Building Briefs – April 4th

• Savills: North and Scotland outperform South in Brexit-paced prime housing market

The overall market has been supported by the relative strength of regional markets. The city of Edinburgh remained the star performer showing annual price growth of 7.4%. This meant that Scotland was the strongest regional market, with values up 2.3% on average.

Average values remained unchanged in first three months of 2019 and slipped just -0.9% over the past twelve months, but performance varied between regions and value bands. All regions outperformed London, continuing a pattern seen since the Brexit vote.

The strongest performing regions over the past year have been those furthest from London.  Modest price growth was seen in the Midlands and North of England, where values ticked up by 0.7% year on year. Regions closer to London saw values fall over the past year, a trend that continued in the first quarter.

In the market over £2 million, average values are now down -6.3% compared to their pre EU referendum level, with prices for the large country houses still on average -21% below their 2007 peak. Even in the high value hotspots of the Home Counties and Cotswolds, values remain -8.6% down, having slipped a further -1.1% over the past twelve months.

By contrast Scotland’s million pound market is enjoying its strongest performance since 2008, with 211 transactions recorded during 2018. There were 18 above £2m, the highest since 2008. With 128 transactions, including 15 above £2m, Edinburgh continues to dominate. Whereas in 2016 and 2017 there was activity above £3m, there were no transactions at this level in 2018.

• £4m investment to lower heating costs for DGHP tenants

Around 800 tenants of Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership (DGHP) will soon benefit from better energy efficiency and lower heating costs thanks to investment of around £4 million over the next year to insulate and render their homes.

The works are part of a two-year, £8m contract with SERS Energy Solutions (Scotland), carried out on behalf of DGHP.

The programme of works for rendering means DGHP tenants will benefit from new external wall insulation, cavity wall insulation as well as new rendering and roofing to some properties.

The render and insulation works, which began in January, will take around two years and will include properties across the region, from Stranraer to Langholm.

• Major investment in Scotland’s historic buildings

The Heritage Impact Fund is available to organisations that wish to deliver economic and social impact through re-use of Scotland’s heritage buildings.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has provided £427,000 funding to the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) for its new Heritage Impact Fund.

The Heritage Impact Fund offers tailored loan finance for charities, social enterprises and community businesses in Scotland seeking to acquire, reuse or redevelop buildings of historical or architectural importance. These buildings may be listed, in a conservation area, or may be of special significance to the community. Loan amounts will be up to £500,000 per project with a maximum three-year term, or up to five years in exceptional circumstances.

As well as helping deliver projects that support the sustainability of historic buildings, the Heritage Impact Fund will support organisations with a clear social mission seeking to deliver demonstrable local economic and community impact.

For the first time, the AHF will also be able to provide assistance to borrowers with evaluating and assessing the impact of their projects. The Heritage Impact Fund will also offer incentivised rates for projects that deliver significant economic or social impact, or which can be expanded upon as a result of the AHF’s assistance.

Impact will naturally vary from project to project but it is expected to include new job creation, the creation of training and volunteering opportunities and the restoration and re-use of heritage buildings for a variety of commercial and community uses.

As part of the loan fund application, the AHF is offering to refer organisations to a new business support service – RePlan – for pro bono expertise and tailored advice and guidance to those organisations that would benefit from targeted capacity building support, assistance with business transformation, impact measurement, transition or expansion. Based on AHF’s experience of when projects need most support, RePlan will be particularly relevant to organisations completing a capital project or looking to build upon or scale-up their existing enterprises.

• Orkney primed for ‘Smart Energy Island’ projects

Orkney Islands Council is to support the development of a multi-partner £28.5 million project which could maximise the potential for renewable energy generation in Orkney – and ultimately eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

The ReFLEX Orkney (Responsive Flexibility) project aims to create a ‘smart energy island’ - developing a ground-breaking ‘virtual energy system’ in Orkney which will monitor generation, grid constraint and energy demand and then use smart control of energy technologies to manage and improve the supply-demand balance.

This will maximise use of locally generated green energy and pave the way towards a carbon neutral future.

Technologies which might be rolled-out as part of the project include domestic batteries for homes, larger batteries for businesses and public buildings, vehicle to grid chargers, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells and smart heating systems.

The project is funded by the UK Government through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), the ReFLEX Orkney project will bring together a number of locally based partners - OIC, Aquatera, Solo Energy, and Community Energy Scotland - as well as, Heriot-Watt University and Doosan Babcock.

If successful, the ambitious three-year project could be replicated across other areas in the UK and internationally.

• South Lanarkshire Council seeking views on active travel infrastructure

South Lanarkshire Council is seeking the input of people who live, work and travel in Rutherglen and Cambuslang to inform the development of its new active travel infrastructure.

The study uses an online survey and, once that has been completed, an online map can be accessed that allows comments to be entered on any locations of interest to local people.

Anyone wishing to contribute their views is welcome to leave as many comments and ideas as they like on the map to let the council know what they would like to be done to improve conditions for walking and cycling.

The council is particularly interested in knowing what residents like about the area, or don’t like, and what people think should be improved as well as what exists already that should be preserved in any future plans.

Respondents are encouraged to think about what issues they experience and where there are particular problems they would like to see sorted to make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists (and for users of buggies, scooters and wheelchairs) to get around.

Issues could include areas where people don’t feel safe, places where it is difficult to cross the road or places where it is difficult to push a wheelchair, or walk with children, while possible suggestions could be new or improved road crossings, wider footways, routes (on- and off-road) that people would like to walk/cycle, lighting and cycle parking facilities.

The online survey and map will be open for comments until April 14, and the information gathered will be used to provide a range of potential options for improving walking and cycling in the area. All comments and contributors will be publicly visible on the Placecheck tool, but names of contributors will not be used in the final reports.

• Major flood alleviation works to begin in Aberdeen

Scottish Water is preparing to start work on a £500,000 project to reduce the risk of sewer flooding affecting customers on part of King’s Gate, close to its junction with Anderson Drive in Aberdeen.

The work will be carried out by Morrison Construction, working on behalf of Scottish Water’s delivery alliance partner amey-Black & Veatch (aBV).

A new metre-wide sewer will be laid in the eastbound carriageway of King’s Gate, running a distance of almost 100 metres, to provide additional capacity during storm conditions when high volumes of surface water run-off overwhelm the existing sewer network.

To allow the work to take place safely, the section of King’s Gate between the King’s Cross roundabout and Moray Place will be closed to traffic from Monday 8th April for around 12 weeks. A signposted diversion will be in place via Anderson Drive, Queen’s Road and Forest Road. Scottish Water’s site team will work with local residents to maintain their access as far as possible as the work progresses; and pedestrian access will be maintained throughout.

• Transport Scotland announces M8 resurfacing works

Resurfacing works are due to be carried out on the M8 Commonside, between Junctions 29 and 30, Transport Scotland has announced.

As part of Transport Scotland’s strategic trunk road management programme, Scotland TranServ is proposing to resurface 0.9km of the M8 Eastbound at Commonside between Junction 30 (Erskine) and Junction 29 (St James Interchange).

In order to protect the safety of workers and the travelling public, and to keep disruption to a minimum where possible, it would be necessary to implement a weekend contraflow system.