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Constructing Excellence East Midlands Regional Awards
Shortlist Published.
The shortlist has been announced for the inaugural Constructing Excellence East Midlands Regional Awards.
There are still opportunities to take part in the celebration, taking place on Tuesday, 14th October 2008 at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham. We are offering a range of sponsorship opportunities which represent a unique investment for your business to be associated with the regions construction event of 2008. Association and brand recognition will raise the profile of your operation in the region. Tickets are still available for the Awards Celebration, make sure your team are shown the appreciation they deserve by taking part in this prestigious occasion.
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Manufacturing Confidence Falls in Every Region – CBI / EXPERIAN
Business confidence has fallen in every UK region, with cost pressures remaining intense and activity in the manufacturing sector expected to slow, according to the latest CBI/Experian Regional Trends Survey.
However, while the outlook for the sector is fairly downbeat, firm export orders across the majority of regions has helped to limit the slowdown this quarter.
Lai Wah Co, CBI Head of Economic Analysis, said: “Manufacturing confidence has tumbled over the past quarter. The climb in oil and other raw material prices over recent months has driven costs up significantly. Although firms are having some success in passing these costs on, profit margins are under pressure.”
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New IMMPREST-LA Decision Support Tool
Overloaded with Complex Construction Choices? – then why not trial our easy to use FREE Demo
A new decision support tool has been developed after the culmination of a series of industry-focussed research projects and provides support, particularly for Local Authorities, in making decisions about what type of construction project strategy to adopt.
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East Midlands Regional Plan (Regional Spatial Strategy) – Secretary of State's Proposed Changes Published for consultation.
The Secretary of State’s Proposed Changes to the East Midlands Regional Plan (Regional Spatial Strategy) were published for consultation on 22 July 2008 and comments can now be submitted up to 17 October 2008.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is today publishing Proposed Changes to the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the East Midlands “The East Midlands Plan”.
The Regional Plan provides a regional framework for development and investment up to 2026 and is part of the statutory development plan for every local authority in the East Midlands.
The consultation gives the Government an opportunity to hear views on the published proposals from all who want to comment. The public consultation will last until 17 October 2008. After considering the responses the Government will publish the final version of the East Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy.
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Managing the Risk of Delayed Completion in the 21st Century
Between December 2007 and January 2008, The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) conducted a survey of the construction industry’s knowledge and experience of different methods of project control, and time management, record keeping, monitoring and training. The final report is now available to download.
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Programmes to Reduce Household Energy Consumption
There are two measures against which government has set targets:
- energy consumption and
- energy efficiency.
Improving energy efficiency contributes to the ultimate goal of reducing energy consumption.
A REPORT BY THE NAO (National Audit Office) COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL concludes that if government programmes are designed and carried out well, many householders across England will benefit from warm homes and lower energy bills, whilst wider objectives relating to climate change and energy security are made more achievable. There are some signs that these programmes have begun to reverse the long term trend of rising energy consumption and analysis shows that they have been cost-effective. However, for all types of intervention, departments must collect more evidence to be sure that their programmes are working as well as they could be.
To achieve their longer-term targets, programmes must focus increasingly on homes that are harder to treat, technologies that are newer and more expensive, and householders who are less keen to act. These challenges make the risks to cost-effective delivery of energy savings in the future all the greater. Departments have done good work to identify these risks, but as yet there is not convincing evidence that these risks can be overcome.
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Brownfield Skills Strategy
Responses to the draft Brownfield Skills Strategy that recently underwent public consultation to gauge sector support for the first strategy of its kind, has now been published by the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) and national regeneration agency English Partnerships.
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Construction Matters!
Wayne Lord, Chair of the Construction Industry Council East Midlands (CIC EM) welcomes Governments’ acknowledgement that “Construction Matters” in its long awaited House of Commons report published by the Business and Enterprise Committee on 16 July 2008.
Clearly construction does matter as the UK construction industry provides employment for over 2.8 million people, contributed over £100 billion to the UK economy's gross value added (GVA) in 2006 (8.7%) and worth more than twice the GVA of the energy, automotive and aerospace sectors put together. Design exports are also high at £10 billion each year. Construction also contributes to the Government's social and environmental objectives.
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2012-feedback.html
Constructing Excellence convinced a number of organisations to join together to run a single major roadshow, rather than organise separate regional dissemination activities, which would have been likely otherwise given business plan commitments. As a result, the roadshow was funded by the Office of Government Commerce, BERR, Health and Safety Executive, ConstructionSkills, and the regional development agencies of England and the governments of the devolved nations. The Olympic Delivery Authority also became a major funder once the concept of the series had been developed with the other partners.
This nationwide programme of events aimed to promote awareness and uptake of the ‘2012 Commitments’, the Common Minimum Standards (CMS) and the 2007 CDM Regulations, as well as providing a platform for the ODA to confirm their best practice procurement approach in line with the Commitments, to promote their wish for firms from all over the UK to prequalify for Olympics-related job opportunities, and to signpost practical business support services available at a regional level from core funders to facilitate this uptake. A key message running through the day was to emphasise that the Commitments, Common Minimum Standards, CDM 2007 etc are all fully consistent and ‘joined up’ - written for different audiences but with aligned content.
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Collaborative Working by East Midlands Local Authorities
Following the launch of The East Midlands Property Alliance (EMPA), we are delighted to be able to announce that fourteen local authorities from around the East Midlands Region at County, Unitary and District levels have signed up and are involved. EMPA is FREE to join and is inclusive, and it is hoped that all 46 authorities will participate in or use the Alliance in as many parts as they wish.
Having worked through the legal issues, the long term management and strategic direction has been taken on by the new Executive Team, led by Richard Hanson, Director of Property at Nottinghamshire County Council. Further development of EMPA will be undertaken by Scape System Build Ltd, a local authority controlled company.
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The Three Counties Alliance Partnership (3CAP)
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire County Council’s together with Scott Wilson are working in partnership to provide professional services for the three local authorities. Formed in July 2007, The Three Counties Alliance Partnership (3CAP) is designed to enable the three authorities to deliver professional services across county boundaries, either in partnership with one another or with consultant firm Scott Wilson.
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Sustainable Procurement
SPIN is the first and only website dedicated to supporting local authorities in their efforts to procure sustainability, and provides a 'one-stop' website containing the very best information relating to the sustainable procurement agenda.
The new website is extremely easy to navigate, with comprehensive information just one click away from the home page. Local authorities and public sector organisations are urged to contribute to the content of the website.
SPIN was launched and is maintained as part of an East Midlands Centre of Excellence sustainable procurement project. It has since received the backing of the East of England and North West Centres of Excellence and is well on the way to becoming a national resource for sustainable procurement information.
If you have any questions or would like to contribute to its content please email Andrew Foster, Assistant Director (Procurement & Efficiency), East Midlands RIEP Support Team.
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Taylor Woodrow Targets £1m a Year Savings with Google Platform
Construction giant Taylor Woodrow has transferred its communications infrastructure onto the web-based Google Apps platform.
The move means the construction company will tailor its communications to an increasingly mobile and diffuse workforce of 1,800 staff, with expected savings of about £1m per year, said Rob Ramsay, Taylor Woodrow's director of IT. The system gives us better connection to mobile and home workers who can access these functions from anywhere" he said.
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Clear Guidance for LA’s to Boost Glass Quality
As part of their research WRAP (Waste Resources & Action Programme) Have produced a number of Toolkits and Good Practice Guides for English local authorities’ to help them reach their challenging recycling targets. Challenging targets have also been set by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The toolkits are designed to assist recycling efforts, whilst the good practice documents provide the results of local authority-related studies carried out by WRAP.
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Sustainability ‘Speak’
Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
- Conventional power generation is typically about 25% efficient, with most of the energy generated from burning the fuel being wasted as heat lost to the atmosphere, typically through cooling towers and flues.
- Generation of heat from boilers is a much more efficient process, with about 80% of the thermal content of the fuel being typically converted into useful heat.
- Separately, electricity and heat production are in the region of 45% efficient.
- Together, the efficiency rises to above 80%, with consequent fuel savings and reductions in harmful emissions.
- CHP, also called cogeneration, is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate electricity and useful heat.
- A ‘heat engine’ converts thermal energy, for example by exploiting thermodynamic ‘cycles’ (vapour to liquid, liquid to solid, solid to gas), to mechanical output.
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Invitation to join Derbyshire Independent
Training Group EMCBE with support from ConstructionSkills and Industry, are in the process of establishing an Independent Training Group (ITG) in Derbyshire. An Independent Training Group consists of employers who wish to influence the way training is arranged and delivered to their employees.
The mission of the ITG is to improve the performance of Derbyshire based Construction Company training, the business commitment to apprenticeship schemes and access to grants that will improve the skills and knowledge in our companies to win more work.
The date for the Launch of the Group is Thursday, 14th October. If your company is committed to improving the workforce and would be interested in finding out more, please contact Natalie Clinton 01509 225 800 / natalie.clinton@emcbe.com
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School Design Project
When ConstructionSkills asked him about the Schools Design Project, Andy Cunningham, Partnership Development Manager, Derby East School Sport Partnership, Lees Brook Community Sports College stated that the students had thoroughly enjoyed the project.
They were able to exhibit their models and design sheets for all the school to see at the Art and Technology exhibition at Lees Brook a few weeks earlier.
The students produced a variety of designs and models which included whole school layouts, art blocks, ICT bases, English departments with spiritual water features, amongst others.
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FMB Building a Greener Britain
Few now doubt climate change and its impact on the world is one if not the most important challenge of our time. How we respond to this challenge is key to ensuring we leave the world in a better and sustainable condition for future generations. With homes contributing 27 % of the UK’s total carbon emissions, builders have a key role to play in rising to the challenge that we now face. I’m therefore delighted that the FMB has teamed up with the University of Oxford to examine how we can transform our existing homes to make them more energy efficient and greener. Given that 85% of our homes will still be standing in 2050 there is little time to waste if the UK is to achieve its ambitious target to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
Writes Geoff Lister MCIOB, President, Federation of Master Builders in the newly released report for the Federation of Master Builders
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Four Derbyshire LA's Join HSE to hit back at 'Health and Safety' Myths
Amber Valley Borough Council, Bolsover District Council, Chesterfield Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council join 'sensible risk' campaign
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