According to latest reports the Zero Carbon Hub and Energy Saving Trust is calling for a new marketing plan to promote zero carbon homes. The plan also addresses concerns that they appear experimental and unappealing to homeowners. The report also makes a number of proposals to ensure carbon homes are not marginalised as ‘green’. The [...]
At least two contractors have banned foam concrete containing IBA from all of their sites. The foam concrete is widely used in the construction industry. The worst of the explosions occurred at Mill Green, Hertfordshire where two workers sustained fractures to the ankle and foot. The explosion was caused when foam concrete was placed into [...]
Construction work on a £545 million state-of-the-art hospital in Birmingham is ahead of schedule, it has been revealed. University Hospitals Birmingham Trust said most of the building work had been completed and the Queens Elizabeth Hospital is expected to hit all its target dates. The hospital will be the first in the city for 70 [...]
Six contractors have secured a place in Severn Trent Water’s £40 million property framework. The three-year project involves refurbishment and modernisation of facilities in an area extending from the Humber Estuary to the Bristol Channel, and from mid Wales to the East Midlands. Allenbuild, BAM and ISG will share larger projects worth £1 million and [...]
Plans to construct a new prison in North Wales have been withdrawn. The former Dynamex site in Caernarfon had been tipped for purchase in February by the then prisons minister David Hanson. Up to 1,000 jobs from the 800-capacity prison could have been provided by development on the 27-acre site, chosen from among four Welsh [...]
Network Rail will fund railway refurbishments in Scotland worth an estimated £1 billion, it has been revealed. The plans will appease green issue campaigners and commuters alike when the Glasgow to Edinburgh line is electrified and journey times could be slashed to up 35 minutes. The Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) will also fund a [...]
A newly-appointed government adviser has warned that the UK could face blackouts by 2016, unless new energy sources are developed to replace ageing power stations. Professor David MacKay said that public opposition to developments such as nuclear power plants, windfarms and tidal barrages was partly to blame for the prospect of electricity shortages. The Cambridge [...]
More than £27 million will be lent by the Co-operative Bank to help build schools in the Midlands. The Birmingham Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will borrow £27.5 million of a £54 million debt facility from the Manchester-based lender’s PFI and Project Finance team. Phase one of the BSF project will launch the [...]
Plans for a new emergency care hospital off the A19 have been tentatively backed by NHS North of Tyne. The board said it would consider approving the development once a number of matters which still need looking at are resolved. It also gave the go-ahead for plans to upgrade North Tyneside and Wansbeck general hospitals [...]
The University of Manchester has announced plans to construct a new £30 million building for its School of Chemical Engineering. The proposed five-storey facility is part of the university’s overall £650 million construction programme, and will provide 110,000 sq ft to house research and teaching laboratories and academic offices. Construction work on the building is [...]