Small house building firms have welcomed moves to increase brownfield development outlined in the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said.

Chris Carr, Chair of the FMB Home Builders Group, said: “Bringing forward planning applications remains an expensive and risky business for small house builders. Brownfield sites within our towns and cities are likely to be sites of a size and location that is attractive to local builders. However, previously-used sites often come with additional costs and complexities that increase the upfront investment required at a time when finance remains very difficult to come by for small developers.”

Carr concluded: “The Chancellor’s announcement that councils will be required to place local development orders on more than 90% of suitable brownfield sites by 2020 is significant. It will reduce the risks involved and provide house builders with the certainty they need to invest in these sites. Where this is backed with funding to help make difficult brownfield sites viable for development then talk of an urban planning revolution may not be so far fetched.”

A survey on behalf of Platform Black, the award-winning Alternative Finance company, has found that 71% of small businesses are now confident in their ability to raise finance. Interestingly, 73% of companies questioned within the construction and manufacturing industries said their confidence in their ability to raise funds was good.

The survey, compiled for Platform Black by IFF Research, talked to 500 managing directors, financial directors and owners of businesses with up to 250 employees and found that confidence is returning to the UK economy. More than seventy per cent of companies questioned said they are ‘very confident’ or ‘fairly confident’ in their ability to raise the finance they need over the next 12 months.

Louise Beaumont, co-founder of Platform Black, which has advanced more than £65m to SMEs since its inception two years ago, commented on the figures: “This is great news for the UK economy and shows the perception of restricted access to finance is receding at last. We welcome the fact that access to finance is no longer placing a choke chain around SME growth and its prospects for the future.”

She added: “Interestingly, recent figures from the Bank of England for the last quarter show that net lending to SMEs by banks was down by £0.7bn and yet the Alternative Finance market is growing significantly, with the peer-to-peer lending industry providing more than £1.5 billion to businesses by May this year*. Clearly, a significant proportion of new money is coming from alternative lenders rather than the banks showing that Alternative Finance is offering businesses a real choice for equity, loans and invoice finance – the bank is no longer the first, last and only port of call.”

First thermal insulation profile made of 100% unmixed recycled polyamide improves the eco balance of buildings

Insulbar RE has now been on the market for a number of weeks. What makes it special: The insulation profile, which is used to create a thermal barrier between the inner and outer shell of the metal frames of windows, doors and facades, is made of 100% unmixed recycled PA66, making this a truly resource-saving option. Plastic specialist Ensinger processes this high-quality material using an upcycling process which renders its properties directly comparable to those of new material.

This means that insulbar RE – just like the classical insulbar product line from Ensinger – provides excellent thermal insulation and helps to save energy and costs for room heating and cooling. During the manufacturing phase, it generates 85 % fewer greenhouse gases, as well as using 89 % fewer fossil-based resources. This claim has now been backed by the Institute for Window Technology (ift) in Rosenheim, which has issued an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) additionally endorsed by an independent expert.

Fabricator Pearl Window Systems is based in Lancashire – and its straight-talking, Northern owner Jeff Walsh is committed to achieving huge growth targets for the benefit of his family, his favourite charities and also his team of loyal workers at the factory in Bolton.

What you see is what you get

Following a background in windows fabrication, Jeff started Pearl in 1999. His philosophy was simple – to recruit a team based on personality and attitude.

“Skills can be learned, but it’s difficult to fake personality,” explains Jeff. “With Pearl, what you see is what you get – and that’s why people like doing business with us.”

The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) has been awarded the specialist SME Assistance Trophy from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

Accepting the award, Michael Lee, Membership Director at the BWF said:

“We are delighted to be honoured with this award, which recognises the BWF’s commitment to health and safety. It is testament not just to the dedication of the team here, but to the input we have had from our members, helping to hone the information with their practical experience.

“But this is not enough – we need to keep improving together. Our new Health and Safety Hero Campaign is the next chapter, bringing information to life and focusing on how companies can introduce a revitalised approach to safety culture into their workforce.”

WORKPLACE equipment supplier Slingsby has seen demand increasing for health and safety products that specifically appeal to an aging workforce in recent years and it’s an area that’s set to continue growing with recent figures revealing the number of pensioners with jobs has smashed through the one million barrier.

According to research from the Office for National Statistics, the number of over-65s in work is now at the highest level since records began in 1992, with almost one in 10 people in this age group now employed. Of those 615,000 are men and 388,000 women.

In recent years Slingsby, which sells more than 35,000 workplace products to all industries through its catalogue and website, has seen customers increasingly ordering products to make life easier for older workers such as specialist handling equipment that requires very little effort from the operator.

Lee Wright, Marketing Director at Slingsby, explains: “Life expectancy has increased significantly in recent decades and now there is no longer an official retirement age

it’s no surprise that the UK has an aging workforce. “It’s likely that some people don’t want to retire because they enjoy their jobs and going to work keeps them busy or they enjoy the social interaction so it’s a positive choice. Others might carry on working because they can’t afford to give up work and retire. In addition the state pension age is increasing and by 2020 it will be 66 for both men and women and then 67 by 2028 so an aging workforce is a trend that will definitely continue.

The human BFRC Homeowners Energy Rating Certificate was a big hit at FIT 2014 – distributing nearly 1,000 promotional leaflets.

The leaflet stated that all homeowners, when asked*, said they wanted this new Energy Rating Certificate, when having BFRC rated replacement windows and doors fitted in their homes. Installers were eager to hear the message – and promote the fact they install BFRC rated product to their customers.

This BFRC Homeowners Energy Rating Certificate is specific to the property and the products purchased and will feature the installers name and date of installation as well as the well-known ‘rainbow’ colour label. The ratings displayed will be ‘A+’ to ‘C’ for windows and ‘A+’ to ‘G’ for doors

It is the only such certificate available in the UK glazing sector.

This certificate is a valuable new marketing tool for installers. Issuing of the certificate can be promoted by the installer to the

PVC recycling continues to grow across Europe, with the UK contributing more than 20% – or 88,648 tonnes – to the total recycled through Recovinyl, the PVC industry’s recycling scheme, in 2013.

A total of 435,083 tonnes of waste PVC was recycled through Recovinyl last year across its 16 European member countries. To date, the Recovinyl recycling network comprises 141 companies.

Recovinyl is the operational arm of VinylPlus, the ten-year Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry, which is tackling the sustainability challenges for PVC and delivery of current recycling targets to 2020.

Waste PVC-U profiles comprised 50,421 tonnes of the UK’s recycling effort in 2013, with pipes, rigid and flexible PVC films and cables making up the rest.

This profile fraction is equivalent to the replacement of 3 million individual frames, or more than 300,000 homes based on an average of ten windows per house. The assumption is based on the weight of an average PVC-U window frame.