Morgan Sindall has developed a remote internal building performance home monitoring system that could revolutionise social housing repairs and upkeep.

The goldeni (pronounced golden eye) system developed by data scientists working for Morgan Sindall Property Services hooks up with commercially available ‘Internet of things’ sensors to provide real-time data about the health of a building and internal environment of individual tenants’ homes.

It can identify water leaks in real-time, and spots when a boiler needs to be serviced so that preventative action can be taken before a problem escalates.

The Goldeni software-based cloud platform collects temperature, air pressure, light levels, humidity and carbon dioxide data, as well as monitoring heating systems and electricity and gas consumption.

Morgan Sindall estimates that by helping landlords and tenants identify potential maintenance issues before they occur and remediate leaks before they escalate, goldeni could help the country’s social housing landlords potentially save over £550m per year.

Morgan Sindall’s software compiles the data to provides social housing landlords and tenants with clear, practical actions for more effective home operation.

For example, from collected ventilation data, goldeni can recommend opening more windows to ensure homes are less susceptible to mould.

By tracking which homes are using central heating too often or too little, goldeni can also help users identify properties that are in fuel poverty or requiring additional insulation.

John Morgan, Chief Executive of the Morgan Sindall Group said: “The launch of goldeni, our first technological innovation for the sector, represents an important milestone not just for Morgan Sindall but also for social housing as a whole.

“By giving clues to potential issues within homes even before they occur, it can help those living in social housing have healthier, safer, more energy efficient homes, as well as saving social housing providers costs.”

“While we’re initially focusing on social housing, its ability to provide an instant overview of a building’s health in real-time means that goldeni would just be as useful for commercial and private residential property owners as well, and that’s something we’ll be looking to roll out in the future.”

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HGV drivers employed by Hanson have accepted an improved pay deal and dropped their threat of strike action.

More than 200 drivers employed by the company had overwhelmingly voted for industrial action in a dispute over pay which threatened to intensify industry cement shortages.

A new pay and conditions offer has now been accepted by the drivers following negotiations led by Unite.

Drivers will get:

A 2.75 % increase on all pay rates and allowances backdated to 1 January 2021A 3.25 % increase on all pay rates and allowances to be paid from 1 January 2022An increase in the overnight allowance to £42 per night from 1 October 2021A commitment to transform bank holiday working, with drivers informed in advance and volunteers used where possibleMental health awareness delivered jointly by Hanson management and Unite shop stewards to be concluded by first quarter of 2022A joint working agreement between Hanson and Unite including joint training from April 2022Management to share fleet replacement programme with drivers

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members at Hanson have demonstrated that by standing together they have secured significant improvements on pay and conditions.

“That is an example to all our union members. All employers also have to understand that Unite is absolutely determined to make sure that workers do not pay the price for the pandemic.”

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Developer Conygar has submitted redrawn plans for phase 1B of Nottingham’s biggest regeneration scheme for decades, The Island Quarter scheme.

The proposals – which were initially submitted in January – include a 223-room hotel, 247 flats and an extensive food and beverage area in a 100m long forum.

As well as improving ventilation and access routes to the building, the changes build in extra flexibility during the construction process to face industry challenges, such as material shortages and labour availability.

Phase 1B hotel building for operator IHG’s Hotel Indigo and Staybridge Suites brands

Tom Huffsmith, of Conygar, said: “Throughout the last year, we have worked closely with our design team to ensure that the plans for The Island Quarter have constantly been updated to meet the changing needs of a post-pandemic world.

“These alterations to 1B reflect those made to the overall masterplan for the site, which has been reimagined to include more green space, better routes for pedestrians and cyclists, and a focus on intergenerational living.

“1B is going to be a truly iconic building for the city, and we’re working closely with Nottingham City Council to ensure the plans will be approved and progress can continue to be made on this important site.”

David Jones, director at planning consultant AXIS, said: “While these changes will bring a positive impact to both the useability and buildability of 1B, the design intent is very much the same. The functions of the building itself remain as they were in the original planning submission – 1B will be a real flagship for The Island Quarter.

“The design changes are indicative of the impact of the pandemic, which is reflected more widely in Leonard Design and Studio Egret West’s emerging masterplan for the site as a whole.”

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An electrical engineer was killed on Sunday morning after being hit by a car while working on a pavement site for North West Electricity in Rochdale.

A second man working with the victim was also seriously injured by the car, which ploughed off the road into the streetworks site.

Greater Manchester Police said that emergency services attended the scene at 11.47am on Featherstall Road in Littleborough to find two electrical engineers who had been working on the pavement were found seriously injured.

The police said that despite the very best efforts of emergency services, one man in his 30s was later pronounced dead at the scene and the second man in his 20s was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Initial enquiries established that a vehicle had come off the road and collided with the victims. No arrests have been made.

GMPs Tactical Commander, Superintendent Arif Nawaz, said: “This has been a terrible incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends who have lost their loved one in tragic circumstances.

“As a result of this incident, around 2000 homes and businesses in the area were without electricity for around four hours and a major incident response was declared.”

All 33 of the London’s local authorities have signed up to a net zero carbon route map to retrofit 3.8m homes across all tenures in the capital to achieve an average EPC B rating by 2030.

The plan, which will be revealed in detail at the end of this month ahead of the Government spending review, could bring about a £98bn investment in the green economy in London, say councils.

The Retrofit London Housing Action Plan has been developed by the London Housing Directors’ Group with support from the London Environment Directors’ Network, the GLA, and Enfield and Waltham Forest as lead boroughs.

London boroughs are urging ministers to increase local government’s resources for this work.

They want the government to use the upcoming Spending Review to release £30m of funding for the next phase of the UK Cities Climate Investment Commission work.

Councils argue this is necessary to unlock over £200bn of private investment for delivering net zero across the UK’s 12 biggest cities.

The group also wants to see fresh financial incentives to encourage private retrofitting, such as green mortgages offering lower rates and a variable Stamp Duty Land Tax for more energy-efficient homes.

Key principles going forward

• Boroughs need to retrofit their own stock of 390,000 council homes and facilitate retrofit on the whole housing stock across London’s 3.8m homes.

• Planning decisions and guidance should support low-carbon retrofit activity, particularly in finding innovative ways to address the retrofit challenge in conservation areas.

• London needs to move away rapidly from gas heating.

• Boroughs will work collectively to develop skills and procurement models that can build capacity within the sector

The cross-party group London Councils warns the country’s retrofit market is highly unstable after serial failures of past green initiatives to tackle housing carbon emissions.

The National Audit Office slammed delivery standards in the government’s £1.5bn Green Homes Grant scheme as “rushed” and noted the scheme’s design failed to “sufficiently understand the challenges”.

Launched in September 2020 and scrapped in March 2021, the scheme was set up to help homeowners retrofit and insulate their homes.

It warns the industry cannot see a rerun of u-turns on the delivery of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and £2.5bn Home Upgrade Grant.

London Councils says that boroughs’ ambitions for retrofitting the capital rely on targeted government investment, facilitating new private financing opportunities, and encouraging funding by landlords and individual households.

Joanne Drew, Co-Chair of the London Housing Directors’ Group, said: “Boroughs are fully committed to the home retrofit agenda and are proud to pioneer a new collaborative approach.

“Our plan identifies the steps needed to turn ambition into reality, setting out the costs involved and measures we will take to work with residents and landlords.”

A leading design and climate expert believes that high-carbon buildings are morally indefensible, and could even be considered racist.

University of Bath Professor of Zero Carbon Design David Coley wants materials usage to become a moral issue with a complete rethink over common design elements including high levels of glazing and excessive use of steel and concrete.

He argued that architects, contractors, planners and construction clients must consider building projects from a moral standpoint based on their lifetime carbon impact in a new essay titled Are buildings evil?Rethinking responsibility in the construction industry.

It says buildings should be seen as “harmful emitters” and that given a disproportionate amount of this harm, in the form of rising sea levels and temperatures will fall on the non-white population of the global south, designing and constructing energy-intensive buildings “fuels global climate injustice and is therefore morally offensive, and potentially a form of unconscious institutional racism.”

The report is co-authored by Labour MP John Cryer and calls for government to support developers in reducing emissions by providing incentives and tax relief for zero-energy building.

Prof Coley said: “We urgently need to rethink our approach to construction and adopt zero-energy practices. The largest proportion of our carbon emissions come from our buildings, not industry or transport, as is often assumed.

“We know how to build, and have built, some exemplary low-energy buildings, so our failure to adopt them as the norm can be viewed as deliberate.

“Highlighting the link between emissions and buildings is key to putting sustainability at the heart of architecture and design. This comes down to what our values really are, and how we develop innovative future designs that are both impressive but also zero-energy.

“In short, rather than seeing low-energy design as an engineering issue, we need to focus on the truth – it is a moral issue. If we can do this, architects will naturally design sustainable buildings and developers will insist on them, in part to protect their investment.

“Once energy use and carbon emissions are linked to morality and aesthetics, they become reputational and legacy issues, not engineering ones.

“Deep changes in society are often triggered by a popular movement or demand, and public opinion has the power to force developers to prioritise sustainability.

“We need the public to demand zero-energy buildings, developers to set zero-energy briefs and architects to draw zero-energy buildings – and all because they find anything else unacceptable, even repulsive.”