July 7th, 2010 by admin
Education Secretary Michael Gove today set out a complete overhaul of capital investment in England’s schools.
Bringing an end to Building Schools for the Future (BSF), he said ‘In the light of the public finances, it would have been irresponsible to carry on regardless with an inflexible, and needlessly complex programme.’
The key elements of today’s announcement to Parliament are:
- 706 schools will be opened under new arrangements being agreed today, of which nearly 386 schools are projected to be new build; 262 to be remodelled or refurbished; 26 to be ICT-only. The building programme in 32 further schools is yet to be confirmed.
- 715 schools will no longer be rebuilt or refurbished through BSF of which nearly 180 schools are projected to be new build, over 319 to be remodelled or refurbished and 63 to be ICT-only. The building programme in 153 schools has not yet been confirmed.
- That 123 academy projects in development which have not reached financial close will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
- That in 14 cases, prioritised locally as ’sample’ projects – the first taken forward in the area – will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis in recognition of local need. Although financial close has not been reached, very significant work has been undertaken to the point of appointing a preferred bidder at ‘close of dialogue’.
- That the Government is launching a comprehensive Review of all capital investment in schools, early years, colleges and sixth forms. Led by Sebastian James, Group Operations Director of DSG international plc, the Review team includes Kevin Grace, Tesco – Director of Property Services, Barry Quirk, Chief Executive of Lewisham, John Hood former Vice-Chancellor of University of Oxford and Sir John Egan, former Chief Executive of Jaguar and BAA.
- The review will guide future spending decisions over the next Spending Review period (2011-12 to 2014-15). It will look at how best to meet parental demand; make current design and procurement cost-effective and efficient; and overhaul how capital is allocated and targeted.
- That the department is reducing its End Year Flexibility (EYF) requirements by £1bn to help ensure no additional borrowing this year. This is in line with the Government’s plan to reduce the deficit, and the Treasury’s announcement today that Departments have agreed to address unrealistic inherited spending commitments for 2010-11, where funding was reliant on underspends through the (EYF) system or additional funding from the Government’s Reserve. The Department expects to be able to manage most of this through better financial management and tighter controls. Because of the size of the reduction, however, the Department will have to make £169.5m savings from capital budgets where commitments are no longer affordable.
The Secretary of State also announced that he will be ending funding for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) design advice service associated with the BSF programme
Source:
June 24th, 2010 by admin
Bury based environmental consultancy, The LK Group, has launched its latest online product www.code4homes.co.uk, which is designed to help enable more effective management of The Code for Sustainable Homes process.
The LK Group’s managing director, Dr Scott Elliott, said, “The Code for Sustainable Homes is an environmental assessment method, which has been introduced to drive change in sustainable home building practice. It’s a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes, with a view to encouraging continuous improvement in sustainable home building. It also ensures that new homes meet the minimum criteria in areas such as: energy, water, materials, pollution and ecology.”
“Because of this, we saw a great opportunity to help make the lives of those building new homes, and the assessors who monitor and approve their ratings, much easier. The result is a unique and user-friendly management tool that enables multi-user access and the uploading of all documents that can be stored in one central and easily accessible place for all of those involved in working with The Code for Sustainable Homes.”
The launch comes as The LK Group agrees its latest deal for Code4homes with north of England construction company Cruden Construction, who are now using the software as an integral part of their sustainable housing developments.
Steve Rimmer, site manager at Cruden Construction’s latest affordable housing project, Pickmere Court, in Crewe said, “Adhering to The Code for Sustainable Homes requires in depth information, phased updating of data and constant monitoring. Fortunately, the Code4homes site is proving an invaluable tool for us, by streamlining the management and reporting of our housing projects, from inception to compliance, all in an easy to use online environment.”
The government remains committed to achieving a zero carbon energy rating for all new housing by 2016 and to comply with the code, those building new homes will have to work with an appropriately accredited code assessor to ensure they meet necessary standards.
Dr Scott Elliott said, “As regulatory pressure grows alongside demand for a more sustainable product, Code4homes will offer an essential tool for developers and contractors to help make the Code for Sustainable Homes process more streamlined, efficient and transparent. Moreover, non-adherence to the code could cause a potential headache for both builders and developers alike. It’s also a great opportunity for the assessors, of whom we are one, to more quickly and efficiently deliver their accreditation to the developers.”
For more information, please contact Scott Elliott on 0161 763 7200
March 1st, 2010 by admin
A number of unions has welcomed an audit report that points to serious mismanagement of asbestos in Britain’s schools.
The report, based on the findings of a pilot study of 12 schools by the Asbestos Training and Consultancy Association (ATAC), argues that schools are failing to comply with their legal duty to manage asbestos, and claims that training on asbestos in schools is poor to non-existent.
According to the ATAC, its assessment revealed a lack of clarity between local authorities and schools over who is legally the duty-holder responsible for managing asbestos. The organisation also described some of the asbestos surveys the schools had carried out as “superficial”, because they had failed to look in places most likely to contain the most dangerous form of asbestos, or failed to record that less accessible places had been investigated.
Continue reading ‘Unions back report findings on schools’ asbestos failings’
November 26th, 2009 by admin
A new generation of workers are at risk unless building trades get to grips with Britain’s biggest workplace killer – asbestos, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned.
Figures from the HSE show that around a quarter of the 4,000 or so people dying from asbestos-related diseases each year in Britain are tradesmen such as joiners, electricians and plumbers. About twenty lose their lives each week.
Across Britain, more than 35,000 people died from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma between 1977 and 2007 – and the numbers dying are increasing. Latest annual figures show that 2,156 people died from the disease in 2007 alone, up five per cent on the previous year.
HSE has today launched a £1.2 million, month-long campaign to warn Britain’s 1.8 million tradesmen about the dangers they face. ‘Asbestos: The Hidden Killer’ runs throughout November and will see more than 500,000 information packs sent out, as well as targeted press and radio adverts.
LK Assure would like to remind clients that we employ an asbestos specialist who can assist clients in undertaking surveys of their premises and in providing training to operatives.
Please contact our consultants for further information on 0161 763 7200.
Source
November 26th, 2009 by admin
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Leeds City Council (LCC) are working together to carry out a targeted inspection campaign of businesses throughout the Leeds area.
From November, Inspectors from the HSE and LCC will be undertaking a programme of health and safety inspections aimed at raising awareness and improving standards of health and safety in businesses throughout the area.
Inspectors will provide employers with advice and information wherever possible. However, where employers are found not to be complying with the law then appropriate action will be taken, which may involve the service of Improvement and/or Prohibition Notices and in some cases, where serious breaches are identified, action through the courts may be necessary.
In view of this impending campaign, LK Assure would strongly urge all employers in the area to review their current safety management systems, and where they have concerns or queries, to contact our consultants on the advice line.
Source
November 26th, 2009 by admin
Two businesses and a company director have been fined after workers in Manchester were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos fibres.
The prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) came just days before the launch of a national £1.2 million campaign to increase awareness about asbestos among tradespeople (see separate story).
The Ashton-under-Lyne based company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(3) of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 at Trafford Magistrates’ Court. It was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000.
Contractors working on behalf of the company and its Managing Director, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and Regulation 3(1) of the Asbestos Licensing Regulations 1983. They were each fined £2,000.
The court heard that employees came into contact with asbestos while demolishing part of a recycling plant. Contractors had been hired to carry out the work after the plant was severely damaged by fire. The building included substantial amounts of asbestos but no site assessment was carried out, and the contractors were not licensed to remove it.
The HSE decided to prosecute after one of their Inspectors visited the site. He said:
“We took immediate action to stop the demolition, and were shocked that workers had been allowed to remove asbestos without the proper precautions being taken.
“The company did not carry out any assessment to find out whether asbestos was, or was likely to be, present in its premises. If the company had, it would have found asbestos in large sections of insulation boards and some in coating sprayed on the building’s steelwork.”
Continue reading ‘Manchester Companies Fined After Workers Exposed To Asbestos’
November 23rd, 2009 by admin
The authorities knew it was deadly more than 100 years ago, but it was only banned entirely in 1999. The annual death rate will peak at more than 5,000 in 2016 – now MPs have a chance to do the decent thing.
By Emily Dugan: Source
They called it “the Barking cough”. First it began like any other: a tickle in the chest and slight pain on breathing. Then, within a matter of months, the sufferer was in agony, gasping for air and eventually suffocating to death as a vicious cancer attacked their lungs waiting for the final lingering, inevitable end which might not come for decades.
Continue reading ‘Asbestos: A shameful legacy’
November 3rd, 2009 by admin
A waste-management business has been fined £40,000 for continually poorhandling of asbestos, which put its staff and the environment at risk of harm.
Biffa Waste Services Limited was sentenced on 14 October under the s33(6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, in relation to two charges of breaching its waste-management licence.
Continue reading ‘“Persistent mishandling of asbestos” exposed staff to risk’
October 12th, 2009 by admin
One of the UK’s leading and most innovative environmental consultants to property and land owners and developers, LK Group, has restructured to establish individual operating companies for two of its core businesses. LK Assure Ltd (Asbestos Consultants) and LK Consult Ltd (Contaminated Land Consultants) are now separate corporate entities under the LK Group umbrella.
Continue reading ‘LK Group add value in company restructure’
July 7th, 2009 by admin
A recent survey carried out by Stroma Accreditation revealed that the take-up of non-domestic EPCs currently stands at approximately 15-25%. All LK clients are reminded of the following (which is taken from Page 15 of the guide to energy performance certificates for the construction, sale and let of non-dwellings)
Continue reading ‘Commercial EPC News’
June 26th, 2009 by admin
In a series of recent reports the Environment Agency (EA) has stated that one in every six homes (2.4m properties) are under threat of flooding from rising sea levels and heavy rain. Continued investment in flood defences is therefore required by central and local government. However, the Local Government Association has said that 60 per cent of councils lacked the money to reduce the risk of flooding.
Continue reading ‘Flood Risk News’
April 9th, 2009 by admin
Land Remediation Relief (LRR) allows an additional 50% of qualifying expenditure on the remediation of contaminated land to be deducted from a company’s taxable profits when calculating its corporation tax. This can mean an additional tax saving of the equivalent of approximately 15% of the expenditure incurred.
Continue reading ‘Land Remediation’
December 18th, 2008 by admin
It is no secret that the environmental sector and the construction industry as a whole has, and still is considered a male dominated profession. However as the LK Group has expanded over the past four years, so has its number of female professionals.
Continue reading ‘LK Group benefits from the female influence’
December 8th, 2008 by admin
LK Accreditation has developed a new and unique way to follow the progress of your Code for Sustainable Homes projects. Its informative graphic interface will show compliance against each category of the Code, and also advise on areas where the application is strong or weak.
Continue reading ‘LK Accreditation launches the code4homes.com’
August 28th, 2008 by admin
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are currently running a series of adverts to raise awareness to the risks associated with Asbestos for construction and maintenance contractors. The campaign is aimed at the tradesmen who have been found to be most at risk from exposure to Asbestos fibres, through the course of their daily lives. The statistics are shocking:
Continue reading ‘HSE Campaign – Asbestos the hidden killer’
August 15th, 2008 by admin
Leyden Kirby Associates formed 10 years ago in April 1998 as a partnership dealing with a small range of environmental issues. By 2001 the decision was made by the partners to expand the company so to be able to address a wider range of services as an Environmental Consultancy. LK Associates then became a Limited company in 2003 and following further rapid success and growth underwent a reorganisation in 2007. The reorganisation allowed the company to define four main service areas all of which now practice under the LK Group umbrella.
Continue reading ‘LK Group invest in post graduate trainning scheme’
June 4th, 2008 by admin
The office in The Corn Exchange, right in the centre of the business district of Liverpool, now represents two of the Group’s key technical areas. Rebecca McKellar heads the Contaminated Land division and Phil Hunter the Environmental team, specialising in Flood Risk Assessment (FRA). Work comes from a wide variety of sources including solicitors, developers, contractors, planners and private clients. Recent jobs have included a Christian children’s ‘log cabin’ weekend camp, a restaurant complex and a waste treatment site.
Continue reading ‘LK Group Expands Operations in Liverpool’
