Building Briefs – June 9th

Costain Upstream has appointed Eamonn McGennis as its decommissioning lead in Aberdeen.

The move has been made in response to a slump in oil prices, which is encouraging operators in the industry to retire outdated facilities.

Mr McGennis has vast experience with the decommissioning process, including retiring the Camelot platform in the southern North Sea.

Costain has also set up a decommissioning team to take advantage of a predicted rise in new work.

Glasgow City Region City Deal steps up a gear

A £1.13 billion jobs and infrastructure programme took a step forward this week as the Glasgow City Region agreed to develop a manifesto for economic development and growth.

Leaders of the eight local authorities in the region also agreed to take on responsibility for focusing on new priority areas of work that will help deliver the 29,000 new jobs the City Deal is expected to deliver for the region.

It came as new branding and a website for the Glasgow City Region City Deal was launched.

Drop in demand as activity in Scottish housing dips during May

Activity in the Scottish housing market slowed during May, as a decline in new properties coming on to the market was accompanied by a drop in new buyer enquiries, the RICS has found.

A net balance of 13 percent more chartered surveyors reported a fall in demand while a net balance of 8 percent saw sales tail off last month.

Despite softer activity, house prices in Scotland remained firm and a net balance of 15 percent more respondents expect prices to climb in the next few months. This is due, in part, the continued decline in supply, with 22 percent (net balance) of surveyors reporting a decrease in new properties coming on the market in May. Supply has now failed to keep up with demand, even during more quiet months, for much of the past 3 years.

While prices are continuing to rise modestly across the rest of the UK, this trend looks set to fade, with 10 percent more respondents predicting that prices would fall rather than rise over the coming three months. This is the first time that a fall in prices has been predicted since 2012. London and East Anglia are expected to be worst hit with 43 per cent (net balance) and 33 per cent (net balance) of respondents saying that prices will fall over the next quarter.

The survey revealed that in the longer term, while house prices are thought likely to regain momentum, rental growth looks set to outpace house price inflation.

Construction salaries rise 6.5 per cent in past year

Number crunchers at online recruitment service CV-Library report that advertised salaries across the construction industry jumped by 6.5 per cent in May 2016 compared to May 2015.

The average annual wage in construction jobs on the site jumped from £41,773 in May 2015 to £44,497 in May 2016.

The site also reports an 11 per cent annual increase in the number of applications made to construction roles during the same period.

Roads grant to help Moray timber industry

Moray Council has been awarded £122,000 to help with the upkeep of roads which play a vital part in the area’s timber industry.

The award from the Scottish Timber Transport Scheme is being match funded by the council from a new budget for works on roads used for timber extraction.

Moray is one of the most heavily forested areas of Scotland and timber extraction is an important contributor to the local economy.

Well-maintained roads are important in ensuring that harvesting machinery and haulage vehicles can access areas where felling operations are being carried out.

The Moray Council funding bid was backed by the Grampian Timber Transport Group, of which the council is a member along with timber producers, forest estate owners, the Forestry Commission and Aberdeenshire Council.

The bid had to meet certain criteria for use on approved timber transport routes and the funding will be used for edge strengthening on the C13E Dallas to Knockando road and the C25E near Roseisle. Carriageway recycling will also be carried out on the U105E Garrowslack road near Mosstowie.

Road resurfacing programme to begin in Aberdeenshire

A programme of road surfacing repairs is to begin in Aberdeenshire.

Workers will carry out improvements on the A939 Strathdon to Tomintoul Road between Corgarff and the Lecht from Monday, 20 June.

Features include excavating badly damaged areas over more than half of the width of the road and replacing them with new surfacing materials, as well as overlaying areas where the road surface is badly out of shape with new surfacing.

The project will be completed by Friday, 01 July.

A71 road improvement project to begin

A road improvements project is to begin next month on the A71 in South Lanarkshire.

The works at Strathaven are part of South Lanarkshire Council’s £126 million Roads Investment Programme.

Previously, the project had been scheduled to take place between 13 – 19 June.

However, due to the schemes impact on bus services used by school children, the week-long programme will now get underway on 25 July.

Resurfacing on the A71 will now follow planned works on the A726 Strathaven/East Kilbride Road, which will begin at 7am on Monday, 18 July.

SELECT survey reveals that most qualified electricians prefer to choose quality over cost

The concept that cost is the most important consideration in business took a sharp knock following a survey of its members by SELECT, the electrical sector’s campaigning trade body, which showed that quality and service are the overriding factors.

Newell McGuiness, SELECT MD, unveiled the results of the survey at the Regional Business Forum of the Electrical Distributors’ Association, which represents the electrical wholesale distribution industry within the UK.

The event highlighted SELECT’s survey and the overwhelming message that the electrical industry is more concerned with getting things right than doing them cheaply.

The survey showed that, when choosing a particular manufacturer, 65 per cent of respondents based their decisions on quality, compared to only 19 per cent who decided on price.

Availability also scored highly at nearly 51 per cent, indicating that respondents were keen to deliver promptly and efficiently to their customers. After sales service was also seen as being particularly important.

Electricians were also more likely to buy a product if it had been manufactured in the UK, indicating not only a propensity for quality goods but also an inclination to support other locally-based manufacturers.

Quality of service and availability also featured strongly, at 50 per cent and 41 per cent, when respondents were asked what they based their purchase decisions on when they were selecting a distributor.

Most purchases were made at a trade counter, with phone, email and web purchases following in descending order. It was also very clear, at 75 per cent, that purchasers expected the distributor to ensure that products were compliant with British and EU standards.

Household numbers continue to rise

The number of households in Scotland has continued to increase, though the rate of growth is smaller than before the economic downturn.

Figures published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) revealed there were 2.43 million households in 2015, a rise of around 160,000 over the last ten years and an increase faster than the population.

Since 2005, Scotland’s population has risen by five per cent, whilst the number of households has increased by seven per cent. This is because more people are living alone and in smaller households. This is reflected in the average number of people per household, which has fallen from 2.21 people per household in 2005 to 2.17 in 2015.

Every council area in Scotland has experienced a rise in household numbers over the past ten years, although the size of the increase varies widely. The largest percentage increases were in the Orkney Islands and Highland (13.6 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively). City of Edinburgh saw the largest rise in absolute numbers (18,283, 8.6 per cent).

The overall number of dwellings (including vacant properties and second homes) also rose in 2015, to a total of 2.56 million. This was 161,000 more than in 2005. In Scotland as a whole, 3.1 per cent dwellings were vacant and 1.1 per were second homes, with the latter being more common in more rural areas.

APS extends deadline for CDM national awards

The Association for Project Safety (APS) is extending the deadline for entries into its ninth National CDM Awards to midnight on Friday 24 June.

Following a number of requests for extensions from across the industry, APS has reopened its application process to allow additional entries into the National CDM awards. The extended deadline also offers anyone who has already completed an entry, the opportunity to change and resubmit their application.

Categories within this year’s awards include Principal Designer of the Year, Client of the Year, Principal Contactor of the Year, Health and Safety Award and BIM Project (Integrating Health and Safety Design Risk Management with BIM).

Judging by an expert panel of industry figure-heads is taking place over the summer months to decide on the shortlisted entries. All shortlisted entries into the National CDM Awards will be invited to attend an exclusive event at the House of Commons in the afternoon prior to the awards ceremony. This will give industry professionals a unique opportunity to network, share good practice, and discuss how Parliament supports the Health and Safety and Risk Management sector.

The awards dinner will then take place on the evening of Thursday 27 October at The Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London where the winners of each category of the CDM Awards, and the National Student Designer Awards will be revealed.

The extended deadline does not affect submissions into the National Student Designer Awards 2016, and applications for this awards scheme are now closed.

Entry to the awards is free with a straightforward application process via the APS website. Entrants can download the entry form from the APS website and are required to return completed submissions to Laura Hardie at APS by Friday 24 June 2016.

Apply or resubmit your entry for the National CDM Awards: http://www.aps.org.uk/national-cdm-awards-2016.