Whilst the CEW Awards are one of the biggest events in the Welsh construction calendar they would not be possible without the support and commitment of our sponsors.

Without CEW Award entrants we could not celebrate how great Welsh construction is, but without our sponsors there is no event, no party and no showcasing of industry talent.

So, CEW is enormously grateful for the support of our headline sponsors Network Rail, Costain and ABC Electrification. All of them are tremendous supporters of Wales, its supply chain and the best practice principles advocated by CEW and the wider industry. Thank you to them for their commitment and for being the headline sponsors of the 2016 CEW Awards on 15th July at the Celtic Manor.

A new app that aims to build on Wales’ landfill reduction success.

A free iPhone app has been launched by Constructing Excellence in Wales (CEW) to help divert waste from landfill when builders and trades people carry out renovation and repairs for homeowners.

Called Skip Advisor, the app gives advice on what their responsibilities are, estimates how much waste each project will generate and highlights where to find Green Compass waste management companies across Wales.

“Much of the waste from building projects is classified as ‘mixed waste’ and we recognised that we could do more to help people take reasonable steps to ensure that it is managed properly. Wales has made great strides in reducing landfill and we’ve created Skip Advisor as a useful tool for the building trade as it locates your nearest Green Compass waste management company, which set out clear and accurate data on how much waste is being kept out of landfill” explains Paul Jennings of CEW.

The app also has a useful project estimator which lets users assess how much waste a renovation / new build is likely to generate so that skip disposal can be allowed for before work begins. Best practice guidance is also available on the app. 

Download Skip Advisor today at iTunes - https://appsto.re/gb/ZmQH_.i

The shortlist is out and judgement day is here…brace yourself as you prepare for presentations, interviews and sort the best from the rest. 

Awards judging has taken place this week and will conclude next week - well done to all the presentation teams and good luck to all those presenting next week.

We have received over 100 entries of outstanding quality giving our judges a real headache – your award entries keep on improving and reflect real progress in Welsh construction. Take a look at our shortlist (below or via the web site) and start planning your diary, sort out your suits and dresses and book a table for the 15th July at the Celtic Manor. It is the tenth anniversary of the CEW Awards so we are planning a BIG night!

But who are the judges behind the awards? Check out the who’s who of the CEW Awards judges.

But meanwhile think about how else you can get involved. Apart from booking a table and enjoying the fun why not become a sponsor? The CEW Awards dinner is the biggest night of the year for construction in Wales – if you want to be noticed, or you want to remind stakeholders what your organisation does for the industry in Wales then talk to Sue Selkirk about becoming a CEW Awards 2016 sponsor.

Andrew Sutton, Associate Director BRE Wales, explains how the Lenders project takes Wales a step closer to being a low carbon society. 

Being better about how we use our energy must become second nature. 

CEW is working alongside Nationwide and Principality Building Societies, BRE and others, to drive energy into the way mortgages work through the LENDERS project. But we need the help of all of our stakeholders to reach out householders. 

The “LENDERS” project, conceived by BRE and developed from initial research with CEW, is a collaboration between BRE, Nationwide Building Society, Principality Building Society, Energy Savings Trust, UKGBC, UCL, ARUP and CEW.  Part funded by Innovate UK the project proposes to make a subtle change to the way mortgage companies assess what customers applying for their loans can afford. 

Currently, a customer’s incomings and outgoings are assessed via an ‘affordability calculation’. Energy costs represent the largest unavoidable cost that is factored into this calculation for a customer after the mortgage repayments themselves. 

But, despite the availability of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) on all properties being sold, no consideration of the energy efficiency of the property being mortgaged is made, and the assumed energy costs currently only vary by around £25 per month and therefore have little impact on the capital mortgage amount the customer might be offered. 

The LENDERS project is generating, and robustly evidencing via large scale data analysis, an alternative approach. Through collecting data from the EPC alongside information on the occupancy gathered in future mortgage applications, the project believes it can provide a mechanism to the mortgage industry that more accurately predicts the customer’s energy costs. This will provide estimates of energy costs with a far greater range (perhaps £20 – £200 per month), and through the rest of the ‘affordability calculation’, will therefore much more significantly influence the capacity of the customer to repay a mortgage and, by consequence, change the capital mortgage amount the customer might be offered. 

If adopted by mortgage companies, this subtle change in the ‘affordability calculation’ could result in geared mortgage offers, with higher capital amounts of up to £15,000 or more being offered to purchase low energy homes compared to otherwise similar inefficient properties. It also opens the opportunity for mortgage companies to offer mortgages with conditions, or home improvement additional loans, based on enhancing the energy performance of an existing property, meaning that those in poorly performing homes also have a route to finance energy improvements.

Through the LENDERS project, the goal is to embed energy efficiency into the bedrock of our mortgage institutions, and through this society’s approach to thinking about energy when making the important step of buying or selling a property. After all, who buys a car these days without at least looking at the fuel economy and road tax costs? 

More on the LENDERS project can be found on the dedicated LENDERS website, www.epcmortgage.org.uk   

What we need now is for as many people as possible to take part in the research and fill out an online survey: http://tinyurl.com/jc7wjqa please share the link as widely as you can and look for more updates.

The Energy Saving Trust (in partnership with NHBC) is running a free to attend workshop for construction of external walls. The training session aims to provide detailed information on best practice, design, workmanship and quality control which can prevent damage that result in costly claims.

The workshop will provide more detailed information on issues relating to:-

• Render – preparation, application and cracking along with substrate, shrinkage, thickness/coats
• Cavity Trays and DPC’s -  advice on the installation of horizontal and stepped trays - including linking to flashings
• Insulation –  product installation in corners, cavity trays/lintels
• Structure - bridged cavities, wall ties and joint movement

Attendance at this event will count as two hours towards continuing Professional Development (CPD). Limited spaces available.

For more information about the course please email energisewales@est.org.uk or call 029 2047 5976.   

Cardiff - Wednesday, 8th June 2016 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm    
Wrexham - Thursday, 9th June 2016 from 12:30pm to 4:00pm

House builders – do you provide good HUGs with your new homes? A HUG is a home user guide. Did you know that and are you providing them? 

At Constructing Excellence in Wales we have a privileged position and are able to hear from academia, policy makers and industry. This provides us with a fairly unique position in which to join the dots up and see how we could realise real change in our built environment. One area receiving a lot of our efforts at the moment is housing, both in terms of retrofit activity as well as low carbon new build.

It’s in these new low carbon houses that we have the opportunity to really secure low energy lifestyles and to help reduce fuel poverty and Wales’ carbon footprint. But this will only be possible if occupiers know how to best use the technologies within their homes.

So, we’re calling on house builders and those commissioning new housing to take part in the Welsh Government’s consultation on Building Regulations Sustainability Review and in particular the potential to introduce guidance to encourage developers to create Home User Guides (HUG) for all new domestic developments in Wales.

The guidance would potentially include the provision of a HUG template, to assist SME developers and improve the consistency of the information provided to homeowners. Review the guidance route to determine its success, with a possible regulatory route in the future, making the creation of a HUG mandatory. Be sure to take part in this consultation as we need to find the right level of detail to ensure that HUGs are useful and relevant documents for homeowners is important. As is the need to avoid adding unnecessary cost and burden on housebuilders completing sites and handing over the keys to undoubtedly excited new occupiers.

This is already happening in Scotland. You can see Scotland’s own quick start guide here - http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0040/00409085.pdf . This could be something for Wales’ to follow or learn from. The guidance is already within Scottish building regs - http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Building/Building-standards/techbooks/Sustainability/s7domquickstartguide.

Use the links. Check all the information and by all means contact CEW for further information. Consultation responses are to be submitted by 24^th May 2016.