New payments for installing household energy-saving measures could be a shot in the arm for construction sectors such as insulation.
According to an exclusive report from The Guardian newspaper, the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund will offer £1,000 for people installing boilers and insulation, and £500 for anyone who fits measures within 12 months of moving into a property.
In December the UK’s construction sector grew at its fastest pace for almost six and a half years, but the supply chain is struggling to keep up.
The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the sector rose to 64.6 in January. This was up from 62.1 in December and well above the 50 level that marks expansion.
Last October builder George Collier, of Kinmel Bay, Conwy, was jailed for two years after he was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence following the death of three-year-old Meg Burgess.
Mold Crown Court was told how Collier, 49, had been building a wall that was 22m (72ft) long and nearly 1.6m (5ft 3in) high that had been backfilled with 26 tonnes of rubble and block.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) last month announced a review of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Tariffs in response to concerns raised by the Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA).
Business groups have warned that Chancellor George Osborne’s £5bn investment in the construction industry “won’t deliver growth” unless main contractors are forced to clean up their act.
Organisations representing more than 24,000 small construction and engineering companies have called on the government to force contractors to address a culture of treating small businesses “like banks”.
Government has finally admitted the implementation of its flagship Green Deal scheme has been delayed until 2013, with retrofit work now not expected to come to market until February. The Green Deal was due to start last month, with the industry hoping it would lead to a spike in retrofit work in the final quarter of 2012.
Poor transport network development has been cited by UK’s business leaders as a critical barrier to inward investment and have called on the government to step up its investment on infrastructure construction.
The spectacular London 2012 Olympic Torch is but a smouldering memory, however the public’s appreciation for the UK construction and engineering industry showcase that is the Olympic Park seems to be burning bright.The successful delivery of the £7-billion worth Olympic infrastructure has raised the public profile of civil engineers and people working in the trades. According to a new survey published by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) over half of the public (53%) no longer just think about bridges when they think of civil engineering in the light of the London 2012 Olympic Games.More than 46,000 jobs were created as a result of the London 2012 construction project. Post-Olympic work, currently taking place, is expected to create thousands of extra new jobs. Nearly half of the 2,000 people who took part in the ComRes survey said they would consider civil engineering to be a ‘respected’ profession, alongside jobs such as lawyers and teachers.
As a nation, patriotism is something we normally tend to shy away from, unlike our loud and proud American cousins. It seems to be in our collective nature to be self-deprecating and modest about our achievements; it’s just ‘not cricket’ to brag about how successful you are.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), panic buying of petrol after cabinet office minister Francis Maude advised people to fill up jerry cans to beat the looming fuel strike boosted retail sales across the economy in March. Read the rest of this entry »
