UK construction and property
- Planning complaints | RIBA’s Future Trends survey reports on a significant number of projects being cancelled because of delays in planning. In the three months to April, 22% of practices saw cancellations because of the protracted process, up from 7% in the three months prior. 47% of practices also reported project delays of six months or more.
- Solar panels | The Government’s new Solar Taskforce is considering plans to install solar panels on the roofs of commercial buildings, schools, warehouses, and car parks in an effort to meet its target of increasing solar capacity by almost fivefold to 70GW by 2035. In Francenew legislation means that all new and existing car parks of more than 80 spaces need to be covered by solar panels.
- HS2 deliveries | An Amazon locker-style delivery system is in place at the Hertfordshire site. A 40ft-high modular shipping container will act as a vending machine, allowing 24/7 access to products which are paid for after collection. It will contain items such as bolts, washers, nails and sealants and it is expected to reduce carbon emissions from site deliveries by 70%.
- Bricklaying academy | Keepmoat has launched a bricklaying teaching programme at HMP Moorland to help address skills shortages and the challenge of an ageing workforce.
- Industrial | Jaguar Land Rover announced plans to build a gigafactory in Somerset for car batteries. The £1bn plans could receive up to £500m of public support.
- Refurbishments are still driving the London office market as the Deloitte Crane Survey reported a record volume of refurbishment starts in the last six months.
- Hospitals relaunch | The Government has relaunched its promise to spend £20bn building 40 new hospitals by 2030 using standardised materials and a modular approach to build Hospital 2.0 projects 25% faster.
- Safety concerns | The Association for Project Safety warned of a dearth of candidates to fill job vacancies in construction design risk management and an ageing workforce means that vacancies are often being filled by people with less experience but at an increased cost.