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Labour is looking to introduce penalties for house builders that choose to hoard land rather than build it out.

This weekend Ed Miliband will deliver a speech to Labour’s National Policy Forum in Birmingham warning that house builders with planning ‘must use it or lose it’.

Labour has seized on figures that show planning permission has been granted for 400,000 homes in England that have not been built.

The speech is part of a move by Labour to focus the political debate on house building and highlight the Coalition Government’s failure to adequately tackle the housing crisis.

In a leak of his speech, Miliband says: “Permission to build should mean land-owners build. If there is unnecessary hoarding, developers should be encouraged to do what they are in business to do: build houses.”

“We have to be willing to confront some of the obstacles to house building.

“Across our country, there are firms sitting on land, waiting for it to accumulate in value and not building on it. Land-owners with planning permission, who simply will not build.

He warned: “We have to change that. That’s why as part of our Policy Review we will consult in the coming months on how to get that building started.

“All options should be on the table, including giving local authorities real power to say to the worst offenders that they should either use the land, or lose the land.

Miliband will highlight new figures published this week by Shelter showing young people who work hard are locked out of buying new homes for up to 30 years because of sky-high property prices fuelled by decades in which Britain has failed to build enough houses.

Despite surging profits among volume house builders and signs of a recovery in prices, the last quarter saw just 18,380 homes completed by the private sector – the lowest quarter in 23 years.

New figures also show the average time taken to complete a private development has risen from 20 months in 2008 to 25 months in 2012. In London it is 30 months.

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Olympic gold medallist Peter Wilson has gained a worldwide reputation for speed and accuracy, and he has now teamed up with a leading building equipment brand to find Birmingham tradesmen that display the same skills.

The double trap shooter, who hit the headlines when he scooped gold at London 2012, is targeting the keen-eyed tradesmen in conjunction with Bullet Woodscrews.

The Bullet Screw Off Challenge will see entrants complete a speed and accuracy ‘Screw Off’ against the clock, with the fastest competitor being crowned national champion.

The competition marks the launch of Bullet Woodscrews, which use cutting-edge technology to allow a faster and more precise screw application.

The Birmingham heat will take place at Birchwood Price Tools Birmingham office on 90 Summer Lane in Newton, and Bullet’s Head of Marketing Chris Mellor-Dolman is hoping the area will be well represented.

He said: “We wanted to show how superior this product is when it comes to speed and accuracy to get the job done as fast as possible.

“We realised that if there was anyone that demonstrated those characteristics it was Peter Wilson, so we thought it would be great to get him involved with the Bullet Challenge.

“The winner will be given a VIP day for four people with Peter at his training headquarters in London and will get to take him on in both his discipline and also their own speciality.”

Shooting ace Peter is looking forward to taking on the tradesmen and seeing how honed their skills are.

He said: “The Bullet Screw Off Challenge is a great way of highlighting the equal importance of speed and accuracy in the work environment, I might do a very different job but they remain the most important factors.

“I am looking forward to meeting the winner and their guests, and hopefully I’ll be able to show them a thing or two about double trap and learn a bit about their profession at the same time.”

The Birmingham heat will run from Monday 9^th June for two months.

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Towns across England will benefit from an additional £91 million of investment that will refurbish empty homes and commercial premises.

Communities minister Don Foster announced the programme today (June 20th) and now 6,000 derelict homes will be refurbished as a result.

The main focus will be in the Midlands and the north where the problem is much more severe than other areas of the country. Some £33 million of the empty homes programme funding will go to the north of England, with a further £11 million heading to the Midlands.

Specifically, the money will be spent on refurbishment in areas where empty properties have commonly led to problems such as squatting and rat infestation.

Properties such as this have led to house prices being affected, which naturally drives any remaining residents away from the area and deters people from moving in.

The funding is being allocated from two programmes. The first will see £61 million from the second round of the empty homes funding programme. Around two thirds of this (£41 million) is to be allocated by the Homes and Communities Agency to registered social landlords and the remaining money will go to community and voluntary groups.

After this, the second windfall, representing £30 million, is funding for 20 partnerships in areas of severe problems such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. This scheme will see around 3,500 homes come back into use.

Andy Rose, Homes & Communities Agency chief executive, said: “We had a very encouraging response to the funding across a wide range of types of property. This demonstrates a strong appetite and scope for bringing empty homes and properties back into use, which will help to reinvigorate our communities and towns.”

The government has already invested £130 million to refurbish around 11,500 empty homes in England since 2010, including £100 million to bring empty property back as affordable housing and the first “clusters of empty homes” programme investment of £30 million.

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After weeks of speculation, it has been announced that furniture retailer Dwell has ceased trading. The retailer has closed its 23 stores and House of Fraser concession, and – as things stand – will not honour outstanding customer orders.

Dwell had recently enlisted the help of adviser Argyll Partners to help find a buyer for the company, however, with no investment forthcoming, it has become the latest retail casualty on the high street.

“The business had been working with its advisers to secure further working capital for the business, and was actively in the process of talking to a number of interested parties who saw the value of the Dwell brand, its products, its customer base, and its multi channel proposition,” a spokesperson commented.

“Despite this, interest did not progress [and] as a result we have been left with no option but to close the business with immediate effect.”

In its most recent annual results, covering the 12 months to 27th January 2012, it was revealed that Dwell’s pre-tax losses had expanded from £439,721 to £1.69m.

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Embarrassed Manchester City bosses ban United shirts at the Eithad Campus construction site

Any workers at City’s new £120million training ground site wearing football shirts face face the sack

Construction workers on Manchester City’s £120million Etihad Campus have been warned they face the sack if they turn up wearing Manchester United shirts.

According to a labourer working at the 80-acre development all football shirts have been banned from the site which will become City’s new training ground.

This came after an incident last week where two Red Devil-supporting builders were ordered to remove their United shirts at the Ashton New Road development.

The labourer told the MEN: “Because the weather has been so nice a lot of the lads have been wearing football shirts. Some of those have been United shirts but on Tuesday two lads wearing United shirts were told to cover them up or get off the site.

“They asked why and were told that there was a no-football shirt policy. They said it was in the rules but it’s the first we’ve heard of it.”

He added: “We see a silver Land Rover giving people tours of the site and I think that the club may have been embarrassed by it.”

BAM, the construction firm building the new development are also carrying out random inspections to stop any United fans burying Paraphernalia in the foundations, according to the worker, although this claim has been denied by BAM.

He said: “It’s annoying a lot of the lads working there and you are now starting to see bit of ‘MUFC’ graffiti about the place.

“They are annoyed because builders always wear old football shirts. The site is in Manchester and so people are going to wear United shirts.”

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Cheshire East Council has announced a £500,000 investment into Macclesfield town centre in a further commitment to the town’s regeneration.

Plans were confirmed on Wednesday that a £90m redevelopment scheme will go ahead, while council leader Cllr Michael Jones said cash will be pumped into “tidying up” Chestergate, the Silk Heritage Centre, public signage and public areas.

Work has already been carried out in Macclesfield to repair and upgrade the market area, while paving around the town centre has been repaired and improvements have been made around the church area.

Cllr Jones said this was “phase one” of improvements, and “phase two” will be a multi-staged operation.

He said: “I am pleased to announce ‘phase three’ of this major redevelopment which follows my discussions with all parties before the planning decision was made.

“This will be a further £500,000 of Cheshire East capital funds spent on Macclesfield. This money was already budgeted for and will not be spent in any part of the Wilson Bowden phase.

“This is part of an ongoing commitment to see Macclesfield becoming a destination town in its own right.”

“Phase three” will include a “Free after Three” car parking scheme, which will be introduced in the Whalley Hayes car park.

Councillor David Topping, Cabinet member in charge of the environment, said: “The Free after Three scheme will be on a trial basis and on the one car park in Macclesfield.

“This will be with a view to extending to other towns. We believe this will provide a boost to businesses and encourage visitors and support the town centre.”

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This is the first time that the Flushing boatyard, which has a long-standing working relationship with the RNLI, has worked on these new high tech class of vessels, which are worth more than £3 million each.

Last month the ‘Mark Mason’, which is based at Angle in Pembrokeshire, was in after sustaining damage responding to an emergency call, and most recently Salcombe-based ‘The Baltic Exchange III’ was in for a service.

Jonathan Fielding, Falmouth Boat Construction’s commercial director, said: “The Tamar offers plenty of new challenges since it is so high tech, and for us, a fast learning curve.

“Added to this is the fact that the vessels are needed back on station as soon as possible, the team worked all hours, applied their diverse skill set to the job and completed the necessary repairs in two weeks

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