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EWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF Recruiting and retaining staff main barrier to growth Almost half (43%) of building engineering firms reported an increase in tender enquiries during the second quarter of this year, according to the latest Building Engineering Business Survey. Conducted quarterly by electrotechnical trade body ECA, in partnership with BESA, the survey says recruiting and retaining the right calibre of staff is now the biggest curb on business growth. Materials shortages and cash flow also continue to affect the sector, the survey found. Almost a quarter (24%) of surveyed firms said they were hiring more apprentices than last year and 32% plan to directly employ more staff than in the past. Energy from waste to power Leeds network Plans have been unveiled for a 25m low carbon district heating and electricity scheme in Aire Valley Leeds. SSE Energy Solutions is developing the network, which will capture waste heat created by a new energy-from-waste plant currently under construction at nearby Skelton Grange. The heat will be piped to the approximately 400 businesses located in Aire Valley, which may also benefit from cut-price electricity supplied directly from the incinerator. Privatisation eroded building control rigour, inquiry told Professor Luke Bisby says previous cladding fires were missed opportunities Privatisation continuously eroded the independence and rigour of building control activities during the three decades leading up to Grenfell, according to a report by an expert witness to the ongoing inquiry into the fire. Written by University of Edinburgh professor of fire and structures Luke Bisby, the report, (bit.ly/CJJul22LB) says a string of previous cladding fires were missed opportunities to carry out regulatory changes that may have prevented the disaster. Between 1984 and 2017, the independence Luke Bisby and rigour of building control activities was continuously eroded due to changes resulting from the introduction of privatised building control via approved inspectors, the report says. A culture shift in building control had gradually occurred, from one of building control actors policing developers to one of them working with clients under commercial duress. This resulted in a race to the bottom in the resulting practices within the construction industry. While there were many opportunities to make guidance and tests simpler or less permissive, the report adds, in each case there appear to have been powerful commercial and ideological incentives to increase complexity while also increasing flexibility. This included legacy standards being routinely retained within guidance, adding multiple routes to compliance or generating confusion. These multiple routes to compliance, when combined with widespread incompetence, inadequate oversight, and a perceived absence of liability, made misinterpretation, misapplication, and gaming easier, more attractive, and therefore more likely. Even before its privatisation in 1997, safety research and testing body the Building Research Establishment (BRE) had a significant organisational incentive to enable overcladding solutions while being seen to mitigate their fire risks rather than to prohibit their use Professor Bisbys report states. Mark Rowe, Fire Brigades Union national officer, said it is vital that the BRE is taken back into public ownership. GSHPs for homes in Cornwall Work has begun on the latest phase of an 8.7m project to heat hundreds of homes across Cornwall with ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) connected to shared-loop ground arrays. Drilling has started on the arrays boreholes in the villages of Carlyon Bay and Harlyn Bay, which will be connected to heat pumps supplied by Kensa Utilities. Kensa, which is partfunding the Heat the Streets project, will retain ownership of the ground array and charge households a fixed annual fee for its use. A 6.2m grant by the European Regional Development Fund has enabled the project to install ground source pumps for less cost than their air source equivalents. Energy efficiency is only silver bullet for cutting carbon, says E.ON chief A massive ramp-up in home insulation and other energy efficiency projects is the only silver bullet for slashing power bills and carbon emissions, the CEO of E.ON UK has told MPs. Delivering evidence to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on 8 June, Michael Lewis urged the government to increase investment in energy efficiency. He said: Our plea to the government has always been to push hard on energy efficiency, because thats the proven way, the only silver bullet, for this crisis. It will reduce prices, reduce energy consumption, and contribute to net zero on a sustainable basis. The next phase of tackling this has to be a massive ramp-up in measures to deal with energy efficiency, said Lewis, adding that bringing all homes up to Energy Performance Certificate band C standard will save the equivalent of six nuclear power plants worth of energy. Lewis also called on the government to push through legislation for the next phase of the supplier-funded Energy Companies Obligation before parliaments summer recess begins in late July. He also called for a bigger scheme that can help provide the funding upfront for those who can afford to pay for their own upgrades 8 July 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE July 22 pp08-09 News.indd 8 24/06/2022 15:06