Building Briefs - July 8th

• Stewart Milne Homes unveils new range of homes

The new ‘Villages’ range was completed during Covid-19 lockdown, with the collection of 31 homes created with a new way of living at the forefront of the mind.

Each and every one of the homes – from two-bedroom through to six-bedroom – follow the same design principles of simple elegance combined with supreme functionality.

The first showhomes from the new range have just opened, showcasing the four-bedroom Farnham at Charleston, Cove, and the five-bedroom Nairn at Dunnottar Park in Stonehaven. The new range of homes are also now available at Silver Birches in Alford and Monarchs Rise, in Arbroath and in Central Scotland will shortly be available at Shawfair, Danderhall and Gilburn Grange, in Jackton.

• £1m grant to help University of Dundee furbish new centre

The University of Dundee has received £1 million to furbish a new centre that will foster the commercialisation of world-leading science while anchoring new biomedical companies and jobs in the city.

The grant from the Wolfson Foundation will help contribute to the costs of fitting-out the Tay Cities Regional Innovation Hub with the flexible, state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities required by high-growth companies seeking to develop new medicines and medical technologies.

The Innovation Hub is central to Growing the Tay Cities Biomedical Cluster, a project that will help the post-Covid recovery by marrying entrepreneurial expertise with Dundee’s strengths in life sciences research, drug discovery and medical innovation.

Work that has emerged from Dundee has significantly improved lives and advanced science across the globe. Despite this, a lack of sites capable of housing spinout companies generated from the University’s stellar research activity meant the city has struggled to retain the firms it birthed.

The Innovation Hub will fill this critical gap and a strong pipeline of new companies will be accommodated and supported through their high-growth phase. It is anticipated that construction of the Innovation Hub will commence early next year and it is scheduled to open in Autumn 2023.

• Work starts on new Cambuslang cycling project

Work has started on a community-led project to inspire everyone to cycle for leisure, commuting and sport. 

Scottish Water has been ranked the best UK water company and utility for customer service in a leading benchmarking survey.

The Institute of Customer Service’s latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) showed that Scotland’s public water and waste water provider was the highest rated organisation in the British utility sector and the ninth highest rated in all sectors out of a total of more than 270 organisations.

Scottish Water achieved its best-ever score in the bi-annual UKCSI of 83.5 points, an increase of 6.2 points compared with last July and 3.6 points compared with January, and its success came during the Covid-19 pandemic in which it has continued to deliver the first-class services that people rely on.

The number of people who experienced poor customer service across all sectors over the past six months rose to the highest level since 2009, according to the poll, but Scottish Water was among the organisations which bucked that trend.

Scottish Water serves 2.56 million households and 152,806 business premises, delivering 1.44 billion litres of fresh drinking water and removing and cleaning almost 983 million litres of waste water daily.

• Bancon Homes launches The Aspire Residence

Bancon Homes has announced the launch of The Aspire Residence at 10am this Saturday 10 July.

Located off Union Grove in Aberdeen’s West End, The Aspire Residence is a development of 38 one and two-bedroom executive apartments set in an exclusive location within the heart of the city.

Each apartment has been designed to maximise the use of space with large windows which flood the homes with light, sumptuous entertaining spaces, generous bedrooms and plenty of storage options to ensure that they remain clutter free.