UK Construction Journal V18N08

V18 N08

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COMMENTS 26 NHBC Seminars launched to highlight external wall issues 27 Agile lessons from Yoga – Michelle LaBrosse, Cheetah Learning 30 Are you at risk of being frame(work)ed?

Sarah E Phillips Solicitor, Thomas Eggar LLP 31 Peter Sheridan, Sheridan Gold LLP, looks at Adjudication and Limitation, the supreme court ruling 34 Alternative Route 35 Academy Leasing 38 Ben Dyer, CEO Powered Now shares ideas on how to get the most from your leads 40 Amanda Caton of the British Security Industry Association explores the changing requirements of construction sites 42 Emotionally intelligent roadwork signade trialled to improve road safety. Paul Manchester, Director of Manchester Safety Services 43 Developing your BIM Implementation Plan

by Quadrasol 44 Property Care Association 48 Put your Bank in the spotlight to get a better deal. Ben Martin, CEO of bmbal

CASE STUDY 48 Birmingham’s tallest tower given planning approval 50 How off site construction can address skills shortages and housing stocks

Publications Editor Victoria Lee Operations Manager Gareth Trevor-Jones Designer Richard Gill Publications Officer Matthew Brown Robert Atherton Approvals Sarah Smith Eleanor Matthews Sales Administrator Alecia Rowe Credit Control Carol Ryan

Display Advertising Sales T: 01257 231900 E: admin@ukconstructionmedia.co.uk www.ukconstructionmedia.co.uk

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TRANSPORT 52 Fluctuating fuel prices aren’t just a fleet-ing matter. By Jenny Powley, Sales Director Corporate Business, RAC Business 54 Britain’s railways are now the safest in Europe 56 Shortlist for 2015 Low Carbon Champions Awards reflects innovation in green transport

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ISSN 1461-1279 UK Construction Media Stirling House Ackhurst Business Park Chorley PR7 1NY T: 01257 231900 E: admin@ukconstructionmedia.co.uk www.ukconstructionmedia.co.uk

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UKC NEWS

Luxury Thames-side apartments put sustainability at heart Vital Energi have secured a £3.5M deal to provide the complete low-carbon energy solution for one of the capital’s most anticipated residential developments which is being delivered by St James.

The 28-storey Merano Residences development, situated on the Albert Embankment, overlooking Tate Britain, will have an ultra-efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) energy centre, designed to significantly lower CO2 emissions when compared with traditional heating systems.

When combined with design features and sustainable technology, such as solar panels, Merano Residences is expected to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 and BREEAM ‘Very good’ rating.

The project has also been ‘future proofed’ so that it will have the capacity to connect to any future district

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heating and is at the forefront of the Nine Elms regeneration, the largest development of its kind in the UK. Rob Callaghan, Regional Director explained: “This is a building designed by one of the most renowned architects in the world and delivered by one of the most prestigious developers in the UK so it is no surprise that is a great example of urban sustainability.

Merano Residences will be a fantastic addition to the Nine Elms neighbourhood and because it is ‘district heating ready’ it also has the opportunity

to connect to what could become one of London’s major heat networks, which will drive down emissions even further.”

The development, in Lambeth is built on the site of the former Eastbury House office block and will offer 40 new two- and three-bedroom luxury apartments as well as ground floor retail, offices and a four-storey public space which will include a café and Piazza.

Vital Energi will install the underground CHP energy centre, which will take the waste heat created during electricity generation and use it to provide heat, hot water and cooling for businesses and residents.

Summer interns join Mersey Gateway Project Five young people from North West England have joined the Mersey Gateway Project on paid summer internships.

The interns are a mix of students and recent graduates from universities in Liverpool, Salford and Birmingham.

They are each spending a minimum of six weeks on site with Merseylink, the construction consortium building Halton’s iconic bridge and road project.

They include: ••Environment Intern Hayley Percival and Planning Intern Sophie Long, both from Warrington.

••Civil Engineering Interns Mohammed Elgattani, Robert Kilvington, and Jamie Hilton, who all live in Liverpool.

Hayley, 31, who studied for a wildlife conservation degree at the University of Salford, said: “I love working on the project, it’s a unique experience. It’s great to be able to work with the project’s environment team and build on my knowledge of environmental management and ecology within a construction setting.”

Sophie, 21, is due to graduate with a degree in Geography from the University of Birmingham and will begin a Masters degree in Planning at the University of Manchester in September.

Jamie, 22 and Robert, 21, are both studying civil engineering degrees at the University of Liverpool, while 20-year-old Mohammed is a student at Liverpool John Moores University.

Jamie is enjoying his time on site so far: “My degree course is theory-based so I wanted to gain some practical experience through an internship. The project is fascinating and I’m enjoying working with the site engineers.”

The five interns are working alongside the Mersey Gateway Project’s expert teams, gaining valuable industry-specific skills, which will help to support their current studies and enhance their future career prospects.

Richard Walker, Merseylink’s Project Director, welcomed the summer interns, saying: “I’m delighted to welcome our interns to the team. We’re always keen to support young people who are interested in pursuing a career in the construction industry.

“This is a rare opportunity to be involved in making history and gain an insight into one of the biggest engineering and infrastructure projects currently underway in the UK. I’m sure the experience will stand them in good stead for the future.”

Councillor Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council and Chair of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “Once again this shows how the Mersey Gateway Project is bringing benefits to Halton and the wider area in terms of employment and skills opportunities.

“These young people will be the next generation of engineers, planners and ecologists, so it’s fantastic that Merseylink can offer them valuable work experience on a live construction site.”

Kingston University gets go ahead for Grafton’s first UK building Planning approval has been given for Grafton Architects’ first project in the United Kingdom, for Kingston University.

The Royal Borough of Kingston’s Development Control Committee voted unanimously in favour of the landmark scheme following strong support for the project, including backing from the local Conservation Area Advisory Committee.

Kingston University’s Director of Estates Sean Woulfe said the building would transform the learning environment and enhance civic engagement. “Local people and heritage groups have responded very warmly to this project,” he added.

“The design reflects the University’s intention to engage with the public and open up learning opportunities for everyone. The colonnade draws people in and the lively landscaped terraces showcase the University’s learning activities to everyone passing by on this key gateway to the town centre.”

Grafton Director Shelley McNamara said that she had been struck by the commitment of the University to creating a new learning landscape. “There is clearly a collective vision at Kingston University for a refreshingly open and innovative learning environment as well as for how the architecture of the new building will house and

represent this vision,” she said.

Grafton was chosen through a Royal Institute of British Architects Competition, ahead of a shortlist that included O’Donnell and Tuomey, Howarth Tompkins, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Bennetts Associates.

Once completed, the proposals will provide three new public landscaped areas as well as 9,027sq m of learning space including; a modern learning resources centre over several floors, a 300-seat multi-media auditorium, rehearsal and performance space for the University’s popular dance courses and a café and other informal learning spaces.

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UKC NEWS

Clugston to construct £10M events hall at historic Yorkshire site Clugston Construction, part of the privately owned £160M turnover Clugston Group, has started work on a £10M stateof-the-art events hall at the historic Great Yorkshire Show Ground in Harrogate.

With the dust barely settled from this year’s Great Yorkshire Show, which attracted over 132,000 visitors, Clugston moved in to begin demolition of existing exhibition buildings to make way for the new exhibition hall. The facility will provide 4,320sq m of open span, versatile space to suit a wide range of events from blue chip company conferences to large dinners, exhibitions and sporting events.

Heather Parry, Deputy Chief Executive of Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) said: “We are delighted to be starting work

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on such an exciting project, the largest in our organisation’s history. There’s so much potential in this development for us, our region and beyond. The economic impact that events held at the showground generate per annum is currently £47M – this new project will see this figure increase significantly.

Steve Radcliffe, Managing Director at Clugston Construction, commented: “Being selected to deliver this exciting project on such a historic site is a great thrill. We look forward to continuing the relationship we have established with the YAS team during the design and development stage and working with our supply chain to deliver the new events hall for next summer.”

Miss Parry added: “The new Hall will enrich event space provision in the UK so it was of great importance for us to select a contractor who shares our commitment to excellence and our partnership working approach.

Clugston have a long and successful track record and a great team. We’re looking forward to working with them.”

When complete in the summer of 2016 the new events hall will also offer a cafe, large foyer, offices and dedicated workshop/seminar space; all set within a stunning 250 acre site located on the edge of the spa town.

The Architect on this project is P+HS Architects based in Stokesley.

Chester Zoo unveils first phase of UK’s largest ever zoo construction project to public Chester Zoo, the UK’s leading wildlife attraction, has opened the first phase of the landmark £40M ‘Islands’ project – the largest scheme ever undertaken by a British zoo.

On completion, the attraction will feature a manmade river, six islands recreating habitats from South East Asia, and a 3,500sq m indoor rainforest.

The structure – which will create the largest indoor exhibit of any UK zoo – will house species such as Sumatran orang-utans, 30,000 different types of fish and Sulawesi macaques.

The scheme also boasts a relaxing 450m-boat trip linking the different island habitats. The new development will also contain education facilities and an outdoor cafe.

Turner & Townsend has supported the world-class development in the heart of Cheshire by providing bespoke project management services to Chester Zoo.

The project is set to increase the zoo’s visitor numbers by 150,000, and generate extra revenue that will allow increased support for conservation projects.

David Williams, Regional Managing Director, Turner & Townsend commented: “Islands at Chester Zoo sets a new benchmark for any zoo attraction in the world. The design is stunning, and the immersive experience for visitors will be breath-taking.

“The project is a reflection of the strong alliance and teamwork between Chester Zoo and Turner & Townsend.

Having worked closely with the zoo since 2011, we recognised this was far more than a construction project – and we maintained constant dialogue with all stakeholders, including curators and zookeepers, from the outset.

“The combination of our global expertise and local understanding helped us overcome the complexity of

working with living plants and animals, and create truly authentic habitats for the attraction’s inhabitants.”

Simon Mann, Development Director at Chester Zoo added: “Turner & Townsend was a key member of the team throughout this iconic project, having been involved from concept through to completion.

“The complexity of design and attention to detail is an attempt to create a truly authentic snapshot of the various island habitats of South East Asia.

“To achieve our goals, the project team worked together effectively and collaboratively, allowing us to maintain tight control and to the highest standards.”

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Central Construction Training excels in providing traineeships, apprenticeships and courses to ensure those working on building sites across the country are at the appropriate industry standard Could you tell us a bit about Central Construction Training and what you offer clients?

Now into our fourth year, we offer a wide range services and unparalleled industry experience.

Our Managing Director has got 30+ years in the construction industry, starting with the trade and working his way up. His grassroots, if you like, are in roofing.

However he has owned and managed maintenance and groundworks companies over the years. So there's general all-round construction knowledge.

His 15 years of background and experience in construction training has seen him to work his way up, through the likes Carillion, where he headed up the National Construction College.

From there, CCT was born, and currently, in its fourth year, is a thriving business.

In 2014 we trained and tested over 5,000 candidates in vocational CSCS and CPCS assessments. We are proud to deliver construction apprenticeships to local companies in the West Midlands area with over 125 apprentices placed in full time work with access to outstanding training resources and facilities at our Birmingham training academy.

We are delighted to announce that 2015-16 will see CCT Ltd increase funding for apprentices by ÂŁ1.2M, affording us the opportunity to train a further 200 operatives for a rewarding career in the construction industry.

The background of the MD would suggest there is loads of experience in terms of what you can offer as a company.

At any given point, we have several industry-accredited instructors and assessors in the main office to take telephone calls, so we're giving top level advice on the spot. It's advice from people who understand the industry.

Regarding construction skills shortage, is this linked to courses you run? Is there a problem in the industry?

There is definitely growth in construction skills, which is obvious with the contracts and investment in the industry, but we have to appreciate that as a country we are still coming out of a recession and recovery is slow.

But there certainly is a skills shortage out there, along with a labour shortage and material shortage - the impact of which is for the next generation of skilled workers and apprenticeships predominantly, as well as upskilling current workers.

One of the areas we're looking at is skilled or experienced workers who have been in the industry for years but have yet to prove their competency by gaining an accredited card. We provide an all-round solution to that, from NVQ assessments to plant operator tickets. All of this is tiered at different levels; novices, intermediate candidates and we have many thousands of experienced candidates that need to gain these cards to continue working in the industry.

It's important not to ignore those already in the industry and experienced, but it’s essential at the same time to look at upskilling and bringing on new operatives into the industry and that's where the foundation of apprenticeships sits.

That is predominantly bringing school leavers from education into education in the workplace where they will continue on an accredited scheme of training to industry standards, but working at the same time and providing an immediate solution to the labour shortage on-site.

The key for us is the grassroots; not only in our management staff, but also up the management structure and including the Board and, more significantly, with delivery staff. You would like to think everyone working in the construction training industry would have established grassroots but that is not always the case.

And because we are continuing with an accredited course of training, it is upskilling them at the same time. So we're developing new workers for the next generation.

There are many recruitment companies, colleges and private training organisations that turn to construction with very little knowledge of the industry.

So for us, the occupational staff we employ, such as testers, trainers, assessors and instructors all have roots in the industry. Not only having taught the trade, but having done it themselves which is incredibly important to us in the business.

It's certainly a change in what was an employer-led programme onto a learner-focused programme. From our point of view, traineeships (born predominantly this year) have given young learners an opportunity to get a stepping stone into an apprenticeship.

It's given an opportunity to bring in fresher learners who gather foundation skills, work skills and employability skills so that when they enter the workplace, they are prepared and are not as green as they were when going directly into apprenticeships.

Our traineeship comprises of a cohort of 10-15 young learners per group who will start with us on a 6-8 week training programme where we cover all the core health and safety practice that candidates need to get into the workplace.

We are not just focusing on the practical skills; we focus on theory, health and safety, legislation, the safety aspect of sending young lads into the workplace, covering all of this but ensuring we deliver adequate employability skills, interview skills as well as the opportunity for work trials.

What do you feel you can offer the industry?

When you're looking at grassroots, you're looking at the guidance given out on a day-to-day basis to clients over the phone; having that industry knowledge and occupationally competent people on the line who know the industry inside out.

How important have you found the change to the definition of apprenticeships?

All this is significant because these learners - many of whom are only 16-17 - are being introduced into a construction career and it needs to be done carefully, not throwing them in without any skills or training.

That is the beauty of the traineeship; it is a period of induction into the workplace and into health and safety so that when they are sent out they are alert, aware and safe.

From there they can go on to develop skills in the workplace, come here to college once a week and further develop skills in the classroom and the workshop.

What it leads to at the end of the two-year programme is a fully rounded, fully skilled construction operative.

Does the company work with the likes of school leavers at that age?

Well, we have to look at the parameters that the government sets in terms of the funding available.

The focus is definitely at the moment on young learners, aged 16-18 in what we call the A category. This is where we get the school leavers before they establish any gap in education or work because we focus on getting them as soon as we can.

The majority are non-academic achievers; young learners who have little desire or intent as such to progress into education through college or university, but at the same time want to go into a vocational career. That is what an apprenticeship offers; motivation with education in the workplace.

upskilling candidates on an accredited framework with a recognised award, which carries significant standards in terms of job role.

In the UK it is very much a case of no card, no site access. So we're ensuring candidates get the right card for the right job and role. Recognising the opportunity for continuous progression is also important and we have hundreds of learners returning to us to further develop their professional careers in the industry.

Unfortunately, there is not a great level of government funding for NVQ assessment because the priority is to apprenticeships and unemployed workers, which is classroom-based.

We offer all that and have our own funded contracts through the Skills Funding Agency where we can deliver free of charge construction apprenticeships and unemployed worker training.

There are grants available to employers for commercial training that can be put against training which make their costs very low or completely negate them.

Grants come through the CITB. This is for all construction companies registered through CITB levy-registration scheme. We work with large and small contractors that are CITB levy-registered. We deliver the training on a commercial basis for them and claim the grants back on their behalf.

How do you help the process of replacing those lost to the industry during recession?

That is our target group. However, we also have many 19-24 year olds (category B) training with us who are from different walks of life; they might have had a gap in employment. We work with them to bring back the skills and confidence to get into the workplace and many go on to be very successful.

During a time of recession, businesses stop employing and training. In the private sector this comes to a standstill during the period and what they find is that when growth starts again there is an immediate labour shortage, including a few people reluctant to return, and also a skills shortage too because training hasn't taken place.

There doesn't tend to be a great call for what we'd call category C which is 24+ learners, certainly not in apprenticeships.

We provide both funded and commercial affordable solutions to counteract this imbalance and assist construction in the UK back to full growth.

Then we've established there are many 24+ year old construction operatives who are experienced but need to gain accredited competency tickets to establish they are experienced and they are not to be ignored.

Is there anything else you would like to mention?

It's very important that the government continues to give a focus to the current experienced workers and give a level of funding so we can recognise the fact that they also need continuous training.

Does CCT get funding from the government, and also touching on accredited tickets, do you offer those courses?

In the run-up to the general election all the major parties emphasised that as the UK emerges from recession, they recognised the need for more training and apprenticeships. We will now see if the appropriate level of investment and uptake is forthcoming.

The parameters are all set to assist the industry back to full growth but further focus from media groups is required to ensure the message is delivered effectively and the benefits of training and upskilling are widely understood.

We're very much a one-stop shop in terms of anything in the construction training industry.

We are looking at an all-round package that can be split into three separate packages; firstly, our apprenticeship delivery which is fully funded.

The second side of the business is commercial, which is a non-funded aspect. It is Health and Safety and various strands of accredited courses including CPCS, CSCS, PASMA, IPAF, First Aid and Site Safety Plus.

We are also an NVQ assessment centre, which enables us to deliver CSCS assessment for all construction trades as well as supervisors and managers. We are

Please call one of our fully trained staff for more information on 01543 455400 or email us at info@cctraining.co.uk www.centralconstructiontraining.co.uk

UKC NEWS

Only two months left until the Structural Timber Awards The Structural Timber Awards are taking place on Tuesday 6th October 2015 and will be delving into the most pioneering timber projects from around the UK showcasing innovative solutions and ground-breaking developments from across a wide range of sectors. The awards will celebrate timber as a core structural system and demonstrate the full potential of this sustainable material.

Presented at a high profile dinner, this inaugural event is set to be one of the highlights in the timber events calendar.

Attracting circa 500 national business

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leaders and high profile decision makers from the construction industry, the awards will provide the most effective platform for targeting the timber sector, presenting the ideal opportunity for professionals to maximise exposure to penetrate this economically important market.

The awards include finalists from both public and private organisations focusing on UK based projects using timer technology as the core structural component. Through categories such as the sought after ‘Project of the Year’ and ‘Product Innovation’ - the Structural

Timber Awards will showcase some of the most cutting-edge projects and products created over the last few years.

This is an event not to be missed.

Andrew Carpenter, Chair of the judging panel said: “Interest has been phenomenal, with over 160 entrants boing whittled down to 58 shortlisted projects, clearing demonstrating the breadth of innovation in the timber sector. The timing could not be better - taking place during the first UK National Construction Week, when our industry pioneers will be congregating at the NEC.”

Structural Awards shortlist highlights amazing world of engineering The shortlist for The Structural Awards 2015 has been released by The Institution of Structural Engineers, celebrating the extraordinary achievements of structural engineers around the world.

Structures from 13 nations have been recognised, including the tallest observation wheel in the world, a bridge modelled on a Japanese hand fan, a memorial to victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and an ‘amphibious’ house. The winners will be announced at The Structural Awards ceremony in London on Friday 13th November 2015.

Martin Powell, Chief Executive of The Institution of Structural Engineers, said: “This year’s shortlist illustrates the extraordinary scope and beauty of great structural engineering, and the amazing range of abilities engineers have: designing everything from practical, affordable housing for developing nations and spectacular showpiece structures to vital infrastructure solutions and projects to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“This Structural Awards shortlist really recognises the outstanding professionalism and creativity of structural engineers and the profound effect they have in helping to shape our world.”

Nominees include: Vegas High Roller Structural Designer: Arup The Vegas High Roller is the current Guinness World Record Holder for the tallest observation wheel. Standing at 168 metres tall, it is a major new landmark for Las Vegas, and the key feature in a new pedestrian street development in the city. The wheel carries 28 fully air conditioned, spherical cabins.

Qianximen Jialing River Bridge Structural Designer: China Merchants Chongqing Communications Technology Research & Design Institute Co. Ltd. T.Y. Lin International Chongqing is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, with a population of 32 million. Intersected by two major rivers, the Yangtze in the south and the Jialing in the north, the city held an international competition for two new ‘Twin River Bridges’. The Qianximen Bridge was one of the winning designs, featuring a single tower shaped like the shuttle of an ancient Chinese weaving machine, to express Chongqing’s history and culture.

Entry Pavilion to the National September 11 Memorial Museum Structural Designer: Buro Happold The Pavilion acts as an entrance to the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York, USA. It houses two 80-ft tall ‘tridents’ reclaimed from the original Twin Tower exteriors. The tridents are so huge they had to be installed first and the Pavilion built around them. The structure also features an auditorium and a private suite for victims’ families.

Sussex House Structural Designer: Packman Lucas This private residence on the Sussex Downs features highly sustainable construction elements, including a separately housed bio mass boiler, an insulated beam and block floor, upper storey insulation wrap, louvered solar shading and high performance glass to inhibit heat loss.

To view the complete shortlist plus further information on The Structural Awards, visit www.structuralawards.org.

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UKC NEWS

Bicester Community Hospital is officially opened Bicester Community Hospital has been officially opened at a special commemorative ceremony.

This £5M ‘boutique’ hospital designed

by Architect IBI Group comprises 12beds, diagnostic facilities, first aid unit, out-of-hours services, therapies and an outpatient department. It has provided the locality of Bicester with a first-class facility that will meet the needs of future generations and the increasing population of the town.

IBI’s Justin Harris said: “The design solution places patients and their

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wellbeing at the core of the concept to create an exceptional care experience.

End users benefit from a high standard accommodation, which provides a spacious well planned environment that promotes quality of care, integrated working and a sustainable approach to healthcare delivery.”

The new hospital was part funded by selling a portion of the old hospital site to enable the development of 14 new houses. IBI Group made this possible through an effective masterplan that allows the new hospital

to grow and flex whilst maintaining the beautiful surrounding landscape.

The new community hospital is highly sustainable and responds to the Bicester Eco-Town initiative, and visually demonstrates its passive design philosophy through its architectural articulation of features such as solar chimneys. In 2015 the scheme received the Gold Award at the Green Apple Awards.

The project was delivered through a PPP arrangement with Kajima Partnerships as the main developer.

Salterns Marina to get £100M facelift Salterns Marina, Poole, is set for a £100M facelift which will include a luxury hotel, apartments and an exclusive rooftop restaurant.

Plans have been submitted to regenerate and improve the popular Marina facilities at Salterns.

This will include a luxury hotel with spa being built on the site of the current hotel, which will be home to a highly desirable rooftop restaurant with panoramic views of the famous harbour.

73 apartments will also be constructed, whilst the Berthing and Marina facilities will be reconfigured to give Poole a world class Marina.

As well as being able to enjoy these fantastic new facilities, residents of Poole will benefit from nearly £3M in Community Infrastructure Levy which the scheme will generate. This money is used by the local council to improve and build new schools and local infrastructure.

The development is spearheaded by property specialist Richard Carr, who is acting on behalf of Salterns Marina Ltd. He said: “The directors of Salterns Marina are very aware that the Marina facilities are now over 40 years old and that the hotel is even older.

“They believe that the time has come to give Poole a world class marina, a new hotel, spa and a high quality restaurant overlooking our magnificent harbour.

“The timing is perfect especially with Rick Stein’s restaurant coming to Sandbanks in the near future.

“The new Hilton hotel has recently been unveiled in Bournemouth, but this development is very much in the Poole style of surf, rest and play!”

Turner & Townsend boosts global turnover to £380M The global programme management and construction consultancy Turner & Townsend has increased its turnover to £380M in the year ended 30th April 2015.

The Company, which employs 4,100 staff across a global network of 90 offices, has now recorded five successive years of growth and boosted turnover by 75% since 2010.

Turner & Townsend’s long-term strategy of diversification – both geographically and across its three core sectors of property, infrastructure and natural resources – successfully absorbed the recent volatility in the oil and gas market to deliver a further 11% increase in operating profit in 2014-15.

Annual revenue jumped by two thirds (66%) in its Latin American operation, 45% in the Middle East and by 22% in Asia. Revenue in the UK grew to £158M; while in North America, the Company’s biggest overseas market, revenue increased by 11% to £62M. The Company’s infrastructure division was a star performer. It grew revenue by a fifth (20%) to £106M, and was appointed to series of high-profile projects, including Medupi Power Station in Africa and major expansions of international airports in Dubai and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile the Consultancy’s largest division – property – increased revenue by 12% to £171M, and won a string of iconic construction projects as well as long-term contracts to manage the global property assets of multinational clients such as Barclays and Chevron.

Turner & Townsend continued to invest in both its capability and reach throughout the year. It recruited at all levels - increasing staff numbers

by 14% - and in April it grew its headcount in Australia by over 50% after its acquisition of the consultancy Thinc made it the largest independent project manager in the region.

Independence is a keystone of the Turner & Townsend brand, and a unique strength that has served the company and its clients well. As part of an ongoing strategy to maintain and protect its independence - and to reward and attract world-class talent - Turner & Townsend is now set to convert to a limited liability partnership.

Turner & Townsend’s CEO Vincent Clancy commented: “Our diverse business model has allowed us to adapt successfully to this year’s shifting marketplace, and delivered some exceptional results both in our emerging markets and in our more mature regions.

“Our record turnover of £380M is an endorsement of the consistent investment we’ve made in the company - and in our staff - over the past five years, and an important milestone in our long-term plan for sustainable growth.

“In the 12 months to April we grew our global footprint by supporting projects in a total of 130 countries, and increased our capability by recruiting talent at all levels of the business.

“With our operating profit rising by 11% to an all-time high of £37M, we have decided the time is right to convert to a partnership.”

“The switch to a partnership at a time of such strength is both an investment in our most outstanding talent, and a clear statement of intent to be the world’s leading independent capital programmes professional service provider by 2020.”

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A year on…. How changes to the CSCS Green Card are being managed with minimal disruption and maximum benefit….

Why the Green Card requirements changed

Historically unskilled labourers had a relatively straight-forward route of obtaining the original ‘Green Construction Site Operatives (CSO) Card’ by passing the Health, Safety and Environment test, and stating that they were carrying out ‘labouring duties only’.

Criticisms highlighted concerns that the Green Card was seen as an easy-access route to getting on site by skilled operatives; making it difficult for contractors to use the CSCS scheme as a reliable method of checking that site workers had the appropriate skills to work on site safely. In July 2014, the new CSCS ‘Labourers Green Card’ was introduced.

July 2014 onwards

As the old CSO cards expire, organisations are realising the implications of the new requirements of the CSCS ‘Labourers Green Card’, and that a proactive system of planning is required. The new CSCS Card require that operatives, not only complete the original touch screen test, but also complete specific training, the training route options are: Gaining a QCF/SCQF Level 1 Award in ‘Health and Safety in a Construction Environment’

or Attending the Site Safety Plus Health and Safety Awareness course or IOSH Working safely course Typically these routes require operatives to take time off of work at a considerable cost to the organisation of lost man-hours; the additional costs of travel to the venue; the cost of the course itself, and the potential inconvenience of when the course is being run – is it at your busiest time? Is there ever a convenient time? This all adds up to your workers being off-site, and costing you money!

What’s the solution?

There are ultimately always quick-fix solutions, but these can always lead to long-term implications. Day courses may meet the immediate objective, but what can really be learnt in-between the coffee and lunch-breaks? The proverbial hoop may be jumped through, but ultimately what benefit is this to your organisation?

The recently released online QCF level 1 course can offer a profitable viable option; offering a nationally recognised training course in ‘Health and Safety in a Construction Environment’, recognised by the CSCS and awarded by an Ofqual regulated Awarding Body. This course provides a formal nationally recognised qualification that does not expire. In essence the benefits include: • The candidate can complete the training at any time at their own pace - meaning no travel costs, no time off of work, no inconvenience!

• Able to apply their learning to the workplace through completing Practical Tasks and demonstrating their understanding and progress.

• Their allocated course tutor is qualified in Health and Safety and specialises in Construction.

• Candidate will contribute towards a more informed and safer workforce, potentially reducing the likelihood of accidents.

• Achieves a life-long nationally recognised qualification that does not expire.

• May be claimed against the CITB Levy.

Failing to Plan

Don’t wait until your operatives are kicked off of site. Plan in advance, check yours or your operative’s cards. The Health, Safety and Environment touch-screen test can be completed up to two years before your card expires, and you can start to work towards achieving your QCF Level 1 Online Accredited Training at any time.

For further information have a look at:

www.SafetyServicesDirect.com or call Safety Services Direct Ltd on 01237 477931 If you fail to plan …. You are literally planning to give yourselves a real headache, unnecessary hassle, additional financial costs, and produce a potentially stressed-out workforce, pressurised to meet the requirements of the new scheme. Plan for the changes; be proactive; consider the financial gains; the educational gains and the better trained and informed workforce; to not only meet the new CSCS requirements, but also to improve your organisation’s health and safety competence.

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UKC NEWS

Crossrail’s final giant tunnelling machine dismantled below central London Crossrail’s final tunnelling machine, Victoria, is being dismantled 40 metres below Farringdon in central London following the completion of Crossrail tunnelling.

Victoria’s 130 metre trailer is being removed via the shaft at Stepney Green and returned to manufacturer Herrenknect, with parts recycled for future tunnelling projects. The cutter head is being cut into small pieces and removed from Farringdon.

Roger Mears, Crossrail Eastern Tunnels Project Manager said: “Crossrail’s last

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tunnelling machine, Victoria, has finished her journey and is being dismantled and recycled. Thanks to the quality of these marvellous machines and skill of the teams who operated them, Crossrail’s tunnels are now complete, ready for the complex task of fitting out the railway.”

TBM Victoria, named after Queen Victoria who oversaw the birth of modern railways, completed tunnelling when she successfully broke into Farringdon Crossrail station in May 2015.

Over the last three years, eight 1,000 tonne tunnelling machines have bored

42km or 26 miles of new 6.2 diameter rail tunnels under London. The tunnels weave their way between existing underground lines, sewers, utility tunnels and building foundations from station to station at depths of up to 42m.

New homes breathe fresh life into Elephant and Castle Hill, the top 20 UK housebuilder, and Guiness Homes have launched Base17 - a new scheme at Elephant and Castle in Southwark.

The new homes will be delivered in a joint venture and form part of a £3Bn regeneration project set to transform the local area.

Located in the heart of Elephant and Castle and overlooking Nursery Park, Base 17 will provide 140 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and duplexes, 56 of which will be available for private sale. The properties have been designed to meet the ‘Lifetime Homes Standard’ and will be built with sustainable materials. Six of the apartments are also pre-fitted for use by disabled residents.

Elephant and Castle is currently undergoing major investment, which will see the creation of 5,000 new homes and up to 450,000sq ft of new retail space, as well as new parks, tree-lined street and major transport improvements.

Tony Woodman, Sales Director at Hill, comments: “Elephant and Castle is one of the most up-and-coming areas in London and is being transformed through regeneration, with the new neighbourhoods already taking shape. Great transport links ensure both the City and the west end are practically on its doorstep - it’s one of the last few Zone 1 locations where you can buy a beautiful new apartment for less than £500,000. These spacious homes offer great value for money for those looking to be in the thick of London, and first time buyers will be able to benefit from the government’s Help to Buy scheme, which is available at the development.”

Jeff Astle, Director of Sales and Home Ownership at Guinness Homes says: “Having worked for a number of years with Southwark Council and the local community to secure this development, we are delighted to now bring Base17 to the market. A tremendous amount of effort has been made to ensure the homes benefit from the highest level of design and quality and offer real value for money” Once completed, the nearby Elephant Park - one of London’s largest new parks in 70 years – will become a new centrepiece for the whole community, as one of several new green spaces being created around Elephant and Castle. Nursery Row Park, directly adjacent to Base 17, already benefits from two playgrounds, a wildlife meadow and a community orchard maintained by local volunteers. The development itself blends sensitively with its leafy surroundings, and includes outdoor spaces and landscaped gardens which act as focal points for each of the buildings. All of the apartments also have access to their own timber-decked balcony, terrace or garden.

Land Agency to manage Crown Estate’s coastal interests in Wales for further five years The Crown Estate has reappointed Cooke & Arkwright as managing agents of its coastal portfolio in Wales for a further five years. The Firm has acted as The Crown Estate’s local representative within Wales since 1992, providing expertise in specialist areas and developing relationships with tenants and other parties with coastal interests in Wales, including environmental groups and regulatory bodies. This covers a substantial part of the Welsh coastline including ports, harbours, marinas, leisure boating; and also cables and pipelines – with a capital value of £19.3M. Cooke & Arkwright is currently involved in the negotiation of the Regulating Lease at Saundersfoot Harbour, where a £4M redevelopment is under way. The scheme will see the historic harbour transformed into an international marine tourism destination and includes a new commercial slipway, an inner harbour landing pontoon and access bridge, as well as installation of decking over the existing sluice to enable open-air events to be held.

Gary Thompson, Asset Manager at The Crown Estate, said: “Cooke & Arkwright, assisted by Jones Peckover are both well established and respected within their respective markets and we are confident that both businesses will continue to positively contribute to the overall management of the Coastal Estate in Wales.”

Rod Perons, Director of Land Agency said: “We are looking forward to continuing our work as business partners with The Crown Estate across its coastal assets on a day-to-day basis, and to help deliver its long term commercial objectives.”

The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business, established by Act of Parliament to commercially manage a diverse £11.5Bn portfolio of assets. 100% of the profits generated are returned to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation’s finances; over the last ten years this has amounted to over £2Bn. As one of the UK’s biggest rural and coastal landowners, owning almost half the UK’s foreshore and the seabed, The Crown Estate actively supports important industries such as marine aggregates, cables and pipelines, and offshore renewable energy.

The Crown Estate’s commitment to environmental sustainability includes stewardship, with its Crown Estate Stewardship Fund supporting a number of projects around the Welsh coastline.

Ryan Pratt, Senior Surveyor with Cooke & Arkwright’s Land Agency said: “The most recent example of stewardship is the newly opened £100,000 landing stage at Parrog, Newport in West Wales, which was part funded by The Crown Estate. Funds were also provided for an Observation hide at Conwy Nature Reserve, the funding of a portable slipway at Pwllheli and a landing stage and improved access at Skokholm Island.”

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Keep

Trenchless Technology

GUARANTEEING EFFICIENT AND SUCCESSFUL REPAIR OR INSTALLATION ABOUT THE COMPANY Since its formation, Keep Trenchless Technology has been providing a range of trenchless technology services to water and waste industries as well as corporate customers.

Working throughout the UK, the Company specialises in UV cured pipe installation, CCTV surveys, lateral cutting, and mechanical cutting for concrete/grout/roots and other difficult obstruction removal including intruding connections.

UV cured liners have been installed nationally for the sewerage industry, and the success of this is clear by looking at the list of clients that encompasses Northumbrian Water, Yorkshire Water, Thames Water, Severn Trent, Guernsey Water, Scottish Water and many more.

Northumbrian Water has been a valued customer during this time, and in the last five years, has seen more than 10km of liner installed each year.

BENEFITS OF UV CURED LINERS Trenchless technology offers important benefits for companies and utilities providers and with more than 20 years of experience, the team at Keep Trenchless Technology is ideally placed to help organisations reap the rewards of such advantages.

The conventional way of repairing pipes can be disruptive and time consuming, all of which holds up production.

The Company’s experience is crucial because its trenchless technology can be used to counter these issues by repairing pipes at the same time as guaranteeing the minimum amount of disruption. The technology also helps to eliminate any halts in production.

There is also a real commitment to provide customers with the best possible service and the team of specialists have years of experience. In addition, the fleet of vans have the capacity to monitor and record pipe repair at every step of the way.

Aligned to this are the UV cured liners that are manufactured to the most stringent standards by Berolina that can cure the lining at speeds of up to one metre each minute.

Because these are manufactured by Berolina, materials made by a fibreglass that is corrosion-resistant is used; this unique wall structure is decisive for the outstanding quality and versatile application of the Berolina liner.

With five layers of resin-saturated fibreglass complexes and/or polyester webs, the liners are stretchable, and can be optimally adjusted to circular or oval profiles in diameters of 150mm to 1500mm, which can also be used with cross-section or profile passages without any problems.

The energy flux is optimised because of the continuous fibre orientation in the perimeter direction.

The best mechanical values are produced in this Keep Trenchless Technology product because of the fibreglass reinforcement, meaning no more than slight wall thicknesses are necessary and therefore, cross-section leakage is reduced to a minimum after pipe sanitation.

The advantage of the UV cured lining provided is it allows liner replacement to be expected before curing.

The curing process is recorded at every stage and reports are instantly generated. Just as important is the fact that only one site visit is necessary, which again minimises disruption.

KOMATSU PIPELINE REHABILITATION As well as the work carried out for the many water organisations, the Company also has a number of commercial clients who have benefited from trenchless projects.

One such development was undertaken in County Durham where work was carried out on pipeline rehabilitation for Komatsu.

Keep Trenchless Technology was called upon for the project in Birtley because the sewer system there for Komatsu’s

Keep Trenchless Technology Ltd Unit 9a Stratford Road, Pattinson South Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne & Wear NE38 8QP

European manufacturing plant for the production of crawler hydraulic excavators showed the pitch fibre pipe network needed to be replaced.

undergone and passed stringent tests to ensure the pipe is at its tightest level so it won’t leak, while making sure infiltration is prevented.

The Company undertook a CCTV survey on behalf of Komatsu and the results showed that the pitch fibre pipes, first installed in the 1960s, were deformed, had holes in the pipe wall and in one place, was closed with hardly any room to manoeuvre through it.

Work on the pipeline rehabilitation took just seven days, with 18 individual lining set ups having to be achieved in that time while also working around other contractors.

Finding a solution to this damage was made more difficult because of the limited access in terms of timescale and space in order to place equipment, owing to Komatsu’s production schedules.

Options considered included cutting the pipeline open to carry out the repair work, but this was rejected because it would have slowed down the production schedule due to the failed pipe being located in the centre of the main production area.

Excavation would have been required, which would have made the project duration longer, and with three major surrounding walls around the designated work area, any traditional method of work was fraught with danger.

Therefore, it was decided the best way to rehabilitate the pipe was to undertake re-rounding work followed by insertion of a structural lining.

Traditional work would have taken 18 weeks to complete, whereas trenchless technology could ensure the project was completed within a week.

Accordingly, the UV cured options were investigated and the Berolina liner system was chosen.

This is where the fibre fabrics overlapping are effective. They are staggered, which means the Berolina liner can be installed in one piece even where there is a crossover, and with no hindrance on elasticity, it easily adjusts to local conditions.

The UV cure resin is injected into the liners at the factory so that when they arrive on site, they are ready for installation.

As a proven product of Keep Trenchless Technology, the Berolina liner has undergone a significant amount of testing to ensure it is fit for purpose. This WRc-approved system has also

Telephone 0191 415 3372 Email info@keep-ltd.com

During one of these set ups, the extent of the problem Komatsu had been facing became clear because a huge section of pipe was almost completely closed up.

The tight timescale on the project meant the Company’s only option was to attempt installation even though this made a successful outcome uncertain.

But the expertise meant that the deformed section of pipe was reached, though a hole was then found in the host pipe.

In response, Keep Trenchless Technology managed to pass a line through the defect and a pre-liner was pulled into place over the hole before it was lined with the intended reinforced liner.

Lining was successful on this set-up, as well as the other 17 that had to be undertaken.

Paul Collins is the Building Maintenance Manager at Komatsu and he praised the ‘groundbreaking technology’ and the advantages is has brought.

He said: “We selected Keep Trenchless Technology Ltd to carry out this repair due to the location of the drain and the amazing groundbreaking technology offered. The professional approach was second to none and a full survey and repair method was fully communicated.

“What could have been very disruptive to our production turned out to be a quick and simple repair with zero effect to our busy production schedule.

“Since the repair, we have used the liner method many times to maintain and repair our waste framework. The advantages of using such a repair are numerous; the fact there is very little disruption to the repair vicinity and no environmental impacts compared to other repair methods are just a few.”

www.keep-ltd.com

UKC NEWS

LEED GOLD for Bikini Berlin The ambitious redevelopment of the historical Bikini Berlin building complex is being awarded the GOLD certificate from the LEED building classification programme.

For the building classification programme LEED Core & Shell, Bikini Berlin was inspected in six main categories: sustainable location, water and energy efficiency, use of materials and resources, interior quality, innovation and planning processes. The primary aspects that stood out for the jury included the way that the building has been integrated into its surroundings, the environmentally friendly revitalisation of a much-frequented location, its sustainable way of dealing with rainwater, energy-efficient facade construction, large-scale recycling of existing building materials taking into consideration local materials, the location-inspired choice of plants and greenery, and outstanding interior air quality.

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The facade design of the Bikini building proved to be a particular challenge in terms of working towards the certification. The task was to reconstruct the listed facade facing Budapester Strasse, which dates back to the original construction period of the 1950s, in a way that was true to the original, whilst taking into account modern energyrelated standards. The facade facing the Zoological Garden, on the other hand, was fully glazed. Another detail worth mentioning is Bikini Berlin’s lighting system – inside the Bikini building LED lights were used throughout.

Dr Herman Brandstetter, Managing Director of Bayerische Hausbau, said: “With Bikini Berlin we have acquired a piece of contemporary history at one of the most symbolic locations in Berlin, which means we are also under obligation to treat it with responsibility.

We have risen to this challenge in every respect. Of course this also includes

the task of acting in an environmentally aware and sustainable way.”

Developed in 1998 by the US Green Building Council (USGCB), the LEED building classification programme (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is regarded as one of the world’s most important, non-compulsory quality classification programmes in the sector of environmentally friendly, low-pollution and low-emission sustainable building.

For many years, the programme has also been gaining in significance in Germany, due to the fact it sets benchmarks in the development and planning of ‘green’, extremely high-performance ecological buildings. The standards of the LEED model are synonymous with awareness, efficiency and healthy usage parameters for commercial and privately used buildings and require that the technical systems installed on the property can be operated at the planned level of efficiency for as long a period as possible.

New £27.5M building underway One of the UK’s top construction companies is now on-site at the University of Huddersfield, beginning work on a £27.5M addition to the campus that is destined to be one of the most striking structures in the region.

The firm, Morgan Sindall, has landed the contract to construct a new six-storey home for the University’s School of Law and part of the School of Music, Humanities and Media. It will be adjacent to the Creative Arts Building and the most recent addition to the campus, named Student Central.

Overlooking the town’s Shorehead roundabout, one of the most important road arteries in Huddersfield, the new Law and Humanities building was designed by the Huddersfield-based architectural firm AHR and has already been hailed as iconic.

The building will be completed and ready for use by the start of 2017.

His Royal Highness The Duke of York – who is now Chancellor of the University – laid the foundation stone for the new building when he paid a visit in March.

Morgan Sindall – which is assessed to be one of Britain’s top ten building contractors

– has previously carried out specialist refurbishment projects at the University of Huddersfield, and in addition to its work on the new Law and Humanities building it has also been awarded a new contract to carry out a major new development at the University’s Institute of Railway Research.

The architects AHR also have an established relationship with the University, having designed the Harold Wilson Building and refurbishments of the West Building and the historic Ramsden Building.

Significant electricity-efficiency potential remains untapped in global manufacturing Significant untapped potential for electricity savings is available to the manufacturing industry across the globe, reveals new research from Siemens Financial Services (SFS). The study estimates the industrial electricity-efficiency potential, which is defined as the proportion of current electricity consumption that could be saved if more electricity-efficient equipment were installed. Amongst the examined geographies, the figures for potential energy savings range from circa 14% to levels approaching 20%. In the UK, the industrial electricity-efficiency potential is about 14.2%. Together with Spain (14.2%), it ranks among the leading countries in industrial electricity-efficiency, followed

by Germany (14.5%) and France (15.1%).

The electricity-efficiency potential is greater still in developing economies such as China (17.2%) and Russia (19.1%).

Although the figures attest to a high level of electricity efficiency in UK manufacturing, further potential to reduce electricity consumption remains, particularly in production processes where production control systems and variable speed motors can radically cut electricity usage.

Spain’s leading ranking can be partly attributed to Spanish manufacturers being particularly active in generating solar power onsite to subsidise their electricity requirements. In Russia, the established industrial sector is often characterised by less energy-efficient, older equipment.

There are therefore ample opportunities for electricity- efficiency gains from plant upgrades and replacement.

As electricity makes up a growing proportion of industrial energy use, the issue of optimising electricity consumption is becoming an increasing challenge for the manufacturing sector. Electricity usage in manufacturing has risen three times faster than overall energy use over the last 40 years. It now represents over a quarter of industrial energy consumption.

At the same time, the unit cost of that electricity has increased significantly over the last decade. Reducing electricity consumption is therefore vital to the economic health of manufacturing.

Across the globe manufacturers are increasingly keen to focus on installing more electricity-efficient equipment to reduce the consumption and cost of

electricity. These can range from optimized motor-driven and automation systems to the recovery of heat from production processes for electricity generation.

Brian Foster, Siemens Financial Services’ Head of Industry Finance comments: “Investing in electricity-efficiency technologies not only helps cut energy bills, manufacturing costs and carbon emissions. New equipment often brings productivity and capacity improvements as an added bonus, improving business performance and competitiveness.”

As financial sustainability is becoming an increasingly important consideration for technology investments, asset financing techniques are establishing themselves as cost-effective, affordable methods of funding energy-efficient equipment investments and upgrades. Designed to offset the monthly cost of the new equipment against the energy savings that the equipment delivers, this form of ‘pay-as-you-save’ financing will prove fundamental to the expansion and development of the energy-efficiency market in global manufacturing.

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UKC COMMENT

New NHBC seminars launched to highlight external wall issues NHBC, the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, is launching a series of seminars to increase industry awareness of problems relating to external walls.

The events, which are free and available to all NHBC registered builders, have been arranged following analysis of the large number of claims received over winter 2013/14, due to the heavy storms over this period, which led to a 43% increase in claims compared with normal levels for the same period in previous years.

Around two-thirds of the claims reported were in relation to external wall and roof issues; external walls being the predominant issue with an increase of more than 150% over ‘normal’ levels.

Chris Derzypilskyj, NHBC’s Technical Projects Manager, explained: “Root cause analysis of claims from this period revealed that workmanship issues were the primary cause.Therefore the aim of these seminars is to provide detailed information on best practice, focusing on key areas such as structure, render, cavity trays and DPCs, to provide a national and regional overview of the claims experience as well as feedback on current site experience.”

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In greater detail, the main areas of focus are set to include; • Render Consistently over the last four years the main failures have been de-bonding from the substrate, shrinkage and thickness/number of coats (background preparation, application and cracking) • Cavity Trays and DPC’s Incorrect installation of horizontal and stepped trays - including linking to flashings • Insulation Poor installation of product e.g. at corners, cavity trays/lintels, wrong product for exposure, retention within the cavity and reduced cavity widths. Membranes and product positioning within timber frame construction and issues with interstitial condensation will also be included.

• Structure This will cover bridged cavities, installation of wall ties, movement joints and settlement.

The seminars will take place throughout September and into October, at venues across the country. Full details below; • Tuesday 8th September – Cambridge Belfry, Camborne • Thursday 10th September – Mercure Abbey Hill, Milton Keynes • Tuesday 15th September – National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham • Wednesday 16th September – Leigh Court, Bristol • Tuesday 22nd September – Sandown Racecourse • Thursday 24th September – Thistle Haydock Park, Haydock • Tuesday 29th September – York Racecourse, York • Wednesday 30th September – Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld • Thursday 1st October – Hilton Templepatrick, Belfast For any further information about NHBC’s External Walls seminars please visit; www.nhbc.co.uk/awardsandevents/ externalwallsseminars/

COMMENT UKC

Agile lessons from Yoga: Flowing gracefully through your projects

By Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, Chief Cheetah and Founder of Cheetah Learning Here at Cheetah Learning, the atmosphere has been full of energy and excitement as wrap up development efforts on our new program called The Happy Aging Project.

Combining a ten-hour online class followed by a two-day yoga retreat, this program is unlike anything we’ve offered before. Our next step is to channel the team’s energy into implementing our Cheetah Sales and Marketing Accelerator System. And since it includes a yoga component, what better way to organize our efforts for it than with an Agile project management approach?

Think about it: yoga is really all about agility. It should be no surprise, then, that Agile principles and practices share much in common with those of yoga.

Both require the ability to adapt to change, focus intently on one task at a time, and settle into a comfortable, sustainable pace to prevent burnout. And in yoga, as in Agile, users gain incremental benefits throughout the duration of their practice.

Let’s talk about a few building blocks of Agile that are essential to putting our Happy Aging Project marketing plan into action: stories, estimating, and points.

Stories, as we see them, are project deliverables that have varying levels of complexity. These may be “user stories” that describe some functional element of your project from the user’s point of view; using the case of the Happy Aging Project, a user story might sound like, “I want to be able to move from the first marketing web page to checkout in just two clicks.”

Another Agile story may be from the point of view of project team members describing behind-the-scenes functionality.

For example, one of the stories we’re working on is, “I need an automated system to send follow-up emails to prospective customers who fill out a form on our marketing page.”

After you break up your big project into stories, it’s time to start estimating the complexity of each story and how long it’s going to take to complete. In Agile, you do this by assigning “points” to each story. Simple stories that take the least amount of time and effort to

complete will have a low point value, while complex, multi-step stories will have a higher point value. How many points you assign to each story is relative to the other stories that make up the project.

Part of the value of estimates is the estimating process itself; by having all team members participate in the estimating process on equal terms, they’ll feel more invested in the project and energized to bust out the tasks in those low-point-value stories.

Estimates are also an important realitycheck. If a story has a point value far above the others, it’s worth asking if it’s really worth pursuing. You may find that other, easier-to-complete stories can get you to the same final outcome you’re working toward. In yoga, for example, you could do a headstand to flow into downward dog position - but you really don’t need to.

If you’re new to Agile, your first attempt at estimating story complexity may completely miss the mark - and that’s okay. As your team becomes more experienced at Agile techniques, they’ll not only improve their ability to make accurate estimates, but they’ll likely assign lower scores to each story. This isn’t because the stories magically simplify themselves, but because an Agile team learns how to reach the desired outcomes in the most efficient way possible.

To learn more about adapting Agile principles and practices to your organization, check out our 2-PDU Taste of Agile online course. Or, if you’re already a devoted Agile follower, consider becoming a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner and taking our comprehensive Cheetah Exam Prep® for the PMI-ACP® Exam program.

About the Author:

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management to the masses.

Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative Project Management and accelerated learning techniques.

Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learning, doing projects, and negotiating. CCPM graduates are able to choose the right projects and complete those projects “cheetah fast” based on their personality. They also learn how to leverage others’ strengths which significantly improves overall project team performance. When an employer has a cadre of CCPMs on staff, they achieve whatever they set out to achieve in record time. This is why over 90% of Cheetah’s clients experience an increase in both profitability and revenue within the first year of retaining Cheetah Learning for their Project Management training needs.

Honoured by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.

Michelle LaBrosse

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UKC COMMENT

Are you at risk of being frame(work)ed?

Framework agreements and supply agreements are common in the construction industry. Many of you will have signed this sort of enabling agreement and accepted call off orders or contracts under them. But what impact do the terms of such agreements have on the risk profile of the work that you are doing?

It is usual that purchase orders or works contracts (let us call them ‘subordinate agreements’) called off under an enabling agreement are stated to be ‘subject to’ the terms of that agreement. The recent Court of Appeal decision in Northrup Grumman Mission Systems Europe Limited (NGM) v BAE Systems (Al Diriyah) Limited (BAE) [2015] EWCA Civ 844 reminds us that, thanks to this type of ‘subject to’ term (incorporation by reference), the terms of an enabling agreement can sometimes deliver an unpleasant commercial punch.

The case related to the supply of software licenses but the issue before the Court was one of general interest; it arose when the customer (BAE) invoked a term in the enabling agreement to terminate the subordinate agreement “for convenience” (meaning at will).

The contractor, (NGM) disputed its right to do this and advanced a number of arguments to persuade the Court that the terms of the enabling agreement had not been incorporated by reference into the subordinate agreement. They failed.

As usual, the detail of the judgment is specific to the particular wording of the agreements in question but the following are a couple of general points worth noting.

The subordinate agreement included a term that stated that its terms were to be “governed” by the terms of the enabling agreement and the Court accepted that this term was sufficient for incorporation by reference. The wording required to achieve such incorporation may be “precise or general, narrow or wide”; so not a particularly high hurdle to clear there.

If the terms incorporated by reference are too extensive for the subordinate agreement to make sense with all of them in it, surplus terms will be rejected or ignored. For example if an incorporated term is inconsistent with an existing term covering the same subject matter the specific (in the subordinate agreement) would trump the general (from the enabling agreement).

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However, if a term is not surplus or inconsistent it will be incorporated and the Court was willing to modify the language in the enabling agreement to make the relevant term work in the subordinate agreement.

The subordinate agreement in the NGM case did not include a termination clause; the enabling contract did. The clause was not surplus to requirements so it was incorporated. The subordinate agreement fulfilled all the conditions set out in the enabling agreement for it to be governed by that agreement. As a result, BAE was entitled to terminate for convenience.

Once again, the Court has shown that it will do what is necessary to give effect Sarah E. Philips

to the contract that the parties have actually made, rather than the one they may believe they have made. In this case, that involved combining a two part agreement into a workable whole.

The terms of your purchase orders and call offs are only half the contractual story.

Make sure you read them in conjunction with the terms of the enabling agreement.

Getting the full picture early should hopefully avoid any nasty surprises later.

Sarah E. Phillips, Solicitor, Thomas Eggar LLP

COMMENT UKC

Adjudication and limitation: supreme court ruling

By Peter Sheridan, Partner, Sheridan Gold LLP Suppose that a claimant refers a dispute to adjudication before the expiry of the limitation period, but only just, claiming that the responding party is in breach of contract and that the claimant succeeds.

By the time the adjudicator makes his decision, the limitation period has expired.

The responding party wishes to take the matter to court or arbitration for a final determination. Does the responding party’s time run from the date of the breach, in which case its claim is statute barred? Or is there a new cause of action so that time runs from the date of payment of the sum ordered by the adjudicator to be paid?

This issue thus turns on the responding party’s cause of action when it brings the action in court or arbitration for a final determination. The Supreme Court’s decision in Aspect Contracts v Higgins (2015) is that time runs from the date of payment of the sum ordered by the adjudicator to be paid.

The responding party in the situation described above should therefore not normally be in difficulty.

There are two strands in the Supreme Court’s approach: implied term and restitution.

The implied term is that a party who has paid a sum pursuant to an adjudicator’s decision has a directly enforceable right to recover any overpayment to which the adjudicator’s decision can be shown to have led, once there has been a final determination of the dispute. The cause of action is an alleged overpayment and is for repayment and that the time for making this claim runs from the date of the payment.

The overpayment is also recoverable by way of a restitutionary remedy. Once the adjudicator’s decision is shown to have been wrong and the overpayment is established in court or arbitration, the money is in the wrong hands and should be returned to the rightful owner. The overpayment may therefore be claimed in restitution (unjust enrichment) as well as by way of an implied term.

Interest from the date of payment may also be claimed on the overpayment, as a matter of established case law in restitution and (less convincingly, but undoubtedly given that this is a Supreme Court decision) by way of a further implied term that interest is payable on the overpayment at a rate to be fixed by

the court if not agreed by the parties.

As there is a restitutionary remedy in law, it seems unnecessary to analyse the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and the Scheme as containing an implied term with the same effect. However, that is now the law and these cases can now be expected to be pleaded on both bases. The limitation period in each case is normally six years from the date of payment pursuant to the adjudicator’s decision.

The factual position in Aspect Contracts was as follows. Aspect was to carry out an asbestos survey and report on blocks of maisonettes in Hounslow, for a building contractor, Higgins, which was considering redeveloping. The survey was conducted in March 2004 and the report was dated 27 April 2004.

During the redevelopment in early 2005, Higgins allegedly found and had to have removed asbestos-containing materials not identified in the report. A dispute arose, which Higgins referred to adjudication.

By a decision dated 28 July 2009, the adjudicator decided that Aspect was liable for losses amounting to £490,627 out of £822,482 claimed. Aspect paid Higgins an amount of £658,017 which took account of interest from the date of the decision.

Higgins did not start any proceedings to recover the balance of its claim, £331,855 plus interest, or otherwise and the limitation periods in contract and tort expired; Higgins was understandably content to let matters rest. After the expiry of the limitation periods, Aspect started the proceedings which ended up in the Supreme Court, seeking to recover the sum it had paid. Higgins sought to counterclaim for the £331,855 balance.

In the Supreme Court, Higgins was held to be barred by limitation from pursuing the £331,855 balance of its original claim.

Although it was understandable that Higgins should wish to let matters lie after its success in the adjudication, it could not ensure that matters would so lie without either pursuing legal or arbitral proceedings to a conclusion or agreeing with Aspect that the adjudicator’s decision was final.

Higgins had an alternative case that if, as the Supreme Court found, Aspect had six years from making payment under the adjudication in which to start proceedings for repayment, the corollary ought to

be that Higgins also had a fresh six-year period in which to bring proceedings for the balance the adjudicator had refused to award. The Supreme Court found there was no basis for finding any fresh right to claim for the balance.

For more information, contact Peter Sheridan Partner at Sheridan Gold LLP T: 01737 735088 E: psheridan@sheridangold.co.uk www.sheridangold.co.uk

Peter Sheridan

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UKC COMMENT

Telematics – how do they really affect your construction fleet?

How Construction fleets can save costs using telematics and tracking devices If you are looking to cut costs in your construction fleet, telematics, (including vehicle tracking systems) can provide you with a powerful tool to do so. Whilst simultaneously improving your funds, benefits can be reaped from aspects like improved productivity and reduced labour costs.

When it comes to running a fleet, the main areas that costs can be wasted are through inefficient equipment use and driver productivity - both of which can stem a plethora of costly issues.

This would be a different story if you were aware of the precise location and performance of all vehicles and assets in your fleet as you can target exactly where changes need to be made. Through using telematics you can optimise schedules and routing to reduce overtime and other inefficient behaviours which drive up labour costs. Not only will this allow your drivers to be aware of the most efficient course to take (henceforth saving time) but because they will be aware that you’re tracking their journey they will be less likely to idle or procrastinate. As a result of these jobs being completed

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faster there will be more time to fit in additional tasks and duties throughout the day, bringing in more revenue and improving your business’s reputation.

Because employee’s will be performing better it will give you time to focus on other aspects of the business, leading to faster response times, better customer service, and assisting with generating repeat business in turn. Improved dispatching and routing will also let you take on more jobs without having to employ additional personnel or invest in more vehicles.

Unnecessary breakdowns of vehicles are another aspect where a vast amount of expenditure is drained, which, with the right equipment can easily be prevented.

For this, you could invest in a GPS tracking system with engine diagnostic capabilities- this can help avoid mishaps before they happen, simultaneously saving you time and money. This system can provide you with advance warning of engine trouble allowing you to fix minor problems before they escalate as well as reminders for oil changes, tune ups and other preventative measures than ensure your vehicle is kept in the best condition.

Telematics systems, whilst providing real-time usages, are also handy to look back at reports which can compare driver and vehicle activity. Through keeping a regular eye on these reports, you can see long and short term driving patterns and equipment utilisation to identify any areas where productivity is reduced and work to improve these.

Yet another aspect where fleet tracking can improve your construction business is in the prevention of fraud. If a crash was to happen where the opposing driver claimed they had suffered whiplash, a telematics system can show how fast the car was travelling and where/when the brake was applied, thus able to prove if whiplash is plausible or even possible in such a situation. This can help to avoid hefty pay-outs and potential court appearances if a dispute cannot be resolved.

Telematics is ever becoming a more important tools for construction fleets and can save thousands of pounds on generated business and efficient time-keeping. Whether you decide to spend a lot or a little on a telematics system, it’s certainly worth it.

COMMENT UKC

How can construction firms achieve business success without financial support from the bank?

Academy Leasing’s Managing Director Mike Nolan considers the funding options to help drive growth and expansion The outlook for the UK construction industry looks bright. According to the latest Construction Products Association forecast, the sector will grow by 21.9% by 2019 and previous reports have stated it will contribute £12Bn to the UK economy over the next two years alone.

With more than 15,000 new building companies set up in 2014, confidence in the economic climate has soared, resulting in an increasing number of construction workers branching out and setting up their own business operations.

Still, challenges remain. The abundance of construction firms requires companies to work as efficiently as possible in order to move ahead of their competitors. To do this, using new tools and equipment, such as demolition equipment and drilling machinery, is essential.

These tools, however, can cost a business well into its thousands. During the economic downturn, hiring equipment on a day rate was a more common approach, renting the machinery without long-term commitment and avoiding having to pay for the tools in full.

Yet today, with industry growth, the case for buying company assets can be made due to the equipment being able to deliver a significant return on investment.

In such cases, getting funding from the bank for new equipment is an obvious route to take but what happens if they say ‘no’ to your request?

An affordable route

Weak bank lending means it is as tough as ever for business owners to gain the necessary funding for growth.

This doesn’t mean all is lost. Alternative finance options, such as leasing, often prove the most simple and affordable route in comparison to going through a high-street bank.

When it comes to leasing assets, choose a lender with experience in the construction industry. If the funding source has working knowledge of the sector, they will more than likely be able to provide a cash flow analysis to determine whether or not the piece of equipment has ROI potential. If it generates a substantial amount, they will be more likely to approve the finance.

Due to the large cost of construction machinery and tools, buying assets upfront could stretch a company’s cash flow to breaking point. Leasing assets allows money to be retained in the business as it offers owners the chance to spread equipment costs over a three or five year period through monthly instalments.

This not only frees up cash to be used elsewhere across the business, but also helps the company build a strong credit history by having owners make timely, regular payments to the leasing firm.

Squeeze the assets

When running a business, money can easily get swallowed up from one month to the next. For example, your business insurance might be due for renewal or you may decide to rebrand your website or marketing collateral.

If you need a larger pool of working capital, a company’s hard assets, such as site equipment, have a clear value which can be squeezed to release extra money back into the cash flow. An asset finance specialist can offer to lend money against the equipment without further securities if they believe the organisation’s business plan is sound and the debt can be adequately serviced.

In such cases where the equipment is still subject to finance terms and is still being paid off, the financier can offer to spread the money over a longer term to reduce monthly outgoings.

When the debt cannot be paid, equipment can be sold by the company for a fair and adequate price.

management of your accounts to a financier who will then chase your customers on your behalf to settle payments.

Invoice discounting, on the other hand, differs in that the lender will not collect any debts but will instead lend money against unpaid invoices.

Both services will cost the business an agreed fee but will not require the personal guarantees demanded by the banks.

Expansion by acquisition

If you’re looking for rapid growth and increased market share, expanding your construction firm by acquiring another organisation may be the best route to take.

With the number of construction businesses rising each year, there is no shortage of opportunities here and the funding can be raised against the acquiring organisation’s hard assets.

If this direction is taken, it is important for the purchasing company not to put both businesses at risk. To do this, you must find the necessary finance for the deal itself and then secure sufficient working capital to ensure the move does not endanger both parties – a two-fold process.

As mentioned, driving company growth and expansion doesn’t have to end when the banks say ‘no’. Alternative funding options can help put your organisation on the path towards business success and construction firms would be well-advised to look around for that perfect finance package.

Mike Nolan

Plug the cash flow gap

Buying materials, hiring subcontractors and paying other overheads can put significant pressure on a company’s cash flow, especially when awaiting an outstanding sizeable payment off a previous contract customer.

This gap in cash flow can be plugged through either invoice factoring or invoice discounting, both of which act as a means of providing an advance on future revenues.

But what’s the difference?

Invoice factoring works by outsourcing the

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UKC COMMENT

Seven ways to optimise your leads and win business Every lead should be valued and nurtured.

That’s absolutely the way to behave if you want to grow your business. But the opportunity can easily be blown before a quotation is even produced, because every contact with the customer has the potential to be a step towards winning the job.

CEO Benjamin Dyer of Powered Now shares ideas on how to get the most from your leads.

Idea 1: Get personal – Email isn’t always good for business. The faceto-face meeting has the benefit that you can start building a relationship with the customer and your attitude will go a long way to setting the scene on how your quote will be received.

There’s also the chance to find opportunities for other work that may not have been obvious from the first communication. If your company is larger and you can’t attend, it’s important that your management team doesn’t push faceto-face contact too far down the chain.

James Chandler of Chandler Building puts it this way: “It’s important that you see the client in the flesh. That’s why I visit every job at the start myself.”

This helps your company to see every job from the client’s perspective, and to better understand their motivations.

Idea 2: Keep your promises – In every interaction with your prospect you should prove trustworthy because successful selling is based on establishing trust.

Your very first phone call starts this process and it is critical that at every step you display a professional attitude and manner. That’s why getting back to customers quickly is important and turning up on time for every appointments is critical. If you fail on these scores, the customer will automatically think that if you’re like this before you get the job, what will you be like after you have won it.

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not turning up when they said.

Idea 3: Make it easy to do business with you – If you are smaller, a pleasant answer phone message and always getting back quickly makes it easier to work with you.

In fact, your speed of response, especially in turning round quotes, is a critical factor.

Make sure that everything the customer says is noted down, nothing is more frustrating than having to repeat things.

Idea 4: Be credible - If you are selling to residential customers, many of them won’t have a clue about building regulations and any other applicable statutes or laws, so it’s up to you to explain, without being patronising.

You also need to make a point of letting the customer know about your membership of any trade associations, qualifications, experience and any warranties you will provide. Letting them know you have done equivalent work elsewhere, along with offering references from satisfied customers, all go towards establishing your credibility.

Idea 5: British customers like the soft sell – You, of course, you need to be selling at all times when you are in contact with the prospect, but they mustn’t notice it. That’s the British culture.

The minute they tell you that “you’re a good sales person” you have failed.

One soft way of selling is to provide illustrations of previous jobs showing how neat your work is. Running through exactly what the customer wants, playing back their requests, helps you to be sure you understand which also sells you. Every little helps.

Idea 6: Set the correct price expectations – Nobody likes a surprise so it’s important to try to get the prospect to be thinking about a price range that the job is likely to be quoted for.

Idea 7: Close gently – There’s nothing magic about closing business, with the right trust established, the right expectations on price and a professional quotation, the client will already be there.

However, make sure that you ask the prospect for their business, but do this naturally. “Is there a date when it would work for us to start?” or “Would you like me to put the job into our calendar?” is the type of approach to take.

Delivering a great job is critical, but you don’t even get the chance if you can’t sell. The biggest influence on sales is establishing trust and this comes from how you and your team come across in every single interaction with your customer.

By far the easiest sales come from recommendations, where you start the whole sales process with initial trust already established. So the good news is that doing a great job remains critical to growth, as well as being an undoubted source of pride in your work.

Benjamin Dyer

Preparing for Mediation - Part 4 The Mediation Bundle This is another article on preparing for mediation and again thanks are owed to Consensus Mediation for allowing me to reproduce part of its own guidance note on this subject along with my sage edits.

The first thing to say is that the mediation bundle is NOT a trial bundle. The second is that the bundle should be concise, containing only the information the mediator needs to understand in advance or that is likely to be referred to on the day.

The mediation bundle should be book style, starting with the earliest items, so that it may be read front to back, NOT like a correspondence file, which is reversed. Try to put email exchanges in order starting with the earliest and don’t include the back sheets of pleadings and duplicates of documents.

A chronology of events can be very helpful to your appointed mediator but swamping him with copies of judgements won’t be. Indeed, case law should really only be included if it is relevant, appropriate and helpful.

An index may not be essential but it could be helpful to allow the Mediator to navigate his or her way around the document.

Paginate the bundle and refer to page numbers in your Position Statement as appropriate before copying the bundle!

Some mediators prefer to receive the bundle electronically but I’m not keen on this because I like to handle a document and insert post-it notes on key documents and extracts that I think are important. So check what your mediator’s preference is.

If your mediator wants to receive the document electronically, check email maximum sending and receiving sizes to avoid delivery failure.

Now for a plea - if at all possible the bundle should be limited to an absolute maximum of one lever arch file.

There is absolutely no point in rowing with the other parties about what should be in the bundle. If they want a document in, put it in. If there is more than trivial disagreement each party may send their own documents to the mediator but this will increase preparation time and inevitably produce duplicated documents and increase costs, as an excessive bundle of documents will cause the mediator’s fee to rise.

the bundle to be read by the mediator if delivery is delayed.

Beware of the tendency for lever arch files to be damaged in transit.

There is little more annoying than having to replace the folder because the mechanism has bent, so use appropriate protective packaging.

OK, so now you are good to go. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to start preparing your Position Statement followed by the all-important Opening Statement.

If you have any doubt how important these are, see my separate articles at www.vinden.co.uk/blog

Delivery of the Bundle to the Mediator Remember, not everyone works in the same way, or even works out of a staffed office. Help yourself and the mediator by doing your best to comply with his or her requests and instructions. I always request that the bundle is delivered at least a week in advance of the mediation. This gives the mediator a chance to prepare when he or she has the time to do so.

Peter Vinden is a practising Arbitrator, Adjudicator, Mediator and Expert. He is Managing Director of The Vinden Partnership and can be contacted by email at pvinden@vinden.co.uk.

For similar articles please visit www.vinden.co.uk.

Please do not assume that the bundle’s arrival “before the mediation” will be sufficient. Mediators are likely to have other work and cannot necessarily fully prepare if your bundle is late and the mediation will be more efficient if you allow the mediator to prepare fully.

Check where the bundle is to be delivered and make sure whoever is responsible for sending the bundle knows this!

Please don’t request a signature upon delivery unless it is absolutely essential. The mediator may miss the delivery, particularly if it is at a time later than agreed and the mediator will be inconvenienced if he or she has to collect it from the delivery depot or await redelivery. It may be too late for

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UKC COMMENT

Building an effective security plan As the construction industry begins to flourish post-recession, demand for construction site security looks set to rise. Amanda Caton of the British Security Industry Association explores the changing security requirements of construction sites and highlights best practice in security procurement.

The construction sector has experienced a positive start to 2015, with figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggesting that the sector has contributed to a better than expected outlook for economic growth in the first quarter of the year. Making up 6.4% of the UK’s economy, the construction sector suffered the effects of recession particularly keenly, but is now beginning to feel more upbeat, with reports suggesting that customer uncertainty has reduced following the General Election1.

So, how might these changes affect demand for construction site security?

As the number of construction projects rise, it is natural to expect demand for effective site security measures to increase in tandem. With the typical building site playing host to a number of different contractors at any one time, as well as a wide range of valuable equipment, security considerations are always paramount, especially given the often open and

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accessible nature of construction sites.

Left vulnerable overnight, construction sites face the biggest threat from theft, vandalism and terrorism.

A security breach or poorly implemented security measure can have a number of negative effects on a construction site or depot. These can include financial losses and unplanned downtime, along with health and safety issued cause by unauthorised tampering of equipment or procedures.

Therefore, site security is essential to the successful and timely completion of a project, or the continued success of a business. As such, security should be addressed at the earliest opportunity, ensuring maximum protection throughout the entire construction process.

An holistic approach

A layered approach to security works best to protect such sites. Starting at the perimeter and working inward, various security measures – both electronic and physical – can integrate successfully to provide an holistic, effective solution to securing even the most complex of construction sites.

According to construction industry intelligence analysts, Glenigan2, London is leading the way in the market’s recovery, with rising demand for office

accommodation set to prompt increased investment in the development of prime office space, while the sharp rise in planning approvals for a number of highprofile residential schemes also looks set to provide the market with a boost.

Of course, one of the most high-profile building projects in the capital is Europe’s largest construction project, Crossrail, which employs 10,000 workers across 40 sites as the project continues to work towards its goal of constructing 42 additional kilometres to London’s railway network, providing a more direct route across the city. Started in 2008 and scheduled for final completion in 2018, much of the work on the project is due to take place in the 2015-16 period.

Interviewed recently by IFSECGlobal. com3, Crossrail’s Security Manager, David Buck, outlined the successful application of the layered security approach that has been deployed at Crossrail sites across the city. Showcasing the busy Farringdon site, near the heart of the city, David explained the blend of physical perimeter security with electronic security measures and manned guarding: “You will see hoarding, you will see gates, you’ll see entry points, and all of these are the physical ‘locks and bolts’ of how a site is secured. On top of that, we will then

introduce an electronic system of Access Control, which will allow you access through turnstiles, and then internally, we will zone the site and that will then allow people who need to go through into work areas to get through, and people who don’t need to go into those work areas will be restricted in their access.”

In fact, the so-called ‘onion ring’ approach – whereby the most at-risk area lies at the core of a layered defence system – is commonly deployed on construction sites, integrating physical security measures with electronic systems to provide an early warning and speedy response to potential breaches. However, in contrast to the huge Crossrail project, smaller construction sites do not always have the resources and manpower to ensure that the site is being monitored 24 hours a day. Remotely monitored alarm systems can help with this issue. If an alarm is set off at a site, personnel at a Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC) can be notified of the breach and will be able to respond accordingly, allowing for around the clock protection and giving site managers peace of mind when they are not in the area.

Making informed choices

As the trade body representing the UK’s private security industry, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA)

has recently conducted research into the attitudes of those procurement professionals responsible for buying security products and services in a number of industry sectors, including construction. Early results of this research suggest that spending on construction site security actually increased during the economic downturn, with procurement personnel focusing heavily on the quality of solutions – rather than price alone – to determine their purchasing decision.

To help construction site managers make informed choices when selecting security measures, the BSIA also published a comprehensive guide to the application of various security measures in the construction sector. Exploring a range of issues from risk assessment and mitigation to the different approaches required between greenfield (new build) and brownfield (redevelopment) sites, the BSIA’s guide provides in-depth, impartial advice to construction site managers seeking to maximise the effectiveness of security measures on their sites.

Taking expert advice is an ideal place to start for any construction company wishing to improve the effectiveness of its current security measures. Members of the Association’s Specialist Services section are best placed to dispense advice on risk assessments and security

solutions, and a list of such suppliers can be found on the BSIA’s website.

To find out more about the security measures mentioned in this article, or to locate a reputable supplier near you, visit the Association’s website at www.bsia.co.uk Alternatively, the BSIA’s guide to construction site security can be downloaded directly from the following link: http://www.bsia. co.uk/publications/publicationssearch-results/123-constructionsite-security-a-guide.aspx 1 UK growth outlook brighter after new construction data, The Guardian, 12th June 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/ jun/12/uk-economic-growth-revised-up-asons-paints-brighter-picture-of-construction 2 Construction market analysis, Featured Region: London, Glenigan, June 2015 https:// www.glenigan.com/construction-marketanalysis/news/featured-region-london-2015 3 Protecting London: Crossrail Security Interactive Documentary, available on IFSEC Global’s YouTube channel: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Dnry2iCbmVA

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UKC COMMENT

Emotionally intelligent roadwork signage trialled to improve Driving Safety Highways England are trialling emotional intelligent signage around roadworks and construction sites, complete with personal and informal messages, in a bid to reduce dangerous driving and accidents on troublesome roads.

Messages such as ‘Someone loves you, drive carefully’ and ‘Our dad works here’ have been added to signs

surround roadworks on the M1, M3, A21 and A40 to capture the attention of passing drivers and encourage them to drive in a more considered manner.

A spokesperson for Highways England explained that the trial is intended “to improve the customer experience through roadworks”, before confirming that the project will continue for a number of years across a greater number of A roads and motorways, monitoring the response of motorists.

The initial trials have been met with a bit of a mixed response from motorists, automotive experts and psychologists. Dr Lisa Dorn, director of the Driving Research Group at Cranfield University, enthused: “What this does is bring the information to life.

It relates it to [drivers] personally.”

“I think it will make drivers process the

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information more deeply. Research has shown that people tend to ignore road signs because we are confronted with them all the time, and are generally pretty bad at noticing them. This will capture people’s attention, and it’s therefore more likely to have an influence.”

However, traffic and movement specialist, Ben Hamilton-Baillie, is not so enthusiastic about the trial: “It’s a common mistake – assuming that signs can be friendly when they’re clearly standardised.” A handwritten blackboard at a restaurant, for instance, is different “because the receiver understands there is an individual behind it, but when it’s the state or an agency, it has the opposite effect”. Ben continued by declaring the signs to be patronising for passing motorists.

A spokesperson for road safety equipment suppliers, Manchester Safety Services, added: “It will be interesting to see if personalised road safety signs become more prevalent following this trial. It remains important though

that the messages remain clear and on-point, offering instant information without distracting motorists.”

The move seems to part of the ‘Wackaging’ trend, involving products with chatty and informal messages on their packaging. Giving products a voice is now a common technique in marketing and packaging – helping to build relationships between stationary objects and consumers.

Whilst this trend may be effective in the smoothie and food markets – it remains to be seen whether it can translate to safety and construction industries. The importance of ensuring that messages are clear and simple-to-follow must be the primary concern of construction crews and road site management – rather than creating an emotional and psychological bond with drivers.

However, by June 2014 there were 24,580 reported killed or seriously injured causalities on UK roads. If signs which create an emotional connection with motorists can help contribute towards a reduced figure over the coming years – we could all be seeing chattier road signs.

COMMENT UKC

Developing your BIM Implementation Plan With demand for BIM compliant projects growing at an increasing rate, it is important to understand where to start and how to go about getting involved in an effective, structured way. In our experience, some companies are going into BIM blind and they simply agree that they can deliver level 2 BIM and sometimes even level 3 on bids when they have no idea what is involved. This is costing real money and business due to their inability to deliver.

Commitment to BIM needs to be fully understood to ensure you are not promising too much and that your entire business is operating collaboratively with a BIM ethos without unnecessary risk. Having successfully worked with numerous companies to implement the move to BIM, we believe there are six key steps to follow in developing your implementation plan.

Step 1. Where do we start?

Before we get started we need to understand all of the key elements that will make up the plan. We need to recognise why we are going through the process, how we achieve our objectives and who will be involved. Here we think about the real business benefits of BIM such as: • Support to complete projects within your specified timeframe • Reducing waste and therefore saving costs • Increased profits.

Step 2. Get to level 2 BIM by 2016

We need to get ahead of the game by planning sooner. The UK Government

has set a deadline that all public projects should be BIM compliant by 2016, and our experience tells us that most companies that implement BIM do so across their whole portfolio.

We can support you with this by:

Step 3. Review your processes

The next step is to review your current processes to ensure that they are appropriate for BIM. We will help you undertake this by: • Reviewing your current processes and identifying what will need to change • Supporting you in adjusting your processes to ensure BIM compliance • Understanding public indemnity, BIM data - who owns it and who’s responsible.

Step 4. Defining what a successful BIM project is

Before we embark on a BIM project, we need to define what a successful BIM project is and we’ll work with you to do this. First we should consider how to measure success and agree objectives. We will ensure these are reviewed going forward and work with you to adjust your BIM strategy as we move through this learning process.

Step 5. Get started!

Don’t jump straight in! It’s important to start with the right projects and we’ll work with you to identify appropriate projects by considering: • Size and complexity of the project • Setting clear objectives and measures of success

• Reviewing the project and using what you’ve learnt to refine your BIM strategy.

Step 6. Professional training

Training: BIM for the business, the department, the user and the client BIM brings diversity to professionals of all disciplines, and sometimes non CAD users who need to check, communicate and collaborate within a project. We can develop your training programme to embrace all levels within the organisation, ensuring everyone on the project is engaged within the BIM workflow effectively.

Our main courses include: • Strategic Planning workshops (see summary on next page) • Autodesk Revit Architecture • Autodesk Revit MEP. • We also provide training courses on: • Autodesk Navisworks - for CAD & non-CAD users • Cloud based applications for review & collaboration • Data management for complete control of document workflow.

This month Quadra are holding a manufacturing event which whilst talking about the ‘the future of making things’ also looks at the impact that BIM process has had on both construction professional and manufacturers. For more information go to www.quadrasol.co.uk/fomt

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UKC COMMENT

Trade Association’s inaugural conference puts range of invasive weeds under the spotlight National trade body the Property Care Association (PCA) is holding a specialised conference, dedicated to the subject of non-native invasive plants.

‘Understanding Invasive Weeds; Japanese Knotweed, Fact and Fiction’ takes place on 23 September at The Vale Resort, Hensol, Cardiff.

It is the first conference held by the PCA’s specialist Invasive Weed Control Group and is being facilitated by Richard Newis, Ashfield Japanese Knotweed (Chair), Ian Graham, Complete Weed Control and Professor Max Wade, AECOM. As well as seeking to promote a level headed and evidence based approach to Japanese knotweed, there will also be a focus on other invasive weeds such as Himalayan balsam and giant hogweed, which are coming increasingly under the radar in the UK following new EU regulations, which came into effect in January.

These regulations will empower government agencies to issue Control Orders that necessitate the removal of high risk invasive weed species from specified sites, potentially including housing construction projects and neighbouring properties.

The conference is of interest to a widerange of professionals, reflecting the impact invasive weeds have across the UK. These include local authorities, statutory agencies, the rail, road and port industries, lawyers, utility companies, estate managers, house builders and developers, landlords, estate agents, housing associations, property agents, academia, surveyors and asset managers.

To register an interest in the event please email sue@property-care.org Stephen Hodgson, Chief Executive of the PCA, said: “The conference will provide an opportunity for delegates to update their work and practices and explore the control of invasive weeds at a landscape scale.

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“For several years now we have taken steps to control Japanese knotweed. It is just a plant and we are taking all steps necessary to ‘normalise’ it, so it is viewed generally as any other type of property problem, in that it can be identified and treated, with minimal impact.

“Increasingly, our focus will now include adopting this approach to other invasive weeds, in line with the requirements of the new EU regulations. This conference will provide an excellent opportunity

to find out more about the subject.”

In 2012, The Property Care Association – which has been in formation for more than 80 years - worked with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) - supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and The Building Societies Association together with Japanese knotweed control companies that currently operate within the UK, to set up the Invasive Weed Control Group, to signpost consumers to professional treatment companies.

www.threeshires.com

enquiries@threeshires.com

The Employment Handbook: Simplifying HR and workplace pensions for the construction industry Employment law, workplace pensions, staffing administration… probably every construction business has been affected by one or more of these issues at some point. Fortunately, there’s now an easier way to address all of them in one. Operating nationally and supporting a huge range of businesses, HR4UK is one of the UK’s leading online integrated HR, employment administration and workplace pension support companies.

What makes our service different is that it combines everything into one paperless system, the Employment Handbook. Not only does this give employers the ability to manage the content of their employment contracts and handbook, but it’s also automatically updated as employment laws change so companies are always fully legally compliant. HR4UK is proud to have partnered with UKCG to make the Employment Handbook service available to its members.

A history of supporting business success Since 1980, we’ve been helping businesses reduce managerial time spent on administrative tasks associated with HR and comply more completely with the requirements of current employment legislation. From our launch to the sale of our software through 22 Chambers of Commerce in the 1990s through to the start of our online system in 2003, we’ve produced more than 250,000 employment contracts and supported thousands of small businesses across the UK and Northern Ireland. We have also provided our HR support solution to Sub-Post Offices for more than 20 years.

Easy access to essential employment documentation Our cloud-based employment contract and handbook system, The Employment Handbook, allows employers to manage staff records using an associated system which also manages

disciplinary and other staff matters online. Company employees can access appropriate HR documents and information via the cloud on their computers, iPads or mobile devices. Being paperless, the system has been proven to reduce HR administration by up to 80%!

Expert HR advice via phone and email Our systems are supported with technical, workplace pension and employment-related advice by phone and email from a team of expert advisors and backed with a £20,000 guarantee to cover the legal costs of handling ACAS settlement agreements and Employment Tribunals.

Straightforward NEST pensions scheme and auto-enrolment set-up We can write an auto-enrolment plan for businesses and support or set up a shell National Savings Employment Trust (NEST) Pension Scheme from scratch. We can also administer the NEST Pension Scheme for companies once they reach their Staging Date to help ensure that they comply with their duties and obligations under the new workplace pension and auto-enrolment legislation. This includes automatically enrolling employees who are eligible jobholders and managing opt-ins and opt-outs. Our system keeps a record of all communications as required by law, to comply with employers’ new duties and obligations under the Workplace Pensions Regulations.

The above services and more are now available to UKCG members.

To find out more, please visit www.hr4uk.com or contact us on 01455 444222 or email info@hr4uk.com.

Building peace of mind The Employment Handbook: the simple solution to HR and workplace pensions administration Flexible, integrated support which lets you get on with growing your business • Cloud-based employment contract and handbook system for easier management and compliance • NEST pensions scheme and auto-enrolment set-up • Workplace pension and employment-related advice by phone and email • Backed with a £20,000 guarantee to cover the legal costs of handling ACAS settlement agreements and Employment Tribunals.

HR4UK is proud to work in partnership with UKCG to offer support to their members.

“MPS is an expanding builders merchants with 4 depots now employing 90 staff. We have used HR4UK.com for over 12 years and are delighted with the accurate advice we receive from their friendly, helpful staff.”

Martyn Smith, Managing Director, M.P.S. Builders Merchants Limited

To find out more Telephone 01455 630700 Email info@hr4uk.com

UKC COMMENT

Put your bank in the spotlight to get a better deal Ben Martin, CEO of bmbal Are you hunting for cost savings but running out of ideas? Every penny counts and you strive to be as profitable as possible. Yet, even with scrutinising cost centres, it’s likely there are sizeable costs the business is incurring unnecessarily.

Did you know that you could be incurring £50,000 of extra costs every year simply by failing to look at one vital area of your business? Actually, in working with a number of businesses I’ve found that the figure usually exceeds £50,000. In fact, the larger the business, the larger the sum of money and year on year that adds up, especially when it’s an issue you can easily address to bring that money back into your business.

Where are you paying unnecessary costs?

So, if construction businesses are incurring unnecessary costs then where is the leak and how can you plug it? The simple answer is that many businesses are overpaying on banking costs. It’s

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not that banks are misleading you, far from it. It’s simply that banking products and services are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach and that products and services that were a good fit at the start of your relationship may not be so appropriate now.

Are you monitoring, annually, that the banking products and services you receive are the right fit for your business? If not then it’s likely you are paying unnecessary banking costs, every year. Of course, not every business in the construction industry is in this position. But, if you’re not measuring your banking relationships, annually, then how do you know?

Start with asking right questions

Banking costs, like any other costs need to be reviewed, questioned and managed.

But, your time is precious and the answers hard to find. If it was easy, you would have already accomplished this. How can you assess if you need to delve into this in more detail? ‘No’ answers to the

following questions will give you an idea of potential gaps that need further detailed analysis and where you should begin to start measuring your banking relationships: ••Do you have an annual benchmarking process in place to check that the products and services you receive from your bank are ‘fit for purpose’?

••You may have ensured that your debt financing margins are competitive, but have you reviewed the spreads on currency hedging?

Or your cash deposit rates?

••If you are making a greater number of international payments then have you reviewed the costs of each payment?

••Are you managing your daily/ weekly liquidity needs efficiently?

••If you are multi banked – do you have a framework that ensures you are taking the optimal mix of products and services from across all banks? Is this formally measured and tracked (or a “gut instinct”)?

Banks provide vital services to the construction industry, be it long term capital financing, short term liquidity facilities and risk hedging lines, together with operational services to ensure daily cash flows are managed and international payments are made. But more often than not, they are just that: providers of a service and not partners.

Put your banks in the spotlight So, what can you do once you have spotted potential issues in your banking relationships? The key is to delve much deeper to fully understand where you can strengthen your banking relationships, making yourself more attractive to banks to reduce overall costs and receive enhanced products and services that transform your operational efficiencies, often at little or no extra cost.

It’s a good idea to seek professional help to dig deep with this analysis – it will save you time, effort and introduce useful insight. You can also start this work yourself. In this case you need to review where you think you are incurring the highest banking charges (interest paid, currency hedging spreads, deposit income lost, banking fees and charges and other operational inefficiencies) and assess how these could be refined in order to become more attractive to your banks. Ask your current banks “why are the costs set at this level and how can we work together to reduce them?” This is not as crazy as it seems and, in my experience, banks welcome this debate.

Modern banking is not a one size fits all approach. Banks don’t want, and are unable, to provide all banking products and services to every UK business. They have a finite appetite and aim to maximise their allocation of capital to where the maximum reward lies, adjusted for the risks they take in generating such income. Banks assess the income they receive from providing banking services to your business against the costs of the capital (equity required by the regulator) to provide these services.

Should construction firms worry what returns their banks are making? Yes, absolutely. Businesses should ask their current banks what banking products and services they want to participate in. You need to understand if your bank’s business model is able to support all or just some of

the banking products your business needs.

There is little to be gained by assuming a bank wants to take cash deposits if it is already over funded. It might be desperate to undertake your FX though and can do this at a very sharp price and high level of service. Equally, an overdraft maintained with a secondary bank, to fund unexpected cost over runs may not, by itself, create a level of profitability to keep them interested. You want the right products and services and you also want to attract and engage with banks that want to do business with you.

With the understanding of what products you are using together with awareness of your banks’ appetites, you can have a meaningful discussion to establish the correct mix of products at the optimal price.

It’s also important to identify, and accept, when a bank would prefer not to provide a product or service. You need to discuss with them if this is specific to your company or the wider construction industry and reach an amicable conclusion.

It’s now that you may want to engage with new banks for these services, but you do so from a position of knowledge and strength – which will come across in your discussions with the new bank.

If you’re not measuring your banking relationships regularly then you could be needlessly incurring higher costs – hitting profitability. Every business needs to have a watchful eye on costs and avoid overpaying. Start measuring your bank, and put them in the spotlight, so you can ensure you get the right products and services from the right mix of banks, incur lower costs and increase benefits due to better aligned banks. After all, you don’t buy cement, steel guiders and fuel from the same provider – so why should this apply to your banking services and providers?

Ben Martin

Ben Martin is the CEO of bmbal, a specialist banking and treasury advisory service to UK business. He has just launched Business Banking Measured - a free, online, banking measurement tool, available at www.bmbal.com, to help business owners and directors identify how to reduce banking costs and improve the effectiveness of the banking services they receive.

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UKC CASE STUDY

Planning approval given for Birmingham’s tallest tower Rockspring Property Investment Managers and Sterling Property Ventures have been given planning permission to build the tallest tower in Birmingham.

Designed by Doone Silver Architects, the £60M project will be located at 103 Colmore Row and will see the demolition the 22-storey NatWest tower, which has been unoccupied for over ten years.

The new building will have 26 storeys consisting of 19 floors of office space, with floorplates of up to 12,000sq ft.

Plans also include a street level winter garden and café along with a restaurant at the top of the building, offering 360 degree views across the city.

Standing at 105.5m high, with the apex standing 246m above sea level, the new tower will be the tallest office building under construction in the UK outside London.

Fronting onto Colmore Row, a new public realm area or Winter Garden will be created including large scale trees, seating and café.

The façade of the building will feature four stepped planes that will create a distinctive skyline profile. The lowest of which is suspended at the fourth floor

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overlooking Colmore Row. The winter garden will occupy the space beneath this, creating a sense of enclosure whilst allowing pedestrian traffic to flow through. This feature also defers to the four-storey cornice line of the historic buildings along Colmore Row. The top floor will house a bar/restaurant with 360 degree views of the city – The Lantern. It will remain lit at night, illuminating the skyline and providing a clear signature for the building.

Level 18 will feature a terrace, for exclusive use of the occupant, while the offices will benefit from large, uninterrupted floorplates and full height glazing, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the office space and provide panoramic views of the city.

A green roof on level 22 will enhance the building’s biodiversity.

Rockspring European Director Eric Linden said: “We have been encouraged by the support for our plans for this landmark development, from the people of Birmingham and potential occupiers, as well as from the City Council and other stakeholders.

“Rockspring is pleased to be playing such a significant role in the improvement

of this prime area of Birmingham, a city we view as a strengthening target for regional investment in the UK and where there is significant demand for quality, modern office space.”

Construction Director at Sterling, Peter Graham, said: “We’re very pleased that Birmingham City Council has acknowledged our unwavering commitment to this project and this great city. It means we can now move this project off the drawing board and on to site, replacing an outdated, inefficient building with a modern, landmark office development that Birmingham can be proud of.”

Demolition contractors H Smith (Engineers) Ltd have been on site since mid July, stripping out the building’s interior.

Scaffolding is now being erected to allow for the floor-by-floor dismantling of the concrete tower, which will take around 12 months. The two-storey former banking hall fronting Colmore Row is scheduled to be removed by November this year.

Work on erecting the new tower is scheduled to begin in summer 2016, creating 500 construction jobs and is due to complete by summer 2018.

CASE STUDY UKC

Offsite Construction can address skills shortages and housing stocks say show organisers Offsite manufacturing techniques (OSM) are the answer to the UK’s increasing problems with low stocks of housing and increasing shortage of skilled labour within the construction industry.

That’s the view of the organisers of inaugural Offsite Construction Show, to be held at London’s ExCel exhibition centre in Docklands on the 15th and 16th of October, 2015.

“The industry has to face up to the fact that despite the undoubted improvements in Health and Safety in the last ten years, construction remains the most hazardous occupation”, says Event Director, Steven Callaghan.”Young people spend their time indoors on a computer and smartphones, so have little or no enthusiasm to work exposed to the elements, in what many perceive to be uncomfortable, dangerous and relatively low paid work”, says Callaghan.

With the industry employing fewer young people than the UK economy as a whole - less than ten per cent are aged between 19 and 24 with one - two per cent aged 16 to 18 and the extraordinary statistic that one in three of the largest construction companies is having to turn down bidding opportunities due to a shortage of skilled labour, something must change.

“An increase in the number of apprenticeships would be helpful”, continues Callaghan, “but to take advantage, the industry must increase it’s appeal to school leavers, so they invest three years on low pay whilst learning their trade. All of the reports I read propose myriad reasons for the problem but seem to shrink away from the key issue - the construction industry has lost it’s appeal to the demographic upon whom it relies as a source of labour”.

This is where OSM can help, argues Callaghan, as building a house in comfortable, safe and controlled conditions where many dangerous aspects of traditional construction such as heavy lifting, slip and trip hazards are eliminates and sophisticated tooling, machinery and jigs can be used, take the process and the perception of it, towards skilled engineering and away from the more common view of it being a primitive process

that just involves swinging a shovel.

“Formula 1 and sports car manufacturers McClaren, based in Woking, Surrey, who employ around 1,000 people on their 500,000sq m site and are currently building a 57,000sq m extension of their main building, are not reporting any problems in recruiting personnel. Their rival F1 team Williams Engineering are also problem free manning their factory in Grove, Oxfordshire, where they employ over 600 people on their F1 operation alone.

“Take a look at the conditions that McClaren employees work in (see attached photo) - how many of them would swap this for a building site in February?” asks Callaghan.

Critics argue that whilst industrial and commercial buildings can benefit from lower costs and shorter build times offered

by OSM, residential sector homes built with OSM are more expensive. “This perception is one reason why The Offsite Construction Show was launched,” Callaghan continues,“visitors will see the progress that has been made in OSM and exactly what can now be achieved on both design and manufacture and the effect on costs as the industry develops.”

“The argument that premium construction

costs of OSM are hard to justify in a market focused on location and price not quality and lifetime performance misses the point. As more houses are built using OSM, economies of scale will kick in plus “invisible” costs that come from eliminating snagging, material and tool theft, insurance and post occupation repairs will start to become more apparent and the OSM built houses will last longer because they are better built, so ultimately they will start to command higher resale prices, which will reflect back onto new build budgets.

“There is no question that a major change in perception of how construction is done will be required but does anyone seriously expect that construction alone will stand still whilst every other industry changes around it?”, concludes Callaghan.

For more information on this press release or on the show, please contact Steven Callaghan on 020 3086 9296 extension 4 or by email on callaghansj@gmail.com

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UKC TRANSPORT

Fluctuating fuel prices aren’t just a fleet-ing matter

By Jenny Powley, Sales Director Corporate Business, RAC Business Fuel prices have been in a state of fluctuation for some time. The start of 2015 saw fuel prices drop as the oil price plummeted and since then prices have slowly started to rise again. More recently, diesel dropped below the price of petrol and continues to remain on average three pence cheaper—a move that is likely to be welcomed by construction firms whether they run a fleet of trucks or operate from a single van. These price

changes have made budgeting for running costs difficult, as a few pence per litre difference can add up to hundreds of pounds a month across a large fleet.

Regardless of the cost of fuel at any given time, businesses can introduce a number of measures which will reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of running their vehicles, no matter the quantity. This can be done through training and helping drivers to become more aware of bad

habits and driving styles, and technology can play a key role in supporting that.

We know already that company vehicle drivers are generally more conscious of fuel use than the private vehicle owner. In fact the RAC’s annual Report on Motoring, found that two thirds (66%) of business vehicle drivers said they monitored the fuel consumption of their vehicle, compared to less than half (44%) of private vehicle owners.

Jenny Powley

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There are a number of reasons for this, such as the fact that in most cases drivers have to reimburse fuel usage for journeys classified as private. This will encourage them to keep costs down by filling up at the lowest cost retailers such as supermarkets. The driver benefits as they have less to reimburse, as well as the business as they are using the cheapest possible fuel, driving down costs.

However by using fuel cards, which are mainly only accepted at supermarkets, fleet managers have much more reliable information about fuel consumption across their group of vehicles. This enables better management of costs and cash flow and also makes it much simpler for the driver as they don’t have to worry about keeping hold of receipts and the administration that goes into differentiating between business and private journeys.

Aside from managing fuel costs at the pump, telematics technology is now increasingly used by construction companies of all sizes, providing firms with real-time information about the location, movements, status and behaviour of a vehicle using a GPS system. Telematics provides a whole range of data that can help with vehicle maintenance, driver management, fuel management, health and safety commitments and dynamic vehicle scheduling.

Often, the mere fact of having the monitoring system in the vehicle has an immediate impact on driver behaviour. The result of this is that drivers tend to take more care, to brake less harshly and drive less quickly, all of which makes them safer drivers and means they use less fuel.

This can be a very effective way of bringing down fuel costs as the RAC Telematics ‘driver score’ function can be used by firms to highlight to their personnel how they are driving. A good score is achieved by efficient and more careful driving and across a fleet that can see savings of up to 15% on annual fuel bills. There are also impressive savings in the region of 25% in wear and tear, as well as fewer accidents and speeding fines, all of which contributes to reducing the cost of running the fleet.

Insurance companies are increasingly recognising the role telematics is playing in reducing the risk factor for business vehicles meaning lower premiums, another vital saving for a small business.

Another feature that telematics offers which could potentially benefit both fleet owners and sole contractors financially is the ability to contest speeding tickets.

In the past speeding cameras have wrongly fined drivers because they’ve confused the registration plates with another vehicle—telematics technology data can prove where the vehicle is at

all times so in cases of mistaken identity the data can prove driver innocence.

Also speed and braking data can prove invaluable when insurance claims are made—which also keeps costs down.

The future of effective and sustainable fleet management lies, in part, in the increased use of technology. But at the most basic level instilling good habits to minimise fuel spend will also help to soften the blow of fuel price rises and efficient driving, leading to reduced carbon emissions.

This will not only help the environment but ultimately lead to reducing overheads and boosting your business’ bottom line.

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UKC TRANSPORT

Britain’s railways now safest in Europe, but regulator highlights priorities for improvement The Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) annual safety report has welcomed the rail industry’s strong track record on improving safety and highlighted the need for it to meet the challenges of growth and change. ORR is supporting the rail industry to take a more proactive approach to managing safety, predicting and preventing problems before they pose a safety risk.

ORR’s latest health and safety report combines the findings of its inspectors, who spend the majority of their time out

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on the rail network a detailed analysis of statistical trends and industry capability.

The report highlights that the trend in harm to passengers is down by a third in the past ten years and Britain’s railways are now regarded as the safest in Europe.

Following a decade of sustained focus on safety management and improvement, 2014 was the eighth consecutive year without any train accident-related passenger fatalities. It was also the second consecutive year with no passenger

train derailments. The rail industry, informed and supported by ORR, has successfully collaborated to reduce the risk of passengers coming to harm when getting on or off a train. However, despite these successes, the latest safety data and evidence from ORR’s inspections show that there is still room for improvement in terms of working more proactively. The industry needs to predict and prevent problems, focus on worker health and integrate safety by design.

ORR’s Director of Railway Safety, Ian Prosser, said: “Great Britain’s railways have a strong track record on improving safety, and after a decade of investment and growth, are now statistically the safest in Europe. While this improvement is to be commended, statistics only tell part of the story, the industry cannot become complacent.

ORR’s inspectors have identified that there is still room for improvement.

“ORR’s evidence highlights the challenges facing the rail industry, in particular, the need to manage growth safely. Our safety inspectors report a mixed picture, with improvements at level crossings, on platform safety and asset management.

However, inspectors are also seeing scope for improvement in safety risk assessments and worker health and safety.

“The regulator is working with the rail industry to help it take a more proactive approach, recognising and managing safety issues before passengers or rail workers come to harm.”

In order to improve its health and safety management, the regulator wants to see the rail industry: • Be more proactive, predicting and preventing problems. ORR’s independent safety assessments have highlighted inconsistencies in safety management across the rail industry. ORR has found evidence of excellence and best practice in places, with improvements in safety at level crossings, and the industry collaborating to reduce harm to passengers when getting on-or-off the train. However, ORR inspectors have also had to step in where serious issues have been found, such as insufficient safety risk assessment, lack of planning for maintenance activities, poor management of electrical working, lifting operations and working at height. Network Rail’s slow start undertaking maintenance and renewals work against its plans, if not prioritised and managed carefully, has the potential to increase infrastructure

safety risks. ORR has challenged Network Rail to identify and take steps to address this and will monitor and take enforcement as necessary.

• Integrate safety by design. The industry must take advantage of opportunities provided by its current multi-billion pound investment programme, to ‘design out’ or reduce safety risks when renewing or building new infrastructure, rolling stock and equipment.

• Ensure worker health is considered as important as worker safety. ORR’s report and analysis shows that there has been a significant improvement in the rail industry’s management of worker health, however there is still more to do. ORR is pushing the rail industry to improve its management of worker health risks, to make better use of data to drive change and take action on key health risks, such as hand arm vibration, musculoskeletal disorders, mental health and exposure to asbestos, silica and diesel fumes.

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UKC TRANSPORT

Shortlist for 2015 Low Carbon Champions Awards reflects Innovation in Green Transport The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) has revealed a diverse shortlist of innovative nominees for the 2015 Low Carbon Champions Awards. The shortlisted organisations and projects reflect the UK’s continued progressive thinking in the area of low carbon transport.

The Awards, now in their fifth year, will be presented at the networking and Awards Dinner at the DoubleTree by Hilton, Milton Keynes in collaboration with Cenex on the evening of Wednesday 9th September 2015 – the first of two days of the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) 2015 event.

Returning by popular demand, the Master

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of Ceremonies will, for the second year running, be the actor and green vehicle enthusiast Robert Llewellyn, best known for his role as ‘Kryten’ in BBC’s Red Dwarf and for presenting Channel 4’s Scrapheap Challenge.

The Awards celebrate outstanding and innovative practice in the UK in accelerating the shift to lower carbon vehicles and fuels and reducing road transport emissions. The LowCVP Low Carbon Champions Awards are one of a select few sustainable development awards schemes to have received accreditation by the Royal Society of the

Arts (RSA), enabling category winners to go forward to the European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE).

The Grand Prix sponsor of the 2015 Low Carbon Champions Awards is again Millbrook, host of the LCV event.

Awards categories and shortlist:

Low Carbon Car / Van Manufacturer of the Year (Sponsor: EDF Energy) Shortlisted: Mitsubishi Motors UK; Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd; Volkswagen UK Low Carbon Heavy Duty Vehicle

Manufacturer of the Year Shortlisted: BYD Europe B.V.; Optare - Electric Vehicles; Leyland Trucks; Scania GB Low Carbon Vehicle Operator of the Year (Sponsor: BAE Systems HybriDrive®) Shortlisted: Dundee City Council; First Bus with City of York; Reading Buses Low Carbon Fuel Initiative of the Year Shortlisted: Convert2Green Ltd; GENeco; Rapid Charge Network project 2015 Award for Low Carbon Innovation by an SME (Sponsor: Advanced Propulsion Centre UK) Shortlisted: Avid Technology Limited; Wirth Research; Dearman Engine Co Ltd; Ashwoods Low Carbon Road Transport Initiative of the Year (Sponsor: The Bosch Group) Shortlisted: Aberdeen City Council; ECO Stars; GENeco 2015 Outstanding Low Carbon Publication or Report Shortlisted: Element Energy; ICCT; UK

Power Networks; Urban Foresight Special awards categories: (No shortlist; winners announced on the night) Outstanding Individual in Promoting Low Carbon Transport ‘Grand Prix’: Outstanding Achievement in Low Carbon Transport (Sponsor: Millbrook) Commenting on this year’s Awards shortlist, LowCVP Managing Director Andy Eastlake said: “The record number of entries, as well as their quality and diversity, again show how the UK’s vibrant low carbon vehicle and fuel sector is leading innovation in clean transport. This year’s winners and shortlisted entrants can be truly proud of their achievements in the face of some tough competition. I look forward to seeing them all at the dinner and to the excitement of the final announcements.”

The LowCVP Champions Awards 2015 will be presented as the central

feature of a networking awards dinner in collaboration with Cenex on the evening of Wednesday 9th September 2015 the first of two days of the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle 2015 event. This year the Awards are to be presented at a bigger and better venue at the DoubleTree

by Hilton Hotel Milton Keynes at the MK Dons Stadium, nearly doubling the event capacity compared to last year.

The LowCVP Champions Awards were established in 2010 and this year’s event is set to be the leading LCV industry social and networking occasion of the year. Cenex LCV2015, which is being held at Millbrook Proving Ground on 9th -10th September, is the UK’s Premier Low Carbon Vehicle Event, attracting UK and international visitors and combining a technology exhibition with broad B2B focus, a Ride & Drive in a test track environment, networking activities and an extensive seminar programme. For more information visit www.cenex-lcv.co.uk/2015

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Free Business Development Support

Are you a Construction SME based in or with an office in Greater London?

Are you CITB registered or want to register?

Do you want to grow your business?

If your answer to all 3 is ‘yes’, you qualify for support that can help you to…

…win more business!

We are providing workshops, workbooks, webinars, online learning and 1-2-1 support in the following key areas: Business planning; Tendering; Marketing; Selling; Managing ; Customer service; Diversifying.

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Workshop

e-Learning

1 to 1 Support

Attend a 1-day highly participative workshop and access our supporting on-line learning.

Choose to learn & test yourself through interactive e-Learning modules at your own pace.

Bespoke support to help with writing tenders, marketing campaigns, sales and policies.

Montpellier provides training and consultancy services specialising in the construction industry, if you would like to discuss this programme or any other requirements you may have, contact us at: 01242 575500 or Montpellier@mic.eu.com

3-4 November

2015 QEII Centre

Westminster, London

Working together for resilient, efficient & healthy buildings

@CIBSE #CIBSEconf

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) is hosting the second Building Performance Conference & Exhibition at the QEII Centre in Westminster on 3-4 November 2015.

• Keep informed about changes to legislation and the most critical issues facing today’s built environment professionals • Learn from the most innovative cost effective solutions delivering building performance • Advance your career - the CIBSE Conference & Exhibition offer delegates and visitors upto 10 hours of CPD over two days • Raise your profilez- meet and network with like-minded, leading industry professionals, clients and suppliers from around the world

Book Now at www.cibse.org/conference

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Security of Building Systems & Networks

Adapting the UK Building Stock to a Changing Climate

Using BIM in Building Operations

Legislation and Building Performance

Lighting, Wellbeing & Comfort in Buildings

Building Performance Evaluation – Learning from the Innovate UK Programme

Reliability Centred Maintenance

Innovation & Collaboration in Building Performance

Drinks Reception – Building Performance Awards 2016 Shortlist Announced

Conference Summary and Networking

For more information please contact the event organisers on: +44 (0)1892 518877 or email: conference@cibse.org

Supporting Partners:

Principal Media Partners:

ICOM

Energy Association

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