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Skills chiefs are pumping more cash into non-trades training including money for sales and marketing staff at house builders. The Construction Industry Training Board and Homes for Scotland have launched the £250,000 scheme to train non-trade employees. The training money will go to “all areas involved in the production of new homes such as surveying, management and sales and marketing.” The Homes for Scotland Professional Skills Fund will run from November 2016 to December 2017. Michael Lennox, Strategic Partnerships Manager at CITB Scotland, said: “Scottish housebuilders told us that more needs to be done to address the range of skills challenges in the sector. “Working with HFS, this investment is a step towards addressing that important issue and will boost technical and professional skills to ensure…

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Work has started on construction of Europe’s tallest block of flats using purely modular construction at a site in south London. The 26-storey tower is London housing developer Pocket’s most ambitious scheme to date in the capital. Use of modular construction on the Mapleton Crescent site in Wandsworth will shave around six months off the tower’s total build time and see the project completed in summer 2018. Modular units are being constructed at the Vision Modular Factory in Bedford where all internal finishes, M&E installations, windows, external insulation and some external finishes are applied. Pocket specialises in designing compact starter homes for singles and couples with an average household income of around £37,000. The £40m scheme will provide 53 affordable flats to be sold outright at a discount of at least…

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The former Moortown Construction business looks set to be voluntarily wound-up by its directors after facing a big demand for repayment of tax relief. The company was part of the Bradford-based Moortown Group which continues to trade profitably and is unaffected by the move. Mortown Construction completed all ongoing contracts earlier this year. Since then it has been renamed Exmoto and is no longer a subsidiary of the group. Creditors of Exmoto are being invited to attend a meeting at KPMG’s offices in Leeds on 14 November to hear about plans to place the firm in voluntary liquidation brought about by a £1.37m demand from HMRC. News of the plans emerged just after the Moortown Group posted results at Companies House showing a sharp rise in pre…

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Ministers are planning new measures to encourage banks to lend to offsite housing specialists to help tackle the housing crisis. They hope the prefabricated housing push will speed up delivery and lead to major savings through economies of scale. A white paper is due out next month designed to galvanise the sector, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph. More than 100,000 pre-packed modular homes could be created as the government looks at ways to meet its one million homes target by 2020. Housing and planning minister Gavin Barwell said: “Offsite construction could provide a huge opportunity to increase housing supply and we want to see more innovation like this emulated across the housebuilding sector. “The £3 billion Home Building Fund will help build more than 225,000 new homes and provide…

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Winners of Considerate Constructors Scheme 2016 National Awards to be revealed Top performing registered companies and suppliers get ready to celebrate success at Considerate Constructors Scheme National Awards London, United Kingdom, 1 November 2016: The Considerate Constructors Scheme – the national scheme established by the construction industry to improve its image – is getting ready to reveal the UK’s most considerate companies and suppliers of 2016. The Scheme, which has registered around 900 companies and suppliers in the past 12 months, will be hosting the 2016 National Awards on 10th and 11th November, at the luxurious Four Seasons hotel on Park Lane. Supplier Registration was introduced in 2014 and this year’s awards mark the first year that suppliers will be eligible to win a National Award. Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of …

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Faltering commercial workloads will be offset by strong growth in infrastructure and school spending over the next two years, according to the latest major industry forecast. Economists at the Construction Products Association said the industry will avoid a post-Brexit vote recession with slow growth of 0.2% and 0.3% this year and next. The latest forecast is a sharp revision to the 3.6% predicted for 2017 and 2018 before the EU referendum. While commercial office building is expected to be worst hit, strong growth is expected in infrastructure and education as the Government pulls the levers to keep the economy running. Noble Francis, economics director at the CPA, said:  “Surveys across the industry highlight that activity in the construction sector has been sustained post-referendum, primarily based upon …

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Anyone who’s ever had a rodent infestation at home will understand the headache it causes – but if you thought that was bad enough, imagine facing an invasion from rats at your construction site. It’s a nightmare situation all too familiar to the Belgian officials responsible for opening new road tunnels in Brussels. Earlier this year, they claimed progress had been halted after rats ate construction plans. Whilst this does sound like a very extreme and public use of the classic ‘sorry, the dog ate my homework’ excuse, it also accurately points out one of the biggest issues that arises from pest control problems on a building site – namely, delays. As rats and mice struggle to find shelter and food, they’ll happily gnaw their way through …

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Builders’ merchant Travis Perkins is closing more than 30 branches due to an “uncertain” market outlook. The building supplies giant said the closures would result in an exceptional charge of £50m as it issued a profit warning to the city in a trading update. John Carter, Chief Executive, said: “Our Plumbing & Heating results were disappointing and whilst market conditions have worsened, we are not satisfied with our performance and will commence reviewing these operations. “It is still too early to predict customer demand in 2017 with certainty and we will continue to monitor our lead indicators closely. “Given this uncertainty we will be closing over 30 branches and making further efficiency driven changes in the supply chain, resulting in an exceptional charge of £40-50 million this year. “We…

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Plans to build a 52-storey skyscraper at the former Granada studios site in Manchester city centre have been approved. The tallest building in Allied London’s redevelopment at St John’s will rise to 168.4m – just half a metre shorter than Beetham Tower in Deansgate. Nadler Hotel plans to operate from the 18 lower storeys with private rented flats above. The 3.2-acre site around the Old Granada Studios complex sits in the northern part of the wider 13-acre St John’s £1.3bn regeneration scheme, which includes several more high rise buildings. Other buildings for the Globe & Simpson site granted development approval include a neighbouring eight-storey aparthotel, an 18-storey residential building and a four-storey residential building. St. John’s Place is due for completion at the end of 2018. Once completed, the wider St…

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Firefighters battled  a huge blaze through the night on Sunday after the timber frame of high rise flats under construction in Manchester caught fire. Crews were called to the site in Gorton. At the height of the incident five fire engines were in attendance and local houses had to be evacuated due to the heat. Incident Commander Ben Levy said: “At around five past eight this evening we received a large number of call, in excess of forty. “The fire involves a large timber frame building and upon arrival our crews found the top two floors well alight. A night vision shot showing the extent of the blaze “Given the fact it’s timber framed and open to the elements the fire spread quite quickly”. Fire crews managed…

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