Building Briefs - October 22nd

• Green light for new Dundee retail development

Councillors narrowly voted to allow the proposal, destined for West Gourdie Industrial Estate, despite being advised by council officers to reject it because it allegedly fell foul of the agreed Town Centres First policy.

The development will, however, be subject to 20 conditions outlined by the city planning department.

One of these states eight item types commonly sold in the city centre, such as books, clothing, hardware, and “miscellaneous” goods cannot occupy a large percentage of shop floor space.

Marketgait Developments estimated 165 employees would be needed to operate all four units, on top of further construction and supply chain positions.

Discount retailer Home Bargains and Iceland offshoot The Food Warehouse will be located in the new premises with Henry’s Coffee House and Baynes Family Bakers reportedly showing interest.

• Plans to create luxury ‘micro-resort’ in Fife

Hawkswood Resort Development Limited has submitted plans to develop a luxury “micro-resort” on its Hawkswood Country Estate in Fife, complete with a new five-star restaurant/bistro boasting its own helicopter landing pad.

The estate already offers self-catering accommodation and a small driving range and golf facilities.

Plans are in place for a further four holiday homes, three treehouses with glass atriums and elevators, and a private golf course on 15 acres of recently purchased land.

The restaurant will be open to the public and guests of the estate and will include an outdoor seating patio area and a 47-space car park.

• Contract awards continue upwards trend in September

The total value of construction contract awards in September 2020 was £5.4 billion based on a three-month rolling average. This is 21.2% higher than for August and is also 13.8% higher than September 2019.

Quarterly analysis indicates that total construction contract awards were valued at £13.5bn in Q3 2020. This is 47.1% higher than Q2 but is 8.4% lower than for Q3 2019. Raw monthly data has seen significant uplift in September to £6.0 billion which is an increase of 52.5% on the £3.9 billion in August.

The latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analysts Barbour ABI, highlights levels of construction contract values awarded across Great Britain.

Analysis by sector indicates that residential maintained lead status in September accounting for 32.8% of awards. Infrastructure was the second largest sector in September with attributable share of 20.8% of awards. The commercial & retail sector was the third largest this month accruing 16.1% of the total.

• Builders’ Merchants see slower rate of recovery in August 

Sales to builders by Britain’s builders’ merchants have continued to recover, but at a slower pace in August compared to the previous two months.

Although Total Builders Merchants value sales were 3.9% lower in August than in August 2019, daily sales were 0.9% above last year’s level when adjusted for the difference in trading days. Some categories continued to perform strongly, with landscaping the top performer year-on-year (+16.3%).

Sales were up 73.8% in the last three months (June to August) compared with the previous three months (March to May), when many merchants had closed branches as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.