Building Briefs – April 19th

Aberdeen Football Club hopes to begin construction of its new stadium and training complex in June, after signing a legal agreement with the city council.

The club will build the £50 million stadium and training facilities at Kingsford, near Westhill.

The plans were put on hold last October but the council approved them in January. This was followed by the news that the project will not be called in by the Scottish Government.

Paragon named one of UK property industry’s best places to work

Edinburgh-based independent building and project consultancy Paragon has been named as one of the UK property industry’s best places to work by sector title, Property Week.

The annual Best Places to Work in Property list was announced at a prestigious event in central London last month attended by hundreds of property professionals. Only 52 businesses successfully qualified for the list, which involves companies undertaking in-depth employer and employee surveys before being evaluated across eight metrics including leadership, culture, role satisfaction, training, pay and benefits.

Judges highlighted Paragon’s inclusive and social culture and impressive workplace initiatives, such as a quarterly ideas award to reward employees’ innovative ideas, an uncapped fee target bonus scheme and a birthday off initiative, as reasons for achieving the accolade.

Located on George Street, Paragon’s Edinburgh office is led by director David Philip and provides a range of building and project consultancy services to clients either based or owning property in Scotland.

New Pennywell All Care Centre officially opened

The new Pennywell All Care Centre has been officially opened.

Staff and guests welcomed cabinet secretary for health and sport, Shona Robison, for the formal ribbon cutting ceremony.

Pennywell All Care Centre, previously known as the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre provides a range of services designed to keep children’s health and welfare at the forefront of local services. The partnership centre also includes health and social care services and additional general practice provision.

The Pennywell All Care Centre is one of three partnership centres that make up a £27.6 million programme delivered by NHS Lothian in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and West Lothian Council.

The works have seen three new health and council hubs built in Allemuir, North West Edinburgh (Muirhouse) and Blackburn in West Lothian over the past two years.

The new facilities were developed under the hub initiative through hub South East Scotland. They were delivered through a single design, build, finance and maintain contract, with GRAHAM Construction appointed as the contractor.

More Dundee homes to receive external wall insulation

The latest £1.7 million phase of an external wall insulation (EWI) programme in Dundee is to provide warmer, more energy efficient homes at another 232 properties, councillors will hear on Monday.

Nearly £40 million has been spent across the city since 2016 to ensure homes are easier to heat and more energy efficient.

This latest round of external wall insulation could benefit properties in Harefield Road, Ann Street, Hilltown, Watson Street, Atholl Street, Moncur Crescent, Strathmore Avenue and Beechwood.

This particular project comprises of 232 properties of mixed tenure.

The project, if approved, will receive funding from Dundee City Council, Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Home Energy Efficiency Programme Scotland – Area Based Schemes (HEEPS – ABS) funding.

SSE is managing the work on behalf of the council, with work due to be completed by April 2019.

Average house price dipped 2.7% between January and February

The average price of a property in Scotland in February 2018 was £144,377 – an increase of 6.2% on February in the previous year and a decrease of 2.7% when compared to the previous month, according to Registers of Scotland’s latest monthly UK House Price Index.

The figures compare to a UK average of £225,047, which was an increase of 4.4% on February in the previous year and a decrease of 0.1% when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in December 2017 was 8,052 – a decrease of 5.1% on December 2016 and a decrease of 6.6% on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 21.2% in England and 14.3% in Wales in December 2017, and 8.8% in Northern Ireland Quarter 4 – 2017.

Top training investment for Russell Roof Tiles

Roofing manufacturer Russell Roof Tiles is nurturing its team with the largest single investment in training at a time when a recent survey shows the value of staff development.

A study by CIPD (Chartered Institute of Training & Development - the professional body for HR and people development) launched its first UK Working Lives Survey in April which highlighted the importance of training.

This new survey looks at seven different aspect of job quality and measures how important each element is to people in work. Results show that while overall satisfaction with work and jobs is reasonable, there are significant numbers who feel differently, with training and development showing up as really important.

Russell Roof Tiles is investing £60,000 in health, safety and environmental training for a large number of its supervisors, apprentices and maintenance personnel across its sites.

The firm already employs 180 at is three sites, one in Lochmaben and two in Burton on Trent and is looking to expand its team further.

DM Hall secures ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management systems certification

Chartered surveyor DM Hall has become one of the small number of businesses in Scotland to achieve ISO 9001:2015 certification in Quality Management Systems (QMS).

ISO 9001 is the international standard which specifies requirements for a QMS and is used by organisation to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. It is the most popular standard in the ISO 9000 series.

DM Hall now has new systems in place to assess client requirements and expectations quickly and easily. Communication throughout the firm has improved and is subject to continuous measurement of the effectiveness of vital communications.