforce information across the HS2 supply chain. The collection and synchronisation of data from local level to project wide will help to ensure consistency of standards and performance. As well as ensuring only operatives with the correct credentials and skills are permitted access to site, this approach will allow HS2 to track workforce data around areas such as competency mapping, health and safety assessments and fatigue management across the whole project. Where supplier companies and operatives are working across multiple locations, the new system will flag fatigue risks across the project. The software will also de-duplicate worker profiles to establish a single record for each operative, including as they potentially move between contractors working on the project. The introduction of the HSPS is part of HS2’s commitment to become the UK’s safest ever major project, putting safety at the heart of everything on the project. This includes ensuring the safety and welfare of everyone working on the project, right through to protecting the health and safety of the communities where HS2 is being constructed and will operate. The workforce management software solution developed by Biosite will link biometric data directly to operative information and site access for real-time visibility and traceability. Operatives will be required to complete a central online pre-induction before undertaking a local site induction and provide biometric information to generate their global identification or digital ‘passport’. It will be the first time that workforce data will be available to view across a major project via a consolidated platform. The data collated can also be anonymised and provide a learning legacy for future major projects. Emma Head, HS2’s Safety and Assurance Director said: “Health and Safety is at the heart of everything we do as we build Britain’s new high speed railway. We aim to lead by innovation at HS2 and the new Health and Safety Passport System is a pioneering way for us to further our best practice approach to workforce health and safety management. We are pleased to be working with Biosite to deliver the initiative, bringing workforce management for complex projects such as HS2 to the next level.” The a project team consisting of HS2 Ltd, Biosite and HS2’s contractors is now working together to implement the system across HS2 contracts. Li Wang, Managing Director at Biosite Systems Ltd, comments: “We were able to utilise our experience working across HS2 projects to-date to recommend a software solution that will bring together silos of data from JV projects in a central, cloud-based portal through a combination of online induction, biometric data capture through various access control points at site level, and business intelligence software. The solution will focus on ensuring data integrity and synchronicity at every point, to ensure the team at HS2 have access to accurate data that will deliver valuable insight and help support project safety, efficiency and compliance.” The HS2 HSPS initiative is scheduled to go live in spring 2021 with HS2’s Main Works Civils Contractors working on Phase One. It will then be rolled out across the project including to the Station Construction Partner Contractors.
A digital property management platform which promises to simplify property management transactions for buy-to-let landlords, tenants and trades will soon launch an equity campaign on Crowdcube, the leading crowdfunding platform in the UK. Clooper has been developed to bring property transactions into the 21st century and offers a multi-faceted platform connecting landlords, tenants, trades and homeowners to facilitate transactions. The platform will bring benefits to tradespeople who will be able to use the app to connect with landlords and tenants and view and quote for upcoming maintenance and building projects, as well as manage their appointments. The app will streamline all projects, creating jobs alerts and even preparing proposals. Payment requests will also be sent via the app and landlords then also pay via the app. Landlords will be able to share tradespeoples’ details with tenants who can rate their work once it’s complete. Speaking about the upcoming Crowdcube funding launch, founder of Clooper, Toks Adebiyi said, “We are really excited to be bringing Clooper to market. We look to create customer value in everything that we do and we know that the platform will make a huge difference and improve the experience of landlords and tenants whilst bringing fantastic opportunities for tradespeople. It’s a win win all round.” The platform, Clooper, has already received a significant investment from leading property entrepreneur, Paul Rothwell of Empire Property. Rothwell has over a decade of experience in the build to let market and knowledge of the financial investment having raised over £35m through mini bonds. To register your interest on getting exclusive first access to the Clooper Crowdcube funding campaign, please sign up here. Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. Please Invest Aware.
A property maintenance company is celebrating the academic success of its only female service manager. Stacey Bowling, who works at Platform Property Care – a subsidiary of one of the UK’s largest social landlords, Platform Housing Group – has recently passed an HNC in Construction with flying colours. Stacey – who manages the organisation’s unoccupied properties in both Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, began her career in social housing 12 years ago at the age of 17. She explained: “Working in social housing has been the best career decision I could have made. To begin with the jobs I worked in provided back office support within Repairs and Maintenance; I was keen to develop my skills however and ultimately move into a more technical role. As I had no specialist trade experience or qualifications I thought my options would be extremely limited; I couldn’t have been further from the truth!” All employees at Platform Property Care receive a career development plan with the chance to gain formal qualifications. Stacey has been supported in her studies – including an NVQ Level 3 in Management, a BTEC Level 3 in Workforce Development and a Level 2 Certificate in Contracts Law – culminating in a BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Construction and the Built Environment, giving her an indepth knowledge of subjects including construction technology and surveying. Stacey is now studying for an NVQ Level 4 in Construction Site Supervision. Malcolm Kaszics, Assistant Director of Property Management and Growth at Platform Property Care said : “We are so proud of Stacey; her success is testimony to her hard work and dedication. Interestingly, women make up a mere 11 per cent of the construction workforce in the UK and just 1 per cent of workers on site; indeed, the proportion of those with specialist skills such as roofers, bricklayers and glaziers are so low they are practically unmeasurable. However, here at Platform Property Care we strongly feel that the role of women in construction is critical for equality, fairness, parity and impartially within the construction sector. Congratulations to Stacey and we look forward to her continuing career success.” Stacey concluded : “I am proud to work for Platform Property Care and hope my contribution will help us to achieve our aims as a social housing provider. I have never felt that my gender or age has held me back and I am passionate about women developing careers in what are seen as traditional male roles. My aim is to continue to learn and improve every day and be part of something that really does change lives.” Platform Property Care continues to grow and has ambitious plans to deliver the majority of its maintenance and compliance activities to all its customers and joint venture partners. For further information please contact Stacey Bowling, Service Manager, Platform Property Care on 0121 788 7804 or email her at stacey.bowling@platformhg.com.
Employee-owned packaging business, Kite Packaging, has expanded its range of packaging for the food industry by adding wax lined boxes to their leading b2b ecommerce website. Wax lined boxes, also commonly referred to as ‘meat boxes’ are suitable for direct contact with food thanks to their PE (wax lining) and are strong, robust, fibre-based, solid board boxes ideal for packing moist and chilled solutions, even in humid environments. One of their added benefits is that food can be directly frozen or stored in the box without the need for additional bags, however, if additional bags are favourable, they can be used in conjunction with Kites range of blue tint gusseted bags. Commonly used within the food industry to transport or store raw meat, poultry, cakes, vegetables and much more, they are available in two sizes, both of which are easy and simple to erect. For more information on Kite Packaging and their range of goods and services, please visit, kitepackaging.co.uk.
Panattoni is delivering a 2.3 million sq ft logistics centre in Swindon for a major internet retailer which will be the biggest single-asset logistics letting, and funding deal, ever negotiated in the UK. The building in Swindon occupies a 68-acre site with dual carriageway access five minutes north of the M4 J15. With a footprint of 625,000 sq ft, the building includes three internal, multi-level structural floors totalling 1,642,000 sq ft, 66,000 sq ft of offices on the ground floor and a further 70,000 sq ft of amenity areas. Planning was awarded in August 2020 and the first of 3,500 steel piles were driven a month later. Practical Completion of the BREEAM Excellent rated facility is due Q4 2021. A spokesman from Panattoni said: “The tenant requires the facility to be operational in Q4 2021, to achieve this demands a highly accelerated programme and complex phasing to facilitate fit-out of the MHE. When we acquired the site it already benefited from an outline consent, by bringing forward a separate Reserve Matters application we were able to implement works to construct the development plateau and 45 acres of structural landscaping, wetland and ecological habitat concurrent with the detailed planning application, thereby saving several weeks on over-all duration.” This deal follows on from Panattoni completing the biggest deal in continental Europe for the same client, at Gliwice in Poland. The Gliwice building is also 2.3 million sq ft, spread over four storeys, and boasts one of the most advance fit outs in Europe. Panattoni is this internet retailer’s largest delivery provider in Europe, and currently have globally around 60 – 70 transactions with this party. The need for buildings on the scale of these giants is only going to grow, driven by the demands of online retail. Panattoni are uniquely placed to meet the need for such buildings across Europe and in the UK, with development opportunities in strategic locations across the country, most, like Swindon, with the necessary planning in place to respond quickly to occupier demand. The spokesman added: “The selection of these locations is key to attracting major international businesses, including the biggest retail brands. We acquire sites that offer easy access to the trunk road network and are easy to reach for locally recruited employees. This gives occupiers the strategic reach required for an RDC or NDC while making it easy to recruit the right people. “While all our sites are available for bespoke warehouses, on many of them, we continue to roll out our spec build programme and we remain, by some measure, the biggest spec developer in the UK. “Our proactive approach to land acquisition, combined with our ability to leverage global capital markets, puts us in a uniquely strong position to continue delivering the very large warehouses the modern economy needs,” he said.
National engineering specialist, SES Engineering Services (SES), is set to save 8,000 labour hours by using offsite to deliver £23m of works at the Springfield Hospital redevelopment in Tooting, South London. Working alongside main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, SES will provide all mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) works for a state-of-the-art mental health centre set across two new buildings. This will include ventilation and heating systems, VRF cooling and domestic services, as well as specialist electrical systems including nurse call alarms, security, a large image data package and car charging points. Targeted towards a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’, the builds will be delivered next to Springfield Hospital’s existing Grade II listed main site on Glenburnie Rd. The new three-storey non-forensic building will include the main hospital reception, various wards, outpatient departments and training facilities, while the neighbouring forensic building will include four secure wards and a facility management workshop. SES will use its offsite manufacturing facility, Prism to deliver a significant part of the works for the BIM level 2 project, including 150 corridor and riser modules – saving a total of 8,000 labour hours on site. The new hospital project is part of a wider regeneration of the former Springfield University Hospital site that will also include the development of more than 800 new homes, a 32 acre park and a new primary school, all of which is set to be delivered by 2024. Other consultants on the project include architects CF Moller, Arup and EA-RS. SES has recently started on site, with construction expected to complete at the end of 2021. Steve Joyce, SES’ managing director, said: “This project is central to a wider development scheme, so from the outset we evolved a modular strategy to give the programme surety. “The building has to be delivered by the end of next year so we had to consider any staffing or material issues that could arise due to the potential challenges of Covid and Brexit, so introducing as much offsite as possible allowed us to really challenge and protect the programme. “We’ve already worked with Sir Robert McAlpine on healthcare projects in the capital before – including a healthcare facility in Belgravia – and recognise them to be excellent delivery partners with a similar approach to SES in terms of their ethos and approach. It’s fantastic to be part of their team again delivering this exemplary scheme, and delivering similar complex healthcare builds – in London and beyond – forms a key focus of our business strategy moving forward.” The appointment is the latest project to demonstrate SES’ expertise in delivering complex healthcare projects, with the team most recently completing an expansion at the Royal London Hospital for Barts Health NHS Trust. This award-winning project should have taken 12 months to complete, yet through impeccable collaboration with all the project partners, was delivered in only 5 weeks to support the hospital’s capacity in its fight against Covid-19.
The Willows near Whitstable will provide 54 family units The area is a prime example of a location that will see significant extra pressure on housing post-pandemic as millions choose to work mostly from home Covid-19 is fuelling a rapid expansion in the commuter belt, with workers willing to go further if travelling into London less frequently Developer Southern Grove has today unveiled a substantial £18million housing development that will create dozens of premium family homes on the beautiful Kent coast. The Willows near Whitstable, will provide 42 houses, consisting of a mixture of semi-detached and detached family accommodation, as well as 12 apartments. Hundreds of thousands of Londonders have moved out of the capital in search of more space following the pandemic, repeated lockdowns and a shift towards remote working. The commuter belt will witness a rapid expansion as workers show a willingness to live further out if travelling into London less frequently. Whitstable is a prime example of the type of community that will see increased demand for housing as that trend takes hold, leading to pressure on property prices. Whitstable & Swalecliffe railway station can deliver residents into London Victoria in as little as an hour and 25 minutes and there is easy access to the M25. The Willows, designed by On Architecture in Canterbury, will meet Southern Grove’s signature high standards for design and build quality. The scheme will be situated off Thanet Way, roughly halfway between Whitstable and popular Herne Bay, and only a 5-minute drive from the coast. It is adjacent to a much larger housing development that forms part of the area’s housing master plan. The Grasmere Gardens project, just south of the John Wilson Business Park, received planning approval for 300 homes in late 2019. The Willows is already the second scheme announced by Southern Grove this year, after the company revealed plans to create a £7m development of mews houses on Powys Lane in Enfield, north London, at the start of the month. Tom Slingsby, CEO of developer Southern Grove, commented: “Whitstable is a beautiful location on the Kent coast. With wonderful surroundings and less than an hour and half from London Victoria, this is exactly the kind of location that will benefit from a rise in demand for larger homes outside of London. “Covid-19 has already been credited with fundamentally altering buyers’ working lifestyles and their property priorities. These shifts will have the power to improve local economies across the Home Counties. “At the same time, areas like this will need to keep up with demand in order to moderate house price increases but we know local authorities won’t just be focused on the numbers. Planning departments are going to be keeping an eagle eye on the quality as well as the numbers of new homes. We’re confident that The Willows will set a high bar for others to follow in terms of design and we look forward to bringing this opportunity forward.”