Building Briefs – March 12th

Scottish Renewables has announced the appointment of its new chairman and vice-chairman, as well as several new directors.

Rob Forrest, chief executive of renewable energy developer GreenPower, will take over as chairman, while David Cameron, head of Scottish Policy at EDF Energy, has been appointed vice-chairman.

Rob replaces Patricia Hawthorn, partner at UK law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, who had chaired the organisation since 2015. He was previously Scottish Renewables’ first chief executive, from 1999 to 2004.

Springfield Properties delivers 202 affordable homes in Edinburgh

Housebuilder Springfield Properties has delivered its £23 million affordable homes development at Muirhouse in Edinburgh in partnership with Dunedin Canmore and Muirhouse Housing Association.

The private and affordable housing provider has completed the final handover of 49-homes at the development, which is located near Muirhouse Shopping Centre.

The 202 affordable homes - where construction began in 2012 - is now complete after a mix of one & two bedroom apartments, cottage flats and two & three bedroom terrace homes were delivered to social housing providers Dunedin Canmore, part of the Wheatley Group, and Muirhouse Housing Association.

Each home is highly energy efficient meeting sustainability building standards which keep running costs low. Householders can also keep on top of their energy usage using the ‘Current Cost’ smart energy meters that have been installed in each property.

Councillors hear plans for new Alexandria education campus

Councillors have noted plans to build a new £15.1 million Renton Primary School and invest £850,000 extensively refurbishing St Mary’s Primary in Alexandria.

A report presented to members of West Dunbartonshire Council’s educational services committee, detailed plans to construct a new Renton Primary and a Language and Communication Base for children with additional support needs. The new campus will include a new Riverside Early Learning and Childcare Centre, to be constructed on the grounds of the current school.

Members also moved forward with plans to upgrade and improve St Mary’s Primary School in Alexandria. Pupils will benefit from a new internal kitchen and dining area, replacing the temporary dining room which is currently located outwith the school building. The refurbishment will create a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) hub, which will equip children with essential skills for future modern careers, and also a new external state of the art Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) for outdoor sports.

Further engagement will take place with parents, carers and pupils at St Martin’s Primary with a report on the schools to be prepared and brought to the Education meeting in June.

Convener of educational services, Councillor Karen Conaghan, said: “These plans will see hundreds of children move from buildings that are in poor condition to be educated in modern learning environments. Along with the new Renton Primary we will have a new purpose-built Language and Communications Base for children with additional support needs.”

Clackmannanshire Council agrees £55m capital budget programme

Councillors in Clackmannanshire have agreed spending on services for the year ahead as part of a budget setting process which seeks to protect priority services, while improving the financial sustainability of the council.

At a Special Council Meeting last week, councillors approved the revenue budget of £118.796 million to spend on services in 2018/2019. A capital budget programme of £54.972m was also agreed for the five year period until 2023, with over 70 projects in the plan including the creation of the new Tullibody South Campus, funding for improvements to schools, investment in roads and footpaths and regeneration in communities.

Savings of £7.376m have been approved to deal with the spending gap. Some of the savings relate to organisational redesign and associated management restructure within the council, including a 40% reduction in management posts. Staffing reductions will be made through voluntary means. In addition there will be savings of £1.666m made through management efficiencies.

A number of CAPs and halls are to be offered to local communities with a view to achieving Community Asset Transfers in line with the Community Empowerment Act.

It was also agreed that Clackmannanshire’s Council Tax is to rise by 3%, with the new Band D rate set at £1,217.91.

Councillors also agreed a net resource transfer for adult social care of £16.041 million to the Clackmannanshire and Stirling Health and Social Care Partnership.

Last month the council approved a five year business plan for the housing service, including 2% increase in rent levels for council houses.

Housing market activity flat, but prices rise as demand exceeds supply

Housing market activity in Scotland was flat in February as a shortage of properties becoming available for sale continued to result in an increasing number of potential new buyers being thwarted, according to the latest RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Residential Market Survey.

The number of properties coming onto the market (instructions to sell) failed to increase again in February, according to the survey, continuing a constrained supply trend that has been evident since 2015. As a result, newly agreed sales were flat last month, despite a rising number of new buyer enquiries.

Due to this gap between demand and availability, average house prices rose again, according to respondents, with a net balance of +31% of Scottish surveyors reporting increased values in the latest survey. This was significantly above the UK average and one of the highest readings of the UK nations and regions.

Encouragingly though, surveyors in Scotland are optimistic about the short-term outlook for activity in the market as we move into the spring months. A net balance of +39% of respondents expect the number of sales to increase in the three months ahead, from their low base, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that surveyors expect more potential vendors to bring their properties to the market when the weather improves.

Link Group achieves A+ credit rating

Independent credit ratings provider Standard & Poors (S&P) has awarded Link Group Ltd with an investment grade rating of A+.

Link has responded to the Scottish Government’s target to deliver 50,000 affordable homes for rent by 2021 with an ambitious development programme to build more than 3,200 homes within the next five years.

Although Link expects to receive more than £200 million of grant funding towards the delivery of the homes, the Association has estimated that will also require £180m in private investment. To assist in sourcing this funding Link undertook a credit rating assessment with S&P.

The credit agency was not only comfortable with Link as a long-term stable investment, but also with the Scottish Government’s support for Registered Social Landlords in general. Link is one of only two Scottish housing associations to obtain a credit rating (the other being Wheatley Group) and is one of a relatively small number of A+ rated housing associations throughout the UK.