Building Briefs – November 3rd

A partnership between Clackmannanshire Council, Kingdom Housing Association and hub East Central Scotland, is building new affordable homes at the site of the former Community Centre in Ann Street, Tillicoultry.

The completed project will provide 17 bungalows and 4 cottage flats for social rent in a courtyard layout. All of the new houses and two of the cottage flats provide amenity housing for older people or those with particular needs.

Clackmannanshire Council made use of the hub’s procurement model under which the new homes are being built by Marshall Construction, with Kingdom Housing Association providing project management services for the project.

Through the hub process, training and employment initiatives are maximised and Community Artwork is being incorporated in consultation with the local community and schools.

The Scottish Government provided Town Centre Housing Grant Funding and Clackmannanshire Council have funded the balance for this project which meets ‘Silver Standard’ due to high levels of insulation and energy efficiency strategies.

Scottish businesses face further rental increases over next 12 months, RICS warns

Scottish businesses are predicted to face further financial pressures with commercial rents expected to rise further over the next 12 months, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) warned today.

The RICS UK Commercial Market Survey, Q3 2015, reveals that businesses within the office and industrial sectors in Scotland are likely to experience the most significant rental increases over the next 12 months, at around 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

Demand for commercial properties continues to rise among renters, with a net balance of 20 per cent of respondents reporting an increase in occupier demand over the last quarter. The strongest growth was reported across office space, where 41 per cent of respondents reported a rise.

Availability of leasable commercial space contracted over the last three months, continuing the pattern of declining supply witnessed for the majority of the last two years and placing upward pressure on rents.

Commercial property values are also expected to continue to rise relatively strongly across Scotland over the next twelve months. Office property again is projected to remain the driver with an anticipated increase in value of just over 4 per cent throughout 2016. Foreign investment in Scottish commercial property, however, has stalled somewhat during Q3, with a net balance of 9 per cent of respondents reporting a drop in enquiries from foreign investors.

Moorfield Group welcomes Balfour Beatty to Westway

Balfour Beatty has become the latest occupier to sign-up for space at Moorfield Group’s highly successful Westway Park in Renfrew.

The international infrastructure group has agreed terms for an initial short-term lease on 30,000 sq ft of refurbished industrial space at Units L2.

Balfour Beatty will use the space to service a recently awarded £34 million Hunterston A nuclear contract and will shortly be installing heavy engineering and production machinery into the units.

The contract awarded by Magnox will involve Balfour Beatty being responsible for delivering the final stage of the encapsulation process and construction of the solid intermediate level waste encapsulation plant, as part of the decommissioning of the former nuclear power plant in North Ayrshire.

The twin reactor site was Scotland’s first civil nuclear generating station and at the time of opening in 1964 was the largest in operation in the world.

Environment minister outlines ambitious land reform proposals

The benefits of the Land Reform Bill will be “potentially life-changing for individuals and communities across Scotland”, environment minister Dr Aileen McLeod said yesterday.

The minister said the Scottish Government was listening and keen to consider further improvements to the land reform proposals, which already include radical plans, including establishing a permanent Scottish Land Commission.

The Commission will end the stop-start nature of land reform in Scotland and have the potential to help deliver further reforms.

HBF appoints Peter Andrew as new deputy chairman

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has appointed Peter Andrew as its new deputy chairman from the start of November.

Peter was previously UK land and planning director - and a UK board member - at national housebuilder Taylor Wimpey.

He will work three days a week for HBF in an executive capacity.

Resurfacing works to be carried out on B945

Essential carriageway resurfacing works are to be carried out in Fife next week, the council has announced.

Roadworks on the B945 will begin on Monday, 9 November.

It is understood the works are to be undertaken in two phases and will be completed in approximately 12 weeks.

A temporary road closure will be in place on weekdays from 8:15am to 4:15pm.

However, this will be lifted over the evenings and weekends, as well as over two weeks during the Christmas period.