Master Builder of the Year Awards 2006

Midlands Apprentice: Nitesh Patel wins Apprentice of the Year Employer: Wensley Contracts, Tyseley College: Stafford College For news on all the winners including other Midlands based winners follow the read more link
read more »

EMCE/EMIP Annual Conference – Making Assets Work

On Wednesday November 1st over 80 people attended the EMCE / EMIP Annual Conference. This action packed day included several key note speakers from national government who discussed the latest developments in the improvement and efficiency agenda and possible repercussions from the recently published White Paper. A series of tailored workshops offered delegates the opportunity to explore ways to improve in their specialist field and develop their general business processes. Event information and slide presentations are available to download from the EMCE web site.

Are you looking to increase your International Sales?

Then Pathfinder could be the answer for you. Pathfinder is an export development programme funded by UK Trade & Investment and the East Midlands Development Agency and is designed to help companies which already have some experience of international trade increase their overseas sales.

It is open to both SMEs and non-SMEs and provides a package of financial and practical support to help companies sell into at least one new geographical market within the next 12 months or so.

The pilot programme was held from Sept 2004 – March 2006 and proved very effective to find out what the package includes and how to sign up follow the read more link.
read more »

Three new areas to get Transport Innovation Fund pump-priming cash from government

The government this week announced three new areas will receive “pump-priming” funding to develop road pricing schemes bringing to 10 the number of regions considering road pricing.

The East Midlands local authorities including Nottingham, Derby and Leicester city councils; Reading and Norfolk will join the existing councils receiving the funds including Cambridgeshire; Durham, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Tyne & Wear and West Midlands conurbation.
read more »

New safety strategy launched to prevent accidents on site

A new strategy aimed at cutting down on deaths and accidents on construction sites has been launched by a collaboration of industry bodies and leading firms.

The Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers, RIBA, CIBSE, the Construction Industry Council, Atkins, Mott MacDonald and Halcrow are among the partners of the design institutions' Joint Health and Safety Strategy.
read more »

ProCon Awards

The lottery funded Braunstone Leisure Centre has won the Leicestershire Property and Construction Award for large scheme of the year.

Cllr John Mugglestone, Cabinet member for regeneration and culture at Leicester City Council, collected the award at the ceremony held at the Walkers Stadium.

Braunstone Leisure Centre was opened in December 2004 and cost £10m. It was designed by S&P Architects.

Control of solar gain

Tighter Building Regulation requirements have focussed attention on preventing the overheating of buildings. This principally requires a reduction in solar gain from incoming solar radiation. However, the answer is not simply to use smaller areas of glazing as there is a need for daylighting and views out, and the appearance of the building has to be considered. Spectrally selective glasses and shading devices may be used to change the proportion of both infrared to visible light transmitted and the radiation admitted at different times of the day and year.

RIBA Awards

The RIBA Awards are given for buildings that have high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment. The awards are annual, and have been running continuously since 1966.

The RIBA: Ibstock EM Awards are awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects East Midlands and sponsored by Ibstock Brick Limited to recognise excellence in architecture within the region. The 2006 winners were announced at the awards ceremony in the Nottingham Council House on 6 November 2006, follow the link to see this year’s winners.
read more »

Modern methods of formwork for insitu concrete

Considerable attention is currently being directed towards Modern Methods of Construction, a term associated with rapid, labour-saving construction systems typically fabricated off site. However, recent years have also seen significant innovation and improvement applied to many traditional on-site systems.
read more »

RICS Awards 2007 - Call for entries

Following the success of this year's RICS Awards we are now ready to receive entries for the 2007 Awards. This year's Project of the Year was the iconic Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and we saw success for the East Midlands with both Devonshire Royal Hospital, Buxton (Building Conservation category) and Attenborough Nature Reserve Visitor Centre, Beeston (Sustainability category) being Commended winners at the RICS Awards finals in October. The closing date for entries is 19 January 2007 and the winners of the regional finals will be announced at a Gala Dinner in May. More details and entry form at: www.rics.org/awards.

Environmental awards top £2bn

More than £2bn worth of business has been approved by Ceequal environmental quality awards since the scheme’s launch in 2003. Ceequal assesses how well a project deals with environmental challenges. Projects are awarded scores, with minimum environmental compliance receiving a score of zero. To win an award, projects must score at least 25% of the possible maximum score, while excellent ratings have to score 75% or more of the possible maximum.
read more »

Housing Forum Regional Conferences

The Housing Forum has received overwhelmingly positive feedback for it first two Regional Conferences in the North East (Chester Le Street, 27th September) and the Midlands (Birmingham, 2nd November). After listening to keynote addresses from prominent regional housing industry figures, delegates enjoyed highly productive workshops on constructing sustainable communities and supply chain integration. The days were rounded off with lively question and answer sessions with more leading regional industry figures.

Places for the remaining events are going very fast, with the London and South East Conference on 18th January 2007 already completely sold out. There is, however, still room at the London and East of England Conference on 5th December 2006, so please book now to avoid disappointment. Although this Conference will have a regional slant, there are many cross-cutting issues, and delegates are welcome from any region.
read more »

Government accused of underinvestment in infrastructure

The government is lagging behind many of its targets to repair and upgrade Britain’s infrastructure, said a report by the Construction Products Association. The report, which looks at progress on government targets for building and repair of hospitals, housing, schools, roads, rail and water infrastructure, claims that the government needs to set interim “output” targets to ensure that delivery of infrastructure does not lag behind.