July, 2009

Educational Building — Comments Off
29
Jul 09

Delayed LSC scheme linked to BSF

Delayed work on a number of colleges under the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) scheme should come together with Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects, to get them off the ground, according to a Government spending watchdog.

The Public Accounts Committee has produced a report on the further education college programme, in which it accuses the LSC of ‘recklessness’ in its management of the scheme. It suggests the LSC “over-stimulated” the demand for funding and mismanaged the approval process.

The LSC programme ground to a halt in March when 144 college schemes were put on hold after the LSC over-committed its budget by more than 150%. Since then, just 13 colleges have been given the go-ahead to work up their proposals.

It is likely the report will increase the pressure on a future Government to put the stalled college building programme under the control of BSF delivery body Partnerships for Schools.

New Build / Social Housing — Comments Off
28
Jul 09

Government investment to kick-start construction

Housing minister John Healey has announced that 270 development projects, held up because of the credit crunch, have been shortlisted for a share of £925m to get them back on track.

It is hoped the boost will kick-start building work with some 20,000 jobs expected to be created in the process and up to 22,400 new homes built, more than a third of which will be “affordable”.

The Government expects almost half the money to be repaid within five years, over one third will go to housing associations and others to help them manage the affordable housing and less than one fifth (18 per cent) consists of direct grant to support developers.

Mr Healey said he wanted to see the first builders back on site in a matter of weeks and will call on successful developers to pull out all the stops so construction can restart as quickly as possible.

Energy saving — Comments Off
24
Jul 09

Tories call for Government energy ratings to be made public

New legislation, introduced by the Conservatives, would force Ministers to publish the energy rating of Government buildings.

The Public Buildings (Publication of Energy Performance Certificates) Bill was unveiled in Parliament this week, by Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, Greg Clark. He stated its aim was to put the energy rating of all Government buildings in the public domain.

Current law requires that an energy efficiency certificate is displayed in public buildings but there is no requirement to make this information readily available to the public.

Educational Building — Comments Off
22
Jul 09

BSF approval given to six more councils

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has announced that six local authorities have been given the go-ahead for their Building Schools for the Future (BSF) work programmes.

Barnet, Bolton, Hampshire, Peterborough, Sunderland and Wigan are the first in what has been referred to as a series of “rolling starts” for the remaining 70 local authority projects yet to join BSF.

The six will immediately start planning, after £500m was released for 2011-12. The Sunderland development is worth £100m, with the remaining five each worth about £80m.

These developments will join more than 1,000 individual building, rebuilding or renewal BSF projects already under way across 80 local authorities in England.

New Build / Social Housing — Comments Off
21
Jul 09

Decent Homes cut to pay for Building Britain’s Future

Cuts in existing schemes, including the Decent Homes initiative, will be made to cover the costs of the Government’s new £1.5bn investment in building affordable housing.

The Communities and Local Government Department has confirmed that funding will be taken from its growth fund, Decent Homes, and private sector renewal programmes to finance the Building Britain’s Future Pledge, unveiled by the Prime Minister.

Other departments, including Business; Innovation and Skills; Transport; Children, Schools and Families, the Home Office and Health will also be expected to release £930m for the Building scheme.

Energy saving / New Build / Social Housing — Comments Off
16
Jul 09

First four eco-towns revealed

 

The Government has given the green light for four eco-towns to be built to showcase the latest green technologies.
The successful proposals are for towns at Rackheath in Norfolk, Bordon-Whitehill in Hampshire, North West Bicester in Oxfordshire, and St Austell in Cornwall.
In total, 10,000 homes will be created for around 30,000 people and at least 30 per cent of the homes will be affordable housing.
The four will be able to bid for a share of £60 million over two years to fund infrastructure. A further £5 million pot is being made available for work on proposals for the next wave of towns, with the aim to build six more by 2020.

The Government has given the green light for four eco-towns to be built to showcase the latest green technologies.

The successful proposals are for towns at Rackheath in Norfolk, Bordon-Whitehill in Hampshire, North West Bicester in Oxfordshire, and St Austell in Cornwall.

In total, 10,000 homes will be created for around 30,000 people and at least 30 per cent of the homes will be affordable housing.

The four will be able to bid for a share of £60 million over two years to fund infrastructure. A further £5 million pot is being made available for work on proposals for the next wave of towns, with the aim to build six more by 2020.

Low carbon solutions — Comments Off
15
Jul 09

UK bid to lead on climate change

In a bid for the UK to lead on climate change, the Government has unveiled how it intends to achieve 2020 targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and expanding renewable energy.

The details of the new ‘Low Carbon Transition Plan’ were outlined by Climate and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons.  

The plan includes a commitment of up to £120m of public money to fund the development of the UK’s offshore wind industry and £60m will be spent on generating energy from waves and tidal technologies.  There is additional support for research on nuclear energy, and £10m will be spent on accelerating infrastructure for recharging electric vehicles.

In a bid for the UK to lead on climate change, the Government’s has unveiled its plans to achieve 2020 targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and expanding renewable energy.
The new ‘low carbon transition plan’ includes a commitment of up to £120 of public money to fund the development of the UK’s offshore wind industry and £60m will be spent on generating energy from waves and tidal technologies.
There is additional support for research on nuclear energy, and £10m will be spent on accelerating infrastructure for recharging electric vehicles.
The details of the plan were outlined by Climate and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband in the Commons.  He said: “We know the world is switching to low carbon, and Britain needs to be at the forefront.”
Social Housing — Comments Off
14
Jul 09

Repairs are top priority for residents

 

First and second-wave eco-towns to be announced on Thursday.
The government is expected to identify a number of sites across the country to take part in two waves of its eco towns programme, with the first wave of three or four under way by 2016, according to newspaper reports.
The front-runners for the first wave of eco-towns are reported to be Whitehill Bordon in East Hampshire; the China Clay Community in St Austell, Cornwall; North Bicester, Cherwell; and finally Rackheath, Norfolk.
In total, 10 eco-towns will be named, matching prime minister Gordon Brown’s original pledge, with those in the second phase supposed to be underway by 2020.Social housing tenants says ‘getting repairs and maintenance’ right should be the top priority for their landlords, according to the results of the Tenant Services Authority’s (TSA) National Conversation.

As the regulator for affordable housing, the TSA has interviewed 27,000 tenants as part of its National Conversation campaign to help improve services and enforce a first-ever set of standards for social landlords.

81% of tenants listed repairs and maintenance as the top issue that they expected their landlord to get right.
Social housing residents say ‘getting repairs and maintenance’ right should be the top priority for their landlords, according to the results of the Tenant Services Authority’s (TSA) National Conversation.

As the regulator for affordable housing, the TSA has interviewed 27,000 residents as part of its ‘National Conversation’ campaign, to help improve services and enforce a first-ever set of standards for social landlords.

81% of residents listed repairs and maintenance as the top issue that they expected their landlord to get right.  Achieving Decent Homes standards was also identified as a major priority by those interviewed.

New Build / Social Housing — Comments Off
7
Jul 09

Government housing target could be missed by more than 10,000 a year

The government has reduced its target for new social housing to 110,000 homes over the next two years, despite pumping £1.5billion into building 30,000 homes.

In 2007, the government had originally pledged to build 70,000 homes a year by 2010/11, which means there is now an annual shortfall of 10,000 affordable homes.

The target reduction has been blamed on a loss of cross-subsidy from private schemes and a weak funding market for developers.

Of the £1.5billion of new funding, £750million will be used to build 12,500 social homes through RSLs, ALMOs and housebuilders.  £500million will go to the Kickstart programme for unlocking stalled regeneration sites and £250million will be used to deliver 3,000 more council homes through direct development.

Educational Building — Comments Off
6
Jul 09

Fear of cuts, as cost of college schemes doubles

The 13 college schemes provisionally approved by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) are estimated to cost twice the £300million of funding available, leading to fears that the projects could be cut.

The LSC has said that ’significant but manageable cuts’ will need to be made to the schemes, to allow the budget to be shared around.

It is thought that the schemes were originally priced at £600million.

Only 13 of 180 schemes have received funding, since the £5billion college building programme was placed on hold in March. Consultation on prioritising the remainder of the schemes will begin in the autumn. The schemes will have to wait until at least 2011/12 to secure funding.

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