Public Sector Newsline – Breaking News May 2008

Olympic construction targets to replace Egan

Olympic construction commitments look set to replace the targets established by Sir John Egan in his landmark Rethinking Construction report, published in 1998 to modernise the industry.

The Strategic Forum has decided to extend the Olympic construction commitments devised by the 2012 Task Group for companies working on the London build programme, to the whole of the industry.

The 2012 commitments cover procurement and integration, client leadership, design quality, commitment to people, sustainability and health and safety. The latter two headings were not covered in Egan’s report, which set out a series of targets, including the encouragement of partnering between suppliers and clients.

Each commitment will be accompanied by a set of aims for the industry to meet over the next four years and references to the Olympics will be deleted

Housing associations exposed to downturn, says Housing Corporation

The Housing Corporation has warned that housing associations are ‘more exposed than ever’ to a downturn in the housing market.

A study by the sector’s regulator has raised questions over the ability of the UK’s 1,600 housing associations to cope in a downturn, following their increasing diversification into construction and the private sale of shared ownership homes. 

The government is relying on housing associations to build 70,000 affordable homes a year but the study found that the total number of associations with more than 5,000 homes would have lost money in 2007, without private sales.

Zero carbon drive will mean 2 million homes target could be missed

The government’s target of building 2 million homes by 2016 could be compromised by its drive towards zero carbon housing, according to a new report from the Construction Products Association (CPA).

Entitled The Long Term Prospects For The UK New Housing Market Up To 2017, the report found that just 165,000 homes will be built annually by 2017, compared with the government’s target of 240,000 homes.

The drive for zero carbon homes by 2016, problems accessing land through the planning systems and the move away from building apartments, were all cited as reasons for the 2016 target being missed.

The report follows a Commons committee report that claimed that without a code for existing housing, the government would not meet its carbon targets.

Energy inquiry launched into commercial buildings

A parliamentary inquiry is being launched into ways of improving the energy efficiency of Britain’s commercial and industrial buildings.

Conducted by an all party committee of MPs and peers that scrutinises regeneration policy, the inquiry will look at how the buildings’ performance could be improved, the barriers to cutting carbon emissions and how these might be overcome with regulations and fiscal incentives and penalties.

The inquiry follows calls from industry bodies to introduce fiscal incentives and a compulsory Code for Sustainable Buildings to improve the energy efficiency of Britain’s stock.