This Week's News

Double digit growth for housing and commercial signals increasing construction confidence

Healthy growth in the residential and commercial sectors during the first quarter of 2014 shows UK construction confidence is increasing, according to the latest figures from industry analysts Glenigan.

The Glenigan Index, which covers the value of projects starting on site from January to March, is 15% higher than a year ago - propelled by double digit growth across the residential, non-residential and civil engineering sectors.

House building continued to rise in the three months to March, with the underlying value of private housing project starts up by 29%. This outweighed an 8% decline in the value of social housing starts.

Commercial activity also remains buoyant, with the value of office project starts rising by 34%, retail by 28% and hotel and leisure by 15%.

In contrast, social housing, education, health and community & amenity starts all declined – indicating a clear divide between the private and public sectors. However this was offset by growth across the rest of the industry.

Commenting on this month’s figures, Allan Wilén, Economics Director at Glenigan, said: “Increasingly, we are seeing improved business sentiment translating into real investment across the economy. The positive project data within the commercial sectors in particular shows that firms and developers are more confident putting money into new construction.”

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Calls on Amazon to end lock-snapping tool trade

A West Yorkshire company has called on Amazon to ban the sale of tools specifically designed to assist in lock-snapping. Avocet Hardware, which manufactures the ABS snap-secure lock, says it is astonished that items such as a pocket sized snapper bar for anti-snap cylinders and a premium lock snapper bar are readily available to buy for as little as £34.95 on Amazon.

Avocet director, Dr Tinkle Jain said: “Lock-snapping has fast become one of the most popular means of forced entry into UK homes, meaning untold misery for millions of Britons every year, but for some reason Amazon sees fit to sell products that enable thieves to bypass the vast majority of security locks on the market in a matter of seconds.”

“Yes – these products may well be viewed as locksmith’s trade tools, but they are readily available to members of the general public and it’s fair to say that only particularly unscrupulous members of the public are going to search for them, let alone buy them.”

According to a report from West Yorkshire Police in 2012, 27 per cent of burglaries in the region could be attributed to lock-snapping. More recently, a number of other forces have unofficially stated that over half of burglaries are now the result of lock-snapping. While the BBC’s Watchdog Test House highlighted the extent of the lock-snapping problem in an episode aired on March 13th, 2014.

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An Alustar is born

Kömmerling has just launched AluStar, an aluminium clad outward opening PVCu window based on their market leading C70 Gold® and O70 Gold® platforms, that’s fresh from the Group Research and Development facility in Germany.

This latest development of the hugely impressive C70 Gold® and O70 Gold® systems adds a completely new dimension for finishes. With this new external aluminum cladding system customers can benefit from a near unlimited range of RAL colours, among other impressive features. The system also offers enhanced levels of thermal and sound insulation and extended longevity, particularly when specified with a marine grade powder coated finish.

The AluStar technology is not new for Kömmerling, as it is already available on the KBE System 88 product, which can offer U-values as low as 0.6 W/m2K and has been proven on a number of Passivhaus projects. This system has also won the SolVin Award for PVC Innovation in the recycling category, back in 2010.

For manufacturers and commercial specifiers, this new hybrid product can be used for projects previously specified in aluminium only, yet with the benefits of lead-free PVCu, including woodgrain foils on the internal face. There’s also the added design option of an Ovolo or Chamfered internal glazing bead, adding to the design possibilities.

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Construction industry feels let down by Government

Despite Chancellor George Osborne’s budget pledge to ‘get Britain building’, a survey conducted by the Build Show has revealed that nearly three quarters of the UK’s construction industry feels let down by the government, with 71% of builders and contractors claiming they do not feel supported by Whitehall policy.

Lack of investment in the sector, coupled with low consumer confidence and the absence of positive changes in the economy were among the criticisms levelled at government by the survey respondents. The restrictive VAT system was also cited as a major challenge, with more than 71% of respondents stating they are worried about the cost of VAT on building materials.

Keeping up to date with changing legislation was highlighted as another problem area, with 60% of respondents pointing to crippling red tape and regulatory compliance as a serious concern.

Other issues brought up by the survey include the lack of young people coming into the industry, with 68% citing this as a concern, while the need to compete with less skilled or unregistered tradespeople was revealed as a worry for 66% of respondents.

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Sales Leads at your Finger Tips

Graffika Media and Design have always tried to stay one step ahead of the game, within design, marketing or digital media. They have now partnered with a company who have developed a unique service for the internet.
 
For many years the glazing industry has been looking to generate sales leads, either through advertising, marketing or databases, during this time companies have had a steady source of warm sales leads at their finger tips - visitors to their website.
 
Before now the only information that could be gathered from a website about visitors was statistics, how many, what they looked at, how long did they stay on the site, via Google analytics and similar systems, there was no way to find out who these visitors were.
 
Graffika now claim to have the technology to not only tell how many people have visited a site, but also who they are, what they’re looking for and provide site owners with contact details and a range of company information as well.

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UK manufacturing growth cools in March

Growth in British manufacturing unexpectedly eased to its slowest pace in eight months in March and prices paid by factories tumbled, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell in March to 55.3, its lowest since July last year and below all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists.
February's reading was sharply cut to 56.2 from an originally reported 56.9. It was the fourth month in a row that the index fell although it remained comfortably above the 50 mark that denotes growth.
 
In another reminder of strength in the sector, the pace of hiring, which in February hit a 33-month high, faded only slightly through March.
Survey compiler Markit said the slower growth in the sector was mainly centred on companies that make machinery and equipment.

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Now Available: The PVC Window Profile, Window & Door Industry, Markets and Forecasts in Europe to 2016

Just released by independent researchers D&G Consulting, The PVC Window and Door Market for the 28 countries of the European Union plus Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Serbia is a new and important report. This detailed study, the culmination of two year’s work, covers the markets in the 32 countries (E32) and provides production and market size data for PVC window profile, windows and doors, as well as a three year forecast of market size volumes by country. Uniquely, the report incorporates an appendix that shows the leading companies’ shares of the EU28 and E32.

David Amos, Principal of D&G comments: “The total PVC window and door market volume across the 32 countries is huge. Export opportunities are there now and some are on the cusp of fast opening up. PVC windows are proving attractive to consumers in developing markets and energy efficient windows are gaining in importance. Crucially at this time, the medium and long term prospects for the industry in some countries in Europe, Turkey, Russia and beyond is more favourable than for some time. This report, which major European players tell us is unique, uncovers these opportunities.

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Matching SMEs with alternative lenders a welcome move

Government proposals to match SMEs that have had applications for finance turned down by the banks with alternative lenders have been welcomed by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “Accessing bank finance is often difficult for SMEs. Over the past five years the problem has been particularly acute and the construction sector has been hit harder than most. As the major banks have looked to reduce their exposure to the built environment sector, construction SMEs have found themselves at the back of the queue.”

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