construct News from The Casey Companies
July 2011
Building Division Boosted by Framework Successes We are delighted to have been awarded contractor partner status in several client construction frameworks recently. Procurement for All is a national organisation currently representing 11 Registered Social Landlord members, and that is likely to increase. The aim is to offer efficiencies to all members for capital works and refurbishment of around 9,000 dwellings across the North West, Midlands, North East, Cambridge and Surrey. In Business for Yorkshire is a coalition of Yorkshire Housing and South Yorkshire Housing Association who are developing over £50 million of social housing schemes
across Yorkshire and Humberside. Procure Plus is a consortium of Registered (housing) Providers in the North West, and has formed an alliance with partners in Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Humberside and the North East’ Together Housing Group provides affordable, modern homes across the North of England. It was formed in April 2011 from Chevin, Green Vale, Harewood, Pendle, Pennine and Twin Valley housing associations. Cheshire East Council was formed in April 2009 from Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich and Macclesfield Boroughs and Cheshire County Council.
Love our Green Spaces Did you know that a brisk walk in your local park everyday can reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes by 50%, fracture of the femur by 30% , colon cancer by 30%, breast cancer by 30% and Alzheimer's by 25%. And that the more often a person visits urban green spaces, the less they will report stress-related illnesses. What’s more, air quality, air temperature, water and flood management, are all kept within manageable limits because of parks and green spaces. Love Parks Week runs 23-31 July this year and the aim of the organisers is to get 1 million people out enjoying their local parks.
International Safety Award for Casey compliance with it, along with how they monitor their compliance and involve the workforce.
As testament to the great Health and Safety culture we have at Casey, we have been awarded a MERIT in the British Safety Council’s International Safety Award. This is in addition to our recent RoSPA Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety. Submissions for this award are stringently marked and must detail the management of occupational health and safety at your organization. Companies are asked to detail their understanding of legislation and their
Congratulations and thank you to all our staff for taking responsibility, and putting Health and Safety first. See back for our Safety Starts Here campaign
Phil Hey collecting our RoSPA Gold Award from Mike Parker, RoSPA Trustee, in May
We know how beautiful some of our local parks are—we have helped to renovate them and restore them to their former glory. So why not take this opportunity to get out and visit them. Take your friends, family and a picnic. Have some fun, get a little exercise perhaps, and show off some of our great work. We have worked as a specialist contractor on more than a dozen parks in the North West and Yorkshire and many of them are holding events during Love Parks Week. You can see some information and images on our website and Facebook page, but best of all, go see them for yourself.
Dunwood Park, Oldham; Brinksburn Denes Park, Darlington; Stamford Park, Ashton-under-Lyne; Lichfield Park, Lichfield; Avenham and Miller Park, Preston; Castle Park, Frodsham; Roberts Park, Saltaire; Mount Pleasant, Sheffield; Stanley Park, Liverpool; Stanley Park, Blackpool; Corpora"on Park, Blackburn; Weston Park, Sheffield; Wentworth Castle, Stainborough; Heaton Park, Manchester
To submit articles or information for this newsletter, contact Debbie Hubbard on 07834 867580 or debbie.hubbard@casey.co.uk. Thank you to all contributors to this issue.
construct
Casey Retrofit Environmental Solutions Casey were the only contractor taking part in this year’s Greenbuild Expo held at Manchester Central. The show is the UK’s newest event focusing on sustainable building and refurbishment. It covers everything from renewable technologies, sustainable building materials and practices, legislation and training opportunities. A series of informative seminars and workshops were held covering topics from renewable energies and legislation to funding and retrofit for buildings. As the only contractor, we were able to showcase some of our recent, and new, projects where we could demonstrate the savings to be made. A good example is the Eastlands Homes Case Study shown opposite that quantifies the savings in costs, energy used and CO2 produced as a result of thermal insulation and render application. For Social Registered Landlords it can be very difficult to calculate the grants available under the CESP grant scheme. It is designed to encourage energy / CO2 saving works to be carried out alongside other major works and points are awarded for the scale of the works, the density of the qualifying properties and the economic status of the geographical area. The energy companies who fund CESP have an obligation to meet funding targets for these kinds of works by December 2012 otherwise they will incur penalties of up to 10% of their global turnover. As the deadline gets closer the more the energy companies will compete for the projects that are going ahead.
The Casey Green Team at the Greenbuild Expo 2011, Manchester Central
It is quite a minefield, but Casey is able to provide calculations for qualifying points, and negotiate with the energy companies to obtain the best funding deal and, therefore, the best deal for our clients. If any Housing Trusts or Local Authorities are planning improvement works, they can contact us to find out if CESP grants might be available, and whether those grants might make additional works viable. For more information contact James Billing at our offices or check the Dept of Energy and Climate Change website: www.decc.gov.uk.
You can also watch a short video about the Eastlands Homes project on our website: www.casey.co.uk/casey/news
Scale of Grants Available Casey are about to commence a project for High Peak Community Housing. The project includes the application of an insulated render system to 507 ‘no fines’, hard to treat properties. The CESP funding achieved for this project was £1.9m
Dwelle, Eastlands Homes and the Centre for Carbon Literacy At the Greenbuild Expo, Casey sponsored a stand by Dwelle who built a house at the show utilising highly sustainable materials to promote zero carbon design and living. After the show, the building was transported by Casey to an Eastlands Homes site in Rusholme. It will serve two functions:
• To demonstrate how Dwelle’s careful design and specification can provide a number of benefits to modern living
• To facilitate a Carbon Literacy programme for Eastlands Homes, with support from Casey. Eastland Homes recognises that education is key to assisting residents and the local
community to understand how to reduce their carbon footprint. The organisation continues to invest heavily to improve the energy efficiency of its homes, and wants to build on the reduction of over 125,000kg per year in CO2 production that has been achieved at just one of its estates in Gorton. Home Dwelle.ing will be the hub for this new literacy programme which is designed to ensure that new behaviour is derived from residents’ own ideas. The building is located adjacent to Platt and Worsley Courts, and will be completed in August. Visit www.dwelle.co.uk for more information
construct Case StudyStudy-Eastlands Homes Eastlands Homes have delivered over £20 million worth of major improvement work to their housing stock in Openshaw and Beswick with Casey and have been successful in their transfer bid for a further 3000 properties due to their outstanding performance as a Community landlord. Casey was appointed as preferred contractor to undertake a major external works programme on behalf of Eastlands Homes in Gorton, East Manchester. A key requirement of the scheme was to reduce the heat loss from the fabric of the building including doors, windows and external walls. The goal was to achieve maximum insulation efficiency with minimum intrusion to the property and disruption to the residents lives. Our aim was to help residents work towards better health and an enhanced financial situation. Using a thermal imaging camera we were able to assess the positive effect of the works prior to and after completion, which is highlighted in the image shown. We are mindful of the government’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. External insulation to the 7 million solid wall homes in the UK is crucial to hitting the carbon reduction targets and this is a top priority along with solar photovoltaic panels.
Annual CO2 production was reduced by the equivalent of that produced by driving a small car to the moon and back almost twice, or driving more than 37 times around the circumference of the earth. Annual savings were enough to buy that car new with enough fuel to drive around the earth more than five times.
Insulated render schemes can be part funded by utility companies under a legal obligation to save carbon emissions under what is known as the CESP scheme which is the Community Energy Saving Programme (previously the CERT scheme). As an expert in this field, Casey has been able to draw down a suitable grant allocation and put together a financial package for Eastlands Homes to enable them to get several hundred thousand pounds worth of the work done for free and have a major effect on the lives of their customers, the residents. This is a service that we are rolling out for our social housing framework partners. As preferred partner for this joint venture with a robust track record with Eastlands Homes, we were able to provide a tried and tested costing model that was very competitive and would guarantee a very high quality of service for the residents. The main purpose of these works was to re-insulate these estate based properties, improving the poor visual appearance and reducing major heat loss and heating bills. Another important requirement was to instigate a degree of behavioural change from the residents themselves with regard to use of heating systems and reducing heat loss from their properties. We are currently undertaking several training schemes in carbon reduction at our resident consultation events across Manchester and the North West. We made calculations on the data collected to project the savings on to the whole scheme of 339 properties. The results were astonishing and equated to the following:
• • •
Energy use - reduced by 657,743.98 kWh per year. This is the equivalent amount of energy required to make more than 29 million cups of tea with an old 2000 Watt kettle. CO2 production – reduced by 127,627.49 kg per year – the equivalent of which would be produced by driving a small car to the moon and back almost twice, or more than 37 times around the circumference of the earth. Cost – reduced by £19,816.83 per year – enough to buy the car new and enough fuel to drive it around the earth more than five times.
Before
During
This image shows a property partway through the thermal insulation process. At this point, only the thermal panels have been installed on the left hand side of the property and the temperature difference is already 4ºC. The application of the render will provide even more insulation.
Training in carbon reduction is essential to bring about behavioural change.
After
construct Enviro Acquires Astley Sand & Aggregates
Staff Moves and Grooves Welcome to Devri Taylor who has joined our head office admin team. She lives in Rochdale and previously worked as a retail supervisor for Arcadia. If anyone is wondering about her name, Devri is the name of a song by The Platters.
Casey Enviro has recently acquired Astley Sand & Aggregates Ltd and Astley Plant Ltd. The acquisition includes Morley’s Quarry along the East Lancs Road to the west of Manchester; strategically located for the Greater Manchester inert waste/aggregate markets. The site includes an inert landfill, extraction of sand and gravel for use as primary aggregates and recycling of secondary soils and aggregates from CDE (construction/demolition/excavation) waste. Astley Plant includes plant and machinery
SAFETY STARTS WITH YOU We have a great health and safety record at Casey that we are very proud of. To maintain it means always staying focussed on safety and pushing the message. You will notice a new message on all our hard hats and high viz wear as it gets replaced: Safety Starts Here It’s an important message and it means that health and safety starts with each and every one of us. It is not something that is just the responsibility of our Site Managers or the Health and Safety department. We are all responsible for safety for ourselves and each other—we are all Health and Safety Officers. Don’t decide to ignore something that you know is wrong or unsafe. Don’t decide to just walk past thinking, “He knows what he’s doing”. Don’t decide to cut corners because it’s got to be done in a hurry. It could be the worse decision you ever make. Safety starts with you. you
necessary for operations, a small fleet of vehicles for collection/delivery and a workshop for general maintenance. Along with the acquisition, Enviro welcomes the transfer of twelve new experienced staff members to the team. Dave Scott has been seconded from Hareshill to manage operations at Morley’s Quarry; “I am delighted with this opportunity and am very enthusiastic about the benefits Astley can bring to the Enviro portfolio”.
Being Social
Congratulations to Zbigniew and Edyta Pikul on the birth of their baby boy, Mathew; and to Alison and Peter Duffy on the birth of their baby girl, Libby Jane. Welcome to the world Lily Mae Hayes, whose dad Dave is foreman at Town Farm and whose granddad Chris is a driver at Hares Hill. Lily Mae arrived a few weeks early, but she, mum, dad and granddad are all doing well. Happy birthday to Chris Griffin who is now officially a windsurfing pensioner!
Neighbours’ Day - Parklands, Speke with South Liverpool Housing As well as our Facebook page, we are now on Twitter (@caseycompanies), and we have even set up a YouTube channel (look for TheCaseyCompanies channel). There is a great video on YouTube, put together by Richard Charlesworth. It’s a video for the residents at Shiregreen, introducing them to the street scene works we were carrying out in their area for Sanctuary Housing. It’s a great demonstration of how we can keep residents informed.
Gerry Beirne, Sarah Harwood and team certainly got lucky with the June weather for the Neighbours’ Day at Parklands. It looks like a fun day was had by all members of the community! Thanks go to Kevin Griffin who braved the heat dressed as Ivor Goodsite, the Considerate Constructors’ mascot, and our two brickies, Glynn and Andy Bradley.
We also now have a blog on our website— www.casey.co.uk/casey/blog. There is a great post on there by Paul Byrne about quantifying carbon offsetting, based on experience at Eastlands. It’s a fascinating read for Housing Associations and, in fact, for anyone responsible for paying the heating bills! If you have an interesting idea for a blog post we’d love to hear from you. It’s about using new ways to engage with our clients and their clients. It’s about sharing our knowledge with each other and letting people know what a wealth of experience and knowledge we have amongst our ranks.
The Casey Companies Rydings Road, Rochdale, OL12 9PS T: 01706 341121
F: 01706 861156
E: info@casey.co.uk
W: www.casey.co.uk