PM announces £84m for West Mids

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced an extra £84 million in spending for the West Midlands to help expand the region’s trailblazing brownfield regeneration programme.  This additional funding means that up to 7,500 new homes in the area can now be built on former industrial land.

Unveiling the government’s £5 billion infrastructure package earlier this week to help drive the UK’s post-COVID-19 recovery during a visit to Dudley, Mr Johnson revealed his economic stimulus package included £400 million to support brownfield regeneration across Britain, something which the West Midlands has been campaigning for.

The Prime Minster’s decision to award more than a fifth of the brownfield regeneration funding to the region means hundreds more acres of derelict land can now be regenerated. This builds on the footsteps of various stalled schemes the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has unlocked over the last two years.

Since the £100 million Brownfield Fund was given to the WMCA in 2018, sites such as Friar Park in Sandwell, the largest brownfield housing site in the region, has been made ready for development by the WMCA. Last week the region also submitted a £3.2 billion West Midlands investment plan to the Government, which included a request for further funding to regenerate brownfield.

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “The West Midlands has been leading the way since 2018 on regenerating brownfield land to create thousands of new homes, and I am pleased the Prime Minister has given us the cash needed to keep the work going at pace. It is also encouraging that just one week after submitting our £3.2 billion investment plan to Government, one of the requests has already started to come to fruition.

“Our Brownfield First policy is critical as it not only regenerates contaminated, derelict old land – which in some cases has blighted communities for decades – but it also allows us to protect our precious greenbelt at the same time.

“This latest funding will allow hundreds more acres of former industrial land to be developed into thousands of new homes, something that will be critical as we look to re-boot our economy following the coronavirus pandemic.”

The Mayor also added that the region was now ready to move quickly in deploying the new funding by using its widely acclaimed Single Commissioning Framework to support the creation of vibrant new communities, affordable housing, innovative construction methods and a quality placemaking, building momentum for a regional recovery.

The brownfield package announced by the Prime Minister for the West Midlands will see:

• Construction commencing on new homes as quickly as possible
• Land in the region’s comprehensive brownfield sites pipeline accelerated
• The WMCA supporting advanced manufacturing in construction (AMC) techniques in projects it helps fund and support in order to speed up construction and deliver energy efficient homes for local people
• The delivery of a minimum 20 per cent of affordable housing in WMCA funded schemes using the authority’s new, local definition of ‘affordable’
• Funding delivered through the procedures and principles set out in the WMCA Single Commissioning Framework, and continuously monitored to ensure delivery of those requirements on the ground

Prominent projects announced or under way as part of the WMCA’s ‘Brownfield-First’ strategy using funding previously awarded to the region include:

• Friar Park, the largest brownfield housing site in the region, now becoming a 750-home community in Sandwell. The scheme follows the purchase of an old sewage works by the WMCA, which had sat derelict for more than 30 years with no developer taking it on
• Steelhouse Lane in Wolverhampton – 151 new homes at a former industrial site
• Bull Street in West Bromwich, an abandoned multi-storey car park to be turned into new homes
• The demolition of the eyesore Cavendish House office block in Dudley which will form the Portersfield development featuring retail, leisure and housing.

Cllr Mike Bird, Leader of Walsall Council and WMCA portfolio holder for housing and land, said: “Our economic recovery from Covid-19 gives us an opportunity to build back better, by providing quality, affordable homes and decent jobs for local people in a way that protects our environment.

“Our Brownfield First policy means we are using our funding to drive new developments on derelict, former industrial land wherever possible.

“This funding means the WMCA can continue to ‘invest to unlock’ and clean up brownfield land for developers while laying down minimum standards of affordability, design and energy efficiency.”

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Welsh Fabricator Secures Contracts

Welsh aluminium fabricator Dudley’s Aluminium has begun work on two police headquarters in South Wales.

The first of the two projects is the South Wales Police Headquarters in Bridgend. South Wales Police is the largest police force in Wales and serves communities across the region between Swansea and Cardiff.

The project, which has an estimated value of £1.4 million, includes a four-storey police learning centre, a human resources building and a two-storey gym. Once it is complete, the Headquarters will welcome an additional 650 people on site every day.

Dudley’s will be working in partnership with Willmott Dixon on the build, which includes revolving doors as well as automatic swing and sliding doors. The aluminium fabricator will be installing a wide range of Kawneer products including capped curtain walling, windows and doors.

Working alongside BAM Construction, Dudley’s will also be using Kawneer products on their second build at the Gwent Police Headquarters in Cwmbran. As well as windows and doors, the Welsh company will be installing Kawneer’s innovative Louvreshield external shading and provide extra security to the building with enhanced blast resistant capped curtain walling.

Colin Shorney, Managing Director of Dudley’s, said: “We are excited to be working on these two brilliant, new projects. The facilities will help the forces in their professional development, continuing to serve and benefit communities in the South Wales and Gwent regions.

“We’ve worked with BAM Construction and Willmott Dixon before on a range of projects and it’s great to be working with them again.”

Dudley’s Aluminium offers clients full in-house design and production facilities. The aluminium fabricator has completed many successful and prestigious projects within the education, health, commercial, retail and defence sector throughout the UK and Channel Islands.

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July Patent of the Month

Growing concern about global warming has encouraged many innovative businesses across industry sectors to focus on finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Embodied carbon emissions – those that are built into the structures in our environment – have traditionally been overlooked. It is now acknowledged however, that reducing these emissions could play a significant role in helping to limit the global temperature rise. As a result, companies and organisations have become increasingly aware of the impact that their products and services have on the environment.

Many commonly-used construction materials have a significant environmental impact. Asphalt is a mixture made of aggregates, binder, such as bitumen, and filler. These ingredients are heated together to form an asphalt mixture, which is used for constructing and maintaining roads, parking areas, railway tracks and other infrastructure.

Traditionally, the asphalt mixture is produced by heating it to a high temperature, which releases large quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. It is possible to reduce the environmental impact of this process by using additives. However, these additives can have negative effects such as causing the asphalt to crack at low temperatures.

The Korean Institute of Construction Technology (KICT) is a globally-recognised research centre dedicated to discovering and developing technologies for the construction industry.

In order to reduce the embodied carbon in our roads and other infrastructure, without undermining their structural integrity, KICT  filed a patent application at the European Patent Office (EPO) for a new low-carbon additive for use in the production of asphalt mixtures. This patent has recently been granted (EP 2357210)..

This innovative additive is formed from a mixture of polyethylene wax and vegetable wax at a weight ratio between 20:1 to 1:2. The vegetable wax is produced by melt reacting coconut wax with sodium hydroxide and stearic acid.

Incorporating this additive into the asphalt mixture gives it an improved resistance to high-temperature deformation. It is also less susceptible to stiffness and cracking at low temperatures.

Having secured a European patent, KICT has effectively secured commercial protection for its invention in the UK, as well as Germany, France and other European countries. However, KICT’s intellectual property strategy doesn’t stop there.

After first filing for patent protection in its home country of South Korea, KICT filed an international (PCT) application at the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) one year later. This PCT application was later divided into European, Japanese, Chinese and US patent applications, which have all since been granted.

By securing multifaceted global patent protection in this way, KICT has exclusive rights to commercialise its invention in many of the world’s biggest markets. As well as preventing other organisations from copying its invention, KICT can license it to businesses and organisations in many countries of the world in exchange for royalty payments.

The construction industry as a whole is becoming more aware of its environmental impact. Inventions such as this one, which affects a widely-used material, could make a big difference to the reduction of carbon emissions globally.

Mark Sugden is a patent attorney specialising in the construction sector at European intellectual property firm, Withers & Rogers.  

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hub South West Reach Financial Close

hub South West, a public-private partnership made up of local authorities, NHS, blue light services and a clutch of leading construction industry Tier One building contractors, have signed a Design and Build project in partnership with Linear Design & Construction (LDC) to undertake an extension of All Saints & Rochsolloch Primary Schools in Airdrie on behalf of North Lanarkshire Council.

The project, estimated to cost £1.086m, will begin immediately after all COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, is anticipated to be completed by Christmas 2020. The project will see the addition of extensions to both primary schools, which will occupy the same building, this will enhance both schools’ educational facilities and will allow both to increase their capacity to meet future demand.

Michael McBrearty, Chief Executive of hub South West said: “having worked with LDC as a sub-contractor on various hub South West educational projects, we are pleased to embark again upon an interesting development on behalf of North Lanarkshire Council with LDC as main contractor.

“hub South West has collaborated frequently with North Lanarkshire Council on Education and Early Years developments and we look forward to building on this portfolio with the extensions of All Saints and Rochsolloch Primary Schools.”

Work done to date has seen LDC manage the project from inception to design conclusion with its design team, JM Architects and Blyth & Blyth (Structural & M&E).

Ryan Broadley, Managing Director of Glasgow-based LDC said, “Building on the successful relationship we have forged with hub South West over the past two years, our appointment to this project as main contractor demonstrates a continued confidence in our approach.

“We are delighted that our performance has been recognised throughout the hub south west due diligence process and are looking forward to building a lasting relationship with North Lanarkshire Council during the construction phase.”

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Construction output plummets by 40% in April

Paul McFadyen, Managing Director of leading online metals supplier, metals4U. Here, he talks about what the latest ONS construction output figures could mean for the construction industry

The Coronavirus pandemic has proved to be an incredibly difficult time for the construction industry, presenting a number of unprecedented challenges and obstacles.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics only serve to highlight the damage that the virus and accompanying lockdown have caused to the industry, with output falling by 40.1% in April 2020, the largest fall since records began in 2010.

For many in the industry, this is shocking to see. But whilst construction has clearly suffered a significant setback and is facing a long road to recovery, it’s important to add context to these statistics because without it they are essentially meaningless.

There have been few periods in history where there has been such a large and widespread impact to business, and life as we know it. For some time, most work in the construction industry stopped outright, with building sites across the country closing in accordance with the national lockdown.

Following this period, even as construction sites began to reopen, they were unable to continue working at full capacity. Often only skeleton crews were able to work at any one time, as site managers were forced to restrict access and implement social distancing measures.

Alongside this, companies had to ensure that they had all of the necessary health and safety measures in place to be able to support these social distancing measures. Adequate onsite supervision needed to be in place and lone traders needed support.

These restrictions were always going to have a detrimental effect on the industry, as a dramatic reduction in efficiency meant that many projects could not be completed on time, a large amount of workers now remain in limited work or are not working at all, and many companies which support the industry, or rely on it, are not receiving sufficient levels of business.

The research indicates that the driving figures behind the record fall were a 41.2% decrease in new work and a 38.1% decrease in repair and maintenance.

Again, whilst concerning statistics in isolation, they make sense when given context against the current situation. New work is less likely to begin with a pandemic in the picture, and with a potential recession on the horizon, this will be a daunting challenge for the construction industry to overcome in the near future.

It’s important to say that these figures are of course concerning for the industry. Decreases of over 40% in some areas are worrying and should not be dismissed, but context against the current situation is important.

With the lockdown being eased in many areas of life, and as construction work continues, the coming months will provide a much more accurate picture of the health of the industry, and will indicate what needs to be done for a return to normality.

With that being said, it’s unlikely that we will see a quick return to pre-Coronavirus levels. Social distancing measures will need to be implemented for the foreseeable future, and this will naturally impact site efficiency and restrict the number of people allowed on a construction site at any given time.

Without a doubt, the Coronavirus pandemic has created a generational challenge for which the construction industry, as well as others, was wholly unprepared for.

The industry will have to wait for the effects of Coronavirus to settle down combined with the increasing likelihood of no trade deal when we leave the EU before we will see an upturn in productivity in the UK. Both these elements will have a profound effect on UK manufacturing which will reduce the demand for new industrial premises or site expansion.

The residential housing market will also be affected by the approaching recession; it will take time to reach the levels of employment necessary to stimulate the housing market, but once employment rates increase it will drive the construction industry back to high productivity.

By Q3 2021 we should start to see an upturn in the UK economy which will hopefully continue on the right trajectory to see the construction industry back to full strength by Q2 2023.

For more information on metals4U, visit: www.metals4u.co.uk

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Willmott Dixon Appointed to £20m Facility

Willmott Dixon is pleased to announce that the company has been given the go-ahead to start work on a new £20 million facility for Humberside Police’s control centre and other specialist services.

The 107,000 square foot, three-storey operational support building will be constructed next to Humberside Police’s existing facility at Melton West Business Park, near Hull, and it will accommodate over 500 members of staff. As well as this, the building will contain a new control room, which will handle all telephone calls and public contact.

The new building will also house specialist units, such as major crime investigation, to free up space in other buildings to accommodate the uplift in police officer numbers, which have increased by about 500 since 2016.

The new development is a joint project between Humberside Police Force, Melton West landowners and developers Wykeland Group, supported by planning consultants DLP, and will be designed by Bond Bryan Architects. The design will include sustainable features such as energy efficient heating and lighting systems, plus use of environmentally friendly material and facilities to encourage staff to cycle to and from work.

The contract was procured via Major Works England and Northern Ireland, a part of the Scape National Construction framework. It is scheduled for completion and opening in 2022.

Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter, who has responsibility for the force estate said: “I am delighted that planning permission has been granted for the new police building at Melton. At this moment of national crisis our thoughts and efforts are naturally on dealing with the tragedy affecting many families and coping with the stresses on our NHS and other public services.

“It is nevertheless hugely important to consider how we emerge from this and position our public services for the future, in what will inevitably be a challenging time as businesses try to rebuild and people who have lost jobs try to regain their former employment or seek new work. Being able to confirm this new building will now go ahead is therefore a great announcement for our area. It will create jobs and boost supply lines throughout the Humber region. This go-ahead is a statement that we will emerge, and Humberside Police will continue to drive forward its ambition to be an outstanding police force. We must invest for the future.”

Anthony Dillon, Managing Director of Willmott Dixon in the north said: “It’s critical that those who work around the clock to keep us all safe have the right facilities and a suitable working environment for 21st century policing. These new modern facilities for Humberside Police are designed to create a state-of-the-art environment, giving control room teams and officers in specialist units the very best support they need to serve the people of Humberside.

“We’re proud to be working in partnership once again with Humberside Police to support the modernisation of its estate, having also delivered the Birchin Way custody facility in Grimsby, the first to be delivered using our CODE pre-designed concept, which we believe is the next generation for custodial facilities.”

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New Home Demand Rockets Post Lockdown

Interest in buying a new build home has increased since lockdown restrictions have been lifted. After spending months in their house, more and more people are re-evaluating their circumstances and are considering moving.

High quality, environmentally friendly, modern new build homes are being seen as a viable option of many. A new survey, which was released today by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) shows:

• 55% of people polled stated that they now value their home space more than ever
• 2 in 5 (40%) people say that they would now prioritise space for a home office if they were searching for a new home
• 1 in 5 (18%) people want to change the style of their home, with 1 in 6 (16%) stating whilst being in lockdown their interest in updating their home has increased
• Almost a quarter of people (22%) aged 25-34 revealed that whilst being in lockdown their interest in interior design has increased, compared to just one in eight (12%) of those aged 45-54

As a result of this newfound desire to change, housebuilders throughout the UK are reporting a massive increase in the amount of new home enquiries and reservations since the sales process started last month.

New figures from property website, Zoopla, show:

• Buyer demand for new build homes resurged 66% in the six weeks that followed the property market reopening, and is now in line with demand levels recorded in February
• Demand has recovered nationwide, with the North East recording a 139% rebound, the West Midlands 121%, and East Midlands 108%
• First-time buyer demand is now outpacing pre-lockdown levels, with an 87% revival after an initial fall of 68% in the first two weeks of lockdown.

Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman at the HBF said: “Lockdown has been an extremely testing time, during which people have spent much more time than usual in their homes. This has led to a re-evaluation in how people see their homes and what they want from them. As a result, high quality, environmentally friendly new build homes specifically designed for modern living are increasingly in demand. With homes available to suit all needs, budgets, and ages there are options to suit everybody’s fresh new start. New Homes Week Unlocked will give those who have developed itchy feet an opportunity to update their space according to their new priorities.”

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