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In this issue

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST 2017 CONTENTS

Prelims04 After Grenfell Tower06 Tackling gangmasters08 Jacqui Glass10 Snapshot11 Vox Pop 10 Election wishlists12 Comment14 Chris Blythe16 Rebecca Thompson interview18 Feedback

Insight • Onsite20 Grange Park Opera26 Women in construction34 New Papworth hospital66 The solution: The Serpentine Pavilion

Experts40 Without prejudice41 Sarah Fox on contracts42 Assad Maqbool44 Security in the design process 49 Digital Built Britain52 CPD:Rooflightinstallations

Community56 CIOB backs Buildforce57 CIOB Innovation awards62 Me and my project

20Switchboard+44 (0)20 7490 5595EditorDenise Chevin0203 865 103207979 245800Deputy editorJames Kenny0203 865 1031Production editorSarah CutforthArt editorHeather RugeleyCommunity editorNicky RogerRedesign art directorMark BerginAdvertising managerDave Smith0203 865 1029Key account managerTom Peardon0203 865 1030Credit controlEva RugeleyManaging directorStephen Quirke

Circulation Net average 31,157Audit period: 1 July 2015 – 30 June 2016SubscriptionsTo subscribe or forenquiries, please contact:Subscription teamTel: 020 7490 5595Or go online at:https://constructionmanager.isubscribe.co.ukOr write to us at the address below:Construction ManagerPublished for the CharteredInstitute of Building byAtom Publishing, 3 Waterhouse Square, 138 Holborn, London EC1N 2SWTel: +44 (0)20 7490 5595

[email protected]

Editorial advisory boardMark Beard FCIOB, Ann Bentley, Ian Eggers, Peter Caplehorn, Harvey Francis, Professor Jacqui Glass FCIOB, Paul Morrell, James Pellatt, Nick Raynsford, Richard Saxon, Andy von Bradsky, Phil Wade

Construction Manager is published monthly by Atom Publishing. The contents of this magazine are copyright. Reproduction in part or in full is forbidden without permission of the editor. The opinions expressed by writers of signed articles (even with pseudonyms) and letters appearing in the magazine are those of their respective authors, and neither the CIOB, Atom Publishing nor Construction Manager is responsible for these opinions or statements. The editor will give careful consideration to material submitted – articles, photographs, drawings and so on – but does not undertake responsibility for damage or their safe return. Printed by The Wyndeham Group. All rights in the magazine, including copyright, content and design, are owned by CIOB and/or Atom Publishing. ISSN 1360 3566

16 34 44

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03.CM.JULAUG17.Contents_sc.indd 3 19/06/2017 17:08

THE LATEST NEWS, PEOPLE AND COMMENT

04-18

Prelims 06 TACKLING GANGMASTERS 08 JACQUI GLASS 12 COMMENT 14 CHRIS BLYTHE 16 PRESIDENT’S INTERVIEW 18 FEEDBACK

PRELIMS JULY/AUGUST 2017 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

The aftermath of the fireTHE HORRIFIC FIRE AT GRENFELL TOWER IN LONDON HAS PUT CONSTRUCTION – ITS BUILDINGS AND PROCESSES – UNDER A SPOTLIGHT AS NEVER BEFORE. WE MUST DO ALL WE CAN TO MAKE SURE THIS CANNOT HAPPEN AGAIN SAYS EDITOR DENISE CHEVIN

are drilled in the wrong place, thus rendering fire stops useless – though again it has to be emphasised there is no evidence that this has happened at Grenfell.

An article we ran in Construction Manager last month gives an indication of these types of workmanship problems. Fire inspectors from BRE Global said that the spread of fire in 30% of cases they had investigated was due to poor-quality workmanship – though they weren’t talking specifically about high-rise refurbs. There has also been a recent spate of cases where fire stops have been discovered to have been breached in hospitals and schools, thankfully before any fire.

Fire risk managementIt would seem too that, generally, social landlords need to up their game on fire risk management – reports about the sector have described fire doors missing and inspections failing to take place. And then there’s the issue of sprinklers. Only 1% of tower blocks in social housing have them. That’s despite a recom-mendation for their use from the coroner in the Lakanal House enquiry after a fire in the Southwark tower block in 2009 killed six people. But this is not an exact science and at this stage, so soon after the event, experts have mixed views whether even sprinklers could have prevented the rapid spread and loss of life.

It certainly doesn’t look good for the government that a promised review of fire regulations in the wake of the Lakanal House fire hasn’t materialised, whatever turns out to be the reason.

4

Comment

In the early hours of June 14 – a few days before this issue of Construction Manager went to press – the most tragic incident was unfolding in west London. Fire had engulfed Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey tower block in Kensington, leaving an enormous loss of life, many injured and a nation asking why, in 2017, in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, 600 people were living in a death trap. How could this possibly happen?

All aspects of the management of the building and the way its 2016 refurbishment was under-taken have come under intense scrutiny in the search for answers as to why the fire could take hold so rapidly, leaving so many people trapped to perish in their homes. Are we trying to upgrade social housing on the cheap? Did the building contravene fire regulations in some way, either as the work was carried out or through something that may have happened subsequently? What was the role of building control? Are the building regulations themselves out of date and inadequate? Not least under the spotlight is whether the rainscreen cladding – reportedly a polyethylene-filled aluminium sandwich panel – should be deemed acceptable under the regulations for high-rise buildings of this type when it’s not in other parts of the world.

What we do know more generally is that fire regulations covering high-rise building and refurbishment are fiendishly complicated, particularly where rainscreen cladding is concerned, and are open to interpretation, or misinterpretation. And we know too that the most well-engineered plan on paper can become useless if holes of just a few inches wide

04_05.JULYAUG17.prelims_sc.indd 4 19/06/2017 17:17

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST 2017 PRELIMS

Construction Manager’s newly refurbished website at www. construction-managermagazine.com has more news and comment

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We will have to wait for some time before the answers to all of these questions are bottomed-out. The prime minister has quite rightly promised that there will be a full public inquiry with interim findings to shed light on what happened as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, fire minister Nick Hurd has ordered urgent inspections on similar tower blocks around the country. Any doubts

5

that are unearthed must lead to residents being speedily rehoused. It would also be reassuring to know that no further work like this is carried out until we know exactly what happened and why.

Whatever the answers – and it wouldn’t be unexpected if there were many contri-buting factors – this is the Ronan Point of our generation, and a seminal moment

in the construction industry. We must do what it takes – changes to

legislation, changes to procurement, shake-up of management, greater accountability and prosecutions, more inspections, more money – trust has to be rebuilt and lessons learnt. And like the process following the King’s Cross tube station fire in 1987, acted on swiftly and to the letter. ●

04_05.JULYAUG17.prelims_sc.indd 5 19/06/2017 17:18


6

“Workers work in squalid conditions in derelict

houses… they won't be paid anything like the

minimum wage – maybe only £3-£4 an hour”

He warns that risks of labour exploitation cannot be ruled out on large as well as small building sites. “There are a lot of different nationalities working on major projects. We need to do more work [in this area].”

The Home Office estimates that there are 13,000 people in modern slavery in the UK. Although the Gulf region or the Indian subcontinent are more often in the spotlight for modern slavery issues, Broadbent lists similar abuses found in this country: inad-equate, late or withheld wages; threats of violence and intimidation; unfair deductions for food for PPE equipment and overcrowded accommodation.

“It may be more subtle than in other parts of the world, but it does exist here,” he says.

Even local workers are not immune from exploitation. Broadbent cites failure to pay the national minimum wage and bogus self employment as examples.

“The Citizens Advice Bureau is telling us that this is a huge problem nationally. The Exchequer is being defrauded because people are not paying the tax that they should. It also puts workers at more risk, because their rights are being eroded,” he says.

Broadbent says that GLAA investigators will not be systematically visiting and inspecting construction sites. However, if they discover poor practice, they can issue a labour market enforcement order – similar to the HSE issuing an improvement notice. For companies failing to comply, prosecutions or other actions could follow.

But he stresses that much of the GLAA’s work will focus on awareness-raising and prevention measures. As well as working with CITB and Stronger Together (Broadbent endorses CIOB’s Antislavery Toolkit), GLAA will be developing sector-specific training to help organisations better understand the risks in their supply chains.

He is keen that individuals call the GLAA hotline for advice, promising complete confidentiality where necessary.

Ganging up on construction’s gangmastersNOW THE GANGMASTERS AND LABOUR ABUSE AUTHORITY IS EXTENDING ITS POWERS TO COVER CONSTRUCTION. CHIEF EXECUTIVE PAUL BROADBENT (ABOVE)EXPLAINS TO EMMA CRATES WHAT THIS MEANS

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has new powers. After 11 years of regulating temporary labour providers in agriculture, it can now investigate human rights abuses in any area of British industry.

With its heavy use of temporary and migrant labour, construction has long been identified as a high risk sector. UK-based contractors could soon face crackdowns on a range of exploitative and unfair practices, including bogus self-employment, according to GLAA chief executive Paul Broadbent.

But Broadbent argues that legitimate companies have nothing to fear. He is keen that construction focuses on finding, rather than hiding from, problems.

“We want to work with companies. We realise that criminality can and does infil-trate legitimate supply chains. Even if they have good systems, processes and people in place, some exploitation will still get through, because criminals are entrepreneurs by their very nature,” he says.

Building an intelligence pictureIt’s an exciting time for Broadbent, who was formerly assistant chief officer of Nottinghamshire Police before joining the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) in 2013. His agency acquired its new powers along with its new name on 30 April. Having doubled its operational team, it is building a detailed intelligence picture from diverse sources including the police, government agencies, NGOs, and hotlines.

Broadbent says the agency is already noticing trends in certain subsectors, including demo-lition and renovation. He gives the example of a criminal gang that buys a street of terraced houses and “imports” or traffics workers to the country, probably from Eastern Europe.

“Those workers work in squalid conditions in derelict houses, moving down the street as the properties get renovated. In our experience they won’t be paid anything like the minimum wage – maybe only £3-£4 an hour,” he adds.

06_07.CM JULAUG17. Prelims_sc.indd 6 19/06/2017 17:26

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST 2017 PRELIMS

7

“If something doesn’t look quite right, give us a call and we can discreetly and subtly work with you to establish whether or not there is a problem. We can respond in any way that respects the confidentiality of the business. Having worked with retail for the past 11 years, we understand the sensitivities around brand reputation,” he says.

As awareness of modern slavery issues increases, Broadbent is anticipating a spike in victim referrals and a “marked increase”

Broadbent says can envisage a time when “we might start having a conversation about it”.

The GLAA issues around 1,000 licences to agricultural and horticultural labour providers annually, protecting around 500,000 workers. “We’ve noticed, over the past three to four years that the compliance levels of those licence holders has increased,” he comments.

Closing the loopholeIronically, it is the agency’s success in agricul-ture that may be encouraging criminals to move into non-regulated areas such as construc-tion. Broadbent is hoping that the GLAA’s new powers will help to close this loophole.

“We want to create a hostile environment for exploiters and a safe environment for a legitimate business to flourish,” he says. ●Call the GLAA on 0800 432 0804 to report a problem or 0345 602 5020 for general advice or visit www.gla.gov.uk

See Gary Sullivan’s Comment, p12

News in numbers

A digest from www.construction-managermagazine.com

£316kIn its report Building Homes - Making Places construction consultant Arcadis calculates that building just one new home creates a financial ripple of £316,000, for the economy.

40kSurrey County Cricket Club has revealed plans to expand the Oval in south London to 40,000, with the construction of a new stand and the enlargement of one of its existing stands.

£2bnAtkins has posted revenue of £2.08bn for the year ended 31 March 2017, an increase of almost 12% from £1.86bn a year earlier.

in prosecutions over the next two years. But from around 2020 onwards, he is expecting that number to fall.

“By then our systems and initiatives will have really started to kick in. We’ll be seeing the benefit of our labours because exploitation will be coming down. But at the minute we’re still discovering what the true scale is, so it’s going to go up,” he comments.

Although there are no plans to license labour providers in the construction sector,

“If something doesn’t look quite right, give us a call

and we can discreetly and subtly work with you to establish whether or not

there is a problem”

0.35%The CITB has proposed a cut in the levy rate for 2018 – 2020 from its present 0.5% to 0.35% PAYE.

The CIOB toolkitTackling modern slavery in the

construction sector can be found at stronger2gether.org/construction

06_07.CM JULAUG17. Prelims_sc.indd 7 20/06/2017 18:07

ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES A LADY…THREE SIMPLE CHANGES COULD ENABLE CONSTRUCTION TO MAKE THE MOST OF ITS FEMALE WORKFORCE

It really was a pleasure to convene eight graduates from our university, Loughborough, in London last month, who between them already have more than 40 years’ experience – enough to be described as an industry grandee, I thought afterwards. And I prefer to look at it this way: here were eight young women who had dedicated over four decades of their lives to our industry – we should feel honoured and proud.

So I guess my overwhelming impression was that the industry was treating these women well. They were upbeat, professional, active, and motivated; it was heartening to see. It was reassuring to hear the industry has exceeded their expectations, that they’re achieving char-tered status and – perhaps most relevant to CIOB and ICE – that they’re totally on board about the value of professional membership.

Of course, there were glitches, and I think these are captured in the report in this month’s Construction Manager. We heard how new recruits were influenced by line managers’ poor working habits, such as working too many hours day after day, and missing breaks and home life.

Positive collective actionHowever, in my response to our graduates’ snapshot of life in UK construction, I want to focus on actions, positive actions – and I am not talking about positive discrimination. I am talking about collective action, and I’m going to make three specific suggestions that I think we could deliver across the whole industry by the end of 2017. And no, I’m not being unrealistic.

Let’s start with the basics, the fundamental human needs, shall we? It was a salutary experience to hear the everyday reality that some women go through on site every month Yes, periods – there, I said it. Our graduates said that facilities on site sometimes overlook women’s personal needs, which can make a few days every month unpleasant, embarrassing, and deeply inconvenient. Yet this is such an easy fix. Contractors could just add sanitary equipment as a standard item in their site setup roster. But, and to be fair, I can’t quite believe

Three steps to a better working life for women

Comment

employers must “promote on skills – for all of the jobs – all of the time”. The concern was that young talent was overlooked, and unconscious bias was still driving appointment and promo-tion decisions. I’ve heard this myself: someone I know was told she was capable of doing the job, but was not offered it because: “Well, men need the jobs more than women, don’t they?”

Show and tell opportunitiesI’m keen to point HR teams towards highly rated employers on sites like Glassdoor, and to busi-nesses with “returner” programmes to attract women who have left employment to have children, and encourage our HR colleagues to address unconscious bias, which still abounds .

Finally, a suggestion so simple it sounds almost too obvious. But it isn’t. I’m going to call it “show and tell”. Basically, we need to show women the opportunities and tell them: “It’s time for you to apply for this promotion”, to enable their development/progression, then they will tell us they are interested in applying, and they can show us what they’re capable of. It’s so easy – companies need to showcase oppor-tunities within the business, so they can move on/develop. The graduates in our session spoke earnestly about their belief that by showing ambition from the start they would be supported to progress: a new take on the enduring cama-raderie which characterises our industry.

The eight women we met demonstrated an authentic trust in our industry, and they have a deep respect for their colleagues and their professions. In presenting you with these three suggestions, I’m asking you to pay back on their 40 years of faith and commitment to our industry. Reflect their depth of commit-ment and make these three changes happen in your business – and make them now, ready for the next set of female graduates who will be arriving at a site near you this summer. ●Jacqui Glass FCIOB is professor of archi-tecture and sustainable construction at Loughborough University. See Insight Onsite p36-42 for the full roundtable feature.

“Basically, we need to show women the

opportunities and tell them: It’s time for you to apply

for this promotion”

Jacqui Glass FCIOBProfessor Loughborough University


8

I am saying this in 2017, we must incentivise change to guarantee high-quality toilet facil-ities – for everyone, not just women. Maybe the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) would like to play a role in rewarding good practice here? I know, a toilet trophy on the mantelpiece is potentially hilarious, but it’s no laughing matter really, is it?

Moving on to my second action, this is directed at excellence in recruitment, reward and progression. Our graduates told us that

08.CM JULY/AUG17.Comment.Jaqui_sc.indd 8 19/06/2017 17:39

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10


Like a ringmaster, Ronnie Adams and his troupe travel the world going from city to city. In the last few months they’ve been to Brazil, and Thailand.

They’ve now landed in London but are putting on a show of a different kind. Adams and his team are elite workers from specialist engi-neering firm ALE and are in charge of AL.SK190 – the biggest crane ever seen in London.

The 120m monster (pictured right) was designed and manufactured by the firm and is in London for the summer, working alongside contractor Keltbray on the huge Earl’s Court redevelopment in west London. Material from the demolition of the old Earls Court Exhibition Centre has been packed into containers and is being used as a counterbalance for the crane.

The crane, which is twice the size of Nelson’s Column and dwarfs Big Ben, is tasked with carefully lifting 61 “portal beams” out from over the London Underground lines that lie below the exhibition centres. The large concrete

the machinery will reduce enabling work on the 8,000-home scheme by two years.

Adams, an amicable Geordie, has been with ALE since 1990. "I started in this business by acci-dent really,” he says. “Before ALE, I was based in Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, working on bridge projects across the regions. Upon joining ALE as a senior project manager, I was posted in Venezuela to work on a large bridge project over the Orinoco River. As we secured more project

beams previously supported the weight of the exhibition centre and need to be removed to enable development on site.

The smallest beam is 80 tonnes, with the largest weighing 1,500, the equivalent of 118 London buses. The AL.SK190 was chosen as the optimum engineering solution and the method has been designed to minimise impact on local residents and significantly shorten project timescales. It is estimated that using

ALE crane: 120mBig Ben: 96m Nelson’s Column: 60m Brachiosaurus: 18m

JAMES KENNY MEETS RONNIE ADAMS IN CHARGE OF LONDON’S BIGGEST CRANE

On top of the world

Snapshot

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10_11.CM.JULAUG17.prelims_sc.indd 10 19/06/2017 17:50

CONSTRUCTION IN THE UK MAY HAVE RAISED ITS GAME AROUND SAFETY AND WELFARE, BUT THERE'S NO PLACE FOR COMPLACENCY WHERE MODERN SLAVERY IS CONCERNED

There are a few folk in construction who could possibly claim to have Jedi-like powers, but what of our own “dark side”? The CIOB and Lexis Nexis have both produced reports on modern slavery in the worldwide construction industry (the CIOB’s report Modern Slavery, the Dark Side of Construction is at https://policy. ciob.org/research/modern-slavery-dark-side- construction); their findings are damning and shameful in the 21st century.

Now I would be the first to say that the construction industry in the UK is streets ahead of some countries in almost every aspect of employment – but can we afford to sit back, be a little smug and say: not us, we have policies, there are paragraphs in our contracts and we do CSR? No sir, no most certainly not us, how very dare you – and yet Home Office Immigration Enforcement will tell you different.

You may question the use of the phrase “dark side” in comparison with cultures that are not as developed as, say, Europe. You may think that maybe it’s a shade of grey at the lighter

The industry must battle with the dark side

Comment

What are we to do? We know that investors insist on best return, that those in procurement are measured against low cost and that most folk in the management chain are rewarded for being under budget. That of course can all be achieved ethically through great engineering, efficient delivery and world-class project management. We know that the industry has raised its game to excellent on safety and site welfare facilities and continues to excel in design, engineering and delivery. Is it now time to shine the light on how workers are employed on site?

Protecting the vulnerableI have no gripe with the self-employed – I admire entrepreneurial spirit. I have no gripe with zero-hours contracts, as long as safeguards are in place to prevent advantage being taken. The use of temporary workers is fine – we know how difficult pipeline is to manage in a fluid economy. But are we doing enough to protect those vulner-able people in our country from exploitation?

You may say “yes”, you may say “our project has those safeguards in place”, but does it? In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.” I am sure all of you reading this will have the relevant clauses in your contracts and yet we all know that bogus self-employment exists. There are still folk standing on street corners and we know that the unscrupulous lurk among us.

Will you check the right-to-work documen-tation? Will you audit the payroll records of all those in your supply chain, even tier 3 and 4? Will you stop and take time to ensure your workforce are paid above minimum wage, have the training required to carry out the task they are performing and are contributing to the exchequer appropriately? Or will you leave the battle with the dark side to someone else. Maybe it is time to follow Yoda’s advice: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” ●Gary Sullivan OBE is chairman of construction logistics contractor Wilson James.

See Paul Broadbent interview, p6

“You may say ‘our project has safeguards’, but in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you.

Don’t trust them”

Gary Sullivan Chairman Wilson James


12

end of the spectrum and applies only to those who work on the small or domestic projects. Again the Home Office will disagree and could cite some very significant projects where it has found some dodgy goings-on. There are still groups of men (mostly) hanging around certain parts of town waiting for the minibus to pull up and hopefully be selected to get a “day’s work”, somewhat reminiscent of my Grandad waiting at the dock gates back in the 1950s looking for a “start”.

12.CM JULY/AUG17.Comment.gary_sc.indd 12 19/06/2017 17:55

He must take the bull by the horns and announce he will implement the housing white paper in full. This will deliver the certainty that housebuilders need to keep investing and build the homes that the country requires.

Our new housing minister must also become the champion for the housebuilding sector in the Brexit negotiations. We need him to make it loud and clear that unless we keep the flow of talent from Europe open, the country will not have the volume of skilled builders required to deliver the government’s ambitious housing targets.

It will be tempting for Alok Sharma to reiterate tried and tested past pledges of one million homes and mixed-tenure delivery, but until we see an increase in resources for local planning and regeneration departments, we cannot expect to close the gap of the national housing shortage.

Local councils are well placed to deliver homes which meet the needs of local communities, and building decent, secure and attractive homes is something they could do extremely well if given the tools to do so. So I urge the new housing minister to give them the funding and powers to lead a housing revolution.

His immediate priority is ensuring that central government is doing everything it can to support the people affected by the horrendous fire at Grenfell Tower. He must also make sure that his department does everything it can to contribute to the public inquiry announced by the prime minister.

Beyond that, his top priority should be getting new affordable homes built. Investment is urgently needed in genuinely affordable homes to rent.

Fundamentally what we need is a willingness to listen and work with the sector.

Greg Hill Deputy chief

executive, Hill

Victoria Brambini

Managing director

Scape Procure

Terrie Alafat Chief executive

Chartered Institute

of Housing

Voxpop

What would your advice be to the new housing minister, Alok Sharma. What should be his priorities?

John Tutte Group chief

executive Redrow

Both the industry and the majority of the general public would like Alok Sharma to continue the momentum which has been generated to tackle the shortage of quality new homes. Homebuyers still need support to get on the housing ladder and Help-to-Buy remains an important part of overall housing strategy.

He will be responsible for implementing the housing white paper. The government has acknowledged the planning system needs reform and some local authorities still require encouragement to commit to local plans for housing. This will enable us to get on site quicker and work efficiently with councils to create thriving communities.

11

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST PRELIMS

work in the country I remained there for seven years, working on number of key projects until I was posted to the UAE for five years as part of the ALE Crane Division.”

He enthuses about the work he does, though particularly the opportunity of working in the UK: “Compared to the work we normally do, this is on a smaller scale but it’s really exciting as it’s the first time we’ve brought the AL.SK190 crane to London and the UK. We’re actually already ahead of schedule with lifting. We were supposed to be here until the end of August but we’ll probably be finished the end of July.”

Adams travels with an team of 14 men and describes them as very close, a family unit. To work the crane it takes eight per shift, day and night – two operators, five riggers and one engineer. To put the crane together and dismantle it takes about five weeks and two smaller cranes are needed in the process.

Amazingly this crane is not ALE’s biggest. Adams says the firm is always improving and could go bigger if a project demands: “On the back of this project we’ve had lots of enquiries from the UK and ALE’s R&D division in Holland are always working on improvements.”

While he admits life on the road can be hard, the opportunity to travel and work on massive projects still gives this nomad a buzz.“ It takes a certain type of person for this job, but I still get a massive thrill. Just the sheer scale of working with such big equipment. We have almost 40 regional offices around the world and I’m already set to go for the next project back to Nigeria.” ●

“It takes a certain sort of person for this job but I still get a massive thrill. Just the sheer scale of working with

such big equipment” Ronnie Adams ALE

See Chris Blythe p14


WHEN YOU’RE SPECIFYING SAFETY EQUIPMENT THERE’S NO ROOM FOR DOUBTDemand more of your safety equipment partner. Visit our website to arm yourself with the critical questions you need to ask them.

Whenever your people wear PPE you could be at risk too. It’s two years since we alerted the safety industry to non-compliant CE marked PPE on the market. Yet our industry accredited safety lab is still uncovering failing products. A CE mark is no guarantee of ongoing product compliance. And it certainly can’t protect you from a prison sentence. But staying better informed just might.

arco.co.uk/BeSure


IF THE PRIME MINISTER REALLY WANTS TO PUT FAIRNESS AT THE HEART OF GOVERNMENT, SHE SHOULD START BY REFORMING THE WAY WE SELL HOMES

Dear housing minister, congratulations on having won one of the most difficult jobs in government. The politics of housing is usually about the number of houses need to meet the housing demand. What is also crucial is the build quality of the houses being built.

You may be aware of the survey by the House Builders Federation showing another year-on-year fall in customer satisfaction; perhaps what it does not fully show are the number of faults new homebuyers have to deal with.

It seems extraordinary that there are fewer statutory consumer protections for buyers of new houses than buyers of the £30 kettle used to make the first cup of tea. How can it be that with the average price of a new home in the region of £270,000 the buyer is at the mercy of the goodwill of the builder or its insurers? Any reasonable person must think this is absurd.

The often dismal quality is down to poor workmanship. A site manager said to me one day when I had quality issues: “The trouble is

Taylor Wimpey has made a £130m provision to try and undo something even they say is wrong.

What makes the scandal worse is the lack of transparency involved in trading freeholds to third-party companies where the beneficial owners are shrouded in secrecy, usually with nominee shareholders. Leaseholders have little idea who owns their freehold, and who knows the provenance of the funds used to buy them?

Being asked to pay a non-refundable reser-vation fee just to have sight of the leaseholder agreement is another example of sharp practice.The way the leasehold system is manipulated seems designed to ensure that leaseholders have to bear considerable cost and difficulty in securing information in respect of their freehold.

Leasehold is unique to the UK and it is time that leaseholds were abolished. It should not take long to come up with an alternative which is fair; the world is full of better schemes.

In summary, good quality costs but, poor quality costs more – not just financially but in lives. Increased consumer protection, putting the homebuyer first, would be a start to a “getting it right first time” culture. Shifting the balance of power from the developers (the powerful), to the homebuyers (the powerless) is essential for a properly functioning market. The ending of leasehold would mean that when you buy a property you own it, not some shadowy investor. It will need resilience to push through these measures against influential vested inter-ests, but that is what “putting fairness at the heart of everything you do” means. ●See Assad Maqbool, p42

Housing needs a shift in the balance of power

Comment

Chris BlytheChief executive CIOB

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you cannot get good tradesmen these days.” Twenty-five years later nothing seems to have changed. This lack of investment in skills is troubling. Housebuilders are reporting record profits and one is paying dividends equiva-lent to 10% of its average selling price. This suggests that the hard-earned deposits paid for such homes go straight to shareholders. With the Help to Buy initiative, it seems to me that this is a subsidy for the builders, not prospective homebuyers.

The surge in the development of modular housing should bring the quality and consistency associated with manufacturing in controlled environments along with the volume. The benefits of offsite will be wasted if the onsite activity in erecting and finishing the homes is as poor as at present. It would be the equivalent of building an airliner in a field. The last thing we need is to build in future defects though poor site practice due to meeting a political target; we will only have one opportunity to get this right.

High profits and poor quality suggest that the market is not operating in the best inter-ests of consumers. The prime minister said in her post-election statement: “The government I lead will put fairness and opportunity at the heart of everything we do… and over the next five years build a country in which no one and no community is left behind.”

Fairness could start with building quality homes whatever the price. Fairness could also be through imposing regulations requiring housebuilders to take back defective prop-erties with market price compensation so the housebuyer is not disadvantaged.

Fairness could also be in the way houses are “sold”. Of course buyers of leasehold homes are not buying bricks and mortar, they are only buying a right to occupy until such time as they can no longer afford the ground rent or sell their “rights”. Recent trends in the growth of leasehold sales and the lamentable terms of some of the leasehold agreements with ground rents doubling every 10 years are a scandal.

“Leasehold is unique to the UK and it is time that

leaseholds were abolished. It should not take long to

come up with an alternative which is fair”

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A few days ago, at the Members’ Forum in Cardiff, Rebecca Thompson FCIOB became the 114th president of the CIOB and the only one to attain these heights from a heritage background.

As the former superintendent of works at York Minster, it’s not surprising she wants to use her 12 months as president to raise the profile of the skills and opportunities in this specialist, sometimes overlooked, part of the industry. But perhaps above anything else, she wants to inspire members to aim high.

“Li Shirong, the first CIOB female president, gave a speech in York in 2009 on Chongqing and their cultural heritage. I was doing an Open University degree at the time and cultural heritage was a big part of that. She really inspired me, and that’s what I would like to do as well – to get people to come into construction and to say, I can do that, I can get to the top.

“If they look at me as an example, they’ll see I come from a pretty ordinary background. I’m not some brilliant, extra-special academic. I’m an ordinary person who did her HNC and then later on got a degree. These days, I do some part-time lecturing at York College, which is where I did my HNC, and I always tell my students, You can do it!

“As my dad always says, the harder you work, the luckier you get. My message to people will be that if you work hard, and specialise and enjoy what you do, well you too may one day be the president of the Chartered Institute of Building.”

Grandest buildingsHard work is a recurring theme throughout Rebecca’s career. For the past 12 months she has run Thompson Heritage Consultancy, with clients such as St John’s College Oxford, advising on everything from the maintenance of the grandest buildings through to that of the former home of Ted Hughes – an 18th century mill owner’s house in West Yorkshire – and restorations of listed sundials.

She set up the business with her husband, a historian, after a 15-month spell as acting chapter steward at York Minster – effectively the chief executive, which she took on as maternity

cover. The role involved heading up a team of 240 full-time equivalents and 700 volunteers as well as the 50 properties and a school. When it came to an end she decided a new challenge would be in order. “I thoroughly enjoyed it, which meant I couldn’t go back to being superintendent of works. I felt I’d outgrown it.”

Rebecca had joined the minster in 2009 and by 2011 was put in charge of the £20m restora-tion of the magnificent Gothic cathedral. The five-year scheme, one of the largest restoration projects of its kind in Europe, included work to restore the cathedral’s 600-year-old East Front and Great East Window.

“It was such a privilege to work on York Minster. It really is the most amazing Gothic building. The more you work on it, the more you learn. And that’s true of the industry as a whole – you never stop learning.”

She came into construction as a trainee surveyor with Shepherd Construction in her native York, following work experience over a number of summers from the age of 14.“I applied to university to do surveying and before that, went off to do Camp America, South Carolina. While I was there, Shepherd got in touch. Sir Paul Shepherd had heard about me and offered me an apprenticeship in construction.

“So instead of going to university, I stayed in York and did an HNC in building studies. I worked there for a number of years, and then at several other organisations as a building inspector, a site manager and a construction manager.

“I first came across heritage in the late 1990s when I worked for EC Harris. But before I got into it fully, I had a number of senior manage-ment roles and directorships and then returned to Shepherd in 2000 for another five years.”

Those formative years at Shepherd have certainly stayed with her. The third CIOB presi-dent from Shepherd, she is extremely proud to be following in the footsteps of her lifelong mentor Paul Shepherd who, like his father Sir Peter, once wore the chains of office with distinction.

Her involvement with the CIOB dates back to her second spell at Shepherd in the early

Now the CIOB is making historyTHE CIOB’S NEW PRESIDENT IS THE FIRST TO COME FROM A HERITAGE BACKGROUND AND IS ALWAYS UP FOR A NEW CHALLENGE, AS SHE TELLS DENISE CHEVIN

Interview


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CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST PRELIMS

2000s. Not one to watch from the sidelines, she quickly got stuck in, becoming the regional chair and in 2015 junior vice chair. She spent a year as senior vice chair before taking on the presidential duties.

Having been involved with the CIOB at the top level for several years, Rebecca’s very clear about her agenda for the next 12 months. Her top priority is to get the heritage sector and its skills more recognition – and for very practical reasons. “So much of the country’s building stock is pre-1919, so everyone in construction is likely to come across it in their career. Working with old building stock is complex – using modern materials can do enormous damage – so the CIOB is actively supporting conservation techniques, helping people to understand the problems and the solutions through the Academy.

“I’d like to make people aware of the opportunities and the skills, and the apprenticeships available, and how fantastic it is to work in that sector.”

Promoting heritage skills abroad where there is huge demand, particularly in China, is also on the list. She also wants to see a more diverse membership in 12 months’ time. “It would be good to have a gender balance,” she replies when asked about getting more women into the sector. “But there are so many areas that we need to be looking at. For example, I’m proud we’ve worked with the Armed Forces to help those with a mili-tary background find their way in construction. We’re under-represented everywhere when it

“The more you work on York Minster the more you

learn. And that’s true of the industry as a whole – you

never stop learning” Rebecca Thompson

President, CIOB

Left: Detail of York Minster’s 15th century Great East Window

Right: Rebecca Thompson oversaw restoration of the Great East Window, centre

comes to gender and diversity, but we must still make sure that we value all the people we currently have too. With the skills crisis the industry’s facing, we need everybody.”

Taking the batonShe’s delighted these are areas where the CIOB is already doing excellent work. “The presidency is often about taking on the baton, and many of these issues I’ll be working on are things I’ve been working on with the CIOB while I’ve been vice president. I’m not reinventing the wheel – the CIOB are already on to this, which is another reason why I’m so proud to be president.”

She adds: “I’m following on from Paul Nash’s presidency and will be supporting his work on ethics and the CIOB’s efforts to tackle the poor workmanship in some sectors that has been widely reported on recently. We need to encourage people towards getting the qualifications to do the job properly, and being totally professional - which is what being a CIOB member means.” ●


Feedback

A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from www.constructionmanagermagazine.com

Richard Moore Doesn’t anyone ever check the work on behalf of the client or are all clerk of works impotent and never take responsibility today? Always ready and willing to blame the contractor. Pathetic!

RichardMore often than not there is not a CoW and approved inspectors and the architect/survey can only see what they can see at the time of inspection.

It is the responsibility of the contractors to build what has been specified and detailed on the drawings, and question if they consider that the detail is not possible to build. Contractors have a duty to implement effective quality control measures to ensure the build is to the standards specified.

Many projects are procured and let as D&B projects to a D&B contractor and thus the contractor is accepting this responsibility. The design is usually sound, as it should have received full plans approval by the BC Approved Inspector.

Les Howard FICWCIDevelopers and contractors do not hire clerks of works for the simple reason that they do not want anyone telling them when they do not comply or when shortcuts are taken.

The onus on compliance rests solely with the developer/contractor and they must take responsibility for their shortcomings.

Of recent investigations into failures in construction not one had a clerk of works - strange that…

TonyIt’s hardly surprising that the effect on smaller domestic projects has been minimal. The extra layer of added responsibility just pushes up costs and most clients will continue to go with the cheapest quote. Designers/builders who add costs to their quotes will price themselves out of the job.

John GriffithsCDM 2015 has not improved safety on site only moved the responsibility to yet another consultant. What’s required is more site inspections by the HSE and reviews of site documentation.

Neil SheehanDo the survey numbers actually represent the true views? Personally I believe the CDM have made it clear on roles and responsibilities. The biggest issue here is that there is too much negativity, and professional bodies are creating and supporting appointment names such as PD advisors, PD support, CDM support, for which there are no duties under CDM 15. Let’s identify what needs to be improved and get on with it.

Nick LewisI mainly operate within the sphere of domestic building work and my experience is that CDM 2015 can bring increased safety. Small projects are generally run by small contractors who are notoriously difficult to involve in additional regulations of any sort. However, CDM 2015 allows for the compliance to be proportionate to the risks.

Is it perfect? Far from it, but has it improved safety on site – I believe the act of making the contractor consider the difficult, unusual or challenging aspects before starting has affected the safety on every site where I have been appointed as the PD.

Peter QuigleyI work in construction safety and health. The direction of CDM 15 is proper in my opinion. The roles of principal designer, designer, and principal contractor are clearer, resulting in quicker and more direct action on sites as the project team does not have the option of referring every question to the CDM-C for judgement.

CM 05/06Fur flies at beard ban

CM 21/05CDM regulations fail to hit home

www.constructionmanagermagazine.com Like our magazine, our website has also been redesigned. Updated daily with the latest news, it has a wealth of information to help readers do their jobs, with thousands of archived articles on CPD, projects, legal and management. It’s bursting with comment – and you can leave your own. Sign up to our newsletters, produced three times a week, or follow us on twitter @CMnewsandviews. And if you have any comment on our new design, contact the editor, Denise Chevin: [email protected].

18


David FordFull hood powered air respirators could be provided where facial hair poses an issue for face fit of respiratory protection. HSE needs to make a clear statement on what is acceptable and not acceptable.

Roger WardThis is standard practice in North America. A company has to protect itself from worker legal action if they do not impose these rules. The unions would be the first to go after a company if a worker had an issue from not having a tight-fitting mask. If workers want to keep their beard then they can should buy their own.

Marcus MillettCan you confirm if anyone has sought to: eliminate the sources of dust; reduce the production of dust; isolate workers from the dust; restrict dusty work to low attendance times or provide collective protection such as water suppression or LEVs before resorting to PPE?

David FordHSE would still expect RPE to be worn if water suppression was being utilised for silica dust and also the same for LEV for dust exposure.

CM 15/06Fire probes uncover the cost of poor work

Beard ban: should this man be allowed on a construction site?

THE LATEST NEWS, PEOPLE AND COMMENT

04-16

Prelims 06 CONSTRUCTION’S BITCOIN 08 MARK BEARD 10 NAKED HOMES 12 CIOB MANIFESTO 14 CHRIS BLYTHE 16 FEEDBACK

PRELIMS JUNE 2017 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

The CDM 2015 Regulations have had limited impact on the construction industry and no apparent impact on its accident rate.

That’s the key finding of a joint survey carried out by Construction Manager and Health and Safety at Work.

The survey suggests that working methods established under CDM 2007 and CDM 1994 have proved remarkably resilient, and the prin- ciples of CDM 2015 are struggling to take root.

“CDM 2015 hasn’t led to a step change or resolved all the issues arising from CDM 2007,” said Paul Reeve, business director of the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA). “In terms of exercising the role of the prin-cipal designer, the general picture seems to be business as usual.”

Recurring themes in comments from survey respondents were that: a workable system had been made less workable; fees and costs had increased without any increase in safety; and the goal of bringing smaller projects and domestic clients into scope had proved ineffectual.

CDM 2015 reforms fail to hit homeSURVEY OF 310 SAFETY PROFESSIONALS SHOWS LIMITED IMPACT OF REFORMS

were following the CDM 2015 rules, such as co-ordinating other designers and sub-con-tractors on safety issues; slightly more (28%) thought that CDM 2007 procedures were being applied on current projects, for instance the CDM adviser writing the construction phase plan; and 39% thought that aspects of both regimes were used in practice.

Respondents’ views on who had fulfilled the role of principal designer suggested that responsibility had been spread fairly widely, with architects, engineers, clients and contractors all taking on the role. However, the professional group that emerged as most likely to take the role were “CDM advisers” acting on behalf of design teams – in reality, former CDM-Cs with a different job scope and appointment terms. This combination was selected by 26% of the sample as occur-ring “most of the time”, while CDM advisers taking a slightly less hands-on role advising principal designers was viewed by another 19% as happening “most of the time”.

In projects undertaken in the past two years (under CDM 2015), who has fulfilled the role of “principal designer”?

The architect, without an external CDM safety consultant

The architect, using an external CDM safety consultant

A CDM consultant (principal design adviser) acting on behalf of the architect

The design and build contractor (on D&B contracts)

The client

The lead engineer

Less than half (46%) of the 310 respondents rated today’s compliance with CDM 2015 as good or excellent, compared to the 53% who thought that about CDM 2007. Among the 106 members of the Association for Project Safety (APS) in the sample, there was more scepticism: the recalled compliance rate under CDM 2007 was 56%, while current compliance was put at 43%.

Overall, only one in four respondents (24.5%) thought today’s principal designers

n Never n Sometimes n Most of the time

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

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CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JUNE 2017 PRELIMS

While presented as a less radical update than CDM 2007, the CDM Regulations 2015 amounted to a stealth revolution designed to rewrite safety management on construction projects.

Foremost among reforms was the HSE’s decision to challenge the way safety had been siloed into a specialism for CDM co-ordinators. It sought to repatriate

risk to where it belonged: to the designers who influence a project’s risk profile from the outset, and the clients who create the working conditions for everyone else.

In the process, it undermined one professional group – CDM coordinators – transferring many of their responsibilities to “principal designers”.

It also declared war on “competence” and multiple safety accreditations, in part by removing the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP).

CDM 2015 also dealt with a requirement to bring the UK’s regulations into line with the EU’s Temporary or Mobile Construction Sites Directive.

In your opinion and experience, have firms acting in the principal designer or principal design adviser role:

Commenting, Reeve said: “About a quarter are behaving in the way the regulations intended, and three quarters are behaving in the way they did previously, by pulling in consultants from the safety arena”. Martin Cox, head of CDM at construction consultancy Pellings, said the survey confirmed his view that CDM 2015 is business as usual. “I’m working for architects as a CDM adviser – in reality they don’t do very much [on safety]. Very few take on the role as intended.”

Reeve added: “When it comes to the prin-cipal designer role, the survey suggests that the HSE shouldn’t leave the issue to ‘market forces’. CDM 2015 seems to be helping some clients, but it’s not delivered a step change improvement in this area.”

The survey invited respondents to pick three aspects of CDM 2015 that were “working well”, although the feature that gained most support was “none of the above”. The principal contractor’s construction phase plan was seen as having a positive impact (29%), followed by

clients’ compliance with F10 notification require-ments (26%), and the client’s pre-construction information (17%). Least support was given to the principal designer’s co-ordination of other designers or subcontractors (7%), the principal contractor’s duty to consult and engage with workers (12%), and liaison between the principal designer and principal contractor (13%).

On CDM 2015’s impact on projects in the domestic sector, where only those with experi-ence of such projects responded, 62% suggested there had been little impact, although 38% thought there had been a positive effect.

There were 310 respondents, most working in safety-related roles. They included 149 members of International Institute of Risk & Safety Management (IIRSM), 212 members of Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH), 106 affiliated to the Association for Project Safety, and 67 members of the Chartered Institute of Building. Of these 105 acted as CDM advisers or consultants, and 89 in general health and safety roles. ●

n Followed the correct principal designer methodology under CDM 2015n Reverted to the CDM-C’s methodology under CDM 2007n Followed aspects of both regimesn Other

How has the extension of CDM 2015 to domestic projects impacted safety standards?

n Not at alln A slight positive effectn A significant positive effect

What the CDM Regulations were meant to achieve

Do you think May is right to call an election now?

85% Yes

5% No

10% Indifferent

What outcome do you think would be the best for construction?

25% Return of Conservatives with slim majority

45% Return of Conservatives with an increased majority

5% A Labour-led government

10% A Liberal Democrat-led government

15% Other

How optimistic are you for the buoyancy of the construction market in the wake of the election?

15% Very optimistic: I see construction orders continuing to grow over the next two to three years

40% I’m concerned: we are heading for a bumpy ride and the economy and construction could go downhill in the next 24 months

45% We might see a few blips but overall I think the economy and construction market will be fine

0% I don’t know

The opinion polls are predicting and increased majority for the Conservatives. How would this impact construction?

35% Good for construction

25% Have no impact

20% Have a negative impact for construction

20% Don’t know

An extended piece on this survey is on our website: constructionmanager magazine.com

Voxpop

We asked the 26 members of the reader panel about the election. Here's the results of our straw poll

25%

28%

39%

8% 6%

61%33%

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BUILDING A RURAL OPERA HOUSE IN 11 MONTHS GAVE HERITAGE SPECIALIST RJ SMITH & CO A NEW SET OF CHALLENGES. JAMES KENNY REPORTS

STARTING ON A HIGH NOTE

INSIGHT•ONSITE JULY/AUGUST 2017 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

We’re in the in the orchestra pit of the first new opera house to be built in 50 years, deep in the Surrey countryside. Among the workmen and racket going on, Construction Manager has just been shown the first violinist’s chair – beneath which the ashes of Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, have been buried.

The new 750-seat venue – known as the Theatre in the Woods – is being built for Grange Park Opera in the grounds of the 120ha estate of West Horsley Place, near Guildford – a crumbling Grade 1 16th century Tudor pile unex-pectedly inherited by historian and former University Challenge presenter Bamber Gascoigne after the death of his great-aunt, the entombed Duchess. The £10m project is the brainchild of Grange Park Opera founder Wasfi Kani, who is on a mission to bring opera to a wider audience and has signed a 99-year lease with Gascoigne.

TAKING AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT CURRENT ISSUES AND PROJECTS

20-38

Insight•onsite 20 GRANGE PARK OPERA 28 WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION 36 BIM AT NEW PAPWORTH

Right: Martin Smith of RJ Smith & Co

Below: The 750-seat auditorium

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CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST INSIGHT•ONSITE

When CM visited the theatre a few days ahead of its successful opening performance of Puccini’s Tosca with tenor Joseph Calleja on 8 June, the tension was palpable on site. Dozens of workman and stage managers from the opera company were working cheek by jowl, polishing off the interiors while staff tested the rigging and make-up and sewed costumes.

The man tasked with orchestrating and bringing this all together is builder Martin Smith, director at Hampshire historic building specialist RJ Smith & Co. “There will be some late nights over the coming week, but we’ll get there in the end. While this isn’t biggest project we’ve ever done, it has thrown up quite a few challenges,” he says.

As well as the unique woodland setting, a number of other unusual elements mark the new theatre out from its rivals: the doors to the theatre are copies of those at the Pantheon in Rome, a balcony is to be installed from which four trumpeters will summon audiences from their picnics, and there’s even talk of a model railway in the foyer.

The project is working with a minus-cule budget for an opera house, and the £10m has been funded entirely by private donations. However, to date only £8.5m of this has been met, and this is just the first phase of the project, with the main aim of getting it ready

“We’ve had 11 months to get the project finished as acts had been booked, so it was

imperative to get everything complete in time”

Martin Smith, RJ Smith & Co

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Below: Four tiers of seating echo the design of La Scala in Milan

time. While on some projects you have wriggle room, there’s been very little on this and if we’ve encountered prob-lems, we just have to find a solution and stay within the budget.”

In this time the team has constructed a new drum-shaped steel-frame building infilled with blockwork – the finishing cladding will be completed at a later stage (see box p24).

for the first production. Phase two, the completion of the opera house’s exterior brickwork and the finishing of minor internal touches – along with a fresh round of fundraising – will begin in July when the 2017 season winds down.

Smith explains: “We’ve had 11 months to get the project finished as acts had been booked, so it was imper-ative to get everything complete in

The £10m project is the brainchild of Grange Park Opera founder Wasfi Kani£10m


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West Horsley Place: stages through the ages

Elizabeth I’s 1559 visit proved to be quite a performance

Through his own research, R&J Smith’s Martin Smith discovered that West Horsley Place was once home to a now-forgotten 16th-century theatre, built to a tight dead-line to entertain Elizabeth I.

Smith found documents that showed that, as well as entertaining Henry VIII, the estate was later visited by his daughter for a season of “revels”.

The queen arrived to visit her childhood friend, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, wife of Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Earl of Lincoln and Lord High Admiral, on 17 August 1559. Before her arrival, Thomas Cawarden, Master of Revels and Tents, was sent ahead to create the setting for an Elizabethan arts festival, building a permanent theatre in the grounds.

Accounts list that preparations began on 23 July for a “masque” performance,

called Shipmen and Maids of the Country. Thirteen tailors worked for a fortnight on “purple cloth of gold, barred over with gardes of cloth of green and silver, with sleeves of blue cloth, edged with gold and red silk lace”, while painters were hired for “the making of pictures upon cloth in the front and the gallery” Props and sets were carried by barge from stores in Blackfriars to Hampton Court, and then moved overland.

The monarch stayed until 23 August. It then took more than a month to take the masque paraphernalia back to Blackfriars, during which time Cawarden died at West Horsley Place of complica-tions from a broken leg.

These days the house is acting as host to drama of a different kind, providing the locations for the new film My Cousin Rachel.

West Horsley Place in 1912, painted by James S Ogilvy

“The trees have preservation orders, so we only had a small

space for any heavy plant and couldn’t bring in lots

of cranes”Ed Smith, RJ Smith & Co

conservation arts which we use as a reference for our conservation work and new-build projects. With a lot of our work we work closely with English Heritage and do an awful lot of pre- research – but I also do my own and it’s something I’ve always been interested in, even when I was young and before I came into the business.”

It was through its past work for Grange Park that RJ Smith took on this job. In 2003 it transformed the Picture Gallery at the Grange, a Grade I listed neoclassical country house close to Alresford, near Winchester, into a prestigious 500-seat theatre.

While that conversion job gave the company its experience with the intricacies of building an opera house, the brand new bespoke Theatre in the Woods is an entirely different beast. It has been designed by Tim Ronalds Architects and acoustician Raf Orlowski and, as well as the budget and timescale issues, the company also had to deal with conservation problems.

Ed Smith, Martin’s son, who worked on the project, says: “Logistics have also been a big factor in the project, as well as the timing and deadline issues.”

The theatre is tucked away from the main house in a wooded area that is reached by a short path through a historic orchard. A wrought-iron gate leads into semi-formal gardens which will provide the bars, restaurants and meeting places usually located inside a theatre.

“I think the existing trees and working around them have been the biggest obstacle. They have preserva-tion orders on them, so we only had a small space for any heavy plant and we couldn’t bring in lots of cranes,” he says.

The new building has been modelled on the four-tiered horseshoe shape of the La Scala opera house in Milan. The

Smith credits the team that he has surrounded himself with, along with his company’s long tradition of specialist work, for the smooth running of the project. The Hampshire-based family-run company, which was orig-inally started by his uncle Reg Smith, has been in existence since 1976.

Martin now fronts the company himself, working alongside his son Ed Smith. They employ 50 people and have built a reputation across the south of England for their work on the repair, conversion and alteration of historic buildings, churches and monuments.

The company is a keen advocate of training and employing specialist craftspeople, and this is an area Smith wants to continue to promote, and would like to see more young people in construction going into.

“We employ and train up specialist craftsmen, brickworkers, traditional joiners, stonemasons,” he explains. “It’s something I think the construction industry in general needs to embrace more, as these skills need to be passed on and encouraged.”

As well as the actual construction work, the company also carries out historic building research for clients and architects. Smith himself has long been a history buff: “We have a library of nearly 2,000 volumes of


Orchestrating the development

Getting the building ready for the first night took 11 months

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tiers of seating take a “U” form, and the volume and surfaces have been designed to target an optimum reverberation time of 1.4 seconds. A generous orchestra pit allows the orchestral sound to develop within, and the tiered seating butts into the 11m x 7.5m proscenium, creating intimacy between performers and audi-ence. The side stages are large enough to provide for the three or four sets used in a single festival season.

The stage, taken with the side stages also offers the possibility of a “studio format” performance space, operating independently of the tiered auditorium. The doors to the five grand tier boxes are covered in gold leaf (1,275 sheets) and the balcony is also themed in silver.

The foyer atrium has 13 tree-like columns around it. Backstage accom-modation provides all that is necessary for the performers, musicians and stage technicians including dressing rooms, green room, wig, prop and equipment stores, and an unloading dock.

As the theatre will mostly only be used in summer, the building is kept cool on warm nights by air passing through a subterranean labyrinth beneath the seats of the stalls. Heater batteries will be installed for future winter use, and warm air from the theatre will be recirculated with fresh air drawn in from outside.

“This is like a great big tube: the air comes in and gets cooled by the walls and then gets passed down to the stalled circle, and that goes round the walls. It’s designed to then come out under the seats and out through small vents,” Martin Smith explains.

Looking ahead, he says he’ll be there proudly for opening night and is sure that a new round of fundraising will be successful once people have seen the building and the opera company in performance. ●

Grange Park Opera’s new £10m Theatre in the Woods is almost double the size of its previous 500-seat auditorium at Northington in Hampshire, seating 750 but with potential to push this to an 850-seat capacity once phase one of construction is finished.

The new building has a classic horseshoe-shaped auditorium and an orchestra pit. Set in a brick drum, it has decorated balcony fronts, a painted ceiling and columns from floor to roof. The steel frame is clad in block with final finishes to complete later in the year.

For the 11-month construction schedule, the first task for RJ Smith & Co was to clear the trees and undergrowth occupying the footprint of the new building. This followed an archaeological survey and ecological surveys.

Following the stripping of the top soil, construction officially began on 20 June 2016. Concrete piles 19m long were driven into the ground – 146 of them at the rate of 15 a day. The construction of the superstructure, comprising 230 tonnes of steel frame and the slotting in of precast concrete floors and walls, was followed by the roof.

Once the piles were in place, the complex process of linking them together with in-situ cast reinforced concrete ground beams began. Once this was under way the undercroft – containing the 70-person orchestra pit, ventilation labyrinth and basement backstage accommodation – was excavated and formed.

On 13 September last year a small hole was cut on site into the concrete on the floor of the orchestra pit, at the position where the first violins are seated, and the Duchess of Roxburghe’s ashes were laid to rest with a gathering of luminaries from two charities – the Mary Roxburghe Trust and Grange Park Opera.

According to builder Martin Smith, the main achievement technically was making the building (relatively) watertight so early in the construction. This was only possible by freeing the superstructure steel and precast concrete from the in-situ concrete of the ground slab and retaining walls.

The arduous and lengthy process of forming the basement was thereby removed from the critical path and could be carried on under the protection of the roofs and in its own time.

“The air comes in and gets cooled by the walls… it’s

designed to then come out under the seats and out

through small vents”Martin Smith, RJ Smith & Co

Below: The stage and orchestra pit


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LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY BROUGHT TOGETHER A GROUP OF GRADUATES WORKING IN DIVERSE INDUSTRY ROLES TO TALK THROUGH THE ISSUES THAT AFFECT THEM DAY TO DAY. SABA SALMAN LISTENED IN

DO WOMEN GET A GOOD DEAL IN CONSTRUCTION?


Construction is still struggling big time with the attraction and retention of women. While there has been a welcome spate of senior women appointments, such as Roma Agrawal as Aecom’s associate director, and Katy Dowding as Skanska’s executive vice president, across construction in general, the woefully small number of women is a well-documented problem. According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, women account for just 12.8% of the workforce, and make up only 1% of the manual trades workforce, according to campaign group Women on the Tools.

Then there is the gender pay gap – the construction and building trades’ supervisors have the highest in the sector, with men paid 45.4% more than women. Little wonder then that the number of women in construc-tion has dropped by 17% in the last 10

years, compared to a 6.5% drop for all workers in the industry.

The reason to challenge this is not simply an ethical one about boosting equality – there is a practical imperative. Concerns are rife, for example, that the likely restrictions on free movement of labour after Brexit will lead to a work-force shortage and threaten major infra-structure projects around the country.

Despite several national campaigns, recent research from Redrow suggested that 40% of male pupils receive advice on a career in construction, compared to 29% of young women.

Meanwhile, the growing number of women’s groups, among them organisa-tions such as the National Association of Women in Construction and Women in Property, demonstrates how the sector’s female contingent is striving to improve networking and awareness-raising.

The reason to challenge this is not simply an ethical one about boosting equality – there is a practical imperative

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WHAT WOMEN WANT - Construction Manager · WHAT WOMEN WANT TION CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | JULY/AUGUST 2017 | ... taken have come under intense scrutiny in the search for answers as to