News Plan for home design
standard doubted ■
Plans to create minimum design standards for all new
homes have come under fi re from a house builders’ group. The government’s building watchdog, CABE, has published a report arguing that better regulation – based on its Building For Life scheme – would provide a guarantee to consumers that new homes and neighbourhoods are designed to a high standard across the country. CABE believes that the current
set of standards ‘desperately needs rationalisation’ and proposes replacing this with ‘a single set of clear requirements by which developments are judged and developed through the planning system, and specifi cally identifying those that should be delivered through the Building Regulations’. But the Home Builders
Federation doubts that the Building
for Life scheme is suitable. Head of communications Steve Turner told the Journal: ‘The concept of a national set of planning standards is a good one, but we need to sit down and develop something that is fi t for purpose and that everyone is able to work with. 'Just plucking something off the
shelf will not work – and Building for Life was never created for this purpose.’
However, Richard Simmons,
CABE chief executive, said: ‘We all recognise that the current mix of standards is complicated, overlapping and ineffi cient. The industry needs a consistent set of standards – and the consumer and the community a guarantee of homes that are good enough.’ CABE points to its housing
audits, which it says revealed that almost one in three homes (29%) ‘were so poor that they should not have been given planning permission’. Only one in fi ve schemes were
rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, revealing a disappointing picture of housing quality, and demonstrating that many consumers still get a raw deal when it comes to new homes and neighbourhoods, the organisation insists.
www.cabe.org.uk/publications/ simpler-and-better
House building rises but civil engineers still suffering
Activity in the UK’s construction sector has increased at its fastest rate since September 2007. May saw the third consecutive
i0522-12 CIBSE AD AW:CIBSE Magazine 190x66 16/6/10 14:29 Page 1
increase in monthly activity, according to the Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – the strongest since September 2007. It is thought a rise in new orders drove the increase in activity, and led to an increase in employment. The National House-Building
UK civil engineering contractors remain extremely tough, with workloads expected to worsen over the coming months, according to the latest quarterly Workload Trends survey published by the
Council also reported a rise in home building across the UK, with a total of 31,038 new homes registered during February to April 2010. This represents a 74% improvement on the same period last year (17,859). However, trading conditions for
Civil Engineering Contractors Association. The survey found that the UK’s larger civil engineering businesses were particularly hard hit, with 79% of fi rms employing more than 600 employees reporting falling workloads. Employment was also lower for
most fi rms than in April 2009, with 52% of companies reporting lower employment of operatives than 12 months ago, against just 9% reporting rises.
Cash support for research on
future-proofi ng Building design teams are being invited to compete for a total of just under £5m investment in projects that will devise ways of adapting buildings so that they can withstand climate change. The Technology Strategy
Board (TSB) will invest a total of £2.5m in the research and development project in 2010 and a further £2.4 m in 2011. Building designers are being challenged to come up with proposals to show how they would adapt a building that they are currently working on with a construction client, so that it could cope with the future climate. Iain Gray, chief executive of
the TSB, said: ‘This programme will help UK industry to tap into the market opportunity for climate adaptation services.’ The fi ndings of the research
that teams conduct will be made public by the TSB.
www.innovateuk.org or email
competitions@tsb.gov.uk
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www.cibsejournal.com July 2010 CIBSE Journal 9
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