The Scottish Government have taken positive steps towards developing the future of Scottish solar investment under the Renewables Obligation (the main support mechanism for renewable electricity projects in the UK). Unlike England and Wales, the Scottish Government will retain the “Grandfathering” guarantee.   “‘Grandfathering’ is the guarantee that the level of support provided per unit of electricity will not     change throughout the lifetime of a solar installation once it has been built and connected, and once the investment has been made.” (Scottish Construction Now, 2015).   The decision has been made to build confidence in Scotland’s solar sector and attract new investment, which will also aid Scotland in meeting its renewables and carbon targets. With these positive forecasts come the uncertainty of imbalance across the UK.  “…if DECC (Department of Energy & Climate Change) proposals to reform the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme go ahead in England and Wales, with developers able to take advantage of a more supportive policy regime in Scotland.” (Jocelyn Timperly, 2015)   With an exciting and ever-changing future lying ahead for development and investment in Scotland, Oliver Kinross are delighted to be hosting the event Scotland Build 2015 at the SECC, Glasgow on November 25th & 26th. Supported by a large number of influential organisations, including Scottish Renewables, BRE Scotland and the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, the programme will incorporate the industry’s most current energy and renewables related topics. Presentations will be delivered by many of Scotland’s industry experts, such as Glasgow City Council’s Sustainable Manager, Duncan Booker and Chairman of STA Scotland and Board Member of Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, John Forster. The conference will focus on topics such as climate ready place-making and energy ambitions, along with the opportunity for open-floor discussions with attendees.   Renewables and investment go hand-in-hand in Scotland and Oliver Kinross recognise this key opportunity in bringing together professionals with a desire and passion for the future of the industry, particularly at a time when the Government are making sizeable announcements regarding its plans and proposals.   To register for your free ticket to attend Scotland Build 2015, please visit www.scotlandbuildexpo.com or contact kristie.beaton@oliverkinross.com to receive the latest conference agenda.

The property industry’s biggest challenge announces new three year partnership – CYCLE TO…, a business network that raises money through cycling to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people, is proud to announce Legal & General as the headline sponsor for the next three years of its flagship event, the annual charity cycle ride to MIPIM. Legal & General’s involvement is in keeping with its growing Health and Wellbeing agenda, while also reflecting its commitment to supporting sustainable, macro trends. Bill Hughes, Managing Director of LGIM Real Assets, comments: “Now in its eleventh year, the charity cycle ride to MIPIM is a high profile, well established event in the industry calendar, and recognised as one of the property sector’s toughest sporting challenges. Our three year commitment reflects our belief that cycling and other charity-focused, physical challenges play an increasingly important role in industry networking, providing a good antidote to MIPIM itself. Our position as head sponsor presents us with an exciting opportunity to provide our input and have a positive effect on the event, whilst also encouraging new riders to take up the challenge.” CYCLE TO… is known for its highly professional, well-supported rides, which gives the cyclists an experience of what it’s like to be a pro-rider; with rolling road closures, support vehicles, mechanics and masseurs. The MIPIM ride has become a flagship event for the property industry and it offers the opportunity to connect and network with fellow industry professionals, whilst also raising money for charity. Since its inception, the ride has helped foster a number of successful business relationships: earlier this year, Duggan Morris Architects secured planning for a development with Argent for its biggest project to date, citing meeting Argent on the event as a significant contributing factor to landing the contract. The 2016 event will be launched on 29th September 2015 in front of this year’s prospective riders. Now in its eleventh year, the MIPIM ride will take place 10th-15th March 2016.The epic six day endurance event will start in London and finish in Cannes for the start of international property fair MIPIM. The unique event brings together over 100 property industry professionals who will ride 1,500km route as one peloton with the aim of raising £300,000 for charity. In 2015, the highly successful tenth anniversary event raised £254,000, bringing the ultimate total raised by CYCLE TO… to more than £2 million. Nick Hanmer, Chief Executive of CYCLE TO… said, “We’re extremely pleased to have L&G on board and very excited about working together with the team there. L&G is a high profile and well-respected organisation within the industry and our three year relationship is a fantastic way to start the second decade of our flagship event.” Two-thirds of funds raised by the ride will go to the principal charity partner, Coram, the UK’s first dedicated children’s charity. For over 275 years it has been helping the most vulnerable children overcome hardship and trauma. Article 25, Emthonjeni Trust, Multiple System Atrophy Trust and Tom’s Trust are the other organisations being supported.

Reports of incidents of worker deaths and dangerous lack of safety precautions on building work in the city. The Saudi crane collapse that killed more than 100 people in Mecca at the weekend has exposed a shoddy breakneck construction boom that some Saudis complain is ruining the holy city. For years, Mecca’s residents have lived with rampant building and development work as Saudi leaders seek to expand not just a holy site that received more than 2 million visitors during hajj last year, but the surrounding metropolis too. “Every two years they have a new plan that is nothing to do with the previous plan,” said one activist, who like many Saudis was nervous of giving his name. “So they have to destroy a bit of the past. That is why the people of Mecca and hajjees have been suffering for the last 15 years.” Hajj pilgrimage to go ahead despite tragic crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque Read more Frenetic building work is evident everywhere in Mecca, above all at the Grand Mosque, the vast complex of religious buildings spread over 356,800 square metres at the heart of the city, where Friday’s accident took place. The country’s monarch, King Salman, has promised to find out what caused the construction crane to topple over during a thunderstorm. One Briton, Qasim Akram from Bolton, was confirmed to have been killed. The hajj is due to go ahead unaffected, but locals have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths. “There have been quite a few minor incidents, workers getting killed, but it never reaches the press,” said the activist. “This time they can’t hide it.” The 100bn riyal (£17.2bn) Mecca development project is overseen by one of the country’s leading developers, the Saudi Bin Laden Group, and has backing from the government. Supporters say that when the project is completed there will be new housing, a ring road, parking lots and a new metro system. Dr Irfan al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, said: “It is a tragedy what has happened, but it didn’t come as a surprise. There have been many accidents. Last year, the last few floors of a building being constructed right next to the clock tower caught fire and they had to call the fire engine from Taif, which is about 45 mins away, to help extinguish it. “There is no health and safety system in place. In London when you have construction work the public are kept away, but in Mecca machinery is deployed in areas accessible to the public,” Dr Alawi said. “There are not enough volunteers looking to check children do not go into the dangerous areas. Even some of the engineers don’t have safety gear, helmets or gloves to wear, because it is very hot, summer time temperatures 45C.” “We have 15 of the world’s tallest cranes overlooking the Grand Mosque,” he said. “These cranes have been standing there for the last three years. If this crane collapsed, what is stopping the other cranes collapsing God forbid? I urge the Saudi authorities to implement health and safety but this is something they have failed to do over the past few years.” “Next year they have the largest hotel in the world being constructed with 10,000 rooms. Where is the health and safety for those?” Dr al-Alawi is concerned that the city’s many skyscrapers are “making it look like Manhattan”. Chief among them is the 76-storey royal clock tower and the gargantuan Abraj al-Bait complex attached to it. One of the world’s largest buildings in terms of floor space, the six towers of the complex include luxury hotel rooms and a multi-storey shopping mall. Activists, however, say there is a worrying lack of oversight and accidents usually go unreported. Amateur videos of demolition work in Mecca posted online show a dangerous lack of security precautions. A building is demolished in Mecca, with traffic close by. A leading concern among local residents is that the Bin Laden Group has earmarked large slum areas for demolition and they fear they may not receive proper compensation or a new place to live. The problem is made worse by the fact that Mecca’s immigrant communities have traded property among themselves for years, but the state does not recognise the paperwork they use to do so. “The development project is primarily a means for the regime to distribute oil wealth and patronage among a limited circle of princes and their entourage. No one is expecting it to bring any tangible benefits,” said another Mecca resident. Property around the Grand Mosque is among the most expensive in the world, but there are squalid districts not far from the centre. Mansour Street is a slum neighbourhood located just over a mile from the Grand Mosque and populated mainly by migrants from three Nigerian tribes. Al Nakasah is a densely populated Burmese slum built on steep, unpaved mountainsides. Many streets in these neighbourhoods are too narrow and steep for cars to pass. Inside the tangled maze of alleyways, sewage runs in the streets and rubbish lies uncollected. Few houses have mains gas, water or electricity. Women and children forage in skips for food. There is little evidence of the estimated $110bn (£71bn) in social programmes and subsidies the king has announced since uprisings began sweeping the region four years ago. Activists say it is Mecca’s unique social mosaic that makes it a particularly easy city for the government to control. Given its historic role as the centre of Islamic pilgrimage, it is a collection of immigrant communities coming mainly from countries where Muslims face persecution and discrimination at home. “Al Saud are experts at playing one off one side against the other,” said another local. “If one community makes problems they are passed over for what they want most – jobs. This keeps the people loyal”. Visas and residency permits are also a powerful means of social control. The government can easily silence immigrant communities with

Mitie has retained the street furniture cleaning and maintenance contract with Transport for London (TfL). The five-year deal is valued at over £16m. This is the second time that Mitie’s transport team has retained the contract, having originally won it in 2004 and keeping it in 2008. The TfL contract has enabled the team to increase by 25 members taking the existing workforce to over 50 people. Mitie’s transport team is based in south London in its own 3,500m² warehouse, which is the hub for its operations. Every year the team cleans 19,000 bus stops, installs 165,000 posters and timetables, cleans 6,000 traffic light control units and 7,000 bus shelters (with a further 4,000 to be added now). The cleaning includes the removal of graffiti from all of TfL’s street furniture. They also clean TfL’s eight River Piers. Mitie’s transport experts also work for major airports and bus and train companies around the UK and have built up an impressive team that focuses on the ‘passenger experience’. Colin Marshall, Mitie’s transport director, said: “Every passenger journey matters to us and we focus on assisting TfL to make every journey as safe and pleasant as possible.” Bob Forsyth, managing director of Mitie’s cleaning business, said: “Every day TfL carries six and a half million passengers around London and our dedicated team plays a vital part in this huge effort. We are committed to investing even more into this strategic contract in the years to come.” Yesterday, Mitie was given preferred bidder status by Rolls-Royce for the FM of its UK and specific European properties. Subject to contract, this will be one of Mitie’s largest pan-European agreements and will mark the continuation of a relationship with Rolls-Royce which began in 1992 with the provision of a single service in the UK.

A mother and her young son were put at risk of suffering carbon monoxide poisoning for seven years at their home in Ashton-under-Lyne, a court has heard. The woman’s landlord, Rent4U Ltd, of Manchester, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an inspection of the gas boiler at her home found it was in a condition classified as ‘immediately dangerous’. Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard that the firm failed to arrange an annual gas safety check at the terraced house on Marlborough Street between 2007 and 2014. The court was told that Rent4U had previously been served with two Improvement Notices by HSE in 2013 after failing to arrange annual gas safety checks at two other properties. Rent4U Ltd, of Christie Way, Christie Fields, Manchester, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £7,000 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

A company that constructs extensions to houses has been fined after incorrectly working on gas flue, potentially putting lives at risk as harmful could have seeped back into the house. Southwark Crown Court heard how, between June 2013 and June 2014, Wedgewood Design and Build Limited of London, was building an extension across the full width of a house at a property at Greenside Road, West London. The extension work required the gas flue to be repositioned. This involved extending an existing gas flue which was boxed into a void, meaning there was no way of examining the flue. Also, an incorrect type of pipe was used for the flue. Wedgewood Design and Build Limited, of Ballards Lane, London was fined a total of £9,000, and ordered to pay £7,500 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 8 (3) of the Gas Safety(Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. For more information about gas safety log onto the website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/