Plans have been developed by Leeds City Council for £270 million worth of transport improvements, which included a new parkway rail station to connect to the local airport. After scrapping plans for a trolleybus project earlier in the year, the council has funds to spend. The new transport strategy in
Marko Tuorilin has been appointed as the new Managing Director for R&M Nordics. The company specialise in connectivity and work to strengthen the Nordic countries with the support of expert in Datacentre, LAN and FTTx. The Swiss cabling specialists Reichle & De-Massari (R&M) has announced recently that they have welcomed
Bewley Homes has announced that they have successfully managed to raise an additional £55 million funding in order to help the company to support the growth of their rapidly expanding business. The funding has been raised by Bewley Homes plc from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. The business has successfully become
A survey, carried out by AppliancesDirect.co.uk on UK workers in the construction industry has shown that builders spend on average 130 hours each year taking tea breaks. This average is thought to be 20.34 hours higher that the average British worker, who is estimated to spend 109.66 hours making tea
Redrow, one of the leading Housebuilders in the UK has announced that they have improved the strength of their senior team with two new appointments. The appointments have been made at the company’s West Country division in order to support the growth plans that have been made for throughout Somerset,
Today ARCA, the UK’s leading association representing asbestos removal contractors, has made available a publication for commercial property owners and managers, giving an overview of their legal responsibilities on managing asbestos. Asbestos management is an issue faced by property owners and managers (the clients), whether owning/managing one premises or a
Research has been carried out that shows consumers are moving away from the traditional, offline, high street estate agents. LetBritain has carried out a survey on a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults. The research published has shown that there has been a mass consumer exodus from the more
In August it was announced that GAP had acquired SIG Building Plastics & Windows. Since then, the company has been working tirelessly to welcome all of their new team members and customers. As soon as the acquisition was agreed, the GAP directors got to work straight away to visit all
The Food and Drink Federation is known for being the voice of the UK food and drink industry. The organisation is therefore representative of the largest manufacturing sector in the country. The food and drink industry accounts for around 19% of the total manufacturing sector for turnover and employ. The
Our Project Management Associate, Brendan Hills offers a personal perspective on the forms of contract used at Lee Wakemans, and where he sees the industry trends heading. Over the last 15 years the forms of contract have been progressing faster and changing more frequently than ever before. Just 10 years
Plans have been developed by Leeds City Council for £270 million worth of transport improvements, which included a new parkway rail station to connect to the local airport. After scrapping plans for a trolleybus project earlier in the year, the council has funds to spend. The new transport strategy in Leeds comes after a major consultation process that highlighted a need for better bus and rail services. The new parkway station would be built on the existing railway line between Leeds and Harrogate, while two further stations are also proposed to be built at Office Park and the White Rose Shopping Centre. The new stations are set to be funded partly by the £173.5 million of Department of Transport funding secured after the decision not to proceed with the New Generation Transport (NGT) trolleybus in May, with the funds needing to be invested in public transport before the end of 2021. Support from private sector stakeholders and from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority has increased the funding available for Leeds to more than £270 million. Judith Blake, City Council leader, commented: “Through the transport conversation we have been given a clear message that people want improvements to be made to benefit all areas of the city as soon as possible, not in another 10 or 15 years’ time but now. I am very pleased to say that everything we are putting forward in this plan is deliverable in the short to medium term. “Providing a connection by rail to the airport has long been an ambition for the city and this plan will deliver it in a cost-effective way, along with two other new stations at the White Rose Shopping Centre and Thorpe Park to help drive forward job creation, productivity and economic growth.”
Marko Tuorilin has been appointed as the new Managing Director for R&M Nordics. The company specialise in connectivity and work to strengthen the Nordic countries with the support of expert in Datacentre, LAN and FTTx. The Swiss cabling specialists Reichle & De-Massari (R&M) has announced recently that they have welcomed Marko Tuorilin as the new Managing Director for the Nordics region of the company’s operations. Marko is based in Sweden and has been connected to the industry for a number of years. Marko is experienced in the Data Centre, LAN and FTTs markets and also understands the requirements of the end users and sales channels in this area. Marko has worked in the past is various sales and business development roles for a number of suppliers and distribution companies for connectivity infrastructure. Over the course of his professional career, Marko has worked for and been associated with a number of companies such as TE Connectivity, Hexatronic, Coromatic and Rexe. In addition to his wealth of experience and expertise in this area, Marko is also fluent in Swedish, Finnish and English. He is also adept at consulting his customers in regards to their network requirements and has a profound technical knowledge and insights into the market. In his new role as Managing Director for R&M Nordics, Marko’s area of responsibility will be Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. With this new appointment, R&M will be continuing their aim to deliver their customers with best in class solutions as well as a range of other relevant service. The company focuses on Data Centers, LAN Environments and FTTx infrastructure, the countries in Northern Europe are a vital market for R&M. The appointment of Marko Tuorilin is an ideal opportunity to expand their reach in the Nordics and Marko will no doubt help the company to expand in this area.
Bewley Homes has announced that they have successfully managed to raise an additional £55 million funding in order to help the company to support the growth of their rapidly expanding business. The funding has been raised by Bewley Homes plc from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. The business has successfully become a major contributor to the housing supply in the areas that the company operates in. Over the past five years, with Andrew Brooks in the role of Managing Director, the housebuilding business has seen a significant level of growth over the course of the past five years with a turnover that has increased from £20 million in 2012 to £120 million in 2017. With the economic and political environment at the moment, it is vital that more housing is produced. The additional funding that has been raised by Bewley Homes will help the company to further support their business through the acquisition of new housing as well as providing additional funding to help to support the business in the acquisition and development of land, which will then allow the housebuilders to work towards meeting the need for housing in the areas they work in. Bewley Homes plc works to offer high quality new homes in desirable locations since starting to operate in 1991. Bewley Homes is well known for its quality and property portfolio in a range of desirable locations. The company has managed to deliver a sustained level of growth over the years, and has used their strong reputation in order to earn the support of Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. The sustained growth experienced by the company has taken place alongside the increase in demand for high quality housing across the South East of the country. Lloyds Bank is showing their support for Bewley Homes in order to help support a vital part of the UK economy as a part of the Bank’s dedication to help Britain to prosper.
A survey, carried out by AppliancesDirect.co.uk on UK workers in the construction industry has shown that builders spend on average 130 hours each year taking tea breaks. This average is thought to be 20.34 hours higher that the average British worker, who is estimated to spend 109.66 hours making tea annually. Healthcare came at the bottom in this survey, spending just 23.5 hours per year on tea breaks. The research was carried out by the leading household appliances retailer in order to look into the eating and drinking habits of those in the building workplace. The research showed that 82% of construction workers feel that regular tea breaks are beneficial for their productivity. Those who responded to the survey felt that six minutes was the ideal time period for a tea break and that these breaks should be taken on average five times each day, not including lunchtime. This means that on average builders spend around 30 minutes each day on tea breaks. The humble cup of tea still remains a favourite among builders despite the increased popularity of coffee and the rise of coffee culture. The survey carried out by Appliances Direct showed that 56% of those asked said tea was their drink of choice during the break. In the same survey, coffee came in second place, receiving 38% of the vote. The data collected by the household appliances has uncovered a range of interesting habits connected to the British workplace, working habits, and workplace break habits specifically in the construction industry. It is good news that British people take regular breaks while working to grab a drink and it has been recommended that whether you work at a desk, in a shop, a factory or a building site, it is important to get away from your workstation for a small number of minutes at regular intervals throughout the day in order to improve productivity.
Redrow, one of the leading Housebuilders in the UK has announced that they have improved the strength of their senior team with two new appointments. The appointments have been made at the company’s West Country division in order to support the growth plans that have been made for throughout Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. These new appointments include a new Head of Sales and a Head of Land. Annie Williams has been appointed by Redrow to be the new Head of Sales for the West Country Division. Annie has previously worked as the Area Sales Manager for the company and also offers around 18 years’ of experience in this field. In the past Annie has worked as Sales and Marketing Manager for Linden Homes. As a part of her new role as Head of Sales for Redrow, Annie Williams will be an essential part of the firm’s brand within the region as well as being responsible for improving the sales across the West Country. Chris Rorstad has been promoted to the Head of Land. Chis previously occupied the role of Senior Land Manager. Chris will also be an asset to the company due to his wealth of experience in this area. As part of his new responsibilities as Head of Land, Chris will be committed to securing a pipeline of prime land situated in desirable locations. This new role carried out by Chis will be essential to Redrow’s development plans as they look to incorporate themselves further into the market in Cornwall as well as solidify their presence in the Devon market. The Managing Director of Redrow West Country, Nigel Palmer has said that these two new appointments will be vital to the strategy that has been created for Redrow in order to help them gain prominence in the West Country. It is great news that the appointments for these two senior management positions have been sourced internally as it shows that commitment to the development of their staff at the UK Housebuilders.
Today ARCA, the UK’s leading association representing asbestos removal contractors, has made available a publication for commercial property owners and managers, giving an overview of their legal responsibilities on managing asbestos. Asbestos management is an issue faced by property owners and managers (the clients), whether owning/managing one premises or a large portfolio of premises, constructed prior to the year 2000. That is, they are responsible for ensuring that employees and non-employees are not exposed to health or safety risks as a result of the presence of asbestos. These clients have legal responsibilities to manage risks from asbestos, so to support them ARCA has covered the main regulations in a new publication. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees and non-employees who may be affected by the employers’ activities. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012), places a legal duty to ‘manage asbestos in non-domestic properties’, on those who own, occupy, manage or have responsibilities for premises that may contain asbestos. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) places explicit responsibilities on clients, for example, if asbestos removal is required the client needs to appoint a competent asbestos removal contractor. To support this last point, ARCA members need to complete two satisfactory site audits every year to maintain membership. In January 2017, ARCA made all site audits ‘unannounced’, meaning members (excluding Ireland) do not have prior knowledge of when, or where, an ARCA auditor will be assessing their performance. Therefore, being unannounced, ARCA site audits are now an even stronger system of reassurance for all parties, including end-clients. The ‘Managing Asbestos – Clients Legal Responsibilities’ leaflet is available on the ARCA website as a free download Further information for commercial property owners and managers is available here
Research has been carried out that shows consumers are moving away from the traditional, offline, high street estate agents. LetBritain has carried out a survey on a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults. The research published has shown that there has been a mass consumer exodus from the more traditional high street offices. One of the main sentiments expressed during the survey is one of widespread frustration in regards to the slow and more cumbersome high street letting agents. Virtual letting agency LetBritain has uncovered this transition as a part of their exploration into consumer sentiment. The nationally representative survey has shown that more than half of the participants regularly go online to obtain the majority of the products and services that they use. 45% of the 2,000 participants favour online services over the ones that would require them to go into a physical premise. A whopping 29% of the respondents have said that they would actively avoid using a business that does not offer an online service. Looking at the location of the participants, it would appear that those in the capital are considered to be the most technologically demanding, with 625 of the Londoners involved in the survey choosing online solutions, and 51% consciously making the decision to avoid businesses without an online service. Across a range of UK industries, the offering of digital solutions enhances the accessibility, transparency and quality of the services that are made available to consumers. In response to this, the majority of the UK society has feels that businesses that do not have an online presence or that require a significantly higher amount of offline communication will be replaced in the next 10 years with an online-only or app-based solution. LetBritain also saw the consumer dissatisfaction was prevalent mostly in the letting market, with renters and landlords discontented at the lack of a quick, accessible and easy online service available for those looking to rent a property.
In August it was announced that GAP had acquired SIG Building Plastics & Windows. Since then, the company has been working tirelessly to welcome all of their new team members and customers. As soon as the acquisition was agreed, the GAP directors got to work straight away to visit all 66 of the new depots and team members. The team at GAP prides itself on making sure that all of their staff feel that they are a part of the family and the information that is gained by the Directors’ visit to the site can help to shape the strategy used at GAP to integrate the depots in to the larger GAP company. The Joint Founder of GAP, Simon Bird has so far been incredibly impressed by the knowledge and talent on display in the company’s new team. Working together the acquisition of SIG Plastics & Windows could lead to a unique chance to expand. The quality of the team recently joined to GAP is high and along with the new strategic locations of the new depots means that GAP has the potential to become one of the top manufacturers and distributors of PVC-U building products in terms of quality, service and choice. The planning and preparation for the merge started before the deal was made and extra investments have been made in order to make sure that the logistics and manufacturing new combined network can continue to deliver the service that their wide range of customers require. GAP has a range of customers from smaller traders to national house building companies. The first stage of the integration process involved carrying out small makeovers on the new depots, with new signage and team workwear. The scale of the changes required has been demonstrated through the large workwear order placed by the company for 850 Polo Shirts and T-Shirts, 270 Jackets, 532 Jumpers, 330 Hoodies, 810 Pairs of Trousers and 390 Pairs of Shorts. The stock is also being changed over at teach of the depots in order to ensure that customers will have access to the wide range of colours and styles available as a part of the GAP own brand roofline products, Homeline.
The Food and Drink Federation is known for being the voice of the UK food and drink industry. The organisation is therefore representative of the largest manufacturing sector in the country. The food and drink industry accounts for around 19% of the total manufacturing sector for turnover and employ. The Federation works across the diverse sector, representing global brands as well as small businesses that are thriving. One of the main roles of the Food and Drink Federation is to communicate with their members and then relay the values and concerns held by the market to the Government, regulators, consumers and the media. The Federation expressed their relief with the focus of Labour at their party Conference which took place in Brighton last week. The Opposition party has place emphasis on looking for a new industrial strategy that can be used for boosting the prosperity of the country. Following the announcements made at the Labour conference the Federation is looking forward to carrying on their conversations with the shadow Defra and BEIS teams. The food and Drink manufacturing industry, as the largest manufacturing sector, is in the ideal position to develop skills and increase exports in the sector as well as exploring innovation that will allow the UK food and drink industry to continue to compete in the global market for the foreseeable future. With Brexit on the horizon it is important that the UK manufacturing industry is protected and has the ability to develop and flourish after Brexit. The FDF discussed with the NFU at a joint fringe last Monday that businesses need time to prepare and plan for the new UK and EU relationship. This means that a proper transition period is vital in order to make sure that British consumers will have access to the highest quality, widest choice and best value of food and drink beverages available.
Our Project Management Associate, Brendan Hills offers a personal perspective on the forms of contract used at Lee Wakemans, and where he sees the industry trends heading. Over the last 15 years the forms of contract have been progressing faster and changing more frequently than ever before. Just 10 years ago, we were still finishing off a couple of contracts using the JCT 1980 form of contract. We now have a plethora of options released in the last 2 years, many of which are untested in the courts and unfamiliar to the industry. Recent Changes Earlier this year, the release of NEC4 marks the further refinement of the ‘simple man’s contract’,when many of us are still getting to grips with NEC3. The revision introduces two new forms, the Design, Build and Operate (DBO) Contract and the Alliance Contract (ALC). NEC4 contains various changes to the programme, payment and compensation event clauses and some common sense changes to terminology, which have caused much confusion in the past. In 2016 we saw some (relatively minor) revisions to the JCT family of contracts after they were completely re-written in 2005. The changes include redrafting of the payment regime and greater provisions for securities such as bonds and PCG’s. In my opinion, the most important changes are those relating to insurance provisions , which will simplify insurance arrangements considerably for refurbishment work in particular. NEC, NEC, NEC Following the Latham and Egan reports, the construction industry pendulum swung towards NEC contracts due to their strong partnering emphasis, when the JCT contracts at the time were considered adversarial. However since the release of the NEC3 suite and the widespread adopting of its principals, we are seeing this partnering ethos spill over into most contracting relationships. JCT contracts have adopted some of the NEC principals and have released a partnering specific contract – the Constructing Excellence contract.The contract has in fact existed since 2006, and I have to say that I have never actually seen it used in anger. What’s the flavour of the month in 2017? At Lee Wakemans, we are increasingly finding that our clients and contractors have an inclination towards the old faithful JCT contracts, as the complexities of the NEC suite are causing frustrating levels of administration. The problems that the NEC set out to solve have been by and large addressed by a shift in mindset within the construction industry as a whole. Long term relationships are valued, risk allocation is agreed fairly, negotiation of contracts is commonplace and the public sector is leaning heavily on frameworks. Split opinions Even within our office we have a great divide of opinions as to which suite of contracts is ‘the best’. We have some evangelical NEC supporters and a few JCT enthusiasts, all with interesting and varying viewpoints, which is probably a good indicator of the industry on the whole. Which side of the fence do you sit on? Conclusion This is my personal insight,based largely on our experiences here at Lee Wakemans as opposed to it being scientifically based. In 2015 90% of the contracts being run by Lee Wakemans were NEC3, however in 2017 this has reduced to approximately 30%. We are yet to run a new NEC4 contract, although the pendulum may swing back that way after it gains some traction and some of the amendments have been tested by the courts. If I stare deeply into my crystal ball I think we may even see a resurgence in client prepared Bills of Quantities! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Notes Lee Wakemans is a development consultancy that helps organisations create, develop and deliver built projects on time and in budget. They provide four core development service offerings; Development Management, Project Management, Cost Management and Health and Safety Management. Please contact Brendan Hills on 02920 442900.
