Government to set up construction ‘innovation networks’

The government is to launch a series of competitions to pay construction firms to work together on blue-sky research and development as part of a drive to modernise construction.

Ann Bentley, global director of consultant RLB, and a member of the government’s Construction Leadership Council (CLC), told Building the plan for a series of competitions was part of a suite of measures designed to up the level of innovation in the construction industry.

For more information on this article, head over to Building.co.uk.

Construction of homes for social rent drops 80% in a decade

The number of new homes built for social rent has fallen by almost four-fifths in a decade, according to official figures that come as more than 1 million families are stuck on waiting lists for council housing in England.

Figures released by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government show just 6,463 homes were built in England for social rent in 2017-18, down from almost 30,000 a decade ago.

Condemning the lack of new social housing, Labour said that a the current rate of construction it would take at least 170 years to house the families on waiting lists.

For more information, head over to The Guardian.

Time to manufacture a stronger construction sector in Scotland

The Scottish construction sector is facing a skills shortage, looming retirement cliff-edge and increased materials costs which could be exacerbated with a poor, or no-deal Brexit. This myriad of issues has been vocalised by the industry for some time, and more action is needed.

Respondents to the RICS quarterly construction and infrastructure market surveys regularly reference labour shortages as the one of the factors that limit construction activity; other issues include financial constraints, planning delays and restrictive regulations.

For more news on the construction industry in Scotland, click here.

Cummins and Hyundai made an all-electric excavator as heavy machinery goes electric

Electric propulsion is taking over almost every segment of transportation and now it’s even getting into heavy machinery.

Cummins and Hyundai partnered up to make a new small all-electric excavator. They unveiled the prototype this week.

D. S. Kim, Senior Executive Vice President & CTO at Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE) announced the new product.

For the full article, click here.