Bedford Borough Council has approved plans for an exciting new mixed-use scheme east of Ampthill Road, adjacent to Interchange Retail Park. The plans were submitted in December by HPG Developments in partnership with B&Q, the UK’s largest home improvement and garden centre retailer, after consulting with Elstow Parish Council and Kempston Town Council.

The £18.5m investment plans will deliver:

• A new B&Q, enhancing the DIY shopping offer in Bedford - which is the largest town in the country without a B&Q store - reducing the need to travel elsewhere;

• New employment units - of a range of different sizes, including smaller units that are ideal for small businesses and new business start-ups;

The Construction Products Association has welcomed the government’s new National Planning Policy Framework, which has been published today.Commenting on the publication, Michael Ankers Chief Executive at the Association’s, said:  ‘There has been enormous confusion about planning policy in this country since the last Election and this at a time when we have needed urgently to encourage economic growth.

‘This document should put an end to that confusion and we are particularly pleased to see the government has reaffirmed the long-standing presumption in favour of sustainable development. What they have to do now is to ensure that local authorities support fully this objective in the way they consider each and every planning application within their area.

Call for entries for the National Apprenticeship and National Training Awards 2012

The search is now on to find the country’s top Apprenticeship and training champions, as the National Training Awards and National Apprenticeship Awards join forces for the first time.Both Awards, which are run by the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), are now open for entries to compete to be named ‘the best of the best’ on a regional and national level.

John Hayes Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Minister said: “Skills are vital because they encourage ambition and enterprise and help drive economic growth and social renewal. These joint Awards offer a great platform for young people and employers to gain recognition not just for excelling in their chosen field, but for playing a leading part in that vital process.”

They come into force on 06 April 2012 - are you prepared?  A short course to bring you up to date is available.
Following an extensive consultation exercise the Government has finally produced new Tree Preservation Order (TPO) Regulations. The Regulations were;

Made on 28 February 2012;
Laid before Parliament on 05 March 2012; and
Come into Force on 06 April 2012.

The new regulations apply to England only and aim to simplify the TPO system and they apply to all TPOs made since 1947. There are significant changes and the implications of these are serious for Local Planning Authorities.

It had to happen! For years we have been insulating our homes into hermetically-sealed capsules in the search for more and more energy efficiency. The inevitable result when you introduce breathing beings into this capsule – particularly if you then heat it – is condensation. Now the Property Care Association (PCA) has issued a ‘White Paper’ on the increasing problem of condensation, making exactly that point.

The author of the document, PCA general manager Stephen Hodgson, said in a statement: "The Green Deal is fast approaching and within the year hundreds, and then thousands, of property owners will be able to release funds to undertake insulation and fuel saving improvements, which will be paid back from projected savings in their gas and electricity bills.

"However, with this in mind, the PCA is becoming increasingly concerned that some insulation treatments are being carried out with little or no attention to the wider implications or consequences of such treatments. This is particularly relevant in relation to ventilation, air movement and condensation."

The issue is one which has become increasingly relevant in my own home, which was built in 1998 to a then-high insulation standard. The bathroom window has to be open ‘on the latch’ every time the heating is on to avoid a small pool under the cistern. In a conversation with my next door neighbour only yesterday, we agreed that opening the living room window was impractical because of the dust and noise (it’s on a main road), so in addition to the small ventilator in the top of the frame, the only option is to have the patio doors open – or pretend it’s a sauna and beat each other with birch twigs, but we won’t go down that road.

Then there was the Budget. Hidden deep among the income tax reduction, the hike in tobacco duty and the ‘is it or isn’t it?’ mansion tax was what the RICS has described as “a missed opportunity” and the Listed Property Owners’ Club an “astonishing, and unexpected, announcement that will affect a significant number of owners of listed properties in the UK”. It was the withdrawal of VAT relief on alterations to listed properties. Not a lot to get steamed up about, you might think – unless you own a listed property.

There are, however, three things to get steamed up about with the measure. Firstly, and this is why Boy George says he did it, the owners of listed properties were getting VAT relief on such things as extensions that everybody else had to pay. Not all listed buildings are of the historic gem variety. In this area many are good examples of weavers’ cottages and the like and are normal family homes. In fact I reckon most people didn’t know you could extend a listed building.

Secondly, and this is where LPOC have expressed legitimate concern, it could deter people from purchasing the kind of listed building I just mentioned, which will then fall into disrepair. Or people may just not carry out repairs.

Thirdly, and this is RICS’s “missed opportunity”, there was the possibility of setting a 5% VAT rate on ALL home repair, maintenance and improvement work.

According to the RICS Budget response: “Research shows that this would have created an extra 26,650 jobs in the construction sector in 2012 and a total economic stimulus of around £1.7bn in 2012 alone. Instead, this will create further barriers to the improvement of housing stock and job creation in the sector.”

Seems like the Chancellor has upset just about everybody. The good news for him, though, is that hardly anybody noticed.

Chris Stokes

London’s main Olympic Park will be protected by the biggest security operation ever seen in peace time, and will have the option of deploying missile batteries to protect the capital from air attacks.

The head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, briefed the cabinet on the terrorism threat in the run up to the London 2012 Games.

Evans warned that terrorists could target Olympic venues outside Londo, in his first ever address of the entire Prime Minister senior team.

TESCO have lost a legal bid to stop their biggest rivals from building a new superstore. The supermarket giants had objected to plans by Asda to build a shop on the site of the former NCR factory on the outskirts of Dundee.

But UK Supreme Court judges have ruled that the £24million development, which will create 480 jobs, can go ahead.

Asda were granted planning permission for the supermarket to the west of the city in 2010. But Tesco, whose South Road store is a few hundred yards from the proposed site, challenged the decision by Dundee City Council.

VINCI Construction UK has been awarded a contract by UPP to construct two multi storey student accommodation blocks for Nottingham Trent University. The project follows VINCI Construction UK's successful completion of the Clifton campus student residences at Nottingham, also for UPP.

VINCI Construction UK is working with Freyssinet, a concrete specialist subsidiary of VINCI to provide specialised economical solutions to the mezzanine decks of the new building.

The two facilities, which range from four-storey to nine-storey blocks, are close in proximity to each other and will accommodate 911 bed spaces, sport facilities, a student union and an entertainment venue and retail space.

Dow Building Solutions – the inventor of STYROFOAM insulation – is using Ecobuild 2012 (stand N1750) to launch XENERGY SL, a new generation extruded polystyrene (XPS) for insulation of inverted flat roofs.

XENERGY XPS combines the proven features of STYROFOAM XPS - durability, reliability and strength – but has even better insulation performance thanks to the addition of infra-red blocking particles to scatter and reflect heat radiation within the foam board.

Now, roof designers and contractors are the first to be offered XENERGY SL designed for inverted roof insulation, an extension to Dow’s already popular ROOFMATE SL-A product range.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), Durham County Council and a development consortium led by Carillion Developments, Arlington Real Estate and Richardsons Capital LLP have entered into a development agreement to invest £27 million into a scheme that will breathe new life into a derelict site in the heart of Durham City, which will secure up to 1,200 jobs as well as regenerate the historic riverside site.

Neil Graham (HCA), Helen Hawkley (National Savings and Investments), Neil McMillan (Carillion), Cllr Neil Foster (Durham County Council) & Allan Cook (Arlington Real Estate) outside the disused ice rink

The 0.77ha Freeman’s Reach scheme on the east bank of the river Wear will replace the disused ice rink that was bought by the Regional Development Agency and is now owned by the HCA. Following community consultation, a detailed planning application will be submitted to the Council in the autumn.