Building Britain 2020

Autumn 2020 | irishpost.com

Britain FUTURE VISION

Exciting projects ahead as industry recovers

SAFETY FIRST Firms adapt to deliver

WINNERS AND LOSERS Contracts that survived the pandemic

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Brighter horizons as Britain rebuilds What’s inside...

COVID-19: HOW THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY WEATHERED THE CRISIS pages 4-6 SAFETY FIRST, ADAPTING TO THE NEW WORKING WORLD pages 10, 12-13 LOCKDOWN - WINNERS AND LOSERS pages 20-22 BREXIT, DEAL OR NO DEAL pages 26-28 INDUSTRY LEADERS, AWARD-WINNING TOUREEN GROUP page 30 FACING THE FUTURE - EXCITING PROJECTS AHEAD pages 32-34

NO-ONE could have predicted the year we have had.

As we stepped our toes into a chilly January and got back into our suits or onto our worksites after a festive Christmas break, we were not to know what lay ahead.

We could not have known that in just two short months we would find the toes of the nation positioned permanently indoors.

Nor that those sites would be closed, and those suits would hang lifeless in our wardrobes for an unimaginable amount of time.

But March arrived and, with soaring rates of Covid-19 devastating the country and waging war on our National Health Service, we found ourselves in lockdown.

It was an unprecedented situation and a virus which has sadly touched the lives of far too many.

And so we stopped.

Everything stopped. For a time.

But slowly, the world started

to open up again – albeit with masks, hand gel and social distancing in place.

It started to poke it’s toe out of the door once more.

For some sectors the coronavirus pandemic has been catastrophic – leisure, entertainment and pubs and restaurants couldn’t have faced a more devastating opponent and continue to do so.

The construction sector has fared much better, relatively speaking.

Quickly deemed a key industry – many projects have continued throughout the health crisis.

That said, there have been casualties. Jobs lost and contracts put off indefinitely.

The construction industry was behind only retail, accommodation, and manufacturing in the scale of furlough cash it claimed, totalling £3.2 billion at the end of July, according to HMRC data.

But then July and August

began to see a building bounce back.

And suddenly, with health and safety practices updated, Covid secure workplaces are the new norm and Britain is regrouping and rebuilding as it cautiously makes moves to overcome the impacts of the crisis.

There is still some way to go before the coronavirus is truly behind us, but there is certainly a brighter future ahead.

And from an extension at Great Ormond Street, to the data centres underpinning an exciting new 5G economy, to the future of London’s central shopping district, Irish building firms – just as they have for many years – are among the first to be called when it comes to building it.

FIONA AUDLEY Managing Editor

OUT OF OFFICE WITH MICHAEL KILCOYNE (KILHAN CONSTRUCTION) page 42

Editor: Fiona Audley Reporting: Pádraig Belton Photography: Getty Images, Rolling News Production: Joe Lindley Commercial: Marita Quigley Building Britain 2020 Printed by Warners Midlands Plc Published by The Irish Post, 88 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BY Visit us online: irishpost.com Find us /TheIrishPost Follow us @TheIrishPost #buildingbritain Connect with us The Irish Post

LOOKING AHEAD: Construction projects continue, despite the pandemic

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A recovery less V-shaped, more R-shaped PÁDRAIG BELTON

How the construction industry is weathering Covid-19 in Britain and Ireland IF you’re in construction, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

In April and May, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the hammers and drills fell still at sites across the UK and Ireland.

The construction industry was behind only retail, accommodation, and manufacturing in the scale of furlough cash it claimed: £3.2 billion at the end of July, according to HMRC data.

But then, July and August began to see a building bounce back.

And September too, according to the IHS Markit and CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index.

Construction output increased 17 per cent in July in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics.

But then only three per cent in August, which Gareth Belsham at Naismiths property consultancy has described as a

recovery ‘less V-shaped and more R-shaped’.

R, of course, is the number of people one person infected with a disease will pass the disease on to, on average.

And there lies the big question: will construction remain able to crack on down this path of recovery?

Or will winter lockdowns and second peaks turn the building sites silent again?

The total value of UK construction work done in

August was £12.46 billion.

A tiny bit below the £14.32 billion in August 2019, and below most projections, but still worlds ahead of the £7.76 billion done in April.

Home building is making up the greatest demand.

Residential projects are making up 48 per cent of building contractors’ books right now, with pent-up demand carried over from the lockdown months finally getting a look in.

Public sector projects, such

Building Britain 2020

as roadworks and schools, make up a smaller chunk at 30 per cent.

“Construction workers can go to building sites” if there is a second lockdown, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in late September.

But there are big question marks hovering over how increased working from home

will affect the biggest commercial projects - ones requiring risky, upfront investment but where the payments are in the long term.

It’s all on the house.

But for now, houses are where it’s at.

‘Build, build, build,’ said the Prime Minister on June 30, announcing reforms to the

planning system.

Then soon after, in early July, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced a temporary holiday on stamp duty on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland until March 2021.

Before, home buyers paid stamp duty on the value of their houses over £125,000.

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First-time buyers didn’t pay any stamp duty for the first £300,000.

Some critics cautioned a temporary stamp duty holiday could froth up a bubble, with slim opportunity for home builders to make strategic decisions beyond next March.

Stamp duty makes up two per cent of the UK Treasury’s

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM: Construction projects have returned to Dublin, albeit with caution

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tax take, and it’s been estimated the holiday will cost the exchequer around £3.8 billion.

About half of builders - 46 per cent, in a survey of UK construction companies by the on-demand construction hiring app Skrap - said they were benefiting from the two government announcements, and expected them to lead to more contracts in the coming months.

Brexit is a brake on house building, UK constructions firms also think. Investors are wary of how a hard Brexit after the end of the transition period could affect the economy, and therefore house valuations.

More to the point, up to a quarter of the UK construction workforce is made up of non-UK nationals.

So building firms’ greatest concern ahead of the end of the transition period, centres on the availability of people to swing the hammers.

Drilling down, harder times for building in Ireland.

If the UK building sector is cautiously optimistic about coming months and the effects of government policy, Ireland’s is more worried.

In the first lockdown, “ambiguity” in policy saw Ireland’s construction industry have to cease operations, because of safety, contractual,

and logistical problems, the Dublin-based Construction Industry Federation said on October 5.

So the Federation is calling on the Irish government to make clear any move to higher lockdown levels - levels four or five - should be accompanied by a clear indication construction activities can continue “where it is safe to do so”.

Ireland’s building recovery has also been more skittish than Britain’s, with August in negative territory compared to Ireland’s slimmer gains.

Ulster Bank’s Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 44.0 in August, down

from 53.2 in July.

Here, too, it was commercial construction hit hardest, while residential construction bore up best. And housing commencements data, a leading indicator, suggests residential output will rise in the months ahead.

In both Britain and Ireland, though, the cautious optimism about the next few months makes for a refreshing change for the construction industry from the months where the building sites fell silent.

And sunny signs for house building in both countries suggests construction’s tentative recovery will be safe as houses.

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POWERING ON: Workers are back on the tools at sites across Britain following months of silence

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Adapt and deliver PÁDRAIG BELTON reports on how the construction sector kept up with new coronavirus health and safety guidelines DIAGEO was left blue-labelled in the face in September, when six builders working on the Johnny Walker visitors’ centre in Edinburgh were caught on camera chatting close together without masks.

In the words of the whisk(e)y maker’s longtime slogan, they should have observed social distancing, and kept walking.

Diageo owns Guinness, and was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness with the UK hotels and pubs conglomerate Grand Metropolitan.

Construction life in a coronavirus age brings many new health and social distancing measures across Britain and Ireland.

Facemasks aren’t required across the board. (Social distancing, though, is.)

But some industry and workers bodies think they should be.

In Ireland, one of the main construction sector trade unions, Connect, has called for facemasks to be made mandatory on building sites to

protect workers and their families.

The UK relaxed its acrossthe-board two metre social distancing rules in June, in an attempt to spur the rebound of building activity by homeowners and on smaller sites.

Coronavirus protocols had been hitting the productivity of smaller operations more than larger ones.

In the UK, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) issued guidelines in late

September ‘to attempt to provide a consistent approach across the industry’.

A patchwork of statements by officials and politicians had been leaving many operators confused about the safety rules they should be implementing.

Construction workers should wear face coverings on site whenever they are in enclosed spaces, can’t socially distance, and are coming into contact with people they do not normally meet, the CLC’s guidelines say.

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It said there should be exceptions for when workers are seated in canteens to eat or drink.

And, also for whenever they are required to wear respiratory protective equipment - a form of personal protective equipment that’s used to protect against inhaling hazardous substances in the workplace air.

And construction workers should also stay two metres apart from each other, or when they cannot, one metre away with extra risk mitigation, said the CLC. In both countries, enforcing the guidelines, whether they come from government or professional bodies, ultimately

is for construction companies to understand and implement on their own.

Ireland has just 67 active Health and Safety Authority inspectors in the country, for instance.

Tech keeping us apart

Keeping workers from getting too close together on a building site has spurred tech innovation, for one.

Worcestershire inventor Tommy Williams loves surfing and created a location tracker to keep surfers from getting lost at sea.

With help from a business accelerator, he then turned this concept into a proximity sensor

for the construction trade, called Plinx, to warn users of hazards in dangerous work environments.

He says he never expected fellow workers would be in such danger, but 2020 has been full of surprises.

The device fits construction workers’ helmets and uses Bluetooth, GPS, and wireless connections to transmit data to a local hub. The data can then be displayed on a map, showing the construction site layout, and what needs improving.

Nearly all building sites have started taking workers’ temperatures at the start of a shift.

But what should you do with that information?

It’s not like you can just dump it in an Excel spreadsheet. You’re not the government.

In the US, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur named David Ward built an app in June, called SafeSite Check In, without a central office and with all his teammates working remotely.

When entering a building site, an employee or visitor points their smartphone at a QR code and answers a series of health-related questions.

They’re given or refused entry and given a daily digital entry badge.

If someone then gets sick, the app helps with contact tracing at the workplace.

SAFETY FIRST: New Covid secure rules, such as wearing face masks and temperature checks, are in place on sites across Britain and Ireland

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What will stick, in 2021 and beyond?

Drones, robots, and online collaboration tools have all already been around.

But coronavirus has meant construction firms adopting them faster than they otherwise might have done.

With limits on numbers of workers allowed on a site, drone photography gives companies ways to handle building inspections, subcontractor estimates, sales demonstrations, and monitor progress.

Drones can cut the cost of progress monitoring by 11.8 per cent, and the time to compile a snag list by 32 per cent, says one drone provider, Falcon Eye Drones.

And in construction, like the rest of the economy, meetings are increasingly virtual.

So as 5G networks grow more accessible in the coming year, it will be easier to build in augmented reality (AR) technology—letting one team member share their view of a site, while others can mark up areas of concern with pushpins, texts, and markers.

Florida building tech company Imajion released its AR collaboration software, called ProjectxR, in 2019, and says now ‘the pandemic has rushed the construction industry into the remote work revolution.’

As the world and building industry eventually move past coronavirus, we may see many health guidelines relax, while some of the new technology remains.

Facemasks and temperature checks may just be with us for a year.

But a drone is forever.

BIRD’S EYE VIEW: Drone footage showing construction sites in action across Britain

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BEYOND THE PANDEMIC, THE FUTURE IS GREEN (AND BLUE) LUKE NEWCOMBE, Market Executive at Enterprise Ireland, surveys the effects of the global health crisis on the construction sector and the post-Covid future ahead

THE known impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry are already numerous and far reaching.

As the country moved into lockdown in March, projects were halted, and manufacturers shut their doors.

It was a starkly different picture to the previous year when the industry was riding high with Ireland’s contribution becoming increasingly evident.

In 2019, Enterprise Ireland’s construction clients posted a record year for trade, exporting a total of €1.9 billion of products and services to the UK. As we emerged from lockdown, the expectation of a sharp V-shaped recovery became increasingly diluted and we resigned ourselves to a ‘new world’: A world where we best mitigate the health and livelihood impacts of such a rapidly evolving environment and look for opportunities that can be sustained beyond the short term.

Furthermore, the end of the Brexit transition period still looms large, creating a cloud of uncertainty around the future of Britain’s trade relationship with Europe and the further softening of demand.

Prior to the pandemic, the economic and political priorities in the economy were shifting.

Just last year the UK government pledged to become a carbon neutral economy by the year 2050, the first major economy to declare a climate emergency.

On top of this, digital infrastructure was also taking centre stage with vast public and private funding and

financing for National Gigabit Broadband and 5G connectivity.

The pandemic has only accelerated the necessity and importance of these ambitions and as we look to the future it is becoming clear that the recovery and the landscape beyond will look much different to what came before.

Last month Enterprise Ireland’s London office held a webinar providing global market insights for the construction sector.

At this event, Professor Roger Flanagan, of the University of Reading, said that while the pandemic is a huge issue for the industry, it is masking the even bigger challenge of climate change.

The world has become unpredictable, and while we are currently enveloped in the global health emergency, the climate emergency remains critical.

Extreme weather events as a result of global warming are becoming increasingly common and already have a major effect on all sectors of the economy.

Efforts to deal with the crisis have ramped up, especially in the construction sector.

Building and construction are responsible for 39 per cent of all carbon emissions and are at the epicenter of the low carbon journey.

While the path to zero carbon won’t be straightforward for the industry, it is absolutely crucial.

During the pandemic, emissions have fallen for obvious reasons and while it won’t be this way forever, it is clear that whatever recovery comes after this pandemic must be built on the foundations of a green recovery.

Willingness within the sector to adapt to these new challenges is already evident, as major UK and Irish companies like Kingspan and Mace have committed to reaching net zero carbon within the next 15 years.

Nonetheless, the road to net zero is not just a concern for the larger companies; it requires collaboration across the supply

chain at every level as companies try to deal with their scope 2 and 3 emissions, as well as their own direct emissions.

While this task is initially daunting for all players, with leadership it can be achieved with further adoption of innovation and collaboration across the industry.

Enterprise Ireland clients have been leading the way in this change with companies achieving national and international recognition.

Organisations like Hanley Energy and Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions have been providing an integrated approach to reducing businesses energy consumption, carbon footprint and increasing root and branch sustainability.

We’ve no doubt innovative and collaborative solutions such as these will become a key part of the post pandemic recovery as we move towards a greener future.

From green to blue and the shift in user adoption and acceptance of digital technology at home and in the workplace since the first lockdown, period is another indicator of what the future will look like. Richard Joyce, Managing Director of Linesight’s European Offices, expects digital progress over the next decade will happen in just five years and that is especially true when it comes to the digitialisation of construction.

Bar coding systems, increased use of drones and virtual meetings and mockups are just some examples of technological solutions that have led to increased efficiency during these difficult times.

Enterprise Ireland clients have been key in delivering many of these digital solutions.

For example, GoContractor have developed a software which automates site worker induction, safety

training and compliance while FlowForma have created an ‘Office 365’ business process automation tool which enables business users and heads of departments to quickly implement site information sharing processes.

While comparatively, the construction industry has been traditionally slower to adopt digital tools and processes, the pandemic has in many cases cleared the barriers to deeper adoption. …and finally, no vision of a post Covid future in construction would be complete without acknowledging the significant contribution Offsite Manufacturing or Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has to offer.

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We have over 200 new and nearly new machines, presenting an effective and quick alternative to scaffolding by reducing installation and dismantling time substantially.

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PHD routinely think out-of-the-box and encourage improvement from all areas of the business. One of our proudest ground-breaking ideas came from a contracts manager who developed a bespoke scaffolding tie aimed at resolving the most common issues reported with typical ties.

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Throughout the year, we have successfully attained the HSE’s Ancillary Asbestos Licence, ConstructSecure’s Platinum Safety Award, implemented FieldView on our sites as part of our ‘paperless strategy’, and installed LED lighting and electrical car charging points at Head Office.

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Getting in the builders: lockdown winners and losers PÁDRAIG BELTON LIKE many Irish builders, Sisk had a good year of it, in 2019.

The gargantuan Irish construction firm, with operations in the UK, Continental Europe, and the Middle East, saw its UK turnover that year increase almost £100 million to £417.9 million, from £323.2 million the year before.

Rendering of Sisk’s 42-storey residential block in Birmingham - CGI by Glenn Howells Architects

The 2019 accounts, released in August 2020, also showed John Sisk & Son had a £5 million pre-tax profit, a big jump up from £3.19 million in 2018.

Fast forward to June 2020.

Sisk said 50 to 60 of its UK staff were in danger of redundancy because of coronavirus.

One of the main issues affecting the construction industry after its return to work is the impact on productivity of the two-metre social distancing rule, Sisk’s chief executive Steve Bowcott said recently on an online panel.

“Some of the trades are really suffering because of the two metres, so that’s something we are working on to see can we make it better,” says Mr Bowcott.

Ground-breaking ceremony at Sisk’s 42-storey tower in Birmingham’s Broad Street

A glimmer of rare good news for his firm, then, came in July when Sisk and the UK firm Osborne were chosen to build a new Santander technology hub campus for 6,000 employees in Milton Keynes, a 30-month project which was to start immediately.

Aerial view of Milton Keynes, where Sisk will build a new technology hub campus for 6,000 Santander employees

In August, it started work on a £22 million radiotherapy centre in Swindon for Oxford University Hospitals, a project that will take until winter 2021.

In October, Sisk was taking Birmingham’s tallest residential tower block, the 42-storey Mercian Tower in Broad Street,

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Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station to its final fitting out stages.

Some revenues will be deferred into 2021, but not lost, the company stresses. The worst-case scenario, it has said, is a 33 per cent drop in its revenues in 2020, but it had secured funding for most of the projects underpinning its expected 2020 earnings.

Another giant Irish firm, JJ Rhatigan, managed to top out the first phase of Lu2on on 24th July, 785 apartments for young families designed to be 22 minutes from London’s King’s Cross St Pancras. It held a ceremony with Luton South MP Rachel Hopkins and its regional director Tom Neylon.

Laing O’Rourke, whose founder and chief executive is Leitrim-born Ray O’Rourke, is hard at work building Hinkley Point C, the UK’s first new nuclear power station in a generation.

One of the largest and most complex projects in Europe, it is valued at £19.6 billion, and a

joint venture with France’s Bouygues Travaux Publics.

It is Europe’s biggest building site.

But EDF Energy warned, when it presented its July earnings, that coronavirus meant the risk of missing its opening deadline was ‘high’.

And when Somerset saw its

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number of cases jump at the start of October, those who had to be on the site began meeting digitally instead of face-to-face, says Nigel Cann, Hinkley Point C’s construction delivery director.

Wearing masks became mandatory in more situations, he says.

O’Rourke is also the main contractor on The Grange University Hospital - Ysbyty Prifysgol y Faenor.

Work on the 560-bed hospital in Cwmbran began during the summer of 2017, after being given the go ahead

by Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gethin.

Despite Covid-related restrictions this year, the hospital is near completion and expected to take its first patients in November 2020.

And a project that hasn’t quite got off the runway, because of Coronavirus, was a

new Rapid Exit Taxiway which PJ Hegarty and Sons had won the nod to build from Gatwick Airport in January.

Patrick Joseph Hegarty founded the company in 1925 in Cork. They opened a UK office in 2011.

The works, part of the £180 million expansion of Gatwick’s Pier 6, were aimed at improving the railway’s resilience and chances of operating on time.

But the programme will now be mothballed with a view to restarting again in 2022, as coronavirus keeps passenger levels down.

“Following the impact of Covid-19, the group has reviewed its Capital Investment Programme and plans to publish an updated version later in the year,” says the airport.

“Over half of the projects already in delivery have been stopped, with only

The Grange University Hospital, Ysbyty Prifysgol y Faenor

operationally critical projects continuing or those that are near to completion,” it adds.

The UK Construction Products Association notes in its summer report that returns to construction sites from mid-May were largely to complete existing projects and satisfy pent-up demand for refurbishments that couldn’t take place during the lockdown period.

Gatwick Airport, West Sussex

An aerial view of the Hinckley Point C building site – a project led by Irish firm Laing O’Rourke

But uncertainty still lingers around how coronavirus and the bite of Brexit will affect longer-term demand and future new order books.

So the UK coronavirus construction outlook is something of a curate’s egg, partly good and partly bad.

But there are enough glimmers in the mix to keep Irish firms hoping.

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Since its establishment in 2009, The London Irish Construction Network has steadily grown its membership base to over 200 member companies, covering every aspect of the construction industry.

The network prides itself on its ability to bring member companies together, creating opportunities for them to develop and grow their businesses.

We look forward to resuming our events in 2021 once government guidelines permit.

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When time is of the essence, there can only be one.

195 Years of Building Britain

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The Great British Break-Off What a no deal Brexit means for the construction Industry PÁDRAIG BELTON IF the UK leaves the EU with no trade deal, the introduction of tariffs and non-tariffc barriers will make construction material and labour harder and more expensive to obtain.

UK ministers including Michael Gove have said Britain was moving towards an ‘Australianstyle’ relationship with the EU. Australia does not have a free trade agreement with the EU, though it is seeking one.

So, it could as well be called Mozambique or Mars terms.

All this will be bad news for an industry that makes up six per cent of UK GDP, and 6.6 per cent of jobs.

Fishing, dear to the heart of Brexiteers, makes up 0.1

percent of GDP. The UK has 10,000 fishermen. But 2.4 million construction industry jobs.

Of building materials imported into the UK, 62 per cent come from Europe, according to the UK government’s own Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

For some materials, this is an especially big problem.

Timber is 92 per cent imported, says the Construction Products Association.

The EU is also the UK’s largest export market for construction materials, buying 60 per cent of exports.

Together with tariffs

pushing prices of these materials up, severe delays at the border will slow projects down.

Meanwhile, workloads might decrease as confidence in the economy takes a wobble, and projects get put on the long finger.

Travis Perkins, the UK’s largest builders’ merchant, cut 2,500 jobs and closed 165 stores over the summer, saying though demand from DIY shoppers was strong, its forecast for construction materials was less sunny.

So, it’s a sunny prospect if you happen to be at work

Fishermen like Brian Cunningham, pictured here on board his boat The Bluefin in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland, wait for word of what the future holds for their livelihoods post Brexit

building lorry parks in Kent.

Otherwise, you might want to be thinking about alternative sourcing opportunities in the rest of the world and the domestic UK market.

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Hard hats to fill

There is also the question of people to swing the hammers.

Of the UK’s construction workforce, 15 per cent come from overseas. Of those, 51 per cent are from the EU. The government has released an Immigration White Paper outlining a twelve-month temporary scheme to allow EU nationals to come to the UK to work for a year.

But while this may be of use to the farming sector, it is somewhat less useful for longer-term construction projects where employers could not retain and develop valued members of staff, and would need to recruit again in the middle of lengthy building and infrastructure projects.

Tier 2 Work Visas have a minimum salary requirement of £30,000, with migrants having to pass an English language test and provide evidence they have savings.

If construction firms can access alternative labour supplies, they’d want to do so.

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Taoiseach tells Irish construction, this is not a drill

In Ireland, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has been telling the construction industry they’ll need to nail the challenges from Brexit.

The end of the transition period will bring ‘substantial challenges and change for supply chains and trade flows with new checks and controls required to trade with and through Great Britain’, Mr Martin told the annual conference of the Construction

The EU is the UK’s largest export market for building materials

Holyhead Port in Wales offers a vital transport link to Ireland

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Industry Federation, meeting online in October.

Ireland is in the very odd position where shortages of new houses have sent rents soaring in much of the nation, but the building industry still struggles to come near meeting the vast demand.

The pace of residential activity growth slowed to a four-and-a-half-year low in September, said Ulster Bank.

House building especially lags outside the greater Dublin area.

And Brexit was the key factor dashing sentiment about the Irish construction sector’s prospects for 2021, said Simon Barry, Ulster Bank’s chief Irish economist.

Government housing construction targets also will require 80,000 to 100,000 construction industry workers, for which there is a shortfall of between 60,000 and 80,000, says Ibec, a large business lobbying group.

Dublin Port has invested €30 million in building new customs posts and related facilities and devoted 10 hectares of land.

The other side of the Irish Sea hasn’t quite seen equivalent investment.

Also, both Holyhead and Pembroke face challenges of cramped space, and little room for new customs infrastructure.

So as both Britain and Ireland approach the Great British Break-Off, there will be immense challenges for construction companies on both sides.

And if you’re a building business facing puzzles to solve in materials and labour, you don’t want to be unprepared.

Oyster farmer at Culmore Point on Lough Foyle, at the border between Derry in Northern Ireland and Donegal in the Republic of Ireland

The port of Larne in Northern Ireland will need extra checks and infrastructure following Brexit

There is a shortage of houses in Ireland, with building now at a four-year low

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THROUGH TEAMWORK WE ACHIEVE THE EXTRAORDINARY

KNOWLEDGE IS VALUABLE. EXPERIENCE IS PRICELESS. The Danny Sullivan Group provides a wide spectrum of trades and labour to the UK construction and civil engineering industry

| enquiries@dannysullivan.co.uk | www.dannysullivan.co.uk | 0208 961 1900

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TOUREEN GROUP – Leading the construction sector for nearly 30 years FIONA AUDLEY THE Toureen Group was founded over 25 years ago by Denis Nolan.

At the time, the industry was in a recession, and construction projects that were going to see it through needed to be economically viable.

That made Toureen’s business plan - to develop a company highly competent in a range of specialist construction services – particularly attractive, and the company quickly got to work scooping up contracts and providing the multi-faceted packages required to deliver them on time and in budget.

Now, more than a quarter of a century later, the Toureen Group is still a leader in its sector.

Just over a year ago, Mr Nolan handed over the Managing Director reins to Ciaran McClearn, while assuming the role of Chairman.

Last November the firm was awarded the Irish Post Building Britain Award 2019, honouring its success within and impact on its sector.

We spoke to Managing Director Ciaran McClearn about Toureen’s year to date, and the challenges ahead.

How has your first year in the role of Managing Director been?

It was no doubt a baptism of fire with the events of 2020. I took over as Managing Director from Denis Nolan in August 2019. Denis assumed the role of Chairman and the business was in good shape and the outlook was relatively positive.

Within a short few months coronavirus took over all of our lives and as with all businesses we had a challenging few months to navigate through the uncertainty it provided. Luckily the business and the industry is relatively well insulated in comparison to others but nevertheless it has been a challenging year.

WINNERS: The Toureen Group team collect their Irish Post Building Britain Award 2019 What would you say are the core values of your company?

Looking after our projects, our people and the wider community.

Can you share some of the major projects Toureen is currently involved with?

We are almost complete at the Old War Office which has been the largest contract the company has ever been involved with and lasted over three years. Our newest addition to the group, BoShers has recently secured its first large residential development and we are looking at a number of large complex projects including the Museum of London.

What do you think is the key to the company’s ongoing success?

The company has a number of divisions which have adapted and changed over the years.

Remaining agile and diverse will be key for us going forward. The economic landscape may be very different after the fallout from coronavirus and so the company will need to position itself accordingly to ensure its ongoing success.

You dedicated your Irish Post Building Britain Award to your employees, past and present, how important is the Toureen team to its success as a

company?

There is no doubt that if it wasn’t for the employees we have today and have had over the years, the company would not be what it is. For our particular industry, having the right people is crucial to success and we are lucky to have (and had) some of the most talented individuals I have encountered.

2020 has been an unprecedented year for us all, how has the company fared and what are the main challenges presented by the pandemic?

The company has so far fared relatively well. We have a mix of projects and clients and a number of our projects stayed open throughout the lockdown. Our SHEQ team have worked very hard to ensure that sites and offices are safe environments for our workforce.

With the recent rise in cases, we anticipate further restrictions, however it’s unlikely the construction industry will be closed. So we remain focused on carrying out our works in a safe manner and supporting our staff as this is a challenging period for all. Longer term, the economic landscape will no doubt be different with some companies which were viable and profitable no longer, so and as a result we will keep a close eye on our financial risks.

What is the outlook for the company in the months ahead?

Our order book is stable, and we do not expect any major interruptions to business at present. However, with coronavirus cases increasing and Brexit approaching, it is difficult to assess the longer term impact. With the Government’s infrastructure spending and commitment to building housing, we are cautiously optimistic that the medium-term outlook will be stable.

What major changes can you see happening in your sector in the years ahead, and how will Toureen respond?

Technology and environmental will be significant areas of change in the years ahead.

The company has a modern fleet of plant and machinery which it will continue to invest in to ensure we can deliver our projects as efficiently as possible. Technology has been a disrupter in many markets and there will be innovations and new ways of working brought about by how we utilise technology.

And finally, looking back at the history of the company to date, is there any one highlight that stands out for you?

I’ve been with the company for almost 10 years now and have many highlights over the years. I would say the one that stands out the most is the Old War Office project. It was almost four times the size of any project we had ever carried out and the sheer size and complexity of the project in addition to the challenges of delivering a project in Whitehall is a testament to our employees and what they can do. Denis was heavily involved in the project and I know it is the highlight of his career and it is of mine.

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Cara Furniture a new addition to the Cara Group Cara Stationery has been in business for almost 25 years mainly supplying office products, printing and promotional products to clients in the construction sector. Cara has also been supplying office furniture since its inception and in recent years has installed complete office fit outs within the M25. In 2019, Cara Furniture Services Ltd was created to capitalise on the increasing recognition the firm was achieving for its high-quality design and installation work.

A major government contract was secured in January 2020 and work on this is at an advanced stage despite Covid 19. Completion of this project takes place in March 2021. ‘ Despite the increased work in the fit-out sector we can still

supply individual office chairs, desks and storage solutions to organisations’, explains Director Gerry Keany.

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FUTURE VISION Brighter days certainly lie ahead PÁDRAIG BELTON rounds up the most exciting construction projects planned for 2021

A LONG 2020 and there’s reason to believe maybe next year will be better than its last.

The Irish construction firm Sisk, for example, will be doing the lion’s share of expanding Great Ormond Street, London’s famous children’s hospital.

As well as housing a 16,000 square metre children’s cancer centre, the expansion will act as the hospital’s new front door.

Guy Fowler, managing director of Sisk’s major projects in the UK, says his

team has been visiting ‘benchmark hospitals’ in Europe to influence the design.

It is the £200 million fourth phase in Great Ormond’s Street expansion, with Sisk pipping Skanska to the post, despite the Swedish multinational being the early favourite. Sisk teamed up with Manchester-based architects BDP (or Building Design Partnership).

As well as 100 beds, the project will include an activity centre, a new school, a roof garden, and radiology suites,

outpatient rooms, and office space. It’s expected to be finished in May 2022.

The new building’s also

meant to provide a less clinical, more welcoming façade to those entering the building.

Representatives of Sisk and Dublin City Council break ground on the first of six social housing sites in and around Dublin

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Forecast: Clouds

Meanwhile, Cork-based Mercury Engineering was selected as the construction partner in a new, €2.2 billion project to build ‘hyperscale’ data centres across Europe.

The US private equity giant KKR (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) has invested $1 billion in this new project, which will be called Global Technical Realty.

Their hope is to take on the biggest players in a quickly growing data centre scene.

Mercury announced in September they will be adding a new business unit in 2021, focused on international data centre projects.

And one of the first projects will be in West London, at a site where three sections of the package plant room were lifted and put into place in July.

So were seven 2 megawatt transformers weighing 6.6 tonnes each, and four chillers weighing 8.5 tonne apiece.

The largest section of the plant room weighed 27 tonnes.

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Window shopping on Oxford Street

If the data centres housing the cloud are intangible, Oxford Street is the other extreme, Britain’s high street to top all high streets.

There, J Murphy & Sons will be getting stuck into a fiveyear contract with Westminster City Council to redesign the central shopping district with two new piazzas at Oxford Circus.

The company, founded by Kerry-born John Murphy, works on building sites in Britain and Ireland, with its trademark green vans and lorries.

This contract for the Oxford Street revamp, which is in a joint venture with Careys Civil Engineering, was valued at £235 million.

The grand plan for Oxford Street, even before Coronavirus hit, was to build more houses, nearly 500 of them in nine developments.

The Internet is eating the bricks-and-mortar shop’s

Cork-based Mercury Engineering are the construction partners for a €2bn project to build data centres across Europe lunch, but meanwhile upmarket residential areas are spreading into Oxford Street from Mayfair and Marylebone.

John Lewis applied for planning permission in September to convert to office space up to three floors of its Oxford Street store, where it

has traded since 1864.

And back in October 2019, before Coronavirus, House of Fraser announced it was going to part-convert its flagship shop at 318 Oxford Street, purpose built in 1937, into office space, a gym, and a restaurant.

Sisk are doing the lion’s share of the ongoing Great Ormind Street expansion

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Busses will be rerouted around the Oxford Circus area down either side of Regent Street, and the speed limit will go down to 20 mph from the present 30 mph.

There had been an initial proposal to pedestrianise Oxford Street altogether, but the existing residents objected fairly loudly.

Westminster City Council expects more people to visit Oxford Street after the Elizabeth Line Crossrail opens, stretching from Reading and Heathrow in the West to Shenfield in Essex to the East.

In July, the Crossrail board said the central section from Paddington to Abbey Wood could open in the first half of 2022. (They also asked the government for £1.1 billion in extra funding.)

‘Train Daddy’ Andy Byford, commissioner of Transport for London and before that head of New York’s subway network, was preparing to assume control of the Crossrail Elizabeth Line. Making him, perhaps, Cross Daddy.

The concept drawings of the Oxford Street redevelopment, at any rate, look more than a little bit like Grafton Street.

Though that might be purely coincidental.

Eventually, and even if it might currently sound too much to hope for, 2020 will end.

And from Great Ormond Street, to the data centres underpinning an exciting new 5G economy, to the future of London’s central shopping district, Irish building firms— just as they have for many years—will be busy at work building it all.

ROYAL VISIT: Plans to expand Great Ormond Street Hospital continue

ON TRACK: Crossrail extension has the green light – from the very top

SHOPPING CENTRE: An ambitious plan to redevelop Oxford Street will cost £235million

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Powering through the pandemic How our clients have weathered the Covid-19 crisis When the Irish Post asked me to take stock of how Invennt confronted the coronavirus pandemic, I cast my mind back to St Patrick’s Day, when the grim reality of the situation first set in. In fact, some of our team were due to attend a dinner with the Irish Post but sadly the virus had other plans and the event was sadly cancelled. Unlike previous years, there was no time for merriment or diversion, business around the world had to confront the challenges arising from the emerging public health crisis and we were no different.  Continued on page 39

We are enormously grateful to our staff who have risen to the challenges of coronavirus.

Within six days we had all our office staff working from home.

We’ve taken part in virtual health and safety sessions, jobs fairs, schools careers events, and even work experience.

As a PAYE- focused labour agency, the furlough scheme was very welcome. Businesses throughout the sector committed to keep cash flowing through the supply chain, so we were able to maintain our cashflow while paying wages, which we self-financed until the funding came through.

The Construction Leadership Council procedures allowed a joined-up approach across UK infrastructure projects, which meant that the measures were consistent across the industry. Staff have sent us

great ideas through our online innovations portal, which we’ve implemented to help make us more efficient. And we’ve gained CITB funding to run a leadership and management supervisor development programme in 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought immense challenges to businesses across the country this year. We at Ardent Tide were very lucky to be able to get our team up and running and working productively from home within 48 hours of the national lockdown being announced in March. While some of our clients are not yet back to full production, thankfully most of them are, and as we navigate the uncertain months ahead we have seen business pick up – which, as a general indicator, is positive for the construction sector, as it would appear people are taking a longer term view.

As we look to the future, clearly outsourcing CIS is the way to go, as it reduces cost and adds value in these uncertain times. The pent up demand to develop prior to Covid is still there and investment and spending in property is still solid.

What an unexpected and challenging year this has been!

When the gravity of Covid-19 hit, we implemented our Disaster Recovery Plan. Our priority was to risk-assess our teams and we introduced a phased, risk-based furlough-plan. Communication has been paramount and our systems include direct group messaging; enabling our directcontact with our team including vulnerable-team-members, reassuring them throughout lockdown and keeping them informed. This has been vital in keeping morale and spirits positive.

Waste is classed as essentialworks so we continued our vital services with a scaled-back operation initially, keeping clients updated of our enhanced Covid secure measures that have the safety of everyone at its core. We have worked hard to ensure that our operationplanning is agile and are prepared for future restrictions, continuing our reviews of (risk-based) challenges as we navigate through the pandemic.

On a more positive note, we were delighted to support the NHS, giving surplus PPE to our local hospitals, arranging food deliveries to the London Irish Centre and local food banks and we were part of the team contributing to preparation of the Nightingale Hospital.

With all of that in mind we are optimistic for the construction industry going forward, although remain a little concerned regarding the ongoing work from home model.

Having employees work from home is never as good as having your team working in an office environment for any business, for several reasons, but needs must in these times.

2020 has delivered some extremely challenging conditions from a people, safety, and economic perspective.

As an international civil engineering company, blu-3 started communicating with our

employees and implementing control measures prior to the World Health Organisation raising the risk level of Covid-19 from low to moderate.

Our values have played a major role in ensuring our success throughout these difficult times, ensuring our people’s health, safety and wellbeing is at the forefront of our minds in everything we do, continuously improving the systems in place to go above and beyond government requirements, and focusing on our client’s needs to ensure the projects we work on operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Our priority remains to keep our workplaces safe for staff, clients, supply chain partners, and the general public and continuing to operate successfully as provider of infrastructure services, expanding our data centre network, from here into the future.

Covid-19 posed many obstacles for us as a company, but we are happy to say we powered through and overcame them.

Due to our staff providing 24/7 fire marshalling services, we were classed as key workers during the national lockdown – which allowed us to continue operating and saw the company go from strength to strength.

Having our fire marshals on site at residential buildings around the capital meant many families were able to stay in their homes during an unprecedentedly worrying time.

We have continued to build on the increased workload in this area and as a result the firm has expanded tremendously.

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As a company we have grown year by year, making more families and homes safer than they were previously. We plan to continue growing and to protect more of London as the years go on.

It’s times like this that loyalty and performance gets recognised, by having the right supply chain and ensuring everyone has been treated fairly. We have managed to navigate through the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic with minimal disruption to progress on projects.

The MPG team have tried to use this situation to demonstrate our expertise in solving problems and coming up with innovative solutions to ensure all staff and operatives stay safe while maintaining progress on site. The introduction of heat sensing technology, adopting of new site protocols and good honest communication with everyone has ensured MPG stay at the forefront.

We look forward to more positive days ahead.

MD Michael Gavin

Teamwork and the wellbeing of our people have always been the top priorities at the Danny Sullivan Group, and during Covid-19 these values have served us well. The team has shown tremendous resilience, invention and, most importantly, incredible kindness in the face of unprecedented challenges.

As unfamiliar situations and new obstacles arise, balancing the health and safety needs of our employees, clients and partners with ensuring we have a sustainable business for the

Building Britain 2020

longer term is critical. As we continue to be involved in the UK’s largest and most exciting infrastructure projects, we are in daily contact with our clients and supply chain partners, working together to combat the challenges we face. We will continue to work collaboratively to ensure all our people get home safely to their loved ones every day. We look forward to a return to our normal lives, but in the meantime we urge all to do their part to keep safe, take care and protect people everywhere!

Glencar Construction has been exceptionally busy throughout the pandemic – not least because it is currently building the new £100m Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) in Harwell, Oxfordshire. The facility is being fast-tracked so that it can provide an emergency response capability for the UK in the fight against Covid-19, and Glencar has pulled out all the stops to ensure that it can be brought online one year ahead of schedule. In addition to this, Glencar has maintained impressive growth as a business, securing work from both new and existing clients and completing various schemes with minimal disruption to programmes. The team has been strengthened by over 30% with several strategic appointments and a move to new home office facilities over the summer supports plans for further controlled growth.

The health and safety of the Kelly Group workforce during the pandemic has, and continues to be, our number one priority. As a telecommunication services business with designated key worker status, we’ve acted swiftly to implement measures ensuring we continue to deliver for our partners and the customers that they serve.

The Kelly Group offices, training centres and 40+ operational sites are open with highly visible Covid-19 precautions in place, including one-way systems, socially distanced desks in open plan offices, temperature checks on entry, and enhanced, regular cleaning services.

With bi-weekly senior management virtual meetings, we are monitoring Covid-19 related absences, the effectiveness of internal communication and updates from government regarding hotspots in order to immediately react and support our workforce through this difficult period.

We’ll continue to assess the rapidly changing situation, whilst ensuring we comply with government guidelines designed to keep our work environment Covid-19 secure.

Evans Mockler are an accountancy, audit and advisory firm specialising in the construction and property sector.

Although Covid-19 has undoubtedly affected all areas of the economy, in general our clients have fared relatively well because construction was last into and first out of the UK wide lockdown. Also, as a firm Evans Mockler have been fortunate enough to be able to continue operating throughout the crisis by working remotely and utilising technologies such as Zoom and Teams.

These video conferencing facilities allow us to communicate efficiently with our clients and enables the Evans Mockler team to stay connected. We are very aware how these uncertain times are causing much anxiety for our clients. In response to this we have focused on issuing regular mailshots to our clients and contacts to keep them updated with the various government initiatives. Our objective is to keep our clients abreast of all relevant developments in this fast-moving situation

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Since March, as my friends in construction have found, there have been many dark and challenging days. However, during this time I’ve also come to appreciate even more the teamwork, skills and dedication of Cara Stationery staff and the loyalty, tenacity and professionalism of our construction clients.

In April, our main supplier went into administration and this greatly increased the daily workload. Scarce commodities such as sanitisers, masks and gloves etc had to be secured for clients from new sources.

Turnover was well down, but staff never worked as hard to keep the show on the road.

Our clients were brilliant and understanding during these difficult times. I was really impressed with the lengths clients went to, to ensure that their staff were protected as much as possible from the danger Covid presented.

To all those in the construction industry - take a well-deserved bow.

Gerry Keany

Due to the current situation with Covid-19, The London Irish Construction Network (TLICN) were last able to hold an event in February when Neil Jefferson, MD of the Home Builders Federation, was the keynote speaker and we had member presentations from Cara Stationery, Constantine Law and McGurk Architects.

TLICN will be returning re-energised in 2021 once government advice permits but, in the meantime, we wish all our sponsors, members and friends well during these difficult times and will look forward to seeing you again when the situation allows.

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SOCIAL NETWORKING

Out and about with The London Irish Construction Network PRIOR to the nation going into lockdown in March, The London Irish Construction Network (TLICN) held one of their regular networking events.

The organisation, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2019, welcomed members to an evening with keynote speaker Neil Jefferson, Managing Director of the Home Builders Federation.

Member presentations were also given, from Cara Stationery, Constantine Law and McGurk Architects.

Jointly hosted by TLICN and the Irish International Business Network (IIBN), the event took place at London’s Park Plaza County Hall Hotel.

No one was to know that that evening in February would be the last event TLICN would hold in 2020, due to the onset of the coronavirus

pandemic.

However, the network is already planning to “return re-energised in 2021” and they

are looking forward to bringing back their ever-popular networking events “once Government advice permits”.

Catherine Orpen-Galis - Orpen Design Solutions, John Fitzgerald, Norma Thomas - RIFT Group

Gerry Keany – Cara Stationery, Deirdre Curley – Embassy of Ireland, Paraig Hennessy – Embassy of Ireland

Neil Jefferson – Home Builders Federation with TLICN sponsors, Martin Mockler – Evans Mockler Accountants, Dermot O’Grady – Ardent Tide, Don O’Sullivan – Galliard Homes

Fergal Rainey – McGurk Architects, Gerry Keany – Cara Stationery, Frank O’Hare – TLICN, Mary Pottinger – TLICN, Con O’Sullivan – TLICN, Neil Jefferson – Home Builders Federation, John Hayes – Constantine Law, Nicole Daly – TLICN, Sean Daly – TLICN, Colm McGurk – McGurk Architects

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Have you crossed the resilience Rubicon?

Brendan Morahan explains why it is never too late for businesses to improve their resilience

Brendan Morahan Director and co-founder Invennt Continued from Page 36 Mercifully, Invennt was less exposed to the threats of the pandemic than many other businesses. As consultants, our team are mobile in normal conditions, so they were able to switch to full-time remote working relatively seamlessly, and as a business that provides consultancy on the topic of resilience, we have embedded the principles within our business.

Furthermore, our team had begun contingency planning and stress testing for various scenarios many weeks prior to the lockdown announcement.

This preparation, coupled with the comparatively favourable circumstances of our business, meant we were well equipped to respond. But we were alert to the fact that many of our customers, by virtue of the nature of their own businesses, faced a much greater challenge. For our contracting clients, physical presence is an inevitability, at least for blue collar workers, and the capital and labour-intensive nature of the sector amplified the financial stresses placed on their businesses. We knew we would need to step up to the plate to help them confront the challenges they faced.

We have been providing consultancy and advice to businesses seeking to improve their resilience in various guises since

we founded Invennt eleven years ago, but recently we’ve seen a sharp uptick in demand due to seismic events such as the Carillion collapse and Brexit. To cater for this demand, we formalised our resilience consulting offering into a service called the Invennt Business Health Check.

The service uses a diagnostic framework to identify threats and uncover opportunities in a business before it is too late. The framework is based on established management models tailored to a construction context and assesses the resilience of a business according to 9 variables, assigning each a score to enable executives to prioritise corrective action.

The output is delivered in a concise report that enables executives to target knowledge and resources at the areas of a business that are most at risk, ensuring critical issues do not deteriorate further and potential opportunities are not left untapped.

After extensively piloting the framework on our own business, we began to market the service in earnest. Fortunately, the response from the market was remarkably positive and the service was highly sought after by executives looking to embed resilience within their business. This provided us with solid evidence by which to examine the effectiveness of undertaking the process. This was important as the strongest vindication of the Business Health Check has always been the outcomes, especially when compared to the counterfactual.

Anecdotally at least, this has been borne out during the pandemic. We’ve seen clients who were fragile before undertaking the process, take the pandemic in their stride while others who appeared strong from the outside have struggled. But perhaps the most welcome outcome has been the speed at which companies have been able to overcome vulnerabilities in the face of overwhelming external pressure.

Our team were concerned that many of our customers wouldn’t have sufficient time to address the problems we identified during the process, but we were relieved to find out this wasn’t the case. This speaks to the resourcefulness and spirit of our customers, but it also shows that it is never too late to take stock of a business, dig into its weaknesses and uncover hidden strengths.

Customers have told us that were it not for going through the process, they would be looking at a very different situation and that even where they didn’t have enough time to adequately correct for issues, knowing they existed meant they could factor them into their decision making and reduce their impact. So even if you think it is too late, you may not have crossed the Rubicon.

If you would like to find out more about the Invennt Business Health Check email Brendan.Morahan@invennt.com or call 07816 514505.

Our landscapes are dotted with reminders of the enduring nature of construction, but their Neolithic builders often encountered problems that required them to be built and rebuilt over the course of many centuries.

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IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD

DRS Bond Management is an acknowledged leader in Surety broking, formed with the single-minded objective of delivering a state of the art approach to bond management and Surety advisory services.

Precision defines DRS, providing certainty to clients through an exacting, reliable and responsive approach.

There are many challenges ahead. But with superior bonding solutions at hand, DRS will play its part in making sure that you create advantage from change.

DRS arranges Surety solutions for a vast range of bonding needs, including: • Performance Bonds; • Retention Bonds; • Advance Payment Bonds; • Highways Bonds; • National House Building Council (“NHBC”) Bonds; • Bid Bonds; • Waste Resources Action Programme (“WRAP”) Bonds; • Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Bonds; • Restoration Bonds; • Development Bonds.

020 7471 8710 enquiries@drsbonds.co.uk @DRSBonds

www.drsbonds.co.uk

DRS Bond Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority No. 500737. The Financial Conduct Authority do not regulate all of the products and services we provide. Registered in England and Wales No. 6823289.

Partner message

It has been quite a year for the British Irish Construction industry. At the time of writing over half the UK is in tier 2 or tier 3 COVID-19 restrictions.

That so many companies achieved turnover and profit growth in 2019 is testament to a growing economy and contractors that were appropriately resourced to deliver despite political uncertainty.

We have seen forecast turnover drop by 10% to 40% for 2020 across our client base and whilst the immediate earthquake of mothballed sites and no income is no more, learning new methods of working, sourcing materials and a myriad of other micro hurts is continuing to impact site productivity against pre-COVID-19 levels.

Our expectation is that the ripple effects of COVID-19 will be felt until the end of 2022.

Brexit dominated long term planning for 3 1/2 years after the UK referendum in June 2016. The UK general election result gave certainty but not in the way many on both sides of the Irish Sea would like. The odds of a comprehensive trade agreement being signed by 31st December 2020 that keeps British/Irish trade near to normal afterwards appears remote at the time of writing with the government ramping up “no deal” preparations.

We anticipate that a “no deal” Brexit is likely to have a negative impact in the short term on inward investment into the UK, which is likely to impact new commercial development.

The government appears to be committed to accelerating the letting of contracts to build and renew infrastructure, notably HS2 and this sector should see iterative growth throughout the remaining years if the current parliament. It is imperative that this growth is not just in large scale schemes. There are many small and medium sized civil engineering projects that could be progressed, not least in transport infrastructure.

Housing is still chronically undersupplied and despite innovative developments around off site and modular building, volumes need to

be ramped up, not least in affordable housing to begin to tackle the problem structurally.

The planning system remains sclerotic, although the government is beginning to flex around change of use on the high street and COVID-19 may well see the conversion of office space to residential on an unprecedented scale.

“Build, Build, Build” is a welcome rallying cry from the Prime Minister and Construction is evidently viewed as being of sufficient strategic national importance for sites to remain open, even as COVID-19 restrictions tighten.

The skills shortage continues to impact many trades and as construction output increases (within 10% of preCOVID-19 levels at the time of writing), this problem is likely to worsen in the next couple of years.

As order book values run down in work secured and under construction pre-COVID-19, we are already seeing signs of a race to the bottom on tender prices for companies that need to win work and hope to secure margin through buying gains. “Needing” to win work is never a good place to be and if positive margin can only be achieved through whittling away sub-contractor margins, supply chains are weakened in the process.

Taking all of the above into account, we are cautiously optimistic for British Irish Construction in the coming year.

For contractors that withstood the financial crisis in 2008, coronavirus is more of an economic broken bone than an existential crisis. Most contractors have grown their cash reserves and Balance Sheet strength and have withstood the first wave of COVID-19 in reasonable health. It is notable that Construction is the largest sector of the economy to benefit from Coronavirus loan packages by number of successful applicants (over 220,000) and the second largest by the volume of funds received (just under £8Bn).

Our advice to contractors for the year ahead differs little from the year that has passed. The old adage of “Turnover for vanity, Profit for sanity and Cash for reality” is as true today as it ever was.

Meet the people behindDRS Bond Management Ltd CHRIS DAVIES Chris Davies is a founding director of DRS Bond Management and is responsible for the strategic account management of DRS’ surety relationships. With over 30 years of industry experience at leading insurance brokers, including Aon and legacy companies of Arthur J Gallagher the arrangement of surety facilities for clients in all industry sectors throughout his career. An exceptional broker, Chris leverages DRS’ senior relationships with the leading investment grade sureties operating in the UK and Ireland.

FIONA RECKER Fiona Recker is a founding director of DRS Bond Management and is responsible for the strategic account management of DRS’ client relationships.

Fiona has previously held various senior statutory positions within publicly quoted companies, with managing their sophisticated bonding requirements, as well as being involved in developing restructure and indemnity structure.

Prior to establishing DRS Bond Management, Fiona held positions Financière Richemont SA, St Ives plc, Anglo American plc, International plc and Trafalgar House plc.

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Irish Post THE

Building Britain 2020

Out of office with…

Michael Kilcoyne, Director of Kilhan Construction Ltd WORKING in the construction industry since the age of 16, Michael Kilcoyne decided to launch his own company in 2010, and has been leading his team at Kilhan Construction ever since.

The 39-year-old, who was born in Willesden, north London to parents hailing from Achill Island in county Mayo and Ballyjamesduff in county Cavan, now lives in Stanmore with wife Collette and their two sons, Malachy, 8, and Ronan, 3.

His firm, which is headquartered in Wembley, offers a range of services to the public, private and

residential sectors of the construction industry, predominantly in London and the south east.

Over the past ten years in operation, Kilhan has built its reputation by completing a series of challenging and complex projects.

To date it boasts a strong client base that comprises of the UK’s leading construction companies.

Of course, the past six months or more have thrown up some unprecedented challenges – with the world facing a global pandemic and the construction sector hit hard by the associated

lockdown period.

However, the team at Kilhan were able to introduce new procedures over and above the Government guidelines to ensure the firm’s workforce were safe whilst travelling to and from work and whilst on site or in their offices, enabling the business to keep going throughout the crisis.

“We were lucky to be able to carry on working on all our sites, albeit with restrictions,” Mr Kilcoyne explained.

“Our work is in the residential and commercial sectors, with some Government buildings,” he added, “and our clients really

WHAT’S YOUR FIRST TASK WHEN YOU GET INTO THE OFFICE IN THE MORNING?

WHO INFLUENCED YOU MOST IN YOUR CAREER?

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE BUILDING?

I would say my father, Leonard Kilcoyne and also my father-inLaw, Brendan Monaghan. They both have a strong work ethic and place the importance of family above everything and that’s what I try to be like.

The Gherkin in London. My brother-in-law works there and so I have been fortunate enough to visit on occasion and I find it a really impressive structure.

First task is always to check in with the Contracts Managers to ensure they have everything they need for the day ahead.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

My Family. My wife and children motivate me to work hard.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?

Glass collector in the Railway Club in Cricklewood.

DO YOU HAVE A WORK/ BUSINESS MOTTO?

Surround yourself with good people. Kilhan has always been a team. A good working relationship is so important.

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST GOAL FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

Just to keep doing what we are doing. This has been a strange year for everyone, but Kilhan is managing well and we hope to continue to do so.

The Gherkin, London

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT BOOK/BOOKS ARE ON YOUR BEDSIDE TABLE?

My boys don’t give me much time to myself so probably The Gruffalo and The Tiger who Came to Tea.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE IN IRELAND?

I think I would say Atlantic Drive on Achill for the scenery, Ballyjamesduff for the craic and a walk on Inch Beach in Kerry with my boys and the dog.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING YOUR INDUSTRY TODAY?

Three things: • Mental Health • Covid-19 and unclear guidance on proper procedures to keep our operatives safe • Labour and skills shortage

Inch Beach, Kerry

appreciated our efforts during this difficult time.”

“This has been reflected in the fact that our order book is already filling up for next year.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE NEXT BIG TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY MIGHT BE?

Carbon footprint; go green.

Off-site production.

Increase in use of tablets, central database systems, instead of having thousands of drawings printed on sites.

Increase in requirements on PPE, especially in light of recent events.

Increase in the use of drones for land surveying; progress reporting; remote management.

CAN YOU TELL US THE BEST LIFE LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNT IN YOUR CAREER TO DATE?

Having integrity and doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest path in this industry, but it’s so important to me.

Irish Post THE

Building Britain 2020

KILHAN CONSTRUCTION LIMITED

GROUNDWORKS. RC FRAMES, ENABLING WORKS, TEMPORARY WORKS, DEMOLITION, EXTERNAL WORKS, DRAINAGE, BASEMENTS

PHONE 020 8903 0492. WEBSITE: WWW.KILHAN-CONSTRUCTION.CO.UK

43

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