Building Briefs – July 6th

The winner of the Morrison Construction safety poster competition launched during Health Week at Corsehill Primary School has received their prize.

The poster competition was created to encourage pupils thinking about safety near construction sites with the winner Lexi presented an iPad mini by Morrison Construction health and safety advisor Gavin Slater. Lexi’s winning entry will be displayed at Morrison Construction sites.

Morrison Construction’s Water business is currently undertaking about £3m of works at several sites across Ayrshire including: Barassie Pumping Station refurbishment, Panrocks Pumping Station refurbishment at Troon and Gailes Pumping Station refurbishment at Irvine.

Gavin together with fellow Morrison Construction health and safety advisor, Alastair Gill, gave a safety presentation to 200 pupils in June about the dangers of entering a construction site before announcing the poster competition.

Now into its tenth year, Scottish Ambulance Service Community First Responders, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and local sporting club representatives also attended the week-long health and wellbeing event.

£13m Aberdeen council house development completed

A 99-home development of council houses has been completed as part of Aberdeen City Council’s programme of investment in new homes.

The £13 million site at Smithfield features 42 three and four-bedroom semi-detached properties and 57 one and two-bedroom apartments.

The final phase has now been handed over by contractor CHAP Construction to the council and new tenants are beginning to move in. The first Smithfield residents received their keys in 2017 as the initial phase was completed.

Within months work at the nearby Manor Walk site will also be completed, providing 80 additional council houses.

Aberdeen City Council co-leaders Cllr Jenny Laing and Cllr Douglas Lumsden have visited the Smithfield site to mark the successful completion of the project.

The council is currently developing plans for the delivery of a further 2,000 new council homes after setting its 2018/19 budget priorities earlier in the year. Self-financing business plans, in conjunction with private developers, working within an affordable capital investment sum of £250m, will be brought back for councillors to consider.

Hanover and Robertson team up to provide new affordable homes in Elgin

A local housing provider and one of the UK’s largest independent construction and infrastructure firms will work together to bring Elgin residents much-needed quality and affordable social housing.

Founded in Elgin in 1966, Robertson will begin construction of 44 new homes this month in conjunction with Hanover Housing Association, which specialises in care and support for the elderly, as part of a £8 million contract.

Funding secured to tackle fuel poverty in Perth and Kinross homes

Over £2 million has been secured to help replace old central heating systems across Perth and Kinross.

An investment of £1,092,051 by Perth & Kinross Council has been backed by a further £1,209,303 from the Warm Homes Fund, along with Energy Company Obligation funding of £138,550 from SSE.

The council submitted a bid for funding from the Warm Homes Fund in partnership with energy company SSE in February.

The £150m Warm Homes Fund (WHF) was launched by National Grid and Affordable Warmth Solutions in 2017. The fund is designed to support local authorities, and organisations working with them, to address fuel poverty.

The money will support the delivery of several locally based projects including:

Work will begin to deliver these projects by December 2019.

Revenue Scotland updates online guidance and processes following introduction of First-Time Buyer Relief

Revenue Scotland has updated its guidance, systems and processes to allow First-Time Buyer Relief to be claimed from 30 June 2018.

The updates follow the changes to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 introduced by The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (First-Time Buyer Relief) (Scotland) Order 2018 (‘The Order’) which came into effect from Saturday 30th June 2018.

The Order introduces tax relief for a first-time buyer acquiring ownership of a dwelling, provided certain conditions are met. The conditions are set out in the legislation and further explained in Revenue Scotland’s guidance which is available with other supporting information about the relief from www.revenue.scot/land-buildings-transaction-tax/lbtt-updates.

Galashiels resurfacing improvements to get underway

A daytime closure of a Galashiels road to allow significant resurfacing improvements to take place begins later this month.

Scott Street will be resurfaced in two phases from Monday 30 July to Friday 10 August.

Phase one will see works take place from the junction of St John Street to immediately before the junction with Balmoral Place, from Monday 30 July to Friday 3 August.

Phase two will see the section from Balmoral Place to Roxburgh Place resurfaced Monday 6 to Friday 10 August.