Construction minister to receive divided Brexit message at UKCW

The new Construction Minister Nadhim Zahawi MP is set to make his first industry appearance at UK Construction Week (UKCW), the UK’s largest built environment event, at the NEC in Birmingham on Wednesday 9 October.

Nadhim Zahawi

A survey of over 900 construction professionals conducted by UKCW^[1] asked respondents what their one request to the Construction Minister and the Government would be.

The results of the survey revealed an increasingly impatient industry still focused on Brexit, but split between those who want the Government to ‘Get Brexit completed’ (37%, with the vast majority of those favouring a “no ifs or buts” approach), and those who want to ‘Cancel Brexit altogether’ (32%).

Within the industry itself, the research reveals that it’s mostly architects who are Remainers, with 57% of those respondents choosing to make ‘Cancel Brexit’ their number one request, compared to 15% choosing ‘Get Brexit completed’.

This swaps over when it comes to contractors, with 44% of those respondents choosing ‘Get Brexit completed’ compared to 20% choosing ‘Cancel Brexit’.

Other political and policy issues came much further down the list. The alternative number one requests from respondents were for the Government to speed up initiatives in construction to tackle climate change (9%), the cancellation of HS2 (a surprising 4%, mostly from consultants), and reform to planning laws and policies to make it easier to build (3%).

Nathan Garnett, UKCW event director, said: “The splits in the construction industry’s views simply reflect what’s happening in society generally. But it is a really difficult time for this sector at the moment, a sector that absolutely hates uncertainty. The Minister will hear this very clearly when he attends this year’s event – whether it’s deal or no deal, or cancelling it altogether, we just want to know how to prepare for the future.”

Despite the uncertainties, and to help the 30,000 or more industry delegates expected at the show, UK Construction Week is hosting a wide range of CPDs and keynote speeches to explain what can be done to prepare for the post-Brexit future.

For example, a major debate on the UKCW main stage will take place on Wednesday 9 October, on Brexit Boom or Bust? Industry Economic Forecast 2020. This features Professor Noble Francis, economics director at the CPA, Tom Hall, chief economist at Barbour ABI, and Lord Digby Jones, cross bench peer and businessman.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards will be holding workshops on timber regulations and the impact of a no-deal exit on timber importers.

The Department for Work and Pensions will be advising construction professionals in the UKCW Careers Centre and HMRC is in the Civils area of the show (stand C21). In addition, the Department for Education will be promoting apprenticeships and talking about educational options in the UK for EU nationals post-Brexit.

Nadhim Zahawi MP was appointed in July as the third Construction Minister so far this year. He will be giving a keynote address on the UKCW Main Stage on day two of the event, at 2:15pm. Pre-booking is strongly advised.

UKCW is one event with many sections, including Build sponsored by Easy-Trim, Building Tech, Civils, Energy and HVAC, Surface and Materials, and Timber. It also features Concrete Expo (8-9 October only) and Grand Designs Live (9-10 October only). Single registration gives free access to all areas of the show. Pre-booking is also strongly recommended for the extensive seminars and CPD programme.

Find out more about UKCW at: https://www.ukconstructionweek.com/

[1] Research with 906 respondents within the construction industry and registered to attend UK Construction Week was conducted in September 2019.

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Chancellor announces infrastructure funding

At the Conservative Party Conference on Monday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, made his speech covering a variety of issues from Brexit to the National Living Wage, taking a moment to discuss the importance of infrastructure.

Chancellor Javid specifically stated: “This government is going to build Britain’s future, and bring in a new infrastructure revolution. Infrastructure is the foundation of everything. It is the new road that connects local communities. The bus you need to get to school and the broadband that helps your small business trade around the world.

“The full benefits of our infrastructure revolution may not be felt for some time, but the work must start here and now. So today I can announce the first wave of this revolution, the good kind of revolution.

“Our roads are the arteries of our country. We will soon launch the new Roads Investment Strategy, with £29Bn committed for strategic and local roads over the next five years.

“And today we are getting the shovels out early on several important road projects, including upgrading the nearby M60 Simister Island, dualling the A66 Transpennine, and starting work on the A428 between Cambridge and Milton Keynes.

“Buses have not been given the attention they deserve from politicians, but they are still the backbone of our public transport in most of the country.

“Well, not only do you have a Chancellor with a well-known family connection to buses, but a PM who likes to paint them.

“At the Spending Round we allocated £220M to buses alone. This will form part of a National Bus Strategy next year. Rolling out new ‘superbus’ networks, expanding our fleet of low emission buses, and delivering better value for money for passengers.”

He added: “Bringing our country together also means rebalancing our economy and that is why the first big policy decision of this government was to support the development of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

“And we know it is no good just decreeing from on high what local areas need. Too many people already feel power is distant to them, be it in Brussels or Westminster.

“So, I can announce today we will bring forward a White Paper on further devolution in England, giving more local areas more local powers to drive investments in the infrastructure and services they know they need.”

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Brexit: Its effect on the construction industry

With a potential no deal Brexit just under a month away, many in the construction industry are struggling to come to terms with the potential outcomes of the UK crashing out of the European Community. We speak to Kunle Barker, property expert, journalist and TV presenter about the challenges and opportunities presented by a hard or soft Brexit.

Kunle Barker

The obvious and perhaps most talked about problem is how will the UK construction industry maintain its level of output without access to Europe’s construction workforce? Part of the issue is that the scale of the problem is not truly understood. Estimates put the number of non UK citizen EU Workers in the construction industry at around 750,000 but this number could be as high as two million people – so how will we continue to build and deliver projects without easy and fluid access to workers? The answer is a resounding, “We can’t,” which in my opinion makes the solution rather straightforward.

Much like passporting in the financial industry the UK government will be forced to allow EU construction workers to carry on working within the UK under a special work visa, or perhaps providing the industry with some sort of protected status allowing workers to remain in the UK as long as they are working in the construction industry. In April 2019, the Japanese government introduced a new visa system which allowed up to 500,000 foreign workers to travel to Japan as long as they had the skills necessary to work in an industry listed as ‘in need of additional labour’. A similar system could easily be introduced in the UK solving the short term labour problems.

The news is not all bad for the construction industry as there are definite opportunities which will arise due to our country’s departure from the European Union. The construction industry is one of the most socio-economic mobile industries in the UK, with many of the top executives’ positions in many firms filled by people who worked their way up the company structure. As an industry there are fewer barriers to entry and it has a great reputation for training its staff and presenting them with opportunities to flourish within the business regardless of their initial education level. This culture of promoting from within the existing corporate structure has made construction (in my opinion) one of the most inclusive industries in the world.

With this in mind, the UK Government and construction industry bodies should use Brexit as an opportunity to put in place long term training programs aimed at encouraging more people to enter the industry. Schemes aimed at encouraging young people, women, and people from other sectors to enter the industry and re-training should be a priority upon our exit from the European Union.

With current UK unemployment figures at just under four per cent the UK has an abundant supply of labour to plug this potential post Brexit labour gap. As and added bonus, reducing unemployment has a huge positive benefit for the UK and our economic state. Construction contains almost every profession, from lawyers to marketers and of course trades. There are such a range of career opportunities in the industry, Brexit should be used as a mechanism to force UK construction companies to invest heavily in recruiting UK or local staff. UK construction companies should also improve training standards.

See below examples below of the types of training initiatives I have run which could be a template for long term nation-wide training initiatives run by our top construction companies:

School Leavers Training Course Kunle Barker & llustrious Homes have teamed up with Camden Council to put together training course aim at School Leavers who interested in a career within the construction industry

Women in Construction Training As part of their continued commitment to providing real training opportunities for local residents, Kunle Barker & Illustrious Homes runs several annual training events

National Apprenticeship Week Video documenting a joint project by Kunle Barker & Illustrious Homes, Building Lives, Lakehouse to renovate a local community centre in Camden using local Apprentices

For larger contracts leaving the EU may mean that it is no longer mandatory for procurement regulated by the Public Sector Procurement Directive to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). On the face of it this may not seem like much of a benefit however as a result of this EU regulation many local authorities have resorted to placing tendered packages of work into larger contracts called Frameworks. Due to the size of many of these frameworks most SME companies are excluded from tendering directly for work. Instead the larger tier 1 operators tend to win these works and then subcontract these works to the SME sector of the industry. Now this not a cost effective or efficient way to procure contracts and does not represent the best value for money for the UK taxpayer. Leaving the European Union may give local authorities more scope to work directly with its local supply chain offering better value for money, improved level of service and also having a direct benefit to the local community.

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Department for Transport issues funding to T-TRIG

The Transport-Technology Research and Innovation Grant (T-TRIG) has received its tenth round of funding from the Department for Transport to encourage UK transport technology start-up companies to come up with innovative and sustainable modes of alternative transport.

The funding will allow start-ups to bid for shares of £960,000 in order to support pioneering projects to change the British transport system to be more environmentally conscious and produce less carbon emissions.

The Minister for the Future of Transport, George Freeman MP stated: “This government is committed to improving the UK’s transport network, from tackling air pollution to fixing potholes for good.

“We now have an exciting opportunity to stimulate the brightest thinkers in our universities and small business networks to try out novel solutions to fix legacy problems across our transport system and realise their visions for the future.

“Schemes like this grant will ensure the UK retains its reputation as a world-leading innovator, and I encourage early-stage businesses in the transport sector to apply for the funds available.”

In the course of the past five years the T-TRIG has allocated approximately £4.6M in funding to a total of 140 different projects, with Wayfindr and Flit being two companies to have won funding.

The Managing Director and Co-Founder of e-bike company FLIT, previous recipients of the T-TRIG, Alex Murray commented: “Early support from the Department for Transport was crucial for getting our first e-bike off the ground.

“The grant allowed us to build our first prototype with a specialist in Essex. We learnt an enormous amount from this process, and these lessons have carried over to the FLIT-16, the first folding e-bike that we successfully launched through a crowdfunding campaign in the summer of 2019.”

The CEO of the Connected Places Catapult, Nicola Yates OBE added: “We are excited to be using our expertise to manage the latest T-TRIG competition for one of our key partners the Department for Transport.

“Early stage funding is a vital component to driving great solutions from the drawing board to reality and the areas covered in this competition, including decarbonisation and accessible transport, are key areas to tackle in the UK today. We are looking forward to working with the winners to ensure T-TRIG leads to tangible benefits for transport users.”

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Affordable homes underway in Warwickshire

The Warwickshire Rural Housing Association has celebrated the 30 year anniversary of the construction of the first affordable homes at Harold’s Orchard in Stretton on Fosse by constructing a further five.

The first affordable homes to be constructed in the village of Stretton on Fosse in Warwickshire were first built in 1989, consisting of ten houses, while there were an additional four homes constructed 20 years later in 2009.

The new homes, which mark the third phase of development on the site in its 30 year history, are a mixture of two and three bedroom houses and one bungalow which will house residents who have a local connection to the village.

This new phase of housing construction has also provided a much needed lifeline to local residents of the area who are now finding it difficult to afford to live in the village, a Housing Needs survey has found.

The small housing estate which this third phase will create will be touchingly named Dyas Green in commemoration of the Warwickshire Rural Housing Association Chairman, Derrick Dyas, who is scheduled to retire from the association on its 30^th anniversary this year.

Mr Dyas was one of the association’s founding members back in 1989 before eventually rising to the rank of chairman in 2008, one year before the commencement of the second phase in the area’s construction of affordable homes.

The Warwickshire Rural Housing Association Company Secretary, Richard Mugglestone stated: “Returning to Stretton on Fosse where we first began back in 1989 makes our anniversary even more special and we are honoured to name phase 3 after our long-standing Chairman, Derrick Dyas.

“We have forged excellent partnerships with the rural communities of Warwickshire and are now looking ahead to ensure our affordable homes help to sustain our rural villages over the next 30 years and beyond.”

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Education construction gains a boost in Scotland

Glenigan’s recently published construction data has revealed that there has been a £1Bn boom in spending, by the Scottish Government, on education construction projects following the announcement of the £1Bn Learning Estate Investment programme (LEIP).

As part of this new programme 26 schools will be replaced by new campuses, with 11 of these 26 having been announced recently, while the remainder will be declared over the course of the coming months.

This substantial amount of money is being produced through a partnership between the Scottish Government and local authorities, with the central government contributing between £220M and £275M in funding, while the Scottish Future Trust has been appointed as the managing body of the new programme.

The LEIP programme is predicted to provide a healthy shot of work into the Scottish education construction sector pipeline after Glenigan market analysis found that the underlying value of education construction starts in the sector decreased by nine per cent in 2018 and likewise fell by a figure of ten per cent in the first eight months of 2019.

Improvement was not unforeseen however, as the underlying value of education projects being granted planning permission, but not yet having commenced, in 2018 had rocketed by a proportion of 44%.

Adding to this, Scottish universities have begun investing in some very substantial improvement projects, with the University of Strathclyde investing a sum of £65M on a brand new National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland which will be constructed by the Irish company Will Bros.

Furthermore, the University of Glasgow is also investing in a new School of Engineering, which shall be one of the many topics discussed by a gathering of Scottish university representatives at a conference in Glasgow to discuss the university construction sector pipeline.

Meanwhile, a new £17M primary school is currently underway at Danderhall in Midlothian, by another Irish company named Heron Bros. Whereas a contractor is yet to be named for the £18M Dargavel Village Primary School project in Bishopton-on-Strathclyde, which is due to commence imminently.

Some of the schools scheduled to be replaced under the LEIP programme include the Dales Park Primary School, Meethill Primary School, Peterhead Academy, and the Anna Ritchie School in Aberdeenshire which will be replaced by the Peterhead Community Campus.

And finally, the Tain Royal Academy, Knockbreck Primary School, Craighill Primary School, and St Duthus School in the Highlands will be replaced by the Tain 3-18 Campus.

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Kier constructs school in East Sussex

Kier employees and East Sussex County Councillors recently celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Uplands Community College site in Wadhurst.

Construction began on the new development in August and is predicted to continue until September 2020, in time for the 2020/21 academic year, accommodating a total of 950 students within 3,843sq m of teaching space.

The new college will feature a variety of teaching and learning spaces ranging from the traditional design to specialist learning areas for arts and technology subjects.

The Managing Director for Kier Regional Building Southern, Jonathan Payne stated: “Working collaboratively with the Department for Education, East Sussex County Council and the school, we are proud to mark the start of work on this state-of-the-art facility that has been designed to provide an environment that will allow pupils to build their futures whilst reminding them of the past. We look forward to providing the local community with a first-class facility that will benefit generations to come.”

Following the construction of the main college building, Kier will set about the demolition of the old school building, which was first built in the 1950s, and its subsequent replacement with a multi-use games area, complete with two basketball courts and a five-a-side football pitch.

The Principal of Uplands Community College, Mrs Mountford added: “We are very excited by the prospect of the new building.  Our current buildings, which date from the 1950s, are not suitable for a modern secondary school and our students will greatly benefit from the new facilities.

“Our drama provision will be improved, as will computing, design and technology and maths.  The students have been speechless as they have looked at the plans and realised what an amazing new building and multi-games area we will have.”

At the ceremony Councillor Bob Standley, the Lead Member for Education and Inclusion under Special Educational Needs and Disability at East Sussex County Council, dug the first hole.

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