In today’s construction news, nuclear submarines with the designation AUKUS will be constructed in both the United Kingdom and Australia. Meanwhile, a package of £42 million from the government for new building safety inspectors. Furthermore, what about those old walls? The construction industry in Britain has embraced the retrofit revolution. Moreover, the sudden failure of a major high rise flat builder, which resulted in at least $3 million in debt, may be traced back to three important issues.
The AUKUS submarine project selected British design
Original Source: British-led design chosen for AUKUS submarine project
UK-designed AUKUS nuclear submarines will be built in the UK and Australia.
UK and Australian nuclear-powered submarines will be built.
UK submarines will be operational by the late 2030s after a large trilateral building effort that will create thousands of employment.
Prime Minister, Australian Prime Minister Albanese, and US President Biden announce the next stage of the AUKUS submarine project in San Diego.
The Prime Minister and the leaders of Australia and the US agreed today that the first generation of AUKUS nuclear submarines will be built in the UK and Australia using the UK’s world-leading submarine design.
After an 18-month scoping study, a model based on the UK’s world-leading design and featuring cutting-edge US submarine technology was chosen.
Australia and the UK will build “SSN-AUKUS” submarines, with the UK’s being built in Barrow-in-Furness. Australia will build submarines in South Australia with UK-made parts over the next decade.
The first UK and Australian submarines of this type will replace the Astute-Class vessels in the late 2030s and early 2040s, respectively.
The Royal Navy’s SSN-AUKUS assault submarines will have world-class sensors, design, and weapons.
Building on over 60 years of British competence designing, building, and operating nuclear-powered submarines, this major multinational project will create thousands of UK employment in the decades ahead. Most of these positions will be in Barrow-in-Furness, where British submarines are built, with others along the supply chain, including Derby.
An interoperable submarine design will enable the Royal Navy, Australian, and US navies to collaborate and repel aggression. In the Indo-Pacific, today’s UK Integrated Review update confirmed the need for more engagement in this volatile region. The strategy establishes the Indo-Pacific “tilt” as a permanent UK foreign policy component.
As NATO’s largest European contributor, the UK’s SSN-AUKUS submarines will assist us defend the Euro-Atlantic region.
PM:
Our common values and commitment to stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond underpin this alliance.
“And I am extremely glad that the proposals we have unveiled today will see pioneering British design skills defend our people and friends for generations.”
Today, the Prime Minister announced that the MoD will receive £5 billion over the next two years to modernise the UK’s nuclear business and support the next phase of the AUKUS submarine program.
The £2bn committed last year in our Dreadnought-class submarine program will be followed by consistent funding for the SSN-AUKUS program over the following decade.
UK SNN-AUKUS submarine construction will begin late this decade. The strategic threat scenario will determine how many submarines the UK needs in coming years. BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce will build UK SSN-AUKUS submarines. UK SSN-AUKUS submarines will replace Astute-Class submarines once operational.
Defence Secretary:
“Supporting thousands of jobs across the UK, particularly many in the north-west of England, this endeavour will improve prosperity across our country and highlight British business to our allies and partners.”
By the end of the year, Royal Australian Navy personnel will be integrated in the Royal Navy and US Navy and, if necessary, at British and American submarine industrial locations to deliver the new submarines as soon as possible. This will accelerate Australian submarine fleet training.
US and UK submarines will boost port visits to Australia this year and in 2026. British and American SSNs will deploy to Australia from 2027 to boost workforce, infrastructural, and regulatory development.
The US will sell Australia Virginia-Class submarines in the 2030s to meet Australia’s nuclear submarine needs until the SSN-AUKUS is operational.
The AUKUS initiative has involved substantial collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency, with all countries committed to protecting secret information and strengthening the global non-proliferation framework.
£42m for building inspectors
Original Source: £42m government package for new building safety inspectors
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will provide £42.5m over three years to implement the Building Safety Act 2022.
The Local Authority Building Control (LABC), the representative organisation for local authority building control in England and Wales, receives £16.5m, and the Fire and Rescue Services in England and the National Fire Chiefs Council receive £26m.
The money will hire and train 110 building control inspectors and 111 fire protection personnel for the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR).
Three-year plan
During three years, DLUHC will recruit and educate inspectors to focus skills and resources on high-rise neighbourhoods.
The Building Safety Act makes these inspectors BSR local regulators.
After the Grenfell Tower incident, the Building Safety Act created the BSR, an independent HSE authority.
The BSR ensures building safety under the statute. It also oversees building and maintaining high-risk buildings.
The Building Safety Act also involves identifying and providing crucial information to the BSR about higher-risk building owners. English high-rise residential block safety managers have six months from April to register with the BSR.
Fire and building control inspectors will monitor higher-risk building design, construction, and administration.
Lorna Stimpson, LABC CEO, appreciated the investment. “Building control surveyors are few, so it’s imperative that we start to invest in this hitherto neglected but vital public service role,” she said.
Reborn walls? British builders embrace retrofitting
Original Source: Old walls, new life? Britain’s builders embrace the retrofit revolution
A 1980s red brick facade conceals a renovated office building near Sloane Square in London. New features include wider, opening windows, taller ceilings, and two “green walls” with growing plants outside. Almost 80 bike places, lockers, and showers replaced the rear car park.
Holbein Gardens, Grosvenor Group’s first net zero carbon office building in its 346-year history, will house up to 260 workers on six stories. The Duke of Westminster’s property firm, which owns large parts of Mayfair and Belgravia, redeveloped the mid-1980s concrete-frame structure and added a storey, the latest example of the “retrofit” boom.
Retrofitting is replacing the habit of tearing down office buildings after 25–30 years and rebuilding. In early 2026, Citigroup will renovate its 42-storey Canary Wharf tower.
According to a new report by the National Trust, Peabody, Historic England, the crown estate, and Grosvenor, retrofitting the UK’s historic buildings, from Georgian townhouses to the mills and factories that started the Industrial Revolution, could generate £35bn a year, create new jobs, and help the government meet its climate goals.
The British Property Federation (BPF) promotes a “retrofit first” approach and an “overarching retrofit plan and tax incentives” from the government.
“There surely is a shift,” says British Land development director Tim Downes. “Carbon saving has obviously gone up the agenda for, I hope, all developers but certainly all publicly listed companies, particularly commercial.”
The Bank of England’s 10th interest rate hike to 4% in February raised borrowing costs. “As interest rates rise, capital costs rise,” explains Grosvenor executive director Anna Bond. . Retrofits can generate highly sustainable modern office space at competitive rents.
Developers must evaluate “operational” carbon—having a brand-new, energy-efficient building—against “embodied” carbon—the large emissions from creating building materials and building from scratch—when deciding whether to retrofit or knock down and build over.
Two-fifths of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from building, heating, cooling, and powering, according to the Global Green Building Council. .
As operating emissions decrease “but we carry on constructing,” CBRE expects that embodied carbon will account for 50% of built-environment emissions by 2035, up from 28% presently. “Without action on embodied carbon, the UK’s 2050 net zero ambition is not achievable.”
CBRE says: “There are significant choices ahead around whether operationally efficient newbuilds or refurbishments are most successful at decreasing overall carbon emissions. But since 80% of 2050’s built stock is already standing, renovating existing buildings reduces the impact.”
. According to the UK Green Building Council, retaining the 1980s brick exterior saved 59 tonnes of carbon.
Philip George, project director, said the windows can be opened on every story and have sensors to save energy. Exposing cooling and heating pipes raised ceilings.
Instead of concrete, the company uses thermalite aircrete blocks and cross-laminated lumber. The firm reclaimed 24 tonnes of steel, including columns from its Bermondsey, east London, Peek Freans scone plant renovation (Grosvenor offloaded the build-to-rent project to the US developer Greystar last summer).
Blue bricks and raised floor tiles are also recycled. George believes salvaged steel is “very intricate and expensive” and tougher to insure, while the latter has a solid market.
Downes believes material passporting—stamping requirements on steel and other materials and barcoding them—will help the secondhand materials market evolve. Certain British Land locations do this.
Grosvenor claims a Chelsea asset manager will save 50% on energy compared to typical London offices at Holbein Gardens.
This building cost £19m from the £90m upgrade fund. It also converted a disused ice factory near Victoria station into offices and shops and Belgravia’s oldest lumber yard, Newson’s Yard, into boutiques.
Bond argues reducing emissions with real estate is easy. “Occupiers, investors, and employees value sustainability more.”
. The 1950s Parcels Building in Oxford Street will open later this year, while the 1885 Chancery House, which still houses the London Silver Vaults market, will open this spring.
Retrofitting “gives us speed to market” and lowers “embodied carbon,” according to company president Charlie Green.
After a £2m restoration, the Rum Runner Works, a former Duran Duran nightclub in Birmingham, is now an office building overlooking a canal. Developer CBRE says half the space is under bid. Spacemade and Turtle Bay are moving into nearby 10 Brindley Place, formerly bank offices and residences.
British Land believes new constructions are needed to “deliver best-in-class buildings which are operationally very energy efficient” notwithstanding the refurbishment trend. It is demolishing 1 Broadgate in the City of London, erected in 1987, and replacing it with a building that uses one-sixth the energy.
. The firm retained the facade and most of the structure of a 2002 office complex at its Paddington headquarters, while 1 Triton Square near Euston station, originally built for First Bank of Chicago in the late 1990s with a massive atrium, was extensively retrofitted. British Land added stories, filled up the atrium, and redesigned the facade for Facebook owner Meta, who wants to sublet the area.
Not everyone retrofits. Last year, Marks & Spencer demolished their 90-year-old Marble Arch shop, prompting a public enquiry. The shop is “riddled with asbestos” and “belongs to a bygone period,” according to CEO Stuart Machin.
Three essential elements cause major high-rise flat builders to collapse owing at least $3million
Original Source: Major high rise apartment builder suddenly collapses owing at least $3million – with three crucial factors to blame
Just weeks after financial problems were raised, a building firm failed.
National Construction Management, based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for 17 years, went bankrupt owing $3 million.
After allegations that Worrells had not paid subcontractors and other suppliers, Dane Hammond and Paul Nogueira were appointed liquidators.
According to Mr. Hammond, the company had three unfinished projects before collapse.
“The company had been battling with many of the same challenges that have afflicted the building and construction industry over the previous few years,” Mr. Hammond said.
Last month, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) set restrictions on the firm, banning it from entering into new building contracts unless approved and subcontractors were paid in advance.
The company’s website, which has since been taken down, stated that National Construction Management ‘built high-quality projects between $5m to $100m for a mix of new and long-term recurring clients’.
The Churches of Christ’s Boonah Aged Care Facility, Birtinya’s Curve luxury apartments, and Noosa’s Glennon residence are among the company’s recent projects.
The latest building company to fall and blame rising expenses is National Construction Management.
This week, national function Object() { [native code] } PBS went into voluntary administration, owing $25m and abandoning 80 unfinished projects nationwide.
A website announcement advised clients that the 33-year-old business had gone into administration, laying off 180 east coast workers.
In a statement, the PBS Board of Directors and firm founder Ian Carter stated the staff had always done its best.
They remarked, “This has been a gut-wrenching choice that we know will affect many lives and livelihoods.”
It was the only responsible course of action following months of strenuous efforts behind the scenes. For our current projects, we secured, not abandoned, these locations to avoid future costs.
“We are the latest, but we won’t be the last construction organisation to crumble under the weight of a dysfunctional industry and manner of doing business that requires urgent reform.”
Summary of today’s construction news
Overall, we discussed that there are plans to construct nuclear-powered submarines in both the UK and Australia. After a significant multilateral construction effort that will result in the creation of thousands of jobs, the United Kingdom’s submarines will be operational by the late 2030s.
Meanwhile, in order to put into effect the Building Safety Act 2022, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will contribute £42.5 million over the course of three years.
On the other hand, a restored office building is hidden under a red brick facade that dates back to the 1980s in the Sloane Square area of London. The new additions consist of windows that open wider, ceilings that are raised higher, and two “green walls” that have plants that are growing outside. In place of the rear parking spot are now about 80 bike racks, lockers, and showers.
On top of that, a construction company went bankrupt only a few short weeks after concerns about its finances were highlighted. National Construction Management, which had been operating out of its Sunshine Coast location in Queensland for the past 17 years, declared bankruptcy with a debt of $3 million.
