The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has called on the Government to create a green budget to support hard-pressed small to medium sized builders.

The association wants a lower rate of VAT on home energy efficiency improvements, they say it will help keep SME’s afloat and help towards the strict climate targets that have been set for the UK.

Research by Experian last year estimated that 11,000 jobs will go in the housing repair, maintenance and improvement sector over the next decade as a result of January’s VAT hike from 17.5% to 20%.

The FMB also called on the government to reduce stamp duty to stimulate the flagging housing market.

Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the FMB, said: “In the current economic climate householders will need more than just loans, as currently proposed by the government in its Green Deal finance package, to make existing homes more energy efficient.”

“A reduced rate of VAT to 5% for all energy efficiency improvement projects would provide that boost as well as create much needed jobs in the building industry.”

“The construction industry’s prospects for 2011 look bleak. Small and medium sized building companies are continuing to report falling workloads and a third expect to have to cut staff this year.”

“The stimulus effect of a targeted VAT cut would far outweigh the cost to the Treasury and would help to deliver the government’s low carbon policy objectives.”

BuilderScrap sourced this article from Building.co.uk

The energy company E.on has been granted planning permission to construct a 230MW wind farm off the coast of Humberside.

The department of energy and climate change said the Humber Gateway could provide enough power for 150,000 homes.

Energy secretary Chris Huhne said: “Offshore wind not only provides clean, green, secure energy, the investment that comes with it is great for the UK economy too. A new wind farm off the Humberside coast will be a further jobs and investment boost for the region.”

In September last year Huhne opened the world’s largest offshore wind farm at Thanet, off the Kent coast, which is around a third larger than the Humberside farm.

BuilderScrap sourced this article from Building.co.uk

The future of the Construction Industry looks bleak after research by analysts Hewes and Associates suggested the industry would not return to growth until 2014.

The prediction came as GDP figures from the Office of National Statistics show construction output fell 3.3% in Q4 of 2010, the largest drop since the height of the recession in early 2009.

The construction figures dragged down overall GDP, which fell 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010.

Hewes also published a downbeat outlook for the sector for the next three years in which they have said forecast output will fall 3.5% in 2011 and drop a further 5% in 2012.

This compares with Experian’s forecast earlier this month of a 3.6% drop for 2011 and a 0.4% contraction for 2012.

Hewes also expects a marginal contraction of 1.3% in 2013, whereas Experian expects a return to growth of 5%.

Government cuts will bring an end to the construction recovery, the report said, after public spending contributed 65% of the growth in 2010, and the sector will contract for a second period.

Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said: “The GDP figures are really not good.”

“This is particularly concerning because the effects of the public sector cuts aren’t hitting the construction sector yet.”

Alasdair Reisner, head of industry affairs at the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, said: “The weather [in December] has clearly had an impact but if there was underlying strength in the construction sector then the figures wouldn’t have been as bad.”

This article has been sourced using Building.co.uk.

Arcadis will help rebuild the set of long-running soap Coronation Street as part of ITVs new production facility in Salford Quays, Manchester.

The contract is for cost management and quantity surveying, and comes after the old set in central Manchester was partially blown apart by a runaway tram in an explosive plot twist to celebrate the soap’s 50th anniversary.

The new studios will house an indoor and outdoor Coronation Street set, as well as TV studios, sound buildings, production suites and actors’ dressing rooms.

Russell Bolton, director of buildings for Arcadis in the UK, said: “We are really pleased to be involved in one of the most prestigious and high-profile schemes currently in the region.”

He said: “Arcadis has been working with ITV to plan this move in the region for a number of years so we have already developed a close working relationship with the client and are ready to get started immediately.”

Construction will begin in the first quarter of next year and finish in the second quarter of 2012.

This article was sourced from Building.co.uk

Local government leaders are claiming funding cuts for councils across the country are running much higher than the 9.9% average fall announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles yesterday.

Pickles said local authorities would undergo an average fall of 4.4% from all funding sources with no council seeing a decrease of more than 8.9% in 2011/12.

But the reduction in funding from central government to local authorities is higher at 9.9% next year as part of a four year plan to cut grants by 28%.

The Local Government Association believes some council’s will see a reduction in the money they receive from the Government of up to 17% in the first year.

The association also estimates total funding cuts of £6.5bn over the next 12 months which will all but decimate spending on building and highways maintenance.

Baroness Margaret Eaton, Chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “We have been clear that the level of spending reduction that council’s are going to have to make goes way beyond anything that conventional efficiency drives, such as shared services, can achieve.”

“We have to face the fact that this level of grant reduction will inevitably lead to cuts in services.”

“The Government has recognised the impact the cuts will have on those areas of the country that rely most heavily on the public sector and has provided a limited amount of new money to help those areas cope.”

“However, it still remains the case that the cuts are frontloaded rather than spread evenly across the four years. Councils now face incredibly tough choices about the services they continue to provide and those they will have to cut.”

“It comes at a time when councils are seeing cost pressures mounting on services such as adult social care, child protection, waste management and flood defence.”

“Councils knew the cuts were coming and did all they could to prepare. We already cut more than £1 billion from our budgets in the middle of this year. We will now pull out all the stops to minimise the impact of these cuts and build on our record of delivering new and better ways of doing things.”

This article has been sourced from construction enquirer.

Sandwell council have become the fourth council to launch a legal challenge against the government’s decision to cancel the £55bn Building Schools for Future programme. They have followed the action that Nottingham, Luton and Waltham Forest who have already began legal proceedings.

All four councils are challenging the basis on which the government set the cut off point for schemes to receive funding, and are seeking a judicial review of the decision.

Sandwell originally believed its nine schools projects had been spared the axe, but were later told they would be stopped when a revised list was published by the Department for Education.

Council leader Darren Cooper said: “We are taking legal action because the government’s decision is irrational, unfair and short sighted. Why did they choose 1 January as the cut off date? Was it just plucked out of the air? If we had been told that was the deadline we would have met it.”

“Instead we did what we were told and spent money on preparatory work in good faith. Given the circumstances we believe we have no alternative but to mount a legal challenge.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We understand people’s disappointment but the BSF programme was wasteful, needlessly bureaucratic and seriously behind schedule. It would have been inexcusable to have continued with the programme.”

“Ministers have been clear that the end of BSF is not the end of school rebuilding. That is why the government has launched a comprehensive review of all capital spending in schools so that money goes to those schools in most disrepair and to deal with the urgent demand for primary school places.”

There has been a huge step forward in creating a zero carbon business park, with an initial planning nod from the local council and its being backed officially by the Environment Agency. The park will be situated near Truro, in Cornwall.

Zero carbon will be achieved by the inclusion of a wind turbine, two small-scale hydro-power schemes, geothermal heating, a biomass plant and a photovoltaic solar farm, according to Bernard Ballard the director of marketing and property for the project.

This week Cornwall County Council granted planning consent for a mast to monitor whether a planned wind turbine on the Baldhu site would be effective.

Mr Ballard said: “The monitoring mast is a temporary structure to gather data as part of the wind energy investigation on the site.”

“Our work on the green energy plan as a whole is also progressing well, the site could be self-sufficient in its energy demands and will be able to export any surplus power to the national grid.”

“The development will also include a number of zero carbon workshops and office buildings.”

“A key aspect of the project is to capitalise on the site’s natural resources to generate its energy needs.”

He added that the hydropower scheme will be powered by an old waste water stream using the flow of water from the mine treatment plant at Wheal Jane, which is operated by the Environment Agency.

Mark Pilcher, of the Environment Agency who backed the scheme, said: “By supporting development of these renewable energy projects, we are helping to limit and adapt to the effects of climate change.”

“Operating the mine water de-pollution plant at Wheal Jane is energy intensive – often using seven large electric pumps running for 24 hours a day.”

“By diverting the treated water discharge through a hydropower system, the lost energy can be recovered.”

“This will create more green electricity to feed in to the national grid, reducing the amount of fossil fuel derived power which needs to be produced.”

Todays BuilderScrap.com question for the draft proposal. What do you guys think?

Q: New measures to stimulate action from companies to improve resource efficiency are proposed. Please prioritise these proposals and identify quick win opportunities with high impact.

1. There was a broad level of support for measures proposed. Many respondents ranked all five measures in order while others highlighted those to which they attached particular importance. The results are set out in the table below (NB: as details have been added from those who did not rank all responses, rows do not necessarily add up to the same figure).

Numbers of respondents     1st     2nd   3rd    4th      5th

Programme for
smaller contractors                2       0         2        2        16

Halve amount of
construction waste at             3       0          7        9         3
site level by 2015

Manufacturers to
consider lifecycle of                4       8          6        4         0
Products

Designers/architects
to consider waste                   14      8          3        0         0
minimisation

Contractors and
Subcontractors to
reduce, reuse,                         6       9          4         4         1
recycle

2. Some of those who did not rank the measures commented that they were interlinking proposals which would all contribute to waste minimisation but that there was no single “silver bullet”. Some argued that more comprehensive data on waste, waste streams and recycled content material were necessary to underpin a successful waste action plan.

3. On design, there were various comments on the need for standard sizes, greater focus on off-site construction and/or the adoption of lean standards. A number of respondents argued for an extension of producer responsibility, particularly with regard to packaging, so that products could be considered over their life cycle. The importance of full life cycle assessments was highlighted. Others suggested that voluntary sectoral agreements could help deliver targets.

4. Other ideas included broadening the scope of codes of best practice to include more information on waste; greater use of WRAP processes; and greater education across the supply chain, possibly through resource programmes.

Yet again we find ourselves here at BuilderScrap.com delving deeper into the draft for sustainable construction. Today’s question focuses on the construction industries reaction to climate change, and the respondents varying opinions.

Q: Are there other actions that the Government should be taking to help the construction industry rise to the challenge of climate change?

1. Although a wide variety of suggestions were offered by respondents to this question, the vast majority (about 75%) were concentrated around just 10 themes.

2. Many respondents said that the existing stock of buildings (mostly domestic, but there were also some references to non-domestic buildings) needed to be improved, though there were few suggestions as to how this should be accomplished. The focus was on improving energy efficient performance of these buildings, rather than on adaptation.

3. Approximately 7% of responses urged the establishment of climate change adaptation targets.

4. Respondents urged the promotion of specific technologies, e.g. the generation of energy from renewable sources; use of particular products, sometimes with higher thermal mass; or innovations to make building more adaptable to future climate change.

5. Some respondents thought more information should be provided by Government on these issues. A number sought clearer definitions by Government, e.g. on Zero Carbon and carbon neutrality. Some suggested fiscal incentives.

6. Some responses urged improvements in compliance software; improvements in tools such as BREEAM; and recommended defining a standard for carbon counting.

7. Other areas which attracted comments were: a need to address embodied energy in carbon footprints; a need to focus on non-domestic buildings; tightening the planning system; sponsoring more research; and infrastructure considerations.

On Monday morning we went to the House of Commons in London where we were presented with our Green Apple Award. We won the bronze award in the Building and Construction Category.

We were absolutely ecstatic to win this award, and to be recognised and rewarded at such an early stage in the business’s life. The other winners were very impressive, and we were very proud to be included amongst them.

The awards are normally presented by David Bellamy, but he was unable to attend this year. We were however presented with a certificate on his behalf which shows that a tree was planted to offset the carbon emissions we used to travel to the awards!