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A great evening in the beautiful surroundings of Bath saw the launch of our first film for construction clients. This health & safety DVD is the perfect initial briefing tool for any client – for example, head teachers, estate managers, supermarket chains, and local government. The red carpet was put out for our film stars -  and backers included James Preston Hood of the Construction Client Group, John Rich of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Richard Thorne of AECOM as well as Richard and Jon Williams of Devon County Council. Andrew Kingscott, Principal Inspector for HSE South West also gave a reflection on the importance of client engagement . The films are very high quality and low cost and can be purchased on line from our website at http://www.buildsw.org.uk/clientsdvds

Christos Vidalakis writes:

Wide-ranging changes to its operations have resulted in an Exeter construction firm achieving a testing environmental management standard.

Receiving the ISO14001 certification, Mr Keogh concluded: "It's been a lot of work to get to this point and put this in place. Now, hopefully, we will see some of the benefits. It will help us win more work, it will help us be more environmentally conscious and should help us save money as well."

John Mann has delivered our pioneering Business Management Training VRQs for construction-related companies in the South West over the last two years. Here he gives us some ideas for a spring clean.

Winter has more or less finished with us and those businesses that have survived because they have been well run, lucky, or both can perhaps start to look forward to a slightly brighter future. Some indicators would seem to suggest that the recession is beginning to loosen its grip and that while the threat of a “double dip recession” still remain - prospects for the future are brighter for most. However, this does not mean that the survivors can relax - at the very least businesses should be analysing what they do and thinking about what needs to be done to position the business to extract the maximum benefit from any improvements in the economy.

So here are a few brief thoughts and ideas to help you look at the way in which you manage your business:

1. Concentrate on those activities that you know you are good at. When times are hard it is very easy to take on anything that might come your way even if you aren’t that good at it! All evidence suggests that this will only damage the business’s image and reputation, leading quite quickly to financial problems.

2. Understand why people use your business. What makes people use your business? Is it price, quality, trust or something totally different? What makes your business different from your competitors? Do you know who your clients are? If you can’t answer these questions you probably need to take steps to find out.

3. Make sure that any advertising you do is directly targeted at the people and businesses that you are trying to reach. Businesses waste a lot of money through “shotgun advertising” – advertising everywhere in the hope that somebody might be interested and follow it up. There is no point in advertising in the trade press when your market is domestic, and the local magazine, free press or a leaflet drop might be more appropriate and cheaper. At the same time any advert should make it clear what you want any potential customers to do – telephone, return a form, e-mail?

4. Make sure that you fully understand your costs. Many in the construction industry lose money because they don’t take all of their costs into account when pricing up a job. They are usually good at costing out the direct costs such as materials and time, but forget that they usually have a layer of fixed costs that need to be covered such as, the cost of premises, rent, power, IT, rates, administration, marketing, transport and petrol, professional fees for accountants and solicitors, insurance, tax and national insurance. The price that the business charges its customers and clients will need to cover ALL of these costs as well as a mark up for profit. If the job won’t cover the costs, don’t do it. There is no point losing money.
 

5. Don’t sack people that you will need in the future and don’t employ new people that you can’t afford. Before making a skilled and valuable worker redundant, think whether you are likely to need them again in the relatively near future. The cost of making an individual redundant and appointing a replacement may be greater than retaining them underemployed for a period of time. Similarly, it is easy to underestimate the cost of employing a new person. It isn’t just the cost of their salary -  the business also needs to add in National Insurance, holiday and sick pay, insurance and the cost of training. In addition, they will have to bring more money into the business than their total costs to make it worth employing them.

6. Now is a good time to innovate. Most businesses have cut back on operations in their traditional areas. As the economy recovers businesses are presented with an opportunity to develop in new areas, for example eco build. Recovery gives a business an opportunity to plan for the future and look at ways of increasing profitability. Remember point 1 however -don’t move into a new area unless you really do have the skills to deliver in it.

It is of course impossible to cover everything in a short article like this and there are many other issues that we will look at in the future.

Above all remember, regardless of the industry in which it operates, a business only has to do two things:

• MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO KEEP THE OWNERS HAPPY
• PAY ITS BILLS

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced details of regional hustings events in London, Plymouth, Solihull and Bristol, being held in the run-up to the 2010 general election. These events are an opportunity for RIBA members and opinion formers to engage with candidates, and raise issues relevant to architecture and the built environment such as housing, planning, or sustainability. 

RIBA President Ruth Reed said:

“The 2010 general election is a significant opportunity for the RIBA and its members to highlight the key areas of national policy to policy makers and incoming parliamentarians. Creating a better built environment through architecture is central to the vision of the RIBA; in organising and attending these hustings events, members have the opportunity to debate local and national issues relating to the future of the built environment and the issues that underpin it, including housing, planning, climate change and government procurement. RIBA members are excellently positioned to introduce local candidates to the core issues affecting the industry, and make their voices heard. All Prospective Parliamentary Candidates across the UK will receive a manifesto from the relevant RIBA region - we hope candidates will sign up to it.”
 
RIBA’s manifesto ‘Buildings Matter’, which was launched at the Party Political Conferences in September 2009, sets out the Institute’s core vision for good design, and how an improved planning system is vital to the health and sustainability of our communities. The manifesto calls for:
 
• Greening our buildings
4 million homes to be retrofitted within the lifetime of the next Parliament.
The introduction of smart energy meters in every building and the publication of carbon bills by energy companies.

• Better schools, hospitals and homes
Minimum design standards should be introduced for all public buildings including post-occupancy evaluation.
The same minimum space, design and environmental standards should apply to all new homes, whether they are privately or publicly funded.

• A stronger planning system
More support was requested for Local Authorities to encourage good design including design review panels, better design advice and sharing planning services.

Bristol (9 April) and Plymouth (16 April) hustings events – click here for further details and booking instructions.

The way buildings are designed has a significant impact on their cost, durability and appearance; and also on their value to the people who use them. 

Quantifying Value to Higher Education Users is the latest research project undertaken by the research group within Constructing Excellence Bristol Club and Constructing Excellence South West.  The project aims to define the value of design for three groups of stakeholders:

- students
- academic staff
- construction industry professionals

The findings will enable construction professionals to assist HE clients in achieving their business objectives while also increasing user satisfaction.

Many factors can impact upon a student’s satisfaction within an education environment. Many of these, including teaching quality, transport links, cost of living etc., are unconnected with the quality of the buildings themselves. Thus, to eliminate external variables, the research focused on buildings at a single university. The selected site was Frenchay Campus at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Frenchay is a large campus north of Bristol which has experienced considerable growth in recent years. This made possible the identification of four buildings, to be used as the test bed for the research, which differ significantly in terms of age, materials and finishes, architectural style and maintenance needs. The findings, which are based on 497 responses to an online questionnaire, can be summarized as follows:

Students:
- rate highly the provision of ad-hoc social space.
- enjoy their time irrespective of the quality of the building.

Academic staff:
- feel that consideration should be given to their need for social space.
- are adversely affected by poor equipment, management and quality of buildings.

Professionals:
- share similar views with students and staff in terms of which are the good quality buildings.
- are sometimes are too enthusiastic about innovative design.

Conclusions:
- All groups consider good quality buildings to be a credit to the University.
- The overall outcome seems particularly relevant to the current economic climate. It appears that students and staff can be fully satisfied without the need to commission expensive ‘wow-factor’ buildings.
- In turn, this would reduce capital and running costs.
- Using some of that saving on improved equipment and better management of the buildings could potentially yield much greater satisfaction for both staff and students.

Does the outcome advocate designing ‘dull-factor’ buildings?  Definitely not!  It advocates designing ‘user-focused’ buildings.

The research was carried out between 2006 and 2009 at the University of the West of England.

Constructing Excellence Bristol Club would like to express their gratitude to the University as well as to all students and university staff who participated in the project.

The participants in the research project were:
John Rich, Chair, Stubbs Rich Architects - Richard Kochanski, Carillion - Mark Claridge, Davis Langdon - Steve Symonds, Kier - Nick Howkins, Northcroft - Ian Dacre, Rider Levett Bucknall - David Baker-Falkner, Turner & Townsend - Karsan Vaghani, University of Bristol - Martyn Jones, University of the West of England - Christos Vidalakis, University of the West of England - Gareth Turner, Willmott Dixon

The findings are the copyright of Constructing Excellence Bristol Club, 2010.
For further information, click here please to view the Constructing Excellence Bristol Club website.

This nationally important joint campaign between Local Authority Building Control  and CESW (as part of the Working Well Together Campaign) is about to commence in the South West. FMB and ConstructionSkills will also be involved. Anna Thompson, Director of Training at LABC, has been pioneering this initiative from her organisation's perspective.

Tom Harper of CESW FF notes, “LABC are being very proactive in responding to the Donaghy report and the HSE’s LACE initiative, both of which are aimed at improving health and safety. I am delighted that this next step is starting in the South West where we have piloted a number of ideas along these lines. I would ask all larger contractors to help us if, when and where we need a trainer. The larger companies in this region have been great at doing this for our county wide events. We really cannot thank them enough”.

All counties will see free training offered locally to SMEs. Details of all venues will be issued shortly. The training day will be a mix of training in sustainable construction skills and health & safety. If you would like to know more, click here to check our website’s courses and events pages in the coming month where details will be posted. For much useful information, click here to visit the Health & Safety Executive website. 

This year we have received more entries than ever for our South West Built Environment Awards,  which we share with CIOB. The event has developed a reputation for a mix of fun with colleagues and friends and the saluting of people and companies who have achieved change for the good. Click here to take a look at the awards page on our website to read about last year’s awards.

This year the event falls on Friday 11th June. It is as well to book seats early because at each of our events we have always had a full house. Click here to buy tickets.