Deloitte London Office Crane Survey
Deloitte’s recent London Office Crane Survey measuring the period from October 2021 to March 2022 entitled ‘optimism despite inflation’ predicts a surge in office buildings in London.
There is 2.7m sq feet of office space planned for demolition between April & September this year. Completions have fallen by half but 4% more under construction due to delayed starts due to COVID, and completions are expected to be highest in 2022 since 2003. New builds are at the lowest since the survey started in 2015 which reflects the current economy.
There is a minimum EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) requirement of B grade all buildings by 2030, meaning that 80% of London buildings will need to be upgraded.
The report said that two thirds of developers don’t understand net zero.
View the full report here https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/real-estate/deloitte-uk-london-office-crane-survey-summer-2022.pdf
Planning approval for UK’s largest warehouse
1.2m square feet over 4 warehouses will be built on 136 hectares of land in Yorkshire. Called ‘Konect 62’ or ‘Big K’, the development is close to the M62 & A1 junction and is the biggest speculatively built warehouse development in the UK. Construction is expected to start in May and complete in Q3 2023.
It will house Amazon, Asda, Ardagh Glass, H+H Concrete, The Range, Saint-Gobain Glass, Stoelzle Glass, TJX Europe Max and GXO. It is England’s “only inland distribution park ready enabled to offer tri-modal connectivity to the UK and continental Europe via road, water or rail.”
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TFL looking for house developers
TfL has commenced the search for developers over Bank, Paddington and Southwark stations. Apparently it forms part of TfL’s ‘commercial development programme’ which funds housing projects across the nation. It currently has 1,700 homes under construction with another 12 sites to start which will deliver an additional 2,100 homes.
Seems excessive considering TfL’s recent funding problems for Elephant & Castle station upgrade we wrote about recently!
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Find out moreFirst ever underwater drone to fix wind farms
EDF has developed a drone to carry out underwater repairs to its wind farm in Blyth. The new robot carries out inspections of turbines. The drone be used to monitor biofouling, the accumulation of microorganisms, plants and algae on the turbine foundations, and assess the exterior condition of turbine foundations and cables.. The author sees amazing potential for smart underwater cities using IoT, AI, drones, robots. We wonder whether a hook up with the Plymouth underwater 5G testbed is on the cards?!
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Download NowGovernment announces £553m fund for green buildings
The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced a whopping £553m fund to decarbonise hospitals, schools, libraries, museums and leisure centres. Such advances as heat pumps, LED lighting & other ‘clean tech’ advances which would positively impact emissions and energy costs and is expected to save taxpayers £650m in the next 15 years.
160 organisations such as Kew Gardens and Birmingham Children’s Hospital amongst others will be able to access the fund. It forms part of a £2.5bn Government fund which has awarded grants to 381 organisations already in the first phases.
Meanwhile oil and gas companies are making a windfall and the average English person is struggling with household bills.
Octopus Investments new green fund
The UK Infrastructure Bank is working with Octopus Investments to create a fund for new green infrastructure projects called Octopus Sustainable Infrastructure Fund. The Bank has invested £100m match funding which will be used to invest in companies to rollout sustainable infrastructure such as small cells, green data centres, battery storage, electric vehicle charging and waste management. the UK Infrastructure Bank is only less than a year old and this is its 6th deal.