Building Briefs – February 19th

East Renfrewshire affordable housing development handed over by Mactaggart & Mickel Contracts

Seven affordable homes in Eaglesham have been handed over to East Renfrewshire Council by Mactaggart & Mickel Contracts, a division of the Mactaggart & Mickel Group.

The homes, which range from one-bedroom bungalows to one and two-bedroom apartments, form part of the wider development of 121 homes at Polnoon, a pioneering site that sets new standards in urban planning.

Fully embracing the Scottish Government’s Designing Streets agenda, it encapsulates the placemaking design approach to build a better quality living environment and community for residents.

Polnoon won a Saltire Design Award for Innovation in Housing in 2015, and in 2014 was named Best Medium Development at the Homes for Scotland Awards. The site has been visited by town planners, architects and interested parties from across Scotland and beyond.

Whitecross Building Consultancy growth fuels Edinburgh expansion

Chartered building surveyors Whitecross Building Consultancy has announced the opening of an Edinburgh office as part of its business expansion.

Established in Glasgow in 2010 by Graeme Scott, Whitecross has enjoyed another successful year, with turnover increasing by over 200 per cent.

Currently managing the million pound external refurbishment programme of the Glasgow City Hotel, Whitecross advises clients throughout the UK and provides specialist Building Consultancy and Project Management services across all sectors of the commercial property industry, from large industrial and office space to leisure and retail.

The new office, located in the heart of Scotland’s capital, will be headed up by associate director Craig Duff. Craig joins the company from Jones Lang LaSalle and brings a wealth of experience in the full range of building surveying professional services, including due diligence and pre-lease surveys, dilapidations, project management and contract administration, technical feasibility studies and building pathology and defect analysis.

Wilton Lodge Park’s café and bridge works delayed

An extended procurement exercise for Wilton Lodge Park’s new café and bridge as part of the regeneration project is now nearing completion, Scottish Borders Council has revealed.

However, the work has resulted in the completion date for both the café and bridge being pushed back from summer to autumn 2016. A more specific date will be available after the award of the contract, which will be made in the coming weeks.

Despite this delay, the café will be ready to open to customers ahead of the Easter holidays in 2017, alongside the new playpark.

The delay to the completion of the café and bridge will have no impact on the start of work on the new outdoor classroom this spring. The start of the landscaping works around the Gilbert Davidson Fountain will take place this summer.

The £3.64 million regeneration project, which we have funded along with the Heritage Lottery Fund, has already seen the opening of the new walled garden, the park gallery in Hawick Museum and the Zandra Elliot Bandstand.

£4.9m Highland hydro scheme begins

Civil engineering firm Farrans has begun developing a £4.9 million hydro scheme in Kinlochewe.

The NI-based company is underway with the Grudie Hydro Scheme, which is being carried out on behalf of RWE Innology.

The project includes building 1.8km of 1.2m diameter penstock pipeline, a RC intake structure, a RC Powerhouse structure and building services, tailrace outfall and permanent access track.

The project is due for completion in December.

Sanctuary merger to create Scotland’s 4th largest social landlord

Two housing providers owned by Sanctuary Group will merge with Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association after tenants overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal to unite.

More than 84 per cent of Sanctuary Cumbernauld and Tenants First Housing Co-operative voters said ‘Yes’ to joining Sanctuary Scotland, which will soon become the country’s 4th largest social landlord with almost 6,000 homes available to let.

Sanctuary Scotland’s portfolio will be bolstered by around 2,000 properties in Cumbernauld and around 1,500 in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

Over a third of Scottish households remain in fuel poverty

The number of Scottish households in fuel poverty fell by around 15,000 between 2013 and 2014 but still represents 34.9 per cent of all households, according to a new report.

A briefing update from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe), estimated that there were 845,000 households living in fuel poverty in Scotland in 2014.

A household is considered to be in fuel poverty if it is required to spend more than 10 per cent of its disposable income (including housing benefit or income support for mortgage interest) on all household fuel use.

The briefing found that fuel poverty rates vary across Scotland with Eilean Siar, Highland and Orkney Islands witnessing fuel poverty rates of 50 per cent or over, whilst most Central Belt areas show rates of below 40 per cent.

The Scottish Government has pledged to ensure that by November 2016, so far as is reasonably practicable, people are not living in fuel poverty in Scotland.

In June 2015 in announced that improving the energy efficiency of buildings in Scotland will be designated a national infrastructure priority.

New council homes in Glenrothes begin to take shape

Demolition of former council offices at Tantallon Avenue in Glenrothes to make way for more much needed council homes is now complete.

The eleven new houses are starting to take shape at the Bankhead House site with kits now being erected by Fife Council’s team of house builders. The homes will be a mix of cottage flats, three-bed, four-bed and a five-bed home – one of which will be an adapted property for a disabled tenant. There will also be 22 parking spaces added as part of the new development.

The homes, which are the first council houses to be built in Glenrothes since 1990, will benefit from energy efficient ‘Whole House heat recovery systems’ with triple glazed windows and sprinkler systems.

The new housing development has received £154,000 of Scottish Government funding and is expected to be completed in autumn 2016. It is one of a number of sites under construction to meet the council’s target to deliver 2,700 new affordable homes by 2017.