The docklands of the Wirral Peninsula faces a massive regeneration scheme over the next three decades after the £4.5 billion planning application was given the green light.

The Wirral Waters scheme will transform more than 500 acres of disused brownfield sites over the next 30 years in the Birkenhead region. The project aims to breathe fresh life into the area, creating environmental as well as economic benefits to Birkenhead, Wallasey as well as the Merseyside region as a whole.

The development is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs during the construction phase and has been hailed a massive boost to the economy of the area as well as the residents that the project will impact directly upon.

The cabinet member for regeneration and planning strategy, Andrew Hodson commented: “This is a great day for Wirral. We have been working closely with Peel for almost four years to bring jobs and regeneration to the borough”.

“The approval of this planning application will lead to the total transformation of what is currently derelict brownfield land within East Float at Birkenhead Docks and when finished will create over 27,000 jobs.

“This has taken place against a backdrop of the worst recession in living memory and it is a credit to both Peel and Wirral Council that we have kept the plans moving.”

He added: “Subject to getting the okay from the government, we hope work will start on site within the next two years and officers of the council will continue to work with Peel as we move into the development phase.”

At BuilderScrap we are delighted to hear the news of this local development, as a Wirral based company this announcement marks exciting times for the area and we look forward to seeing the project progress.

Source: EDIE (net) 23 August 2010

Laing O’ Rourke became the first winner of the North West Construction Hub (NWCH) framework tendering process securing the £90m Manchester Central Library and Town Hall redevelopment.

The project which has been designed by architect Vincent Harris includes the restoration of Manchester’s Grade II- listed Central Library and Town Hall as well as redevelopment of St Peters Square. The project is due to be delivered by 2013.

Andrew Jackson, leader of Laing O’Rourke’s Construction North division, said: “Securing this exciting and unique project will enable Laing O’Rourke to build on our solid reputation for delivering landmark projects. It is a complex and challenging project, and one of huge value architecturally, culturally and civically. We look forward to partnering once again with Manchester council.”

This is the first of a number of tenders which will be done through the North West Construction Hub which divides work into three separate frameworks dependent upon project value. The High Value Framework tenders for jobs over £10m and is competed between a total of five organisations, the others being Bovis Lend Lease, Kier, Morgan Sindall and Wates.

The Framework has been developed as a method to ensure that local council can work in partnership with public sector construction in order to ensure that the delivery is efficient and on time. It also shares knowledge and experience as well as creating an emphasis on improved quality and sustainability.

(Source: Building.co.uk)

Councils in England are to be offered extra money for every newly-built home, as part of a government programme aimed at easing housing shortages.

Under the New Homes Bonus scheme the government will match the council tax raised on each new house for six years.

For every new home built the government will match the council tax raised on each new house for a period of six years – for a band D home that would be around £1400.

With 4.5m people now on council house waiting lists the new drive has been designed to help lower these lists and provide modern, efficient housing for their new residents.

Brendon Kenny of materials reuse platform BuilderScrap commented that, ‘this bold new initiative could help millions of people off waiting lists and into affordable housing. What the government needs to ensure is that construction site waste is minimised and that any reusable materials are put back into the community by posting them onto BuilderScrap. Statistics show that 14% (equivalent to approx 16.8m tonnes per annum)of all new construction materials are wasted and simply thrown away. Given the size of this new initiative, many other community building projects could benefit hugely if a properly managed, materials reuse policy using BuilderScrap is deployed by the construction companies’

Home sweet homeNational Housing Federation (NHF) has announced 85,000 planned home will no longer be built in England after the government has made the decision to axe the regional house-building targets.

The report which was commissioned by the NHF has revealed that town halls substantially reduced plans for new homes after the new government decided to axe the previous government’s regional building strategies. There were only 123,000 homes built in 2009/10, which is the lowest figure since 1923.

Eric Pickles, the community secretary, dubbed the regional targets “a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building.”

The South-west had the most cancellations with 60,000 new homes being axed.

The NHF warned that the government’s inability to replace the regional targets with another, will probably lead to a further slump in house-building across the country, regardless of local demand for new homes.

David Orr, NHF chief executive, said: “It is frankly disappointing that so many local authorities have decided to revise down the number of homes planned for their areas. Local authorities need to recognise that just because regional targets have gone, housing need has not.”

This seems to be yet another blow to the building trade, the recession is definitely still in effect, which is why it’s more important than ever to obtain discount building materials from builders surplus stores in order to benefit from cheap building materials so I guess that it’s more important than ever to use BuilderScrap.com.

The Labour government’s green school programme has now been scrapped by the coalition, but one school which was built under then the scheme was given the highest BREEAM rating ever for a school. Rogiet Primary School in Monmothshire was recognised as a key example of sustainability and achieved a staggering 78.18% score.

The one-storey timber frame school has 210 pupils and staff, has landscaped grounds and an outside area for sports and play time. This sustainable construction was regarded as of high importance to the former government, not only for reducing carbon emissions and using green building materials but also educating young people for a future of sustainable living.

Throughout the construction, pupils were given the chance to learn about the principles of sustainability, including insulation and what were the best regarding the buildings materials that were used during the process.

Neal Stephens, of construction company Willmott Dixon, who built the school in partnership with architect White Design, commented “The early collaboration of pupils, teachers and the community as a whole was an essential element of the building process and one that went on to reap numerous rewards. The sourcing of environmentally friendly products such as Warmcel Insulation was just one of many innovative ways in which we were able to demonstrate how construction can be sustainable, while creating a learning environment with a low carbon footprint – or in the case of Warmcel, a below zero carbon footprint!”

Other key sustainability features used in the school included:
• Single storey plan with high levels of natural daylight in all areas.
• Timber frame using responsibly sourced timber.
• Natural ventilation using both manually and automatically actuated windows, roof lights and vents to ensure good ventilation rates and thermal comfort.
• Landscape design and planting that increased both educational benefits for the school and biodiversity enhancement of the site.
• Rainwater harvesting tanks that recycle rainwater for use in the school.
• Wind turbine that creates renewable energy for the school.

Derek Downer, Head of Property Services, Monmouthshire County Council concludes “BREEAM set the standards to aim for and encouraged the site team to interact with the school in developing sustainability as an embedded culture, thus encouraging future generations to live sustainably.”

We at BuilderScrap are very impressed with this project and think it was made possible by following a few simple rules; intelligent purchasing of building supply, the use of recycled materials and obviously making sure all surplus building materials go on BuilderScrap.com.

Building materials group CRH has announced it will not be in profit the first half of the year, and will only just break even with a massive 20% fall in earnings.

In the first half of 2009 they announced £83m profit, in trading this year which is up to 30 June the firm said pre-tax profit would be “close to breakeven”.

Also earnings in terms of EBITDA would fall around 20% on the £541m recorded for the same period a year earlier.

However, the rate of decline in sales slowed, with sales over the 12 months to the end of June down 10%, compared with a 14% drop in the year to the end of April.

They expect a huge second half this year though and say they are likely to be higher than the £957m last year due to cost cutting and currency movements.

CRH said the measures taken to cut costs and reduce excess capacity since 2007 delivered total cumulative annualised savings of £1.12bn by the end of 2009, with a further £365m projected for 2010/11.

The firm’s interim results for 2010 are due to be posted on 24 August 2010.

The group also announced it had spent £111m on 13 acquisitions in the first half of 2010, and is due to invest a further £16m in Yatal Cement as its share of funding for two projects in north-east China.

Myles Lee, CRH chief executive, said:” We are seeing a good flow of bolt-on opportunities across our businesses and we continue to monitor wider developments in our industry; however, we are maintaining a patient approach in progressing transactions in light of the challenging market backdrop.”

BuilderScrap feels that if the sales are down then people must be making sure they are using all of their supply rather than throwing their building material surplus away. We urge all UK builders to use eco building materials and not throw away construction building materials that are surplus.

The government has approved £1.4bn worth of health and transport projects despite cutbacks and delays to construction schemes announced this week.

The largest health project to emerge unharmed from the review was the £400m Royal Liverpool University Hospital, while the £250m Tyne and Wear Metro was also given the go ahead.

The total for health and transport projects which have been cancelled amounts to £1.4bn of work.

St Helier Hospital in Surrey, estimated at £220m, was also approved and so was the £80m redevelopment of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex.

There is also £700m of transport work re-confirmed by the treasury which are:

- Luton-Dunstable Busway – £89m

- A130/A13 Sadlers Farm Junction (Essex) – £63m

- Tees Valley Bus Network Improvements (Tees Valley LAs) – £62.4m

- Metrolink Extension – Ashton – E Didsbury (Greater Manchester)

- Edge Lane / Eastern Approaches (Liverpool) – £20m

- Bidston Moss Viaduct (M53 J1) Maintenance (Merseyside) – £89m

- Poole Bridge (Poole) – £37m

- A41 Expressway (Sandwell) – £23m

- A65 QBC (Leeds) – £19m

- Silver Jubilee Bridge Maintenance (Halton)  – £19m

- Tyne and Wear Metro – £250m

- M1 J19 Catthorpe Viaduct Replacement – up to £25m

Caroline Spelman the Environment Secretary has announced a complete review of how rubbish is disposed of in Britain, she promised a “zero waste economy”

She also went on to speak about how biodegradable waste, like food could no longer be allowed to just rot in landfill. This move could will most likely lead to councils introducing some sort of slop bucket for waste food to be collected separately.

Mrs Spelman also went on to say that aluminium, glass and paper can not be allowed to landfill if we are to reach our goals.

“We need a new approach to waste,” she said as she announced the review yesterday. “We cannot keep putting recyclable and biodegradable material into landfill.”

Doretta Cocks of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection said that many households did not want slop buckets because of the odour and the danger of attracting wildlife.

Wrap, the Government’s waste watchdog, said that in areas where separate food collections have already been introduced — roughly half the councils in England — people have reported a high level of satisfaction.

Geoff Cooper, chief executive of Travis Perkins, has said there could be further consolidation in the building materials sector after his firm said it planned a £553m takeover bid for heating and plumbing specialist BSS, reported by Building.co.uk.

Cooper said that although corporate activity in the sector was subdued, economic conditions were ripe for further takeovers.

“We haven’t seen a move towards consolidation yet, but it would be quite normal to see consolidation in an industry as it recovers from recession,” he said.

“We think that the construction industry is in the middle of a trough and there will be a gentle recovery from here, and believe we can get the benefits of the recovery,” he added.In a statement to the City, the £3bn-turnover firm said both companies had agreed on a strategy for the takeover that hinges on cost savings and efficiencies. The purchase will also boost Travis’ heating and plumbing business.

Cooper said: “It’s a great strategic fit for us and creates the largest plumbing and heating trade and retail distribution business in the UK.”

He expects Travis Perkins to make a formal off for BSSm which has a turnover of £1.4bn, in under a month’s time, with a final shareholder decision in the next quarter.

Kevin Cammack, an analyst with Cenkos, said: “It makes a lot of sense for Travis Perkins, but I’m not entirely sure why BSS is so keen to lose its independence at that price, given it has seen a significant turn in trading fortunes over the past six months and has no need of help. I would have thought BSS could eke out a better price than this.”

Meanwhile, Charlie Campbell, a Liberum Capital analyst, described the deal as “surprising but positive”. He said: “We liked Travis shares before the deal and like them more now, not least because the company’s fortunes become less tied to the macroeconomy.”

On June 9 2010 Scotland has announced they will reduce 20M tonnes of waste to zero.

The Scottish Government’s zero waste plan was released by Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead.

The document by the Scots speaks of a complete stop on all reusable waste or recycling being landfilled by 2020.

They have also set 2 new targets on all of Scotland’s waste, one being a 70% target for recycling and secondly, a maximum of only 5% sent to landfill, both have a target year of 2025.

Mr Lochhead said: “We can’t go on as business as usual because we can’t afford to and because resources are finite.

“We are taking decisive action and setting ambitious targets, this includes a new 70% target for all waste to be recycled by 2025.”

“The plan will help deliver progressive landfill bans, with the end goal of no waste with reuse or recycling potential being landfilled by 2020.”

BuilderScrap encourages moves such as this and hope the English Government looks at this complete stamp out of waste and inspires them to be so bold.