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Housebuilders’ shares have more than doubled in two years as home prices have recovered, but an uncertain interest rate outlook and rising costs mean gains look more modest – and more precarious – in 2014. Government schemes, including the “Help to Buy” programme, which guarantees up to 15 percent of applicable mortgages, helped push house prices to an 11-year high by one measure last month, fuelling concerns about a potential bubble that could burst when interest rates eventually rise. House prices will rise on average 4 percent this year and 5.5 percent next and even more in London, according to a Reuters poll of market watchers. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has played down talk of overheating and asked the Bank of England for annual recommendations on the …

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Fassi will launch a new 15 tonne/metre loader crane next week at the Solutrans exhibition in Lyon. The F165AZ has been developed with a eye on the French public works market, and features a built in foldable control station and unusual over centre geometry, both intended to take up less space and free up the truck bed from obstructions, especially handy when used for loading/unloading loose material with a clamshell grab. The three section boom has two telescopic sections which use a single cylinder and extension chain saving space which allows hoses to be routed internally. Maximum reach is eight metres. The prototype at the show will be in the Basic configuration with direct hydraulic controls. A version is also planned with Danfoss compensated proportional …

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Swift action by employees at Sims Crane & Equipment Co. helped emergency responders quickly locate the body of a railroad worker crushed in a train derailment on October 25 in Sanford, FL. Chris Arnold, Sims’ Orlando-based crane application specialist, said that minutes after he heard about the derailment on a radio newscast, he was in touch with his Railworks Corporation client contact at the Sun Rail accident site, and offered to send a crane to lift the derailed cars back on track. Arnold said he did not know then that a railroad employee had been crushed beneath one of the cars, which were carrying gravel at the Sun Rail expansion construction site. “We work derailments regularly, but this was the first fatality for me,” said Arnold. …

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Construction of a congestion-busting link road between Sheffield and Rotherham is set to start ‘in the coming months’ after government and European Union funding was approved. The £16 million route will run beneath the M1 junction 34, allowing vehicles to bypass congested roundabouts at either end of Tinsley Viaduct. The investment is part of the £30 million North Bus Rapid Transit scheme, which aims to reduce journey times on public transport. Planning permission has already been granted – and the approval of £15.9 million from the Government and £8m from the EU has now meant the project can begin. The rest of the funding is coming from Sheffield and Rotherham councils and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. Construction of the link road and bus priority measures elsewhere in …

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The Port of Southampton has expressed an interest in buying the local military docks at Marchwood after a boom in car traffic reduced expansion space at its own facilities to a single acre. A surge in car handling at the 700-acre port has put space at a premium, forcing Southampton to build its fifth multi-deck storage facility – due to be opened next month by Stephen Hammond, the transport minister. The need to build “upwards” is testament to the recovery in demand for new cars in both Britain and overseas, with Southampton seeing strong growth in car exports. Such traffic at Southampton rose 72pc to 439,000 vehicles between 2009 and last year, when the port handled 31pc of UK car exports. Total car traffic at the port last…

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Land-banking’ culture to be scrapped to encourage house-building Firms have been exploiting loophole in order to wait for house price rises New rule comes weeks after Labour’s criticised ‘land seizure’ policy Housebuilders will no longer be allowed to delay big developments after the government introduced stricter rules to prevent so-called ‘land banking’. Planning minister Nick Boles has scrapped a 2008 measure – introduced in the midst of the financial crisis – which allowed three-year permissions to be easily extended. Some developers exploit the loophole and hoard plots for years as they wait for house prices to rise before starting to build homes. Mr Boles said: ‘This measure to extend planning permission was always intended to be temporary and, while it…

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Britain’s recovery hopes have been dealt a double blow as official figures showed the construction sector shrank and the UK’s goods deficit with the EU reached a record high in September. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said construction output decreased 0.9% month-on-month. It meant a previous estimate for impressive growth of 2.5% over the third quarter in the sector was revised sharply downwards to 1.7%. Separate ONS data on trade showed the monthly deficit failed to narrow from £3.3 billion while the balance of goods exports to the EU compared with imports from the region reached a record negative of £6 billion. The setback for construction comes despite signs of improvement in the housing market and Government initiatives such as Help to Buy buoying …

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Quadriga Ltd explains how the UK’s historic buildings can be restored to their former glory and saved from decay using a variety of tried and tested techniques. The UK is famed for its architectural beauty, with many stunning historic buildings to be found across the country. From castles and churches to the listed buildings that make our cities such attractive places to visit, it is important to make sure all of these remain structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing so that they can be enjoyed by visitors for years to come. The combination of speed and care required for these tasks is something  Quadriga Ltd has perfected over two decades of building restoration work. Restoring a building No two restoration projects will ever be entirely the same, as …

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Alpha Tower was constructed at a time of rapid change in Birmingham city centre with the Paradise Forum development housing the John Madin-designed Central Library being built at the same time It emerged this week that the landmark Alpha Tower building on the corner of Easy Row and Broad Street in Birmingham city centre has been put on the market for just over £10 million. The asking price is 25 per cent of the price it changed hands at in 2008 . The tower sits on the Arena Central development site — a £400 million 2.3 million sq ft mixed-use scheme that will transform the Broad Street area. Work on site began in July with the demolition of a multi-storey car park to build a 210-room Holiday …

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The engineering and construction industries rely as much on innovation and new forms of technology as they do experience and traditional methods. Whether it’s a completely new form of technology designed for a specific purpose, or an improvement on existing methods, advances are making home designs more efficient and better environments for us to live in. Take a look at the following examples, which are just a sample of innovative building solutions. Self-closing doors It’s sad to admit, but modern homes need to be designed with stringent security features to reduce the threat of break-ins, vandalism and crime. A UK government survey found that in 2012 alone, more than 1.8 million theft offences occurred and there were more than 65,000 reported incidents of robbery – you can find …

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