It's been a strange and unsettling year and we're gutted that we haven't been able to hold the LABC Building Excellence Awards Regional and Grand Finals events in the offline world in 2020. However, we're very pleased to be able to announce the winners and highly commended from the Central region awards, nonetheless.
It's been a strange and unsettling year and we're gutted that we haven't been able to hold the LABC Building Excellence Awards Regional and Grand Finals events in the offline world in 2020. However, we're very pleased to be able to announce the winners and highly commended from the North West region awards, nonetheless.
Discover who are the winners and highly commended projects and people at this year's LABC London Building Excellence Awards.
- Read more about Leeds building control attend two dangerous buildings in same street in two days
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One of the less well known functions of building control is dealing with buildings or construction work that could threaten public safety. This can often be caused by road traffic accidents or poor quality building work.
So imagine being called to two such incidents – one caused by a car crash and another from unregulated and dangerous building work in the same street – within days of each other! That’s what happened to the Leeds building control team one weekend at the end of June.
A trends survey undertaken by LABC finds that the coronavirus has had a devastating impact on the construction sector.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed in March that construction output fell 6% overall – before the full effect of the lockdown on 23rd March. In April UK overall GDP dropped by 20.4%, with construction suffering a 40% fall. The Planning Portal reported an 18.5% reduction in new planning applications this April compared to April 2019. And the Bank of England has warned that unemployment could double this year.
LABC have welcomed Monday's publication by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) of a ‘Roadmap to Recovery’. The strategy outlines how the industry can lead the way out of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The roadmap sets out three phases, delivered over the next two years:
The CIOB (Chartered Institute of Building) have published a report "Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment," based on a survey of over 2,000 construction professionals taken in October 2019.
Published in Mental Health Awareness Week, the questions the survey addressed questions including:
As the country slowly re-establishes itself over the coming weeks when lockdown begins to be lifted, it's critical that building owners, managers and landlords and those who offer "refill" schemes take action to manage the risk of water systems that have not been used, to ensure that as staff return, water systems are safe.
Insulation specialist Actis is to start running its two popular CPD modules next month in live Zoom webinar format. The free training sessions, both certified by the Construction CPD Certification Service, look at addressing the performance gap through reflective insulation and ensuring compliance within systems.