Construction Excellence South West (CESW) is set to host its Annual Review and Luncheon, offering industry professionals a platform to discuss key developments, strategies, and future plans. The event, scheduled for March 6th, will take place at the Somerset County Cricket Club and promises to be a day filled with valuable insights, networking opportunities, and the official launch of CESW’s new website. CLICK HERE to book a place.

Agenda Highlights:

09:30 – Arrival – Coffee – The day kicks off with a networking session over coffee, providing attendees with the opportunity to connect and engage with fellow professionals in a relaxed setting.

10:00 – Welcome – Kevin Harris – CESW CEO, Kevin Harris will extend a warm welcome to all participants, setting the tone for the day ahead.

10:10 – Financial Overview – Michelle Thompson – CESW Treasurer Michelle Thompson, CESW Treasurer, will delve into the financial standing of the organization, providing attendees with a comprehensive overview.

10:20 – 2023-2024 Overview / Annual Report – Dan Macey – CESW Chair Dan Macey, CESW Chair, will present the organization’s annual report, highlighting key achievements and outlining plans for the future.

10:45 – Headline Speaker – Bank Of England – Jamie Barber A major highlight of the event will be a financial overview by Jamie Barber from the Bank of England. Having joined the South West Agency in 2020, Jamie brings a wealth of experience in financial policy development and international representation.

11:30 – G4C New Strategy for G4C in Location – Lizzy Painter – G4C Chair Lizzy Painter, G4C Chair, will unveil the new strategy for G4C, providing insights into the organization’s future plans in the construction industry.

11:50 – CESW New Website Launch – Kevin Harris & Lines Group Kevin Harris, along with representatives from Lines Group, will officially launch CESW’s new website, showcasing a modern and user-friendly platform.

12:00 – The Official Chair Handover – Dan Macey – Kingsley Clarke The event will witness the official handover of the CESW Chair position from Dan Macey to Kingsley Clarke, marking a significant moment in the organization’s leadership.

12:05 – CESW the Next 12 Months – Kingsley Clarke Kingsley will outline CESW’s vision and strategic goals for the next 12 months, providing attendees with a roadmap for the future.

12:30 – Networking Luncheon A networking luncheon will provide a relaxed atmosphere for participants to discuss the day’s proceedings, connect with industry peers, and forge new partnerships.

14:00 – Close

Headline Speaker: Jamie Barber, Bank of England

Jamie Barber, the Headline Speaker from the Bank of England, joined the South West Agency in 2020. With a background in financial sector policy development and international representation, Jamie is set to provide a unique perspective on the current financial landscape.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of CESW’s Annual Review and Luncheon. Join industry leaders, network with professionals, and gain valuable insights into the future of the construction sector. Register now to secure your spot at this premier event.

Sponsorship Opportunities: CESW offers sponsorship opportunities for businesses looking to position themselves as key players in the industry. A budget-friendly Headline Sponsorship at £500 is available, providing sponsors with the chance to align their brands with this memorable and well-attended occasion.

Building Design and Construction magazine: https://bdcmagazine.com/2024/01/south-west-summit-addresses-key-topics-in-housing-construction/

Building products Magazine: https://www.buildingproducts.co.uk/south-west-summit-addresses-key-topics-in-the-housing-and-construction-industry/

As recruitment experts, we know the importance of having the competitive edge when attracting talent towards a company. Finding the right people is difficult but retaining employees in an aggressive market with a shortage of great candidates is just as challenging.

To ensure you’re ahead of the game I wanted to give you the up-to-date industry intelligence and salary benchmarking in your sector, so you can see how you compare. Please CLICK HERE to view the Kingston Barnes Salary & Employment Guide for 2021-2022.

We have surveyed a selection of 1,054 candidates across the sector to provide you with the latest salary information and market trends, providing valuable comparison and information that makes for an interesting read.

The enclosed guide provides an understanding of what to expect from the marketplace right now when considering your recruitment and retention strategy for the future.

If you’d like to discuss any of our findings or have any recruitment needs that you’d like some expert support to help you secure new talent for your business, please do not hesitate to contact me.

James Kingston and Millie Di Mambro.

September is “back to school” month and, I always find, a great opportunity to reflect on the calendar year so far, and to state new ambitions.

For solicitors, most of us qualify in the autumn, and so for many this month marks a professional anniversary, in my case 12 years.  I trained and qualified through a recession and spent much of my first year of qualified life helping clients to prepare for the legal changes about to come into force.  I refer of course to the pithily named Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, which eventually came into force on 1 October 2011, amending and supplementing the equally laconically named Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996.

It’s no wonder the construction sector likes an acronym! Roll on 12 years and the focus is, once again, on regulatory change.  I refer of course to the Building Safety Act 2022 whose provisions come into force over the coming months.  At Michelmores LLP we are running various webinars and publishing articles, sharing with you our knowledge of these legal changes as the details emerge from Westminster.

The latest UK economic statistics for construction are for June 2022, with the ONS keen to remind analysts of the impact of the Jubilee Bank Holiday when comparing date for each of May and June.  Nonetheless the numbers make for challenging reading: the monthly fall of 1.4% in construction output in June 2022 represents a decrease of £204 million in monetary terms compared with May 2022.

My contacts in the marketplace (both public and private sector, and covering clients, main contractors and professionals) have all been telling me the same thing: the work is out there, but what is harder to find is clients willing and able to pay the sort of prices contractors need to tender in order to be profitable.  Risks of labour and materials shortages/price increases remain high and discussions about how those risks should be allocated in contracts continue to be difficult.  In economically challenging times it is more important than ever that all members of the project team come together to collaboratively identify and address these risks.  Risk allocation is one thing: but risk management increases the chance of project success.

It was apparently American philosopher and activist Cornel West who said “You can’t move forward until you look back”.  I am a great believer in taking time to reflect on both achievements and, dare I say it, failings.  I recommend that each of you takes a few minutes today (why put it off?) to think of 3 things you have done well or achieved in 2022 so far, and 3 things that you could have done better.

Then consider what 3 things you would like to achieve, or at least start, between now and New Year’s Eve.  In a period of regulatory, political and economic change, it’s easy to feel that there is much beyond our own control, but we should all retain a focus on what we can control.  We all have 3 months left to influence what kind of year 2022 will have been for us and for the organisations we work within – now is the time to reflect and then act.

Dear members

We have been asked by Stuart Young MCIPR, Director for Construct Zero to circulate the below message with sector colleagues

An unprovoked and bloody invasion by Russia on Ukraine is underway by land, by sea and by air. In response, the Prime Minister today announced the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions we have ever introduced and that Russia has ever faced.   We are imposing these sanctions in close coordination with our US and European allies to ensure they have maximum impact. These sanctions are targeted at the people and financial institutions who have underwritten Putin’s war machine. Sanctions will also be applied to Belarus for its role in the assault on Ukraine. Please find below an overview of the new sanctions. You can read the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament here.   If you have specific questions related to the impact these sanctions may have on your business, please contact us on BusinessPartnerships@CabinetOffice.gov.uk Overview of Sanctions In close cooperation with our allies, we will impose on Russia the largest and most severe package of sanctions ever enacted on a major economy; We will starve the Russian state of their access to finance, introducing legislation by 1 March to: Stop the Russian state from being able to borrow in UK markets and issue sovereign debt; Block the ability of major Russian banks to operate in sterling around the world with a prohibition on clearing payments in sterling – in concert with the US this is the largest financial sanction ever; Block major Russian state and private companies from raising funds in the UK, banning dealing with their securities and loans; Limit the amount of money that Russian nationals can deposit in their UK bank accounts; And in concert with the United States, we are imposing a full asset freeze on the Russian bank VTB. We will expand our measures to prevent key goods and technologies from being exported to Russia by: No longer approving licences for the export of dual-use goods, with immediate effect; Banning the export of a range of high-end and critical technical equipment and components, with enabling legislation laid in March. We will be sanctioning over 100 more individuals and entities in total, including VTB, Russia’s largest bank, and major defence sector organisations: Freezing their assets in the UK. Preventing any UK entities from engaging with these organisations and individuals in the UK or overseas. Imposing travel bans on individuals. And we will ban Russian airline Aeroflot from our skies.   Update from the National Cyber Security Centre Following Russia’s further violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the National Cyber Security Centre has called on organisations in the UK to bolster their online defences. The NCSC – which is a part of GCHQ – has urged organisations to follow its guidance on steps to take when the cyber threat is heightened. While the NCSC is not aware of any current specific threats to UK organisations in relation to events in and around Ukraine, there has been a historical pattern of cyber attacks on Ukraine with international consequences. The guidance encourages organisations to follow actionable steps that reduce the risk of falling victim to an attack. We would also encourage you to follow the NCSC’s social media channels: LinkedIn and Twitter for further alerts and updates. Full details of the campaign to support CNIs, large organisations and public sector organisations can be found here.  If you have any questions, please contact enquiries@ncsc.gov.uk who will be happy to assist. Best wishes,  Business Partnerships Team Cabinet Office

 

 

 

 

 

We’d like to offer a huge CONGRATULATIONS to The NHS Nightingale Hospital Exeter who won Building Project of the Year at the CE National Awards on Friday.

Well done to all the people and companies involved including Arup, BAM Construction Ltd, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Stride Treglown, Service Design Solution Ltd (SDS), T Clarke, Totus, James Hannaford, Cliff Barnes.

Under the most testing circumstances, BAM and the entire, amazing project team worked tirelessly to deliver a superb, fully functioning, 116 bed hospital facility for the people across the South West. Delivered in just 57 days, all during the peak of the first COVID-19 lockdown, this was a major engineering and logistical challenge, turning a redundant Homebase store into a permanent, mini general hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the critical nature of the facility, programme was key, and, through collaborative working and innovative thinking, the facility was completed in just 57 days, including eight days demolition and site preparation and 49 of construction. Whilst called a Nightingale, this facility was a full-scale construction project, re-purposing a former Homebase DIY retail unit with no suitable infrastructure into a full acute facility with the requisite compliant ancillary space and welfare areas.

This scheme delivered more than a temporary facility, as other Nightingale projects were designed to do. Nightingale Hospital Exeter provides a permanent, mini-General Hospital, close to the strategically important M5-A38-A30 communications network and benefitting the whole region. Over 80% of the total £23m project spend went to supply chain partners within a 45-mile radius of the site, including many SMEs. BAM initiated a strategy to keep operatives on site as much as possible, employing three local mobile catering companies to provide free food and beverages, including over 100,000 individual bottles of water.

To reflect the need for flexibility and operational resilience, another factor that differentiates Exeter from similar schemes is compartmentalisation. We created five areas of between 22 and 24 beds, which can be used for different purposes – allowing the Trust to decide what it wants to do with this new facility, providing the flexibility subsequently to change functionality to meet demand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The timeframe, programme and logistics all presented huge challenges, amplified by project conception and delivery all taking place during a full national lockdown in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Over 2,500 people were involved on this project, with 467 on-site at the busiest time, all during the first national lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This presented a huge logistical challenge which was managed by strict social distancing segregation, hi-tec bio security and on-site medical teams, all resulting in zero reportable incidents and no COVID-19 issues.

The design team was just 24 hours ahead of construction, sometimes less, and there were elements of work designed one or two days, or even hours, before they were installed. The design went through many iterations on a daily basis and the team worked tirelessly to assimilate the changes, making sure they just kept in front of the installation team. Ultimately the success of this project was founded on the true partnership between all parties and o BAM’s long-standing relationship with architect, Stride Treglown, engineers Arup and site-based MEP design team, SDS.

 

        

CESW and our CEO, Andrew Carpenter have both featured in the September October issue of Building Products Magazine.

Both pieces centre around climate change and the construction industry’s role in hitting the Net Zero target.

Please CLICK HERE to visit the Building Products Magazine site where you can read both articles and also download the full issue.

Welcome to the July edition of the Newsletter, I’m hugely excited to be writing this hot on the heels of judging the CESW Awards.

As a judge of 3 years standing, I’m truly impressed by the passion, ingenuity, hard-work and dedication of the people and teams involved in the celebrated projects.

This year against the most challenging of conditions with the pandemic, new working conditions and materials supply issues, I’m in awe of what has been achieved. From small specialist project through to multi-million pound complex schemes, our industry has stepped up to the challenge.

For many years now we have spoken about ‘collaboration and digital’ – we are now seeing digital tools and collaborative working being adopted and embraced throughout the supply chain at a much faster rate than many of us have seen for years. It’s evident that  new ‘virtual’ working processes are now in place as standard processes as they have demonstrated their value in increasing productivity along with reductions in carbon footprint.

Our ever present skills shortage is again one of the key factors impacting our productivity levels. These award entries demonstrate how the industry has embraced modern technologies and practises –  off-site and digital, carbon reduction programmes and more inclusive and diverse working environments, we would therefore like to share the best practise, knowledge and learning through case-studies and articles. The CESW Team will be in touch over the coming month.

Congratulations to all those shortlisted and don’t forget the Awards Dinner will be held on the 17^th September at the Marriott City Centre Hotel, Bristol.

We look forward to seeing you there.

“As an industry, we have made significant steps forward in ensuring we deliver high quality buildings for our customers, however, there remains much for us still to do.” Mark Beard.

The management of quality in project delivery is a challenge for all firms involved in design, manufacturing, and site production, whether they are large or small.

The construction industry is under pressure to build more complex projects, safely, with minimum disruption

READ GUIDE NOW