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Housing Forum Demonstration of the Month - September

No. 1063 - Millennium Green, Collingham

Region: East Midlands
Team: Gusto Construction Ltd
Value: £4m
Completed: 12th January 2002

This was the first development of its kind in the UK. A commercial housing developer, albeit a small one, building conventionally styled housing for sale that incorporated sustainable features including:

Solar water heating, rainwater collection for use in toilets, washing machines and garden irrigation, very high thermal specification (three times the level of the UK 1995 building regulations), mechanical heat recovery ventilation, high-specification glazing, ISDN compatible telephone and Internet connections throughout, gas condensing boilers and intelligent boiler management systems fitted as standard.

Resident training in the use of the water and energy systems in the dwellings takes place when the residents move in. This aims to optimise the benefits of these systems by ensuring the residents are capable of operating the systems as efficiently as possible and generates awareness amongst the residents of the environmental benefits of the dwellings. Gusto provides continuous support to residents who are also asked to give feedback about living in the dwellings at annual evening gatherings. The project has been a commercial success, with the demand for all twenty four dwellings exceeding the supply.

Gusto Construction has won the following awards as a result of its project at Millennium Green:

• Daily Express House Builder of the Year 2000 Cert Winner
• Parcelforce Worldwide Small Business Awards 2000
• Nottingham Environmental Business of the Year 1999
• Nottingham Evening Post Award for Innovation 1999
• Henry, Home Energy Rater of the Year 1999
• Building magazine 'Entrepreneur of the Year' finalist
• Overall and category winners of the 2003 Environment Agency Water Efficiency Awards

The shortage of skilled labour within the industry presented Gusto with potential problems during construction. They invested heavily in staff training and development and, through retaining these staff; a greater understanding of the technology being employed has been achieved for use in further developments. This led to reduced snagging during the development stage and more efficient problem resolution and maintenance once the buildings were occupied and in use.

Gusto has applied the same sustainable principles to their future developments.

To find out more go to www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/sectors/housingforum/

Imperial Wharf Visit

On the 14th September St George hosted the opening of the River Walk between Imperial Wharf and Chelsea Harbour at Imperial Wharf, Fulham, one of the Housing Forum's most successful demonstration projects. After a welcome speech from the Managing Director of St George, Michael Meanley, The Rt Hon Keith Hill MP, Minister for Housing praised St George for its commitment to sustainability and the benefits that the project provides for the local community.

The construction work on Imperial Wharf, an old gas works site, started in January 2000. The development includes:

550 private residences for sale 275 housing association units for rent 75 shared ownership units 40 student accommodation units 50 key worker units for rent 25 key worker units for sale 50 frail elderly units for rent 175 bedroom hotel. A community park and riverside walk.

It is expected to reach completion in January 2006. 500 homes are currently complete providing accommodation for 1,000 people. Imperial Wharf provides community benefits both though employment in the on site shops and work placements for local school children. A silver link station is due to open at the site in 2005 and the road network has been improved with a frequent bus service. It is a prominent example of successful land use planning focussing on sustainability and partnering and producing a high quality development.

Housing Forum Executive Steering Group Meeting 9th September 2004

The Housing Forum had its first Executive Steering Group meeting as part of Constructing Excellence on the 9th of September. The Executive Steering Group is open to Executive Members of the Housing Forum. Its purpose is to support the Housing Forum executive team in advising the Housing Forum Board on strategic policy issues to be addressed in order to promote further innovation, productivity and best practise in the industry. After presentations by Judith Harrison on the Housing Forum's current work and future plans, the group split into three smaller groups to brainstorm issues and challenges for the housing sector. The steering group produced some very useful suggestions regarding further research and events and the future membership structure of the Housing Forum. All the ideas will go forward for discussion at the next Board meeting to be held on the 5th October.

Building Homes Quality Awards

Tuesday 12th October 2004
Hilton Hotel
Park Lane
London

The Building Homes Quality Awards sponsored by the Housing Forum will be hosted this year by Michael Portillo. The awards aim to highlight the private sector and housing association high fliers in terms of innovation, best practise and business performance. There are 17 award categories including: Best Company-wide Sustainability Strategy, Best Approach to Partnering and Supply Chain Management and Best Health and Safety Initiative as well as Housebuilder of the Year and Social Housing Provider of the Year.

The Housing Forum has sponsored this event for the last three years and Judith Harrison, Director of the Housing Forum, sits on the judging panel. The ceremony attracts a wide cross section of top house builders and public sector housing providers, designers and contractors, and various senior Government and institutional representatives.

For more information, or to book a table please email info@createvents.co.uk

Membership News

Why become a member of the Housing Forum?

What are the benefits? Click here to link to the membership section of the Housing Forum website and find out ...

Events

Modern Methods of Construction Conference and Exhibition 7th October 2004, One Great George Street, London

The conference will address the key note theme "Tomorrow's construction solutions today" by demonstrating what is available and what is being successfully delivered. Other themes covered will include the practicalities of how substantial increases in the utilisation of MMC can now be achieved.

Building Performance is Business Performance Conference 6th and 7th October 2004, London Olympia

The conference focuses on new strategies, ideas and case studies aimed at reducing the lifecycle costs of all types of property, improving productivity and sustainability and increasing asset value A 20% discount to the Conference is available for Housing Forum Members. Details have been emailed to members separately.

Constructing Excellence London Demonstrations Cluster Event

Examples of Best Practise in Construction Thursday, 28th September 2004 9.00am- 12.30pm, Warwick House, 25 Buckingham Palace Rd, London.

This free event will give businesses a chance to find out more about projects participating in Constructing Excellence's programme of demonstration projects in the London region. This promises to be an interesting and informative session and would be beneficial to many of our Housing Forum network.

Visualisation and Virtual Reality: Potential Uses in the Construction Industry

Thursday 30th September 2004, 5:30-730pm, Cube Building, Centre for Construction Innovation, 1st Floor, 13-115 Portland Street, Manchester. Please see flyer for details.

Items of Interest

Creation of European Links

On the 2nd of September the Housing Forum welcomed a delegation of eighteen Danish post graduate students and their tutors from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark. The students are taking a post graduate course in Construction Management. They were mostly engineers and architects with many years experience in the industry and were especially interested in how the Egan agenda was moving forward in the UK through the Housing Forum.

The meeting was a great success and we intend to build on this and other similar meetings to develop and maintain closer links with innovative approaches to construction in other European countries.

Contact details

The Housing Forum has moved to Constructing Excellence's new offices. They can now be found at 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0PP.

The following people can be contacted through the switchboard number
020 7592 1100:

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