House prices in South Africa have generally seen some growth in the first quarter of 2014 but in the popular middle sector of the market it is nominal, according to the latest real estate report from Absa bank.

It shows that nominal and real year on year price growth in the middle segment of the housing market was marginally lower in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.

In both the categories of affordable and luxury housing nominal price growth continued in the first quarter of the year.
The bank says that house prices continued to be driven by property market conditions and related factors which were affected by a combination of macroeconomic developments, the state of household finances and the level of consumer confidence.

Based on the current trends in and prospects for economic and household sector related factors, continued single digit nominal house price growth is forecast for 2014 and 2015.

‘Real house price growth will be the result of the combined effect of nominal price trends and inflation, with some real price deflation projected for this year and next year,’ the report says.

In the first quarter of 2014, the average price of affordable homes of 40 square meters to 79 square meter and priced up to R545,000 increased by 3,1% year on year after rising by 4,2% in the fourth quarter of last year quarter.

Some real price deflation of 2.6% year on year was recorded in the affordable segment in the first quarter compared with a fall of 1.2% year on year in the final quarter of 2013.

The average nominal price of a home in the middle segment of the market for homes of 80 square meters to 400 square meters and priced at R4 million or less increased by 8.5% year on year compared with 8.8% in the fourth quarter of 2013.

In the luxury housing market homes priced at between R4 million and R14.6 million saw prices increase by 7.7% year on year following a 7.5% rise in the fourth quarter of last year.

In real terms, the average price in this category of housing was up by 1.7% year on year in the first quarter of the year compared with 1.9% year on year in the fourth quarter of last year.

At a provincial, metropolitan and coastal level, house prices performed relatively well in most regions on a nominal and real basis in the first quarter of 2014.

The report says that the performance of the residential property market at a geographical level is affected by economic trends in general, but these regional markets may react differently to these developments as a result of various area specific factors, such as location, physical infrastructure and the level and extent of economic development and growth.
‘These factors may affect property demand and supply conditions, market activity, buying patterns, transaction volumes and price levels and growth,’ it points out.

The report also states that headline consumer price inflation averaged…

JCB has done a deal to build a supermarket on its old Heavy Products factory in Uttoxeter.

JCB has agreed in principle to sell two acres of its 22-acre site to the retailer. Subject to final planning consent, Waitrose will build a 2,800m² store and is aiming to open before the end of next year. Construction of housing elsewhere on the site could begin this year.

JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “The proposed Waitrose store is a major step forward in the redevelopment of the former JCB Heavy Products site. It will act as a catalyst for the implementation of the wider development which will include a park and high quality housing.

“It is and always has been my intention that this development leaves a legacy to Uttoxeter given my family’s long association with the town and this site in particular. While recent economic circumstances mean it has taken longer to advance than I would have liked, I’m delighted that the scheme is now moving forward in a way that will eventually contribute to the wider renaissance of Uttoxeter.”

The new store would be built on stilts with car parking underneath. There would also be surface level car parking at the rear along with a service area.

Production at the old Heavy Products site finished in 2008 and the factory relocated to a new £40m site next to the A50 in Uttoxeter. 

Lord Bamford instigated a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) design contest to ensure the redevelopment is of “the highest possible standard”. London-based McDowell & Benedetti was selected as the winner and drew up plans for the 22-acre site which include housing, retail and commercial. There will be 257 new houses built on the site and it is hoped that construction work on some of the properties will begin later this year.

Lord Bamford’s family started out in business as blacksmiths in Uttoxeter in the 1820s.  The Pinfold Street site has been linked to manufacturing from as early as 1871 when the Bamfords opened for business as an agricultural machinery maker

Injured service personnel will in future be able to get care at a new £300m defence rehabilitation centre to be built near Loughborough.

Rehabilitation services currently delivered at Headley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey, are being moved to a new purpose-built location at Stanford Hall, near Loughborough.

Construction at Stanford Hall will start next year.

The centre will be part funded by donors led by the Duke of Westminster, who bought the Stanford Hall in 2011.

The new facility will be four times the size of Headley Court and will improve and advance the treatments already available to injured members of the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence said.

It is planned that the new Defence & National Rehabilitation Centre will open at the end of 2017.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond said: “Today’s announcement will establish a long-term, state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility for our injured personnel, building on the great work of Headley Court, to ensure our armed forces continue to receive the very best care.”

The Surgeon General, Air Marshal Paul Evans, added: “Thanks to the Duke of Westminster’s initiative and his generosity, and that of other benefactors, a new state-of-the-art medical rehabilitation centre will provide our injured troops with a remarkable place to recover and begin rebuilding their lives.

“The new centre will build on the legacy of the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court and the significant support it has received from many forces charities, including Help for Heroes, the Royal British Legion and SSAFA.

“It will also provide the bedrock of the capability development for musculoskeletal injuries for the next 20 or so years.”

GB Group has recruited Steve Mullins from Laing O’Rourke to head up the central & south division of its construction arm, GB Building Solutions.

At Laing O’Rourke Mr Mullins he had responsibility for delivery of the shell, core and envelope of Heathrow Airport’s new £1bn Terminal 2, which opened to passengers last month.

At GB Building Solutions he will take charge of the offices in Sunbury and Rugby.

GB operations director Peter Smyth said: “Steve joins us at an exciting time for GB as we accelerate plans to grow our presence in the central and southern regions. He is a passionate supporter of continuous improvement and innovation, and brings with him a detailed knowledge of off-site manufacture, health and safety and client facing delivery.

“Steve is a strong addition to our senior leadership team and will offer a commercially creative approach to new initiatives and problem solving.”

Mr Mullins is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building and a chartered environmentalist.

The number of eligible properties under the government’s Help to Buy scheme in England and Wales has fallen, while average prices have risen since the launch of the second phase of the scheme, a new analysis shows.

The study by property website Zoopla of properties available for sale up to a value of £600,000 shows that Help to Buy has done little to encourage sellers into the market since in October 2013.

Since the launch of the mortgage guarantee, the number of properties eligible under the scheme has actually fallen 1.9%. The supply squeeze has pushed up the average price of properties eligible under Help to Buy by 2.2%, from £222,168 in October to £227,010 today.

The South East of England has seen the biggest falls in stock levels since October with the number of eligible properties down 7.4%, whilst average prices have risen 3.6% over the same period and now stand at £274,464.

London has also seen a significant drop in the number of properties eligible under Help to Buy which has fallen by 6.7% since October. Wales and the Midlands are the only regions to have seen increases in the number of Help to Buy eligible properties available.

The biggest fall in properties eligible for Help to Buy over the last six months has been in Brighton where there are now 15.8% fewer properties for sale that meet the criteria than there were in October. Walsall and Stockport have also seen large drops in eligible stock with 14.9% and 14.7% fewer properties for sale respectively.

In contrast, Middlesbrough, Wirral and Newport have seen the largest increases in the number of properties that qualify for the scheme coming onto the market with rises of 38.7%, 37.4% and 25.5% respectively.

‘The Help to Buy scheme was introduced to help grease the wheels for buyers locked out of the market. But fuelling demand was also expected to spark sellers into action and increase the supply of properties available on the market,’ said Lawrence Hall of Zoopla.

‘That spark seems yet to ignite as the overall level of properties eligible under Help to Buy has actually fallen over the last six months. Unless stock levels increase, the supply shortage will continue to put upward pressure on prices as more buyers enter the market,’ he added.

A steel bending company is claiming that it has a new development to save significant construction costs and time in the erection of offshore wind turbines.

Barnshaws Metal Bending says that it has developed new methods for cold bending rectangular hollow sections (RHS) for base platform support rings that are used as an integral part of the structure of turbines.

Barnshaws can now curve 400*200*16 RHS and 450*250*16 RHS to 2500 inside radius with very little distortion, it says. Up until now, the manufacture of these critical components has only been possible via more expensive and time consuming heat induction bending methods.

For more extreme configurations, where cold bending is still not a technically feasible option, Barnshaws says it can use induction bending to meet the required component specification. To demonstrate this capability, the company has recently created 500*300*16 RHS to 2800 centre line radius, again with minimum distortion.

Legal action to get compensation for blacklisted construction workers opened in the High Court yesterday with a green light for the case to proceed to the next stage.

The judge hearing the case agreed that the companies involved in blacklisting have a case to answer. He ruled that the hundreds of separate cases made by victims of blacklisting will be heard together, under a group litigation order (GLO).

In a further victory for the unions bringing the case, it was agreed that the names and addresses of blacklisted workers will not be made publicly available and will be kept in a sealed enveloped controlled by the judge. Therefore the blacklisting companies will not be given access to the names and addresses of their victims.

The next court date has been provisionally set for October and there will be a further hearing in December.

The cases will be managed on behalf of the victims by a steering committee, comprising of the solicitors acting for the unions Ucatt, Unite and the GMB and the Blacklist Support Group who have all brought forward cases. Solicitors OH Parsons are acting for Ucatt. Leigh Day is acting for the GMB.  The Blacklist Support Group has retained Guney Clark & Ryan.

Collectively they are seeking compensation for 571 construction workers who were blacklisted by the contractors behind the Consulting Association, whose illegal operation was shut down after a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009.

Ucatt hailed the first day’s hearing as the first step on the path to justice for blacklisted workers. General secretary Steve Murphy said: “Today was a green light in the battle for blacklisting justice. Over five years after the scandal was first revealed blacklisted victims are beginning to see justice in action. The companies involved in ruining workers lives are going to be forced to answer for their actions.”

Mr Murphy added: “It was absolutely essential that companies involved in blacklisting aren’t given the details of their victims and we welcome the decision that this information will not be made publicly available.”

The eight companies being sued are: Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Keir, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci. They have set up their own compensation scheme, The Construction Workers Compensation Scheme (TCWCS) to compensate the victims they blacklisted. They had applied to regain possession of the illegally run database so that they had contact details of the people they now want to compensate.

The unions argue that the sums and terms on offer under TCWCS are unsatisfactory.

Unite’s executive director for legal services Howard Beckett said: “We would urge all blacklisted workers to ignore attempts by the eight blacklisting companies to buy them off through the inadequate compensation scheme launched last week.

“The only way to secure justice and proper compensation for the damage wrought by blacklisting is by joining the group action organised by Unite legal services. It a fight that no individual could possibly take without union legal aid.”

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a company for failing to install adequate guarding on an electric gate that trapped a young child at a primary school in Stourbridge.

Dudley Magistrates’ Court yesterday (10th July) heard that on 25 September 2012 an eight-year-old boy was injured when his head became trapped between the edge of the closing gate and the gate post. The child suffered significant bruising to the right side of his head and ear.

His father was there and just managed to hold the gate enough to release his son’s head.

An HSE investigation found that the entrance gate at Pedmore Primary School had been automated by Access Control Solutions (UK) Ltd but the company had failed to fit suitable guarding.

The company had identified the need for the guarding but not fitted it because the gate, which had been manufactured by a different company, was not the exact style expected and the guarding would not fit.

Access Control Solutions (UK) Ltd, of Boston Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 18 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and was fined £3,300 with £773 costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Sarah Palfreyman said: “This was an extremely traumatic event for the boy and his father. Fortunately, the youngster was back at school a couple of days later and he has not suffered any long term effects. However, it could have been a different story had he been trapped by a different part of his head, or had it happened to a younger child.

“The incident was entirely preventable. Access Control Solutions identified the need for the guard in their own job specification but when the gate arrived, it was not the type expected the guard did not fit. At this point they should have either come up with an alternative or postponed the job until the problem was rectified, especially as they were fully aware that the entrance would be used by a particularly vulnerable group – young children.

“People getting trapped is a well-known risk in the industry and HSE has produced safety notes on the subject due to a number of fatalities involving children in recent years. I would encourage all suppliers and installers of electric gates to read it.”

Campaigners for research into asbestos-related diseases are seeking support from the construction industry for their petition to get a House of Commons debate.

The online petition on the government website calls for “dedicated long-term funding for research into the causes, treatment, and potential cure of those diseases related to exposure from asbestos”.

A petition of 100,000 signatures is needed to raise the issue of this illness within the House of Commons for debate.

The petition can be viewed and signed at https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59014

The full wording is:

The United Kingdom has the dubious honour of being number 1 in the world for the level of deaths occurring annually from asbestos related diseases. Around 2500 people will die this year alone in the UK from mesothelioma.

Unlike many other cancer diseases, mesothelioma and the other asbestos diseases, have received negligible amounts of public money for research purposes.

This petition calls on the government to: Provide dedicated long-term funding for research into the causes, treatment, and potential cure of those diseases related to exposure from asbestos.

18 DWELLINGS (4 X 1 BED, 6 X 3 BED AND 8 X 4 BED INCLUDING ASSOCIATED ACCESS ROAD AND PARKING (AMENDED) (SECTION 106 AGREEMENT) (SECTION 278 AGREEMENT)

Demolition of outbuildings, single storey rear and side extension, loft conversion with rear dormer window and two front rooflights, alterations to front elevation replacing shopfront with bay window and conversion of building into 2 x 1 bed self containe

Construction of 2 no detached dwellings with vehicular access between 3 & 5 Station Road

Conversion of redundant traditional farm buildings to provide three detached residential dwellings together with domestic curtilage

Demolition of existing dwelling. Erection of building comprising 7 apartments with associated parking and cycle parking

Demolition of former care home and erection of 4 detached dwellings with associated landscaping and access

Change of use of existing offices (Use Class B1a) to 5 No. Flats (Use Class C3) and construction of 3 storey building to the rear to provide 2 flats (Use Classes C3 and C4) together with associated refuse and cycle storage.

Change of use of one ground floor flat and two first floor flats from holiday use to residential and construction of balconies to the two first floor flats.

Demolition of the existing warehouse and the erection of a new retail warehouse (use class A1) with associated storage, car parking and landscaping, at 21 Rose Kiln Lane, Reading

Demolition of existing rear extension and erection of a single storey rear extension along with the installation of an ATM machine to front elevation.

Redevelopment of the site including the erection of three buildings ranging from three to eleven storeys in height plus a mezzarine, comprising a mix of retail units, restaurants, cafes and other commercial units class A1-A5 and B1 studios Class B1 158 re

Construction of 2 x self contained two-bedroom flats on a vacant piece of brownfield land including, 2no front car parking spaces, refuse and recycling storage, storage area for buggies, 2no cycle storage to one side and 1no. cycle storage to the other si

Single storey extension for use as a laundry

Sub-division and erection of a 143m2 extension to existing shop to form 3 shops, including installation of roller shutters and installation of new windows and doors

Demolition of existing buildings and replacement with a mixed use development comprising of 27 residential units, new church/community centre and store convenience. Proposed new vehicle access arrangements and the temporary provision of the convenience st

Creation of louvered storage areas at the rear of the property fronting Hopkins Street.

Application for the installation of a mezzanine floor to be used for retail and/or a pet care and treatment facility and installation of first floor steel fire exit, external staircase and external air conditioning units.

Residential development- Demolition of 174 and 176 Belt Road and construction of 6 two bedroom flats.

Sub-division of property back to two dwellings

Renovation, extension and conversion of former stable block to create a dwelling and demolition of outbuildings

Contract notice, The most economic tender, Railway services

Contract notice, The most economic tender, Water

Contract notice, Not applicable, Health