Highway departments estimate it would take an average of 11 years to get local roads across England and Wales “into a reasonable steady state”, a new report shows. The backlog of repairs and budget shortfall are the highest on record in the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey, an independent study commissioned by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). Extreme weather, more traffic and an ageing network are taking its toll on the structural conditions of roads. In the current financial year, local authorities spent £93.7m on reactive maintenance, such as patching and filli ..read more

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is supporting proposals for new residential buildings above 30m to have a minimum of two staircases to improve building safety. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched a consultation last year on mandating second staircases for new residential blocks higher than 30m. Research looking at 30 international building codes found that only England, Wales and South Korea lack a requirement for a second staircase in tall buildings. LFB said that existing buildings with a single staircase will still be safe if they have appropriate ..read more

The heat pump industry has called on the government to clamp down on non-compliant products which it says are being imported into the UK. The British Pump Manufacturers Association (BPMA) has warned about the cost to consumers of non-compliant heat pumps. The BPMA says more than 100,000 non-compliant pumps manufactured abroad are being sold “over the counter” in the UK annually. The association blames the UK’s “very lax” policing of the non-compliant heat pump market. “We estimate that circa 10% of the one million central heating pumps, technically known as circulators, being brought in ..read more

London Square, Telford Homes and Ballymore are the latest developers to sign the government’s building safety remediation contract after missing the 13 March deadline. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) published a list last week with the companies who failed to sign by the set time frame, as well as those who had complied. The government wrote to housebuilders and mixed-use developers on 30 January asking them to sign a new remediation contract by 13 March. The legally binding contract commits the signatories to spend at least £2bn on repairs to buildings ..read more

A subcontractor has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a worker suffered brain trauma in a concrete pumping accident in north London. The accident involved a man in his thirties who sustained head injuries while working on concrete pumping operations in a domestic property in Crouch End in March 2019. The works were being carried out by London-based company Singh Will Mix It Ltd. The worker was cleaning the pump’s hose after it had been used to pump concrete for a ground floor extension at the property. As the pump operator was doing this, the pump became b ..read more

CIOB has added its support to a charter that aims to improve quality in Scotland’s construction sector. The charter by Scotland’s Construction Quality Improvement Collaborative (CQIC) aims to put quality at the centre of all decision-making in Scotland’s built environment. CQIC is a Scottish-based campaign launched under the Scottish Construction Accord to encourage collaboration between the public sector and the construction industry to raise quality standards. The campaign hopes this collaboration will help Scotland’s construction sector meet the technical requirements to achieve net ..read more

Eleven developers have failed to meet the deadline to sign a building safety contract pledging to fix fire safety issues. In parliament this week, housing secretary Michael Gove named and shamed the companies that have not joined the agreement aimed at addressing cladding issues following the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy. Although 39 developers have already signed the contract, which will commit them to fix unsafe buildings they developed or refurbished, 11 had failed to do so by the six-week deadline provided by the government. “To those developers that have failed to sign the contract ..read more

CIOB has raised concerns about the initiatives outlined in the chancellor’s spring Budget proposals to tackle the skills gap. However, it also welcomed news about the creation of new investment zones, growing renewable energy generation and local schemes to improve roads. Here, Eddie Tuttle, director of policy, external affairs and research at CIOB, shares the institute’s response to the chancellor’s Spring Budget. On repair and maintenance of roads and infrastructure… “We are pleased to see a further investment of £200m in 2023-24 to repair potholes. Potholes in local roads lead to dea ..read more

As chair of the international working group that created the framework, Dame Judith Hackitt speaks exclusively to Will Mann about how it will plug gaps in the current regulatory system. Dame Judith Hackitt: “We should look at the framework and identify where the gaps are” Dame Judith Hackitt has unveiled a new global framework for regulating construction products and expects the UK government to follow its recommendations. “The framework has been three years in the making and brings together expert views on construction products from all round the world,” she told CM. “It provides a means f ..read more

Innovate UK has backed the founder of an archaeological site detection AI start-up. ArchAI was founded by Dr Iris Kramer three years ago, and she has been named as one of 50 women entrepreneurs in Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation 2022/23 programme. Dr Kramer will benefit from a bespoke business boosting support package between April 2023 and March 2024. The support includes a cash injection of £50,000, tailored business coaching, mentoring and a wealth of networking, role modelling and training opportunities designed to help entrepreneurs grow their innovation further. Dr Kramer Iris h ..read more