Contract notice, The most economic tender, Education

Contract notice, The most economic tender, Education

A property described as one of the most magnificent Arts and Craft mansions in London has been put on the market for £45 million.

Number seven Balfour Place in Mayfair was built as a trophy property within the historic Grosvenor Estate in 1892. It was designed by Eustace Balfour, the estate’s chief surveyor and architect and is Grade II listed with a five storey brick façade.

Balfour, a Fellow of the RIBA, was incredibly ambitious and well connected. His mother was the daughter of the second Marquess of Salisbury and his brother Arthur was Prime Minister. His wife, Lady Frances Campbell, was the daughter of the Duke of Argyll and favourite niece of the first Duke of Westminster and it was she who got him his job of chief surveyor to the Grosvenor Estate.

Balfour knew that the Duke liked the domestic revival style of architecture so to please him he designed eight mansions on the site of Balfour Place with the aim of creating the grandest Arts and Craft style homes ever built in London.

The completed mansion was hailed as magnificent. There was an extensive lower ground floor for kitchens and staff, a vast entrance hall and three grand reception rooms. The first floor had another three large entertaining rooms, with eight family bedrooms on the second and third floors, and staff accommodation and storage on the fourth and top fifth floor.

The site of the new mansions was originally known as Portugal Street as a tribute to the Portuguese wife of King Charles II, but the Grosvenor family renamed the street Balfour Place in honour of their chief surveyor.

Over the years number seven has had a variety of owners including several industrialists, a Dowager Countess and a City of London metal trader magnate. The most famous person to covet the property was shipping heiress Christina Onassis although she was never able to buy it.

In 1991 number seven was converted into six apartments and it now has flats ranging from 1.255 square feet to 2,583 square feet with two to four bedrooms. The property is currently income producing and is for sale on a freehold basis. It could be acquired as a rental investment, refurbished to provide luxury apartments or reinstated as a single residence, subject to the usual planning consents.

According to agents Wetherell it benefits from a prestigious address, elegant architecture and rooms with princely proportions. The firm’s chief executive Peter Wetherell said that if it was changed back into single residence, designed and specified to a luxurious ultra-prime finish, and interior designed and presented to sell to an international market it could be worth anything from £52 million to £65 million.

‘It could create one of London’s finest mega mansions, an outstanding home of world class quality and refined provenance Such a transformation has the potential to generate a lucrative return for a discerning purchaser acquiring the property in its current configuration,’ he added.

House prices in the UK fell by 0.6% in June, the fourth monthly fall since December last year, according to the latest index from the Halifax.

It takes the average property price to £183,462 but Stephen Noakes, mortgages director at the Halifax, pointed out that monthly data can be volatile and quarterly figures are more reliable.

The quarterly data shows that in the three months to the end of June prices were 2.3% higher than in the preceding three months. ‘House price change on this measure has now remained steady in a narrow range of 2% to 2.3% since June 2013,’ he said.

The data also shows that prices in the three months to June were 8.8% higher than in the same three months a year earlier and this was marginally higher than in May when it was 8.7%.

‘Housing demand continues to be supported by an economic recovery that is gathering pace, with employment levels growing and rising consumer confidence, although real earnings growth remains sluggish,’ added Noakes.

There has been a lot of talk about house price growth slowing both this year and next. According to the Economic Research Council the decline will become more obvious from 2015 onwards, with property prices beginning to plateau from 2019.

According to Gráinne Gilmore of Knight Frank interest rate rises will start to impact on the rate of price growth as mortgages become more expensive. The Bank of England has already signalled that an interest rate rise is likely before the end of the year.

Retired home owners in the UK cashed in more than £641 million in property wealth during the first half of the year as the equity release market continued to grow strongly.

The average loan taken increased by 17% to nearly £65,000, according to an analysis from over 55s specialist adviser Key Retirement Solutions.

The firm’s latest Equity Release Market Monitor, which covers the first half of 2014, says this demonstrates that there is a growing confidence in using property wealth to improve standards of living in retirement and this is driven by the strength of the housing market.

Total equity released in the six months to 30 June increased by 26% to £641.8 million from £508.4 million in the first half of 2013, while plan sales rose 5% to 10,013 from 9,540 in the same period last year.

The report says that the money released is increasingly being used to improve standards of living, with 66% of customers using some or all of the cash to fund home or garden improvements compared with 55% last year. Some 35% used the cash to pay for holidays, compared with 32% in 2013.

The analysis also shows the importance equity release plays in easing the burden of debt in retirement, with substantial numbers of retired home owners clearing debts. Some 20% used some or all of the money to pay off mortgages, while 30% are clearing credit cards or loans.

‘Equity release is making a major contribution to retirement planning for thousands of home owners and that is underlined by the growth in the average loan size of nearly £10,000,’ said group director Dean Mirfin.

‘The massive changes on the way people fund and save for retirement highlight the increasing role that property wealth will play and the equity release market is ideally suited to the new retirement flexibility,’ he added.

The data also shows that the total amounts released rose in 11 out of 12 regions across the country, while plan sales rose in eight out of 12 regions. But growth in Northern Ireland was particularly strong where plan sales and total value released increased by nearly one and a half times.

London recorded growth in total value released of nearly 60%, while the South West and South East rose by 30% plus.

The Construction Industry Council has appointed Niall Lawless as chairman of its adjudicator nominating body (ANB) management board.

He will serve a three-year term and takes over from John Reilly.

Mr Lawless is a chartered arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator as well as an engineer. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the British Computer Society. He is a member of a number of several adjudicator nominating body panels and a member of the Crossrail adjudication panel.

The CIC adjudicator nominating body management board is one of a number of specialist committees and panels maintained by the CIC. It looks after all issues and matters relating to adjudication that affect CIC’s members. This includes maintaining the CIC’s register of adjudicators and making nominations, overseeing the publication and updating of the CIC model adjudication procedure, and collecting and publishing data on adjudication.

CIC is reviewing the remit of its adjudications services and working on a new constitution for the ANB management board. With a new chairman in place, CIC will now be inviting its member organisations to consider their representation on the ANB management board, with appointments being made by the CIC executive board.

The White Rose carbon capture storage project at Drax power station in Yorkshie has secured a £240m grant from the European Commission on top of the UK government support already approved.

The White Rose project is one of Europe’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. It is being developed by Capture Power, which is a consortium of Alstom, BOC and Drax in cooperation with National Grid.

When built, the plant should capture approximately 90% of its carbon dioxide emissions, and store two million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year under the North Sea seabed.

The project includes the construction of a new 426MW clean coal power plant with a large CO₂ transport and storage network.

White Rose is the only CCS project in Europe to be allocated funds under the NER300 programme, a European Commission fund for innovative renewable energy technology.

The UK government has committed £100m to the White Rose project, along with another CCS project in Peterhead,

Energy secretary Ed Davey said: “The UK is at the forefront of developing carbon capture and storage, with excellent potential for storage in the North and Irish Seas, and the expertise in operating offshore to make it a reality.

“And as a world leader in the technology, as carbon capture and storage is commercialised Britain will be in first place to export this knowledge to a decarbonising global economy.”

Capture Power CEO Leigh Hackett said: “We’re delighted that the European Commission has made this important NER300 award decision in favour of the White Rose Project. In December 2013, we entered into the FEED contract for the project as a preferred bidder in the UK CCS Commercialisation Programme. The NER300 award represents another significant milestone for us in our development programme and an important potential source of funding for the Project, as well as providing a strong signal for CCS in Europe.

“We are well on track to demonstrate the key role that CCS can play in the future UK energy mix. CCS is an important technology providing clean, reliable and cost competitive electricity with the potential to contribute greatly to the decarbonisation of global power markets.”

EDF Energy has landed a research grant to explore how infrastructure can better withstand extreme weather and natural phenomena.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has appointed EDF Energy to lead a knowledge building project to improve understanding of the range of natural hazards to be considered during the design of high value energy system assets.

The three-year project will develop best practice to characterise natural hazards and seek to improve methodologies where current approaches are inefficient, ETI said.  This is to improve energy system infrastructure design. The project is intended to share knowledge of natural hazards across sectors.

The project is budgeted to have a value of £500,000 and is due to be completed in three stages. Phase one will focus on a gap analysis. Phase two will look at developing a series of improved methodologies from the gaps identified in phase one, and phase three will demonstrate how to apply these methodologies as well as developing a ‘how to’ guide for use by project engineers.

The project will complement and run in parallel with two other ETI projects. The first is a project to consider siting constraints in England and Wales for new power plant development. The second is a project to identify the requirements for alternative small-scale power generation technologies to address the energy system needs of low carbon electricity, heat, and system balancing solutions

ETI strategy manager Mike Middleton said: “This project is to build knowledge on natural hazards to inform energy infrastructure design. It also has cross-cutting elements which are relevant to multiple technologies which includes nuclear. EDF Energy’s capacity and capability in this field will help us to build a greater understanding of the range of natural hazards to be considered. This project reflects the ETI’s approach to integration and optimisation of the energy system including the contribution from nuclear. Our supporting projects in these areas will contribute to our knowledge of the sector, in which we will seek to build a robust evidence base to help informed deployment decisions to be taken.”

Wandsworth Council has approved plans for a new £40m bridge across the River Thames in London and is to hold a design competition to take it forward.

The new pedestrian and cycle crossing would connect the rapidly developing Nine Elms district on the south side with the Pimlico embankment to the north.

Its exact location is yet to be confirmed but the preferred options are close to the site of the new US Embassy.

The plan for the design competition comes after a Transport for London feasibility study confirmed the bridge would cost around £40m and is forecast to carry approximately 9,000 pedestrians and 9,000 cyclists a day – proving a car free alternative to Vauxhall or Chelsea Bridge.

The competition could be launched before the end of the year.

The bridge is part of a £2bn infrastructure package transforming Nine Elms into a new Zone One transport hub complete with two new Northern Line tube stops.

Wandsworth Council leader Ravi Govindia, co-chair of the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership, said: “This will be a new bridge at the centre of the world’s greatest city so the design standard has to be exceptional.  It will be a dream commission for the winning architect but to succeed they will have to meet some very unique challenges and expectations.

“The design will have to inspire and win the hearts of Londoners who are tremendously proud of their river and its heritage. It must work alongside the cutting edge modern architecture of Nine Elms as well as the elegant buildings on the north bank.  There will be engineering feats to overcome and the landing points on both sides must integrate sensitively and effectively with their surroundings.

“This bridge has the potential to become a powerful icon for the revival of Nine Elms which will help us bring new life, jobs and homes to this underused part of London. It would also help connect communities north of the river with these new opportunities and create a valuable transport link for our growing city.”

The bridge and other transport improvements will be funded from private Nine Elms developments and from growth in local business rates income. Once a design is in place Wandsworth Council will explore further funding options that could see the bridge built sooner. This could include sponsorship.

Residential building approvals in Australia rebounded in May after falling back during the first few months of 2014, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Overall there were 16,425 dwellings approved in May, an increase of 9.9%. According to the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the voice of Australia’s residential building industry, the rise takes approval numbers closer to the peak levels of the end of 2013 and January 2014.

‘The three consecutive months of declining approval numbers following the peak in January this year had caused some observers to start questioning the longevity of the home building recovery,’ said Geordan Murray, HIA economist.

‘This result gives us confidence that the recovery has a way to run yet,’ he commented, adding that 2014 should see a very strong level of new home building activity.

‘Residential building approvals reached a peak in January this year when over 17,700 dwelling approvals were recorded. To get to the record level in January it took a situation where all the ducks were sitting in a row. We had the five largest states all recording strong approval numbers at the same time,’ explained Murray.

‘Since then, the characteristic volatility in multi-unit approvals has meant that we haven’t revisited the January high but the volume of approvals still points to a very strong level of new home building activity throughout 2014,’ he added.

He also pointed out that the housing recovery, which was initially confined to New South Wales and Western Australia, appears to be gaining broader momentum. Approvals in the three months to May are markedly higher than the same time last year in all jurisdictions, ACT is the only exception.

The data shows that in seasonally adjusted terms, the volume of detached dwelling approvals was steady at 9,426, up by 0.6% in the month. There were 6,998 multi-unit dwellings approved, which represents an increase of 25.5% in the month.

A rebound in multi-unit approvals in New South Wales with growth of 47% and a rise of 150% in Queensland drove the increase in multi-unit approvals after both posted particularly weak results in April.

All other major markets recorded falls in multi-unit approvals in May, most notably in Victoria, where a decline of 19% was recorded.

Looking around the states more broadly, total building approvals in seasonally adjusted terms increased in May by 18.7% in New South Wales , by 45% in Queensland, by 0.4% in Western Australia and by 9.8% in Tasmania. They fell by 8.5% in Victoria and by 6.7% in South Australia.

In trend terms, building approvals increased by 8.7% in the Northern Territory but fell by 9.6% in the ACT.

Lend Lease has followed the lead of Balfour Beatty by selling its UK facilities management business to Cofely.

Cofely, part of the giant French GDF Suez utilities group, has this week completed the purchase of Lend Lease Facilities Management (LLFM).

Last year Cofely bought Balfour Beatty Workspace for £190m.

The price paid for LLFM was not disclosed. Cofely said only that it provided it with a guaranteed revenue stream of £2.5bn over the next 25 years as it built up one of the UK’s largest portfolios of private finance initiative (PFI) service contracts.

The transaction will also give Cofely a significant, new lifecycle management capability to its business, which includes building fabric and major repair & replacement, it said.

LLFM currently provides a range of FM services across the UK and Ireland, with particular focus on healthcare, education, government and retail. The business has a number of large long-term contracts with clients comprising a number of major National Health Service (NHS) Trust hospitals at locations including Manchester and Leeds, local education authorities in Birmingham and Lincolnshire, HM Treasury and Bluewater Shopping Centre.

LLFM will be combined with Cofely’s existing UK business under the Cofely brand.

GDF Suez executive vice president Jérôme Tolot said: “The acquisition of LLFM reinforces our strategy to further evolve our business here in the UK. It continues to strengthen our service capability and our credentials as a leading UK service provider. LLFM has many synergies with our existing business and it will also provide us with the addition of a full lifecycle management capability. This will allow us to introduce and integrate new smart & low carbon energy efficient technologies into buildings for customers over the term of the contracts”.

Cofely has a turnover of £1bn in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and employs more than 15,000 people

Galliford Try is set to report record profits when it announces its financial results thanks to buoyant trading conditions.

The housebuilding and construction group has provided a trading update for the year ended 30th June 2014, ahead of its final results announcement, expected mid-September. 

Profit before tax will be approximately £95m, at the upper end of the analysts' expectations, with both housebuilding and construction divisions performing well.

Linden Homes, the house-building division, is performing even better than before the 2008 crash and the construction order book has improved to £1.4bn, up from £1.25bn six months ago.

Chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: "The market continues to be good across all of our regions.  We welcome the government's continuing commitment to housing provision, and the focus of the Bank of England on maintaining stability in the housing market.  In addition the prospect of timely interest rate rises should support a sustainable market into the longer term.

“We are pleased to have finished the year strongly and expect to deliver another record profit.  With a solid balance sheet, minimal debt, a record landbank in housebuilding and excellent visibility of work in construction, we are starting the new financial year in a strong position, whilst recognising that challenges remain around the supply chain and converting outline planning permission into detailed consents."

The UK government’s flagship Help to Buy scheme has provided less than half the funding for new homes as bridging since the equity loan scheme was launched in April 2013, it is claimed.

Government equity loans amounted to £941 million compared to £2.38 billion in property bridging loans, according to the latest West One Bridging index.

The data also shows that there has been a 32% rise in the number of completed bridging loans over the course of 12 months.

‘New homes are the fundamental fuel of a healthy property market so the government and Bank of England are right to highlight the dangerous squeeze in the supply of property. But there are other ways to supply new homes. We need to make far better use of the buildings we already have,’ said Duncan Kreeger, director of West One Loans.

‘Help to Buy has a critical role to play in kick-starting brand new building sites, yet ground-up development is only one part of the finance that property professionals need in order to supply raging demand,’ he pointed out.

‘Thousands of under loved and under occupied properties are still left waiting for refurbishment or conversion. Property developers and potential landlords just need the right sort of finance to get these empty offices or dilapidated blocks of flats to a decent standard and on the market. Flexibility is king and government schemes can only do so much,’ he added.

The data also shows that over the 12 months ending at the beginning of May, the bridging industry provided annual gross lending of £2.06 billion. This represents growth of 17.9% compared to the previous 12 months.

However, recently this growth appears to have moderated. Lending has grown at an average rate of 0.8% per month since 1st March when industry gross lending totalled £2.02 billion. If this latest expansion continues for a full 12 months it would represent an annualised rate of growth of 10%.

‘Meteoric expansion in recent years is only the start of a new era. This reinvigorated industry has built a solid foundation for further growth. Certainly, as with all industries, such transformational progress must gradually steady and bridging is already maturing, consolidating its enormous expansion,’ explained Kreeger.

‘Bridging is not suffering from any of the latest challenges afflicting the mainstream mortgage market. While the high street gets the jitters as incomes struggle to keep up with house prices, the best bridging lenders are in the business of solving this problem. Our loans always aim to add value to property by actually increasing capacity in the right places. It’s a system that grows the pool of winnings, rather than just splitting the wealth of property in a different way,’ he added.

Regarding trends in the bridging industry, bridging loans are growing in terms of both size and number. The average loan size now averages £457,000 over the 12 months to May. This is 10.7% larger than the average loan in the previous 12 months when it was £404,000.

However the most…

£400,000 • Loft conversion of residential flat complex to convert the loft space of 15 1 bedroom flats and associated site works, The development includes related internal alteration and refurbishment work for the existing first floor flats at either ends of the com

£1,100,000 • 14 Flats

£200,000 • Conversion to 5 Apartments

£100,000 • Temporary storage of subsoil material

£600,000 • Listed Building Consent for partial demolition and extension to existing banqueting suite, erection of single storey extension to replace existing function room (marquee) at Aston Hall Hotel Worksop Road Aston

£100,000 • Proposed hiar & beauty salon.

£100,000 • Erection of 2 no. detached dwellings and associated works Resubmission

£100,000 • Demolition of existing conservatory and construction of orangery

£500,000 • Outline application for 7 residential dwellings and associated parking and garages

£2,300,000 • Erection of 28 apartments and 2 houses (existing buildings on site to be demolished)

£400,000 • Change of use and alteration of existing office building to form 5 no residential dwellings and erection of a single storey extension to rear basement to form new kitchen . Change of use and alteration of rear mews garage to form a residential dwelling an

£100,000 • Trosi uned byw a storfa yn cefn eiddo er creu 2 fflat dau ystafell wely ynghyd a gosod 4 ffenestr gromen ir to cefn i gynnwys addasiadau ir adeilad/ Conversion of residential unit and store at rear of property into 2 number two bedroom flats along with in

£1,600,000 • Demolition and redevelopment including an extension and external alterations to existing buildings to provide new and enhanced industrial, warehousing and retail facilities mixed-use Use Classes B1, B2, B8 & A1, with associated access, parking and externa

£100,000 • Refurbishment and reconfiguration of shop front to create a 6 sq m extension in line with perimeter columns, including replacement full height window frames and glazing with a reduced height black tile stall riser, a new automated sliding door and PPC alu

£200,000 • Demolition of existing buildings and erection of three houses with associated car parking.

£500,000 • Erection of 7 no. dwellings resubmission of withdrawn planning application P14/

£1,400,000 • Pre application advice for new build residentail scheme to provide one and two bedroom apartmentts communal areas and associated external landscaping and car parking

£1,700,000 • Demolition of existing buildings and erection of residential units

£100,000 • Erection of two detached dwellings with retained open space