Leading property management agent Rendall & Rittner has recently promoted Martin Hellenas to Divisional Director of one of its London divisions. Most recently, Martin has worked as an Area Director at Rendall & Rittner, with a portfolio of developments across London. In his new role, Martin will focus on the
Acting for Wates Developments in probably the biggest land deal to take place within the region since September’s mini budget, Leaders Romans Group (LRG), has sold a residential development site in Windsor from Wates Developments to Crest Nicholson. As a leading residential housebuilder with a track record in creating well
A RAPIDLY expanding housebuilder has restructured its management team to drive its ambitious plans for further growth. Since being founded in 2017, Genesis Homes has grown from a 10 unit per year company to one constructing in excess of 170 new homes during the latest financial year. To continue its
North East contractor Tolent has launched a new service to help support registered providers of social housing improve the energy efficiency of homes across the region. In line with the Governments Clean Growth Strategy, all social housing must attain the minimum rating of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C by 2035,
Residents and workers in the North of Tyne are being urged to take part in a survey on the future of construction and opportunities related to housing retrofit in our region so that our workforce has the relevant skills to deliver housing decarbonisation to address the climate crisis. The Energy
ANDY Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, has been welcomed on site to view the progress of the highly anticipated Cookley Works scheme, which we are developing alongside Lovell Partnerships in collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). It’s one of many projects in the region helping to regenerate
Qualis Commercial has appointed Davis Construction as its contractor on the former Conder site in Epping Town Centre. The development will provide 45 high quality sustainable new homes consisting of 29 apartments across three buildings and 16 townhouses. These will be centred around the existing pond with extensive landscaping and
Research by debt advisory specialists Sirius Property Finance has shown that it’s not just the housing market that has benefited from the pandemic property market boom, with the estimated total value of the private rental sector (PRS) climbing by 30% since 2019. Sirius Property Finance analysed the current state of
Applethwaite Homes turned to Absolute Agency and trusted the brand specialists with an overhaul of its brand positioning. The home builder is part of the Eric Wright Group and develops beautiful homes in rural settings. Its old branding did not reflect the quality of the properties and the stunning, unique
You may have watched the horrors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, and the court case which followed revealing years of poor accountability and neglect, and as a responsible infrastructure professional thought it had nothing to do with you. You may have read about the leasehold scandal and large-scale
Leading property management agent Rendall & Rittner has recently promoted Martin Hellenas to Divisional Director of one of its London divisions. Most recently, Martin has worked as an Area Director at Rendall & Rittner, with a portfolio of developments across London. In his new role, Martin will focus on the strategic management of the division. As a Divisional Director, he will continue to develop relationships with leaseholders and residents, whilst working alongside internal departments. With plans to hire a new Area Director, Martin will work collaboratively to continue to build upon Rendall & Rittner’s success and to further develop the company’s portfolio. After joining the Erinaceous Group (later part of RMG) as a Property Manager in 2008, Martin has worked his way up in the industry. Following 6 years and a promotion to Senior Property Manager, he took on a new role at Premier Estates as it set up its London office, where he worked as an Associate Director. Since joining Rendall & Rittner in 2019, Martin has been an Area Director supporting a portfolio of London developments for clients, residents and leaseholders. Martin comments: “I joined Rendall & Rittner having previously met Matt Rittner and Richard Daver at networking events. Since joining, I have had the opportunity to develop myself and to work with amazing people. The senior management team at Rendall & Rittner is incredible and I am able to learn new things from them. The company culture here makes Rendall & Rittner a great place to work and I am excited to see where the company goes next.” Richard Daver, Group CEO at Rendall & Rittner said: “Since joining Rendall & Rittner, Martin has proven his commitment to delivering exceptional customer service and has gone above and beyond to resolve issues. Martin’s promotion to Divisional Director reflects this and I look forward to seeing how he continues to support our London portfolio in this new role.” For further information please visit: www.rendallandrittner.co.uk Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Acting for Wates Developments in probably the biggest land deal to take place within the region since September’s mini budget, Leaders Romans Group (LRG), has sold a residential development site in Windsor from Wates Developments to Crest Nicholson. As a leading residential housebuilder with a track record in creating well designed, high quality homes in sustainable communities, Crest Nicholson is ideally placed to deliver much needed homes in this popular location. Wates Developments secured release of the site from the Green Belt through an allocation in the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Local Plan. They worked closely with the community, key stakeholders and Local Authority to develop plans for the residential development and subsequently obtained outline planning consent on part of the site. The scheme includes 135 much-needed homes, (40% of which will be affordable housing), for the 5.4ha site. Plans also include landscaped open spaces, (including recreational space), blue-green infrastructure and sustainable technologies, with a 30.69% net gain in biodiversity that will far exceed local and national planning policy. The site will also deliver improvements to walking and cycling routes into Windsor and other local destinations, as well as improvements to the A308 network to increase capacity. David Brocklebank, Executive Managing Director at Wates Developments Group commented: “We are delighted to have completed this sale of a portion of our land interest in Windsor to Crest and with great support from LRG. This is a truly exceptional new homes site and a fantastic location for a new community in Windsor. We expect to secure planning for the remainder of the wider site early in 2023 to allow the whole scheme to come forward quickly. A great performance by Crest”. Nicholas Daruwalla, Land Director at Crest Nicholson South, commented: “The acquisition of this site in Windsor plays a key role in the expansion of Crest Nicholson’s footprint in the region and allows us to respond to local demand for high-quality homes in the area. We look forward to offering a variety of homes for a range of buyers within the local community, helping to support the Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Local Plan.” Ian Barnett, National Land Director for Leaders Romans Group, who is based in the Group’s Wokingham head office, commented: “This is a significant land deal which will help deliver much-needed homes, including affordable housing. It is one of two substantial land deals that Leaders Romans Group has facilitated in this region in the last month and as such, demonstrates considerable strength in the local market in spite of the wider economic conditions.” Boyer (part of Leaders Romans Group) managed the planning process on behalf of Wates and is now instructed by Crest Nicholson to prepare and submit a reserved matters planning application in the first half of 2023. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
A RAPIDLY expanding housebuilder has restructured its management team to drive its ambitious plans for further growth. Since being founded in 2017, Genesis Homes has grown from a 10 unit per year company to one constructing in excess of 170 new homes during the latest financial year. To continue its rapid growth, with ambitions to build 300 properties each year by 2028, founder Nicky Gordon has promoted current Land Director John Blue to the position of Managing Director with the responsibility for overseeing the daily operations of the company. As a result, Nicky has moved into the newly created post of Chief Executive Officer and will be responsible for strategic planning, stakeholder relationships and expanding the business across the North West. Nicky said: “Genesis Homes has grown exponentially, even during the most difficult times of our generation, and we are absolutely thrilled with the progress the company has made and the positive impact it has had on local communities. “With Cumbria at our heart, we have ambitions to continue our expansion across the North West region and to realise this dream we need a new management structure in place to ensure we can concentrate fully on our growth plans, whilst maintaining the high standards of build quality we have earned a reputation for. “John has proven himself as an incredibly competent, reliable and integral member of the team, and his knowledge and understanding of the sector, and the company itself, has been instrumental to our growth to date. “I have the utmost faith in John’s ability to take control of the day-to-day business operations of Genesis Homes, and I look forward to seeing the company continue to progress under his direction.” John has worked at Genesis Homes since January 2018, having previously worked at Gleeson Homes, North Associates and PFK. He joined the company as Land and Planning Manager and was promoted to Land Director within two years. Throughout his time at Genesis Homes, he has been responsible for identifying and acquiring suitable land for development across Cumbria, and then working to ready the land for construction work. John said: “I was immediately excited about Nicky’s ambitions to grow Genesis Homes when he started the company in 2017, and the journey over the past five years has been one that we have all enjoyed sharing. “Despite the housing market being severely interrupted during Covid-19, we have grown well beyond our initial expectations and we’re all looking forward to the next five years, and beyond, as we target further growth. “I have enjoyed having such a hands-on role in helping Genesis Homes to become one of the largest homebuilders in Cumbria in terms of volume of units built per year, and I am honoured that Nicky has shown such faith in me by promoting me to the position of Managing Director. “The company has huge ambitions for the future, and I am excited to be leading the daily operations to make these goals a reality.” Genesis Homes is currently operational across nine developments throughout Cumbria and Lancashire, with its pioneering EcoGen carbon net zero emitting pilot development in Calthwaite commenced last year. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
North East contractor Tolent has launched a new service to help support registered providers of social housing improve the energy efficiency of homes across the region. In line with the Governments Clean Growth Strategy, all social housing must attain the minimum rating of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C by 2035, or 2030 for ‘fuel poor’ households. Launching its new retrofit and decarbonisation service, Tolent is already underway with a number of retrofitting projects, which also support the longer term target of making all homes ‘net-zero-carbon’ by 2050. Adrian Veitch, retrofit and decarbonisation manager, said: “We’ve set up our business to act as a one-stop-shop for clients to engage us at any part of this process from acquiring funding, developing tailored designs to retrofit measures, to installation and aftercare. “From fitting external wall insulation, PV panels, air source heat pumps and loft insulation, we have experience of delivering refurbishment and energy retrofit projects to over 50,000 properties. We see how much the end result of these works positively impacts residents and wider communities and it’s something we want to continue to play a part in.” All registered providers of social housing across the UK are able to secure funding through a number routes, set to enhance the energy efficiency of socially rented homes across the country. The net-zero-carbon targets also extend to private sector rents to attain EPC C ratings on new tenancies by December 2025, and on all rented properties by December 2028. Paul Webster, CEO for Tolent, said: “This is a long term strategy for our business as we look to support the entire housing sector in this area of work. “The net-zero-carbon 2050 target is an ambitious and challenging aspiration, but with the current cost of living crisis and rising energy bills, we understand the true value of what this work can do to provide some relief to those suffering the most in our communities. “As a responsible contractor, we’re also taking necessary steps to look at our own impact on the environment and setting our own targets to reduce carbon emissions.” Tolent is now a TrustMark accredited contractor, as is required by Government to be able to carry out this work, and has secured a place on a number of national frameworks including The North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) and Prosper Retrofit and Decarbonisation Works frameworks. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Residents and workers in the North of Tyne are being urged to take part in a survey on the future of construction and opportunities related to housing retrofit in our region so that our workforce has the relevant skills to deliver housing decarbonisation to address the climate crisis. The Energy Democracy Project in conjunction with the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) want to hear the views from people across the region about the future of the construction sector in the North of Tyne. While newly constructed buildings are more energy-efficient, it is estimated that 80% of the homes we will live in by 2050 have already been built, so a major priority is decarbonising our current building stock. Retrofitting homes has the potential to create multiple benefits – linking action on climate change with improving current homes and addressing health inequalities as well as creating jobs and supporting local economic regeneration. The Future of Construction in the North of Tyne Region survey can help inform the NTCA’s work on the potential of the construction sector in our region to generate new, good-quality ‘green’ jobs and the opportunities related to retrofit for our transition to net zero. Leading the project is Dr Helen Coulson, Just Transition Project Coordinator at the Energy Democracy Project. She said: “We know from our Just Transition stakeholder interviews that retrofit has the potential to create new local ‘green’ jobs across our region – but we need to ensure that our workforce has the relevant skills to deliver housing decarbonisation. At the moment, there is a shortage of retrofitters, in both professional and trade roles. “We need homes that keep us warm and help lower emissions. One of the biggest challenges that we face over the next decade is making sure that our homes are fit for the future – and this will entail upgrades to the majority of homes to reach required energy efficiency standards. That is why it is more important than ever to open a space up for citizens to tell us what obstacles they experience when considering retrofitting their home, find out if they are interested in learning new skills or upskilling to work in building retrofit, and what they would like to see the NTCA do to support the retrofitting agenda and help achieve a zero-carbon built environment. “Getting a comprehensive view of people in the North of Tyne about the opportunities and challenges related to housing retrofit will help to ensure our work will be evidence-based and decision makers locally are aware of what support and actions are needed to address climate change and improve the quality of life of residents.” The survey is open to everyone who lives in the region, not just those working in the construction industry, so we encourage anyone with an interest in making properties more energy efficient to fill out the survey, have their say, and ensure their voice is heard. The survey can be found at https://bit.ly/3Y5p6iZ The information we collect from the surveys will directly inform the North of Tyne Just Transition project and report (to be published later this year). For more information about the project, please contact the team at helen.coulson@northoftyne-ca.gov.uk and ben@energydemocracyproject.com Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
ANDY Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, has been welcomed on site to view the progress of the highly anticipated Cookley Works scheme, which we are developing alongside Lovell Partnerships in collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). It’s one of many projects in the region helping to regenerate acres of derelict industrial land for affordable new homes, supporting the region to meet its housing needs. When complete, Cookley Works will become a thriving community offering a mix of affordable rent and low-cost home ownership. Platform will look after 71 of the homes, providing affordable rent and shared ownership opportunities. Marion Duffy, chief operations officer at Platform Housing Group, said: “We are really pleased to deliver much needed affordable housing for the community. It’s especially pleasing that this site uses remediated land as a solution, protecting vital green space in the area. I’d like to thank our partners, notably Lovell and the WMCA for their work towards bringing this project to fruition.” The Mayor said: “Cookley Works is another great example of the commitment of the WMCA, alongside partners Dudley Council, Lovell and Platform Housing Group to continue delivering good quality, affordable homes for our communities. “Despite the challenges of the last couple of years, we’ve continued to make significant investments into the regeneration of brownfield land, unlocking previously difficult to develop sites for new homes, helping to protect our precious green belt in the process. “This is also helping to drive our economic recovery by creating vital new jobs and apprenticeships and I look forward to seeing local people move into these new homes and create a thriving, attractive new community.” Stuart Penn, regional managing director for Lovell Partnerships, said: “Having begun work to prepare the site for building, it was a great opportunity to welcome Andy Street and show him around this area where this fantastic project will come to fruition. Partnerships such as the one between Lovell and WMCA are vital to help meeting the housing demand for communities and aligns with our mission to create a lasting legacy.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Qualis Commercial has appointed Davis Construction as its contractor on the former Conder site in Epping Town Centre. The development will provide 45 high quality sustainable new homes consisting of 29 apartments across three buildings and 16 townhouses. These will be centred around the existing pond with extensive landscaping and tree planting. Simon Rutter, Managing Director for Qualis Commercial comments, “This is a significant milestone for Qualis Commercial and we are pleased to be working with Davis Construction on our first residential development in Epping Town Centre. Demolition has recently been completed and I am looking forward to seeing activity on site. “ The new homes have been designed with sustainability in mind, with air source heat pumps, increased insulation to prevent heat loss in the winter and keep them cooler in the summer months, photo voltaic panels, charging for electric vehicles and green and blue roof systems. Tom Davis, Managing Director of Davis Construction said, “Davis Construction (South-East) Ltd is delighted to be working with Qualis Commercial on what will be a significant development in Epping town centre to create 45 new homes. “We take the role of main contractor very seriously and will endeavour to listen and be sensitive to the needs of local community as construction progresses.” Work will be starting in February, and we are expecting to complete in phases from the Spring 2024. As part of its developments in Epping Town Centre, Qualis will be making contributions of over £3 million to improve healthcare, education, enhancements to green spaces and other community wide benefits. With this project it will take the total contributions so far to over £750,000. Funding has already been used for improvements to Lower Swaines Playground and Stonards Hill recreation ground. For further information about Qualis Commercial please visit www.qualiscommercial.co.uk Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Research by debt advisory specialists Sirius Property Finance has shown that it’s not just the housing market that has benefited from the pandemic property market boom, with the estimated total value of the private rental sector (PRS) climbing by 30% since 2019. Sirius Property Finance analysed the current state of the PRS, looking at the level of stock, the current market value of this stock, the average yield available and how this has changed since 2019. The latest figures show that, despite the government’s best efforts, the overall size of the PRS has grown by 2.4% across England since 2019, with 4.876m properties helping to house the nation’s tenants. The South East has driven this growth with a 9.1% increase, along with the South West (+7.4%) and the North West (+3.8%). However, the East Midlands (-9.9%), Yorkshire and the Humber (-0.4%) and East of England (-0.3%) have all seen a decline in PRS stock when compared to the pre-pandemic market. What’s more, the analysis by Sirius Property Finance shows that the current total value of PRS stock is estimated to sit at a staggering £1.536 trillion across England, having seen a 30% increase since 2019 alone. At an estimated £575.7bn, London remains home to by far the most valuable PRS where total stock value is concerned. However, when compared to the pre-pandemic market, the capital has seen the smallest increase in this total value at 16%. The South West has driven PRS market performance in terms of the increase in total value, up 41% when compared to 2019. The total value of PRS stock has also increased by more than 30% across the North West (+39%), South East (+37%) and West Midlands (+31%). Finally, the analysis by Sirius Property Finance shows that of the 4.876m rental homes across England, just 130,272 are currently listed online as available to rent, equating to just 2.7% of all PRS stock, highlighting the pivotal role the sector plays in today’s society. Managing Director of Sirius Property Finance, Nicholas Christofi, commented: “Despite the government’s sustained attempts to dampen the enthusiasm of buy-to-let investors, the private rental sector has continued to grow in size over the last few years. This growth, combined with the high rates of house price appreciation seen throughout the pandemic, have pushed the total value of the sector to a quite remarkable level. However, previous whisperings of a hike in capital gains tax will remain a worry for those who have benefited from an increase in the value of their buy-to-let portfolio. Should these changes come to fruition in the future, we may well see many landlords scramble for the exit to avoid the government’s latest cash grab.”View full data tables online here.
Applethwaite Homes turned to Absolute Agency and trusted the brand specialists with an overhaul of its brand positioning. The home builder is part of the Eric Wright Group and develops beautiful homes in rural settings. Its old branding did not reflect the quality of the properties and the stunning, unique locations. Absolute Agency was brought on board to conduct a workshop with an in-depth look into what Applethwaite stood for and the audience they wanted to attract. The final branding look and feel is now more high end, with a clear colour palette of luxurious dark blue complemented by a secondary set of paler colours. Ornamental graphics were developed to represent the development locations and the bespoke font used to add to the quality look and feel of the brand positioning. The branding includes a full suite of material for each development, brochures, signage, graphics, promotional items and packs for new home owners. The graphics and typography are complemented with Applethwaite’s lifestyle images, which bring to life the various happy moments that home buyers experience when they’re choosing their new home. This branding has so far been implemented on sites throughout the north west including Inglewood near Preston, Davyfields near Darwen and Brackenwood in Blackburn. Chris Hodgen, MD of Absolute Agency, said: “We have extensive experience within the home builder and property sectors and when Applethwaite Homes approached us with such a unique challenge it was a great project to work on. Our team worked seamlessly with theirs to really get to the heart of what Applethwaite is about and hearing the internal and customer reaction to the new branding has been fantastic.” Colin Hetherington, MD from Applethwaite Homes, said: “We have always been extremely proud in the quality of the homes we build, however we identified that our existing brand identity and marketing materials didn’t match up to this high quality. We wanted to strengthen our position in the marketplace, whilst delivering a unique customer experience from enquiry through to moving in, which truly represented Applethwaite Homes. “We wanted to work with a local agency who had experience in the housing sector, but who also took the time to understand our team, our ambition and who could support us on this journey as an extension of our marketing team. “The feedback from customers and internal staff has been really positive and our outside visual identity now matches our internal values.” Absolute Agency is 23 years old and based in Bolton. Founded by Chris Hodgen, it is a bold agency specialising in branding, digital, content and communications for ambitious clients. Applethwaite Homes builds family homes in small and exclusive developments that have individual character, their aim is to provide comfortable homes that reflect the quality and style of times past and satisfy the needs of modern living. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
You may have watched the horrors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, and the court case which followed revealing years of poor accountability and neglect, and as a responsible infrastructure professional thought it had nothing to do with you. You may have read about the leasehold scandal and large-scale housebuilders trapping buyers into rising ground rents, fees, and ongoing maintenance costs, and as a responsible infrastructure professional thought it was nothing to do with you. The Government’s reaction to these events, which was five years in the making and finally achieved royal asset in April, was the drafting of the Building Safety Act, and the creation of a Building Safety Regulator, headed up by Peter Baker the Chief Inspector of Buildings at the Health and Safety Regulator. Ahead of his appointment Mr Baker warned that the public had “lost complete confidence in the construction industry’s ability to build safe and good-quality buildings. While the full impact of the Act and the creation of the Regulator will be felt over the coming months and years, there are some immediate changes that will come into force when the act is legally in effect in from October 2023 which infrastructure professionals need to pay attention to. The creation of the Building Safety Regulator in particular, sitting within the Health & Safety Executive, has huge connotations. The regulator will have three main functions; overseeing the safety and standards of all buildings, helping and encouraging the built environment industry and building control professionals to improve their competence, and leading the implementation of the new regulatory framework for high-rise buildings. The regulator is set to have a very active role in the approval of residential projects of more than 18 metres or seven storeys, and designs will have to be put before the regulator at various points throughout the process with the regulator having the power to hit the pause button should it believe safety isn’t at a good enough level. This isn’t the end for a project, but challenging a decision will involved a lengthy, and probably costly, appeal to the Secretary of State. Keeping a detailed digital audit trail will also become particularly important to parties involved in a project, if they’re named as the ‘accountable person’ on a scheme. This could be the asset owner, contractor, consultant or the architect, who will be responsible for maintaining a detailed record of their processes, and be able to justify how decisions were taken. Digital twins are the ultimate form of this audit trail. As my colleague Steve Cockerell, Industry Marketing Director, for Rail and Transit wrote earlier this year: “Cross River Rail’s CEO Graeme Newton expects that in comparison to the benefits digital twins provide, the cost of creating and maintaining them is insignificant, and that investment in digital twin technology will just become the norm. Newton believes future owner-operators will ask: ‘What have been the (data) inputs into all of these things? How are you maintaining the standard you said you would? How do we know that safety is paramount? The digital twin means it is forever captured and its forever represented and its forever traceable.’” As a result of the new Building Safety Regulations when it comes to the ongoing cladding remediation, the leaseholders will now be the very last in line expected to pay out to fix it, behind developers, cladding manufacturers, and then existing property owners. Any asset owners looking to increase rents in future years better be sure that everything about the building is in ship shape. The Act creates a legal requirement to give building safety information to your tenants alongside any rent demands, as well as involving tenants in any building safety decisions. Should anything go wrong and the asset manager has to pay for remediation or legal costs, these costs are not allowed to be passed back to tenants in the form of service charges. The time period for any defects is also extended from six years to 30 years, and covers refurbishments as well as new builds. It could be poor design, shoddy workmanship, or inappropriate materials, but if it has happened in the last 30 years and impacts the habitability of a property, the original developer or current asset manager is responsible for the cost. That means businesses could end up paying out for work it was involved in long before the current team was on the scene. For new-build projects, the claims period is 15 years. The requirement for robust information management in the built environment is nothing new says Nigel Eatough, Regional Director at Bentley Systems. Firms have been doing this for years to help defend against claims, but today’s open source Digital Twin technology makes it easier to connect all information together. Open data is fundamental given the time scales that information needs to be maintained, but so is an open mindset to take advantage of the insights digital twins will bring. The creation of the Act also brings with it a new wave of council building inspectors, as well as private sector building control inspectors, tasked with looking over work which relates to safety. While for many parts of the residential sector this increase in scrutiny is much-needed, and much-welcomed, added layers of analysis and bureaucracy may seem like an additional headache. However, those interested in making a lasting impact to an area rather than a quick buck, should have less to fear as long as they have a strong digital audit trail of the work they carried out and the materials used. If implemented properly, when the Act is fully in place by October 2023 the new rules and processes should ensure a higher standard of development which will positively impact contractors, consultants, asset owners and residents alike. By Mark Coates, International Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Bentley Systems By Nigel Eatough, Regional Director, Northern Europe, Bentley Systems Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
