Leading timber specialist, Arnold Laver, has significantly strengthened its doorset manufacturing capabilities, following the acquisition of the assets of Cotswold Manufacturing. Arnold Laver, part of The National Timber Group, has now started the integration of its latest production facility, located in Thornaby, near Stockton-on-Tees. The business will be branded as
Sliding and folding door hardware manufacturer, P C Henderson, has released two new installation videos for its market leading range of Pocket Door Pro and Husky Soft Stop systems. Launched early 2019, Pocket Door Pro and Husky Soft Stop, although new to the market, have quickly grown to become two
Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has sold Aireside House, a 9,500 sq ft office block immediately behind the railway station on Aire Street in Leeds City Centre for £3.05 million. The purchaser is the Wesleyan Assurance Group, a financial services company. The building was fully occupied and
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has welcomed new commitments from the UK government to accelerate building safety improvements – and calls for “visible and tangible action” to now be taken. This week Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced new measures to improve building safety in the UK. The
Unfortunately, there are many risks to construction workers in the UK. But the majority are easy to avoid if the right procedures and systems are in place. It’s essential for workers and companies to be aware of all the hazards associated with the site they are on, so they can
Savills has strengthened its UK management team with the acquisition of Chainbow Ltd, a specialist residential management business. The company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Roger Southam, established Chainbow in 1989 and now employs 28 staff members, all of whom will now move to Savills with immediate effect. Among those
Leading timber specialist, Arnold Laver, has significantly strengthened its doorset manufacturing capabilities, following the acquisition of the assets of Cotswold Manufacturing. Arnold Laver, part of The National Timber Group, has now started the integration of its latest production facility, located in Thornaby, near Stockton-on-Tees. The business will be branded as Arnold Laver and will form part of its new Intelligent Door Solutions Division. The modern, 80,000 sq ft manufacturing facility specialises in producing timber fire and acoustic doors, doorsets and screens that are used throughout the UK, in the commercial, residential, education and leisure markets. David Oldfield, Director of Joinery at Arnold Laver, said: “This latest investment has strengthened our position as an industry leader in the UK timber doorset market and gives our customers more choice than ever before. Our overall group capacity now exceeds 2,000 doorsets per week, with significant room for further growth. This new investment comes at a time of increasing demand for high quality, certified products, with a greater focus on compliant fire doors. “Arnold Laver already has a solid reputation for offering a strong portfolio of products and a clear focus on quality and fire certification standards. When this is combined with the latest industry innovations on offer from the Thornaby site, including leading edge CNC equipment, lamination and factory finish line technology, it gives us the opportunity to offer a complete doorset solution to our customers. “We now have a comprehensive range of fully finished doors and doorsets, spanning commercial and residential projects. Customers are immediately feeling the benefits of this, with improved lead-times, an enhanced choice of products, as well as high manufacturing standards that often exceed third party certifications and accreditations from the likes of The BWF Fire Door Alliance, BM Trada Q-Mark, ISO 9001, Achilles and Secured by Design.” As an organisation committed to improving standards in the industry, Arnold Laver is part of the BWF Fire Door Alliance and BM Trada Third Party Door Certification schemes and works closely with all door certification bodies to continually drive quality and safety standards. The company also regularly brings together industry experts to deliver compelling and informative CPD-accredited fire door safety seminars. For further information about Arnold Laver’s range of timber doors, visit www.intelligentdoorsolutions.co.uk or call into your local depot.
Sliding and folding door hardware manufacturer, P C Henderson, has released two new installation videos for its market leading range of Pocket Door Pro and Husky Soft Stop systems. Launched early 2019, Pocket Door Pro and Husky Soft Stop, although new to the market, have quickly grown to become two of the company’s most popular products due to their high quality design, flexible functionality options and easy installation. The company has now developed two high quality installation videos in order to complement the product offering. Stephanie Lee, Marketing Manager at P C Henderson, “Since launching our first set of installation videos back in 2015 – we’ve gone onto develop a total of 17 videos which have been watched by almost half a million people worldwide – making them the most popular of their kind. Due to the popularity of our Pocket Door Pro and Husky Soft Stop products, we know our latest videos are going to be a big hit”. Developed in the company’s in house studio, with the help of an outside agency, the videos detail the tools required and kit contents before guiding customers through the installation process step by step, highlighting ‘top tips’ along the way. Featuring a realistic CGI background, the videos enable customers to see what the products will look like in situ – providing a realistic demonstration. “Developing tools to make our customers lives easier is always a fundamental part of our marketing strategy – the videos have been an extremely successful development. Customers can view them on our website, scan the QR code on our paper fitting instructions or, if you’re a P C Henderson distributor, embed them onto your own website. “They’re also a great way to instill confidence, customers can watch the videos prior to purchase and see just how easy our kit packs are to install”, continued Stephanie. Currently receiving over 10,000 views a month, the videos are available for the majority of P C Henderson’s kit pack sliding door hardware products which are predominantly aimed towards the DIY market. P C Henderson offers a wide range of sliding and folding door hardware catering for maximum door weights of between 9kg and 8000kg. As well as kit packs the company also offer a large selection of commercial and industrial door hardware, with plans to develop more technical videos for this side of the business in future. To view the installation videos or to find out more about P C Henderson’s range of sliding and folding door hardware visit www.pchenderson.com/installation-videos or email marketing@pchenderson.com
Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has sold Aireside House, a 9,500 sq ft office block immediately behind the railway station on Aire Street in Leeds City Centre for £3.05 million. The purchaser is the Wesleyan Assurance Group, a financial services company. The building was fully occupied and the sale equates to a 6.66% net initial yield. Addington acquired the building in a £42 million mixed-use portfolio with its joint venture partners and has since completely refurbished the building to offer a modern and creative office environment over four floors, with cycle storage and shower facilities added as part of the renovation. Phil Symonds of Addington Capital said, “This is an excellent example of what Addington is best at – buying and re-working old, under-utilised buildings to develop a contemporary renovated office environment well suited to the local market in terms of location, floorplate size and, in particular, specification and finish. The Leeds office market has performed very well lately, with strong occupier demand across the size and specification ranges, alongside increasingly constrained supply.” Agents on the deal were Cushman & Wakefield for Addington Capital and Lambert Smith Hampton for the Wesleyan Assurance Group.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has welcomed new commitments from the UK government to accelerate building safety improvements – and calls for “visible and tangible action” to now be taken. This week Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced new measures to improve building safety in the UK. The announcement includes the immediate establishment of a new Building Safety Regulator within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as well as a proposal to extend the existing combustible cladding ban and accelerate its removal from buildings across the country. Richard Jones, Head of Policy and Regulatory Engagement at IOSH, said: “While it’s positive to hear the new government declare it won’t tolerate the slow pace of improvement to building safety in the UK, which IOSH and others have raised concern over, we now need to see visible and tangible action, with these announcements just the start of an extensive and active delivery-programme. “Working with the HSE will be reassuring for many, given it’s a world-class regulator that secures near universal praise nationally. It has successful experience of co-regulation, as well as of operating permissioning and safety-case regimes and enforcing the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, so should be ideally placed for such a role. However, it will be vital that it’s properly resourced for taking on this substantial additional responsibility and workload for this new regime, which we understand will be fully chargeable. “In IOSH’s response to the combustible cladding ban consultation, we emphasised the need to remove it from all high-rises in both residential and non-residential buildings. We are pleased that the government is now reconsidering its position and have clarified its guidance for building-owners. “We also look forward to further government action on sprinkler requirements and to the Fire Safety Bill and its clarification of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.” Last month, IOSH urged the government to “get health and safety done” and pushed for urgent progress on all the key occupational safety and health public-policy areas, including national ‘post-Grenfell’ reforms on building regulation and fire safety. Last month, IOSH urged the government to “get health and safety done” and pushed for urgent progress on all the key occupational safety and health public-policy areas, including national ‘post-Grenfell’ reforms on building regulation and fire safety.
Unfortunately, there are many risks to construction workers in the UK. But the majority are easy to avoid if the right procedures and systems are in place. It’s essential for workers and companies to be aware of all the hazards associated with the site they are on, so they can take steps to reduce the risks to their health and safety. Here, we look at how many work-related injuries are suffered in the construction industry in the UK, what these are and how they can be avoided. 79,000 people suffer from work-related injuries in the construction industry each year The latest statistics from HSE show that in 2018-19, there’s 79,000 construction industry professionals suffering from work-related illness. A massive 62% of these are musculoskeletal disorders, 21% stress, depression or anxiety related, and 17% other health issues. This shows that nearly two thirds of injuries are to tendons, muscles, ligaments, joints, nerves or bones – highlighting the true extent of the risks that site accidents can cause. Falls from a height caused 18% of non-fatal injuries in 2018-19 On average, there are 54,000 non-fatal injuries to workers every year in the construction industry. There’s no denying that there are many risks to workers onsite, but appropriate risk management strategies can be put in place to reduce their likelihood. The statistics have shown that falling from a height caused 18% of non-fatal injuries to construction workers, a huge difference to other industries where only 8% of recorded accidents were caused by falls. There was just under 1,000 people (926) that fell from a height in 2018-19, of which 568 were “specified” by RIDDOR and 358 had to take over seven days off work. How can accidents be prevented? It’s essential for all workers and companies to put appropriate measures in place to reduce the risk of falling from a height. Firstly, everyone working onsite should complete thorough safety training, educating them on hazards and the safety standards they must abide by. They should be able to access company health and safety policies with ease and be told who the onsite first aider is and where to find them. Secondly, adequate safety systems must be implemented across the sight to reduce the risks of falling. Ladders must be secured, scaffolding erected correctly, and any walkways guarded to make sure there is a safe exit from the construction site. Thirdly, all workers should wear good quality PPE (personal protective equipment) at all times. Hard hats are essential particularly to protect workers from falling objects or personal falls. Goggles, gloves, capped safety boots and high-visibility clothing should also be worn. What should workers do if they have an accident at work? It’s important that any worker suffering injury due to an accident at work reports it to their employer, makes written notes of it in the company accident book, and reports it to a medical professional. It may be worth taking pictures of the injury and asking witnesses for their contact details, should you need them to provide an account of what happened. If you are unable to work after your accident, you should take a look at the government advice on Statutory Sick Pay to see if you are eligible. You may also be able to claim compensation through companies like National Accident Helpline, if the accident wasn’t your fault. This may give you financial support if you’re out of work and also highlight safety issues to stop this happening to anyone else in the future.
Savills has strengthened its UK management team with the acquisition of Chainbow Ltd, a specialist residential management business. The company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Roger Southam, established Chainbow in 1989 and now employs 28 staff members, all of whom will now move to Savills with immediate effect. Among those are Nigel Bosworth, the firm’s managing director, and Niccie Storr and Gail Lawrence, both of whom are associate directors. Chainbow specialises in the build to rent, private rented and residential block management sectors, and provides consultancy services and property management services to a number of clients including Westrock, Englander Group and Taylor Wimpey. CEO of Savills UK and Europe, Mark Ridley, commented that Chainbow has a well-respected and established reputation throughout the property management sector, specifically in the estate and residential areas, which will both enhance and compliment their existing offer. Savills’ Head of Property Management, Nick Herward, commented that property management is an important service line for the company and the integration of Mr Southam, Mr Bosworth and the whole Chainbow team will go a long way in augmenting their leading offer in Central London, along with the wider national management sector. Mr Herward added that the acquisition also shows Savills’ long term commitment to providing a top class, diverse service for its clients. Meanwhile, Mr Southam commented that Chainbow is delighted to join forces with Savills and is now anticipating a positive move in the expansion of the service it already offers as part of a national team. He believes that the wealth of experience of both companies in the property management sector will combine to form a formidable force in the industry. As well as Chainbow, Savills has also secured a deal to acquire Collier & Madge, a specialist London commercial property management company. They secured this deal in May of last year.