Building Briefs – May 2nd

Keyline appoints new rail account manager for Scotland

Keyline has announced the appointment of Jorge Capps as its new key account manager for rail covering the North and Scotland.

Jorge joined Keyline in 2018 as a business development manager and key account handler, after spending most of his career in the armed forces.

Having joined the Royal Marines after leaving school, Jorge undertook Commando Training, one of the most professionally demanding military courses in the world, and earned the coveted Green Beret, before moving to Scotland to start mountain training.

He gained various qualifications and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. Upon return to the UK he was part of the security operation for the 2012 London Olympics. Jorge then left the armed forces and began working as a personal trainer, then at a commercial printer before joining Keyline.

Scottish Water hits renewable energy milestone

Scottish Water has achieved a major energy milestone after it was confirmed that the amount of renewable energy the company generates and facilitates is now more than double its electricity consumption.

Through a combination of Scottish Water’s own investment in renewable energy and hosting private investment on its estate, new figures show the company now generates and hosts 923 Gigawatt hour (GWh) per annum of renewable energy.

The figure, which is UK industry leading in terms of facilitated generation, is enough to power more than 300,000 homes for a year.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the achievement speaking at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow today.

Scottish Water is one of the biggest users of electricity in the country and consumes about 440 GWh per year of grid electricity at sites such as water and waste water treatment works.

The company has achieved the impressive energy efficiency figures through a range of initiatives, including self-generation on many of its sites, utilising new technology including hydro, wind, photovoltaic solar, biomass boilers and combined heat and power (CHP), and hosting third-party private generation such as large-scale windfarms.

In just three years, Scottish Water has raised the annual financial benefits of its efforts to reduce its energy bill and increase renewable generation to more than £8m and facilitated more than £390m of private investment on its estate.

More than 70 of the company’s water and wastewater treatment works are either self-sufficient or partly sufficient in their power requirements, leading to lower operating costs and a more sustainable business.

As a result, Scottish Water is making a significant contribution to Scotland’s national economic, carbon and renewable energy targets.

CBRE predicts increase in pre-lets for Edinburgh office market

The Edinburgh office market is predicted to undergo a period of transformation for the remainder of the year, according to commercial property consultancy CBRE Scotland.

Following the record year of take-up in 2017, characterised by numerous large deals and the acquisition of whole buildings, occupational activity retreated back to be focused on the sub 10,000 sq ft market in the first quarter of 2018.

Take-up in Q1 totalled 139,969 sq ft, all of which involved secondhand space. The largest single deal so far this year was just over 23,500 sq ft, in the out-of-town market.

In spite of lower levels of take-up, availability still continues to decline. By the end of March, availability stood at 1.07 million sq ft, down by just over 4% since the end of 2017, and a decline of over 14% over the previous twelve months.

With continued low levels of supply, prime office rents have continued to push higher. By the end of Q1 deals were in negotiation on new build space at £33.50 per sq ft.

Work underway on new Earlston shared-use path

Work has got underway to create a new shared cycleway and footway south of Earlston which aims to encourage active travel.

The works alongside the A68 road began on Monday 30 April and will take around 12 weeks, with traffic lights in operation from 7am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.

SBContracts is carrying out the works on behalf of Scottish Borders Council, with the shared access cycleway/footway to be 1.6kilometres long and run from Earlston to Sorrowlessfield.

Trunk road operator Amey has been consulted on the plans, with Sustrans Scotland providing the £360,000 funding for the project which otherwise would have been spent elsewhere in the country on a different active travel scheme.

Taylor Wimpey offers support for Bargeddie community clean-up

As part of its commitment to the local community of Bargeddie, Taylor Wimpey West Scotland has provided a £500 boost to the fundraising efforts of the Kirkwood Community Council’s Community clean-up of The Luggie Walkway on June 2 and 3.

As well as this generous cash boost, up to eight members of Taylor Wimpey’s team will roll-up their sleeves to join the local community event that aims clear up and rejuvenate the walkway, which runs nearby from its Burnside View sales information centre to the Kirkwood Sports Barn.

The Kirkwood Community Council is encouraging as many people as possible to join them from 10am each day to help with the clean up. Volunteers will be provided with the appropriate safety equipment to complete the tasks of litter picking, grass clearing and general tidying of the area.

There will also be some entertainment throughout the day to ensure it is a fun day for everyone.

Taylor Wimpey goes back to school in Bathgate

Last week, the children from Primary two at Simpson Primary in Bathgate invited members of the team from Taylor Wimpey East Scotland into their classroom to give a lesson about how they build homes as part of their ‘House to Homes’ project.

As part of their learning experience, 25 children from P2B drafted an individual letter to managing director Ian Drummond to invite him into school so the children could learn more from his team about each of the steps that a house takes before it becomes a home.

As well as a fun and engaging presentation outlining the steps and processes that Taylor Wimpey takes to build a new home, the team ran a mini bricklaying session in class giving the children the opportunity to get a closer look at the process of bricklaying.

The children were very enthusiastic with lots of interesting and well-informed questions.