In today’s UK construction news, the outrage has spread across the country over plans to rewire the country by installing hundreds of new pylons. At the same time, a construction firm donated £4,000 to a charity that aids construction workers. The numbers also show how far down the 140-mile course the earthworks, viaducts, and tunnelling have come. A “fundamental reset” of the project is being prepared by the new HS2 Ltd CEO to address the massive financial issues it is facing. Additionally, with the announcement of the company’s third earnings warning, Vistry’s stock declined, mirroring the trend of other companies facing diminishing sales.
Mounting Conflict Between “Blockers” and “Builders” Over UK Pylons
Original Source: Pylon wars: Battle between builders and ‘blockers’ mounts across UK
The government’s plan to rewire the nation by erecting thousands of additional pylons has sparked a nationwide uproar.
Many people in rural areas are opposed to the government’s plans to construct thousands of new pylons in order to reach their clean electricity targets.
As the demand for electricity continues to rise and more renewable energy sources, including as solar and wind farms, will need to be connected in the near future, National Grid is undergoing a power system makeover.
An act of “national security” is at stake, according to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who has vowed to “take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists” in relation to the planned installation of additional pylons, wind turbines, and solar panels.
On the other hand, protests have emerged in regions ranging from North Wales and Essex to Yorkshire, with activists claiming that the government is employing “bullying tactics” to push through new pylon projects.
The rural village is situated along a pylon line that spans over 110 miles through East Anglia, connecting Tilbury—on the banks of the River Thames—to Norwich—one of the largest planned projects.
The plans call for 520 poles, each 50 meters in height, with extensive trenches excavated at ground level surrounding them.
According to Mr. Whitfield, the buildings are detestable.
There will be an encirclement, he warned the PA news agency. These pylons will be visible from every corner of our parish.
“People were crying about how terrible it will be at the statutory consultation earlier this year.”
Campaigners propose that the bulk of the Norwich-Tilbury project could be located offshore, with smaller power lines that cause less disruption making their way inland.
Although National Grid is making efforts to reduce disruption, the offshoring plan would be “four times more expensive,” according to Tom McGarry, deputy corporate affairs director.
He emphasized that Ofgem must evaluate their projects from a customer perspective.
“All people who pay for electricity bills should get the best value for their money from them.”
The plans in East Anglia are still under consultation with National Grid, but if approved, construction is set to begin in 2027.
Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire are among the many UK counties where opposition to pylon lines is growing.
According to Rosie Pearson, who is also opposed to the Essex pylon route, there is a “groundswell” of backing from similar campaigns nationwide.
The prime minister was accused by her of “bullying rhetoric” and “forcing any old project through come what may” in her accusation.
A growing number of individuals are discussing and learning about this problem, she added.
Nonetheless, the grid upgrades are “urgently needed”, said Mr. McGarry.
Many of the UK’s present pylons and overhead power lines were built in the 1960s to carry electricity from coal-fired power facilities in the Midlands and the north to the rest of the country.
Renewables are now the UK’s main source of power, meaning electricity needs to be transferred from other regions, such as offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
The upgrades are also key to Labour’s aims to decarbonize the grid by 2030, five years earlier than the Conservatives promised.
Mr McGarry added: “We need to effectively rewire Britain.”
Sir John Armitt, head of the National Infrastructure Commission, which advises ministers, said: “Our whole energy system is changing. We’ve got an antiquated energy system built on a few extremely huge power stations.
“We’re now into a much more local, offshore, and onshore model… then we’ve got to connect it all up.”
However, he continued, disputes like this also demonstrate how important it is for Labour to demonstrate that they are listening to local communities.
Sir John said that recent government communications “sound a bit like: ‘You must listen. These are nationally essential concerns, and therefore please come to terms with this and embrace it.’”
He said: “If you don’t have a discussion with people you can’t be surprised if they get pretty antagonistic.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the clean power transition “will require improving infrastructure in a cost-effective way to get renewable electricity on the grid”.
“Without this infrastructure, we will never deliver clean power for the British people.”
They stated other methods are “more expensive, and costs are borne by the electricity billpayer”.
“Local communities have always had a say in planning, and that will only change going forward.”
Construction Company Contributes £4k to Worker Welfare Charity
Original Source: Construction firm donates £4K to charity supporting workers’ wellbeing
A charity that helps construction workers is the beneficiary of a £4,000 donation from a building firm.
During the Scotland West annual dinner at Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel, the JR Group donated to The Lighthouse Construction Charity.
The purpose of the gathering was to bring attention to the charity’s efforts in helping Scottish construction workers and their families in various ways, including financially, emotionally, and physically.
Stephen Robertson, The JR Group’s contracts manager, said: “The Lighthouse Scotland West annual dinner is always a fantastic event and this year, we were proud to be able to donate towards the event fundraising total to help them continue to highlight the importance of positive wellbeing and mental health support within the construction industry.”
One of the many services that the Paisley-based JR Group makes available to its 200 employees is the Lighthouse Club’s Construction Industry Helpline, which is available around the clock.
Staff members can call this hotline to get free, discreet assistance with their health and happiness.
Additionally, the charity’s Construction Industry Helpline App is available for download by staff members and offers advice on a range of wellness-related topics.
Mr Robertson added: “Within the construction business in particular, it can be very tough for workers to feel comfortable to be able to openly address their mental health and wellbeing and as a result, there’s a higher risk of suicide among people within our industry.
“At The JR Group, we’ve always strived to support our team, break the stigma around mental health and give our employees access to great resources like the Lighthouse Club.”
From its humble beginnings as a scaffolding company in Govan in 1995, the JR Group has expanded into a thriving construction and building corporation, now employing about 200 people.
The JR Group can be contacted at 0141 849 6711 or on their website for further information.
HS2 is Coming Together: the New High-speed Railway in Britain is Taking Shape
Original Source: HS2 takes shape: progress to deliver Britain’s new high-speed railway revealed
The figures indicate the progress achieved on the 140-mile route’s tunnelling, viaducts, and earthworks.
The new CEO of HS2 Ltd is getting ready to do a “fundamental reset” of the project in order to deal with the enormous financial problems it has.
Just as Britain is getting ready to celebrate the bicentenary of the railways, HS2 has a big year ahead of it, which includes the completion of two more twin-bore tunnels.
Most of the earthworks and deep tunnel drives required for the high-speed train have already been finished, according to today’s numbers outlining the progress achieved in creating HS2.
Much civil engineering work has been done to lay the foundations for the 140-mile line between London and the West Midlands, despite the difficulties of the program.
Seventy percent of the twin-bore tunnels, or 38 out of the 55 miles being constructed for the railway, have been dug thus far, according to the figures. The lengthiest and deepest tunnel on the route, the 10-mile Chiltern Tunnel, was dug earlier this year by two enormous machines (seen below).
The total number of tunnel drives completed is five out of twelve. Last but not least, on December 19, the first of four machines used to dig the Northolt Tunnel in north-west London completed its drive.
According to the numbers, 58% of the cuts, embankments, stations, and landscaping for the railway have been finished. In total, it amounts to over 92 million cubic meters of material that has been transferred thus far. In particular, much work has been done in the heart of Birmingham to get the site ready for the Curzon Street station.
Also, out of 227 viaducts and bridges, 158 have begun construction, making up 70% of the total; 13 of these have already been constructed. The 2.1-mile Colne Valley Viaduct, the longest rail bridge in the United Kingdom, was decked out in September by HS2. This bridge will transport the railway over a number of lakes and canals on the fringes of London’s northwest.
The six green, or cut-and-cover, tunnels that are part of the route are also making headway; in November, the 700-meter tunnel near Burton Green in Warwickshire (below) passed the halfway point.
The new Construction Update from HS2 Ltd., released today, details the data.
Constructing HS2 is a long-term strategic asset for the United Kingdom since it will provide the groundwork for the country’s future rail network. It will alleviate congestion on current lines, making room for more local and freight services, and enable faster, more dependable travel between Britain’s two largest cities.
Recent developments have not alleviated the substantial obstacles that HS2 still faces, most notably the issue of cost. The newly-hired chief executive of HS2 Ltd, Mark Wild, is already spearheading an extensive evaluation of the program that will provide its findings next year.
Soon enough, thanks to his efforts, the government will have more clarity regarding the cost and timetable of HS2, and the project will undergo a complete reset. In his December 19 testimony before the Commons Public Accounts Committee, he laid forth the evidence-based challenges to HS2.
“The tremendously impressive feats of civil engineering taking shape right along the route have inspired me in the last month. HS2 represents a significant investment in Britain’s future,” Mark Wild stated. In addition to improving travel, new trains stimulate investment in local businesses and communities, which in turn increases economic growth.
“The goal is obvious. But the program is in a dire strait that necessitates a complete reset in order to get it delivered at the lowest possible cost. In order to get the railway into operation in a safe and efficient manner, I will be dedicating the next year to completing this reset.
The railways will celebrate their bicentenary next year. In 2025, the Darlington and Stockton Railway will commemorate 200 years since the first steam-hauled passenger train ran on the line with a number of events.
As development continues on HS2, the newest and most technologically advanced train link in the United Kingdom, it offers crucial historical context.
There are 350 active building sites along the path of the program, employing more than 31,000 workers. Tracks, overhead lines, and electricity are just a few of the elements that will be added to turn HS2 into a working railway after construction is finished. Companies will be merged into the train Systems Alliance in 2025 to better manage the intricate linkages between the major train systems that were awarded contracts in November by HS2 Ltd.
A number of significant construction milestones are anticipated to be achieved by HS2 in the coming year. This involves finishing:
- Work continues on the second-longest tunnel on the route, the 8.4-mile Northolt Tunnel, with three more tunnelling machines expected to break ground in 2025 (including the one that broke ground earlier this month);
- A crucial portion of the railway that will transport the line into and out of Birmingham, the 3.5-mile Bromford Tunnel has two bores;
- The foundation of the massive subterranean station box at Old Oak Common, with the beginning of the platforms for the stations;
- Delta Junction is a triangle stretch of the railway east of Birmingham that allows trains to run between London, Birmingham, and the north. The first deck part of the River Tame West Viaduct is one of thirteen viaducts being constructed for this route.
- On the outskirts of London, between the Northolt Tunnel and the Colne Valley Viaduct, is the 900-meter green Copthall Tunnel.
List Builders in the UK on Set to Build the Fewest New Homes in a Decade
Original Source: UK’s listed builders on track to build fewest new houses in a decade
As other companies experience declining sales, Vistry’s stock falls after the company releases its third earnings warning.
Despite the Labour government’s push to improve housing supply, the market is held back by planning constraints and high mortgage rates, causing the UK’s listed housebuilders to create the fewest new houses for sale in a decade.
According to a Financial Times study of numbers for seven businesses produced by Investec, the sector is expected to finish just over 50,000 homes this year, which is the lowest level of output since 2013. This excludes Vistry, which focuses on affordable and rental housing.
Due to “delays to expected year-end transactions and completions” and having to cancel projects because the financial terms “were not sufficiently attractive,” Vistry issued its third profit warning since October, causing its shares to fall 16.3% on Tuesday.
In an attempt to accelerate the construction of new homes to the greatest level in more than 50 years, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government initiated extensive planning changes. However, the general contraction in housebuilding presents a significant barrier to this goal.
“The listed players are broadly delivering their lowest completions for a decade,” commented Aynsley Lammin, an analyst at Investec. He attributed the downturn to “both demand and supply factors,” which he defined as things like high mortgage rates that make purchases more difficult for first-time buyers.
The construction industry has praised Labour’s planning changes, but UK housebuilders’ stock has dropped by about 20% since the budget in October, due to concerns that borrowing rates will remain high and inflation may return.
Vistry has previously issued two warnings this year for £165 million in underreported construction expenses. On Tuesday, it slashed its earnings forecast for 2024 by a further £50 million. Lammin expressed concern that the new caution would “harm the group’s credibility” and “further unnerve investors” due to its wording.
Companies in the sector as a whole, including Taylor Wimpey, Barratt, and Persimmon, have been hit hard by post-budget worries about interest rates because of their sensitivity to borrowing costs.
Mortgages are the lifeblood of many businesses, and a large portion of their clientele are first-time buyers who are pushing their finances to their limits. Moneyfacts, a source of financial information, reports that mortgage rates have remained higher than anticipated this year, averaging over 5%.
All seven of the listed homebuilders saw a 3% decline in output this year. This comes after a one-fifth decline in 2023, following the Conservatives’ “mini” Budget in September 2022, which caused a spike in mortgage rates and severely limited the property market.
A broader reduction in housing output has contributed to the decline in the number of new home completions by these companies, including Bellway, Berkeley, Crest Nicholson, and MJ Gleeson. According to statistics that measure the overall supply of new homes, there was a 5% decrease in the number of residences finished in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the same time last year.
Savills, an estate agency, estimates that the industry will complete around 220,000 new homes this year, which is far lower than the 1.5 million homes that the Labour Party has set as its goal for the next five years.
Because of the downturn in sales, homebuilders have cut back on land purchases and new site openings, reduced production, and are attempting to stave off price cuts.
Many in the industry are looking forward to 2025 as the beginning of a rebound, anticipating a gradual decline in mortgage rates and the prospect of Labour’s pro-building legislation beginning to produce results.
The 2024 Labour administration is the most pro-housebuilding administration that we can recall,” remarked Anthony Codling, an analyst at RBC. According to the UK housebuilders, “the Budget” was an exaggeration.
Without solutions to assist more stressed first-time buyers in affording a home and significantly increasing financing for affordable housing, analysts and industry organizations have cautioned that the Labour Party is likely to fall short of its goal of 1.5 million new homes.
However, there are a few CEOs in the sector who remain confident. During a results call in October, Bellway CEO Jason Honeyman told the Financial Times, “I get fed up with the moaners.”
People wanted to gripe about the previous administration, which was opposed to building any new houses. He continued by saying that the new government’s desire to construct too many was the source of their complaints. It has lofty goals. Reconstruction in the homebuilding industry is a slow process.
Summary of today’s construction news
Overall, we discussed To achieve its clean electricity goals, the government intends to build hundreds of new pylons, which many residents in rural areas are against. Electricity demand is on the rise, and additional renewable power sources, such as wind and solar farms, will soon have to be linked, therefore National Grid is revamping its power infrastructure. Meanwhile, a donation was made to The Lighthouse Construction Charity by the JR Group at the Scotland West annual dinner held at Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel. The event aimed to highlight the charity’s work in providing material, emotional, and physical aid to Scottish construction workers and their families. To add insult to injury, HS2 Ltd’s new chief executive officer is preparing to implement a “fundamental reset” of the project to address its massive financial issues. In the midst of Britain’s preparations to commemorate the railways’ bicentenary, HS2 has an eventful year ahead, culminating in the construction of two further twin-bore tunnels. Additionally, listed UK homebuilders have produced the fewest new houses for sale in ten years, due to planning restrictions and high mortgage rates, which hinder the market despite the Labour government’s efforts to increase the supply of homes.
