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The REIT old mess we’re in
So that was a bit of a kick in the nuts. As we all knew, public borrowing in the UK has reached record heights, the economy just isn’t growing anywhere, anytime soon… and then we hear that the listless Treasury is doing nothing of note about it.
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Steps to recovery
It wasn’t everything we’d hoped for but yesterday’s UK Budget by the Chancellor featured a number of important announcements for the housing market that will be essential to the UK’s economic recovery.
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BPF’s residential influence grows
Places for People, one of the largest property management and development companies in the UK, and Orchard & Shipman, the biggest private initiative in private sector leasing, have joined the British Property Federation (BPF).
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EPR exacerbates financial difficulties
The Government’s motives for reducing Empty Property Rates (EPR) relief were well intentioned when initially introduced, but it has now become clear that the recession has led to these rates having the opposite effect – and causing more damage to a sector that is already suffering.
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A cracking new HQ for Wallace & Gromit
A new £8m headquarters has just been completed for Aardman Animations, the creators of the famous animated characters Wallace & Gromit.
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Capital idea for Abu Dhabi
A massive governmental and economic centre for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been announced.
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Metal price fall shows signs of slowing
The decline in the price of metals eased off in the first quarter of 2009, according to BDO Stoy Hayward’s Construction Commodities Index, bringing welcome relief to the construction industry.
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A greener shade of red?
With a gloomy financial year of increased public debt and unemployment, diminished manufacturing output, and flatlining interest rates, unless UK Chancellor Alistair Darling has some big surprises for the property market in that red briefcase, there will be little to get excited about in next Wednesday’s 2009 budget.
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Royal court appearance
This month sees the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the English throne.
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Nearing the finish line
Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) will become a popular corporate lifeline if struggling sportswear retailer JJB Sports can secure a ground-breaking agreement with its landlords.
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Halving construction waste to landfill
Over 200 companies have signed up to WRAP’s Construction Commitments: Halving Waste to Landfill scheme
This is a voluntary industry initiative designed to collectively halve, by 2012, the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste which goes to landfill each year in the UK.
However, there are only two demolition contractors in their number. This is somewhat surprising as demolition accounts for over 90% of construction waste and managing it is the single biggest cost for the demolition contractor.
The Site Waste Management Plan Regulations (SWMP), which came into force last year, require contractors to estimate the quantity of each type of waste expected to be produced and track their recovery and destination throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Whilst this only applies to projects exceeding £300k in value, in effect this means that all but the smallest projects must have a SWMP.
Signing-up to the WRAP scheme obliges contractors to go much further and set specific targets for reducing waste to landfill, embed these objectives into their corporate policies/procedures and report/publish their performance.
Demolition contractors can thus influence the overall performance of a project by ensuring that the waste generated by the demolition, 90% of the total for project remember, is re-used or recycled or at the very least diverted from landfill. In effect we seek to produce not waste, but product from the demolition process.
With landfill taxes rising at a rate of £3 a tonne every year (by 2010/11 landfill tax will be at a whopping £48 a tonne) it is in a demolition contractor’s interests to recover and re-use or recycle as much waste as possible.
Use of WRAP’s Quality Protocol for concrete aggregate also enables demolition operators to leave greater quantities of graded aggregate on-site (for use in the build phase) and so further reduce costs and CO2 generation of transporting it off-site.
There remains a lot of room for improvement as clients and designers get to grips with the ICE demolition protocol which calls for early design work to seek to make use of the demolition products.
If the demolition contractor can be given clear requirements on the products which might be needed during the build phase, then he can look at the raw material and see what can be generated during the work, be it high grade road sub-base, medium grade fill for voids, for piling mats or for later landscaping to materials such as slate for re-incorporation in the new building.
Paul Clarke Scholes is the HSQE manager for Clifford Devlin
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