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OCTOBER 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
GROWTH IN HOMES ON
BROWNFIELD SITES
Engineering consultancy
Idom Merebrook - which
specialises in re-developing
brownfield housing sites has reported a phenomenal
100% growth in its housing
division since 2010. Projects
with housing developers
over the past six years have
doubled, now accounting for
around 47% of the consultancy’s total turnover.
The real growth has come not
from winning contracts with new
clients, but from working more
closely and doing more for the
existing housing client base. In
addition, Idom has been awarded
an increasing number of regeneration projects to help redevelop
brownfield sites for housing.
In 2010, Idom’s housing turnover was £1.35 million. This had
increased to £2.57 million last year
and is forecast to increase further
this year, generated through working with major developers whose
combined spend has risen by 49%
over the period.
Nigel Huish, managing director
for Idom Merebrook commented:
“Our good growth performance
has been enhanced by greater
accessibility to more challenging brownfield sites identified
for residential development. Our
expertise in the remediation and
the restoration of brownfield sites
has become increasing sought
after, as developers constantly
require more innovative solutions
to regenerate derelict sites and
contaminated land.”
Bringing brownfield sites back
to use is a key part of the government’s strategy to promote sustainable development. The UK has
Top ten housing associations
Employee engagement specialist Best Companies
has used its latest data to highlight the ten
best housing associations to work for.
Best Companies, the
force behind the Sunday Times ‘Best Companies to Work For’ lists,
says that not only are
these outfits an inspiration for other housing
association s, they’re
role models for any
non-profit organisations
looking to create a
more vibrant, engaging
and fun environment
for their staff.
Here is the breakdown
of the leading housing
associations and where they
finished in the latest Sunday
Times ‘100 Best Not for
Profit Organisations to Work
For’ list.
The 2017 Best Companies
engagement survey is now
open for registration.
www.b.co.uk
Company Name
List
Position
Accreditation
Rating
SLH Group
1
3 Star
Wales & West Housing
2
3 Star
B3Living
3
3 Star
Dale and Valley Homes
4
3 Star
Weaver Vale Housing Trust
7
3 Star
Newydd Housing
Association
13
2 Star
CHS Group
14
2 Star
Calico
16
2 Star
The Havebury Housing
Partnership
19
2 Star
Ongo Partnership Ltd
23
2 Star
over 400,000 hectares of contaminated land, much of it a legacy
from the Industrial Revolution and
the clean-up of this land has been
made a priority.
The company says the steady
growth profile of its housing division mirrors the ‘healthy growth
trend’ for UK housing developers across the overall market in
England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Since 2010, nationally the number of new builds
has increased by over 20%, with
138,000 housing starts in the UK
six years ago and 166,900 recorded last year.
Idom’s track record of cleaning up
brownfield sites for housing, mixed
leisure and retail developments
currently includes high profile restoration projects such as: the Elephant
and Castle in South London; Battersea Power Station; former automobile factory, Luton; The Quays
regeneration project at Barry Docks
in Wales, a major land remediation
project in Tipner, Portsmouth, and
the regeneration of the Old Vinyl
Factory site in Hayes, Middlesex.
For further information on Idom
Merebrook Consulting visit
http://www.idom.com/
ASFP appoints chief
operations officer
The Association for
Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP) is to appoint Niall Rowan as its
new chief operations
officer.
The appointment, which
results from the impending
retirement of Wilf Butcher
as outgoing chief executive officer, forms part of a
planned reorganisation of
the Association’s structure
which will take effect from
1 January 2017.
The revised structure,
agreed following a meeting
of the ASFP management
council which oversees
the running of the association, will see several ASFP
officers taking on new
responsibilities:
• Niall Rowan moves from
technical officer to chief
operations officer to
over-see the day-to-day
management of the ASFP
undertaking much of the
role of the outgoing chief
executive officer. Niall will
also retain overall responsibility for technical policy
and strategy
• Anna Hayes will have
an enhanced role based
around her current position of publicity officer,
but taking on increased
responsibilities including
develop-ing and implementing a marketing and
communications strategy
• Tony Corcoran, the current membership officer,
will now also provide enhanced member-focused
support, including members’ forums, an increase
in CPD programmes and
increased communication
with the membership as a
whole
• Wilf Butcher takes on
the new role of training
development officer,
responsi-ble for providing a training strategy
and framework which
will stretch from ini-tial
awareness training to an
academic qualification in
passive fire protection.
• David O’Reilly will continue as operations officer of
ASFP Ireland.
The Association will be
recruiting a new part time
technical officer to take
on the majority of Niall
Rowan’s existing work
load, including running the
ASFP’s technical committee
and task groups and being
responsible for all the Association’s technical publications.