Latest News

A new brick made from domestic plastic waste has been proven to provide 10 times better insulation than traditional bricks made from clay.
Dr Karthikeyan Kandan, senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), has created a novel brick made entirely from upcycled plastic waste.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the brick is constructed using 3D printing and lattice architecture technologies, which involves criss-crossing strips of the plastic materials to form a grid or weave.
The design is inspired by nature, after Dr Kandan examined the structure of the Baya weaver bird’s nest; renowned for its elaborately woven construction.

Airtech, the ventilation specialists, is supporting UK Radon Awareness Week (4-10 November 2019.) Run by the UK Radon Association, this year the campaign is focusing on recent research from Public Health England (PHE) and University College London (UCL) that reveals that home energy efficiency measures, such as double glazing and insulation, are linked to increasing indoor radon levels. This in turn is raising the risk of lung cancer caused by exposure to the gas. Since landlords have a Duty of Care under the Homes Act to provide a safe home, radon is therefore a major consideration for social housing providers.

The ASCP has announced the return of its prestigious ASCP Safety & Compliance awards, an initiative that recognises the outstanding achievements of inspirational individuals and organisations in the social housing and facilities management sector.

People working within the sector are encouraged to nominate well deserving candidates. With 14 categories to choose from - whether you would like to put forward someone who has excelled in their role, an organisation that has demonstrated real commitment to safety, a supplier that has exceeded expectations in developing products and services to drive safety and compliance, or a contractor who has taken great initiative - there is a category to suit all.

Coadjute, a platform for decentralised workflow and data sharing within the property industry, and several UK housing associations have completed a prototype of Quality Chain, a workflow application aimed at making the construction of housing simpler and safer.

The Coadjute platform uses R3’s Corda distributed ledger technology and designed to unify organisations involved in the development of housing projects from inception through to construction and occupation, Quality Chain captures and tracks a single version of key decisions, documentation and information.  It creates the ‘golden thread’ of accountability and transparency identified as necessary by the Hackitt Report.

The Residential Buildings Forum, which will be held on 14th & 15th November 2019 at Whittlebury Hall, Northamptonshire, is a networking event for those involved in the design, build and maintenance of residential buildings.