What's New

Prefabulous Homes Goes (Emerald) Green

Monday, 4th July 2005 2-6pm
The Building Centre Trust
26 Store Street
London
WC1E 7BT

Its not too late to book your tickets for the latest in the successful Prefabulous Homes Seminar series.

Speakers include:

John O'Mahony of O'Mahony Pike Architects, Eire's leading housing designers on The Cherry Orchard in Dublin which delighted a recent study tour by UK developers for the quality of its design in MMC.

Mike Kirk of Hyde Housing and Andrew Ogorzalek of PCKO Architects, on Wyndham Road, the second and larger modular development by the RSL to imported volumetric Polish flats.

Kevin McGeough of English Partnerships, on the Summit House designed by PRP Architects and how it will be turned into a range of solutions at Allerton Bywater

Bob Tomlinson of Living Villages, on how a Shopshire developer took on the traditionalists to embrace MMC for its rural scheme called The Wintles

Mark Wilson of The Panel Agency, on gypsum reinforced fibreboards and Roger Porter of Excel Building Solutions on cellulose fibre insulations, two products that integrate sustainablity into MMC.

The seminar chair will be Professor Colin Davies of London Metropolitan University, author of Prefabricated Housing.

Tickets are £90 + VAT from the Housing Forum call 020 7592 1100 or email

2005 Key Performance Indicators for The Housing Sector Launched

Constructing Excellence released the 2005 UK Construction Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in June and called on housing construction companies to take advantage of the wealth of benchmarking techniques available to encourage measurement of productivity, profitability and quality. The KPI results for 2004 provide data for housing on the national performance of the sector and comparisons with the Housing Forum demonstration projects on the "Egan" construction efficiency targets including safety and client satisfaction which can all be compared with the rest of the construction industry.

If you wish to purchase the new KPI pack to find out how you can measure your company's performance please click here

Housing Forum Harrogate Success!

The Housing Forum had a strong presence at the CIH Conference and Exhibition in Harrogate this year. During the busy week you could see our advertisement on Inside TV, see some of our demonstration projects on the Walk of Excellence, catch up with the latest news and publications on our stand, as well as making new friends and meeting old friends.

Our conference seminar session "Modern Methods of Construction: The Art of the Possible" was chaired by Dennis Lenard to a full house. Interesting and thought provoking presentations by James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation - de Montfort University, Dr Ashley Lane, Director - Westbury Partnerships, Stuart Gee, Head of Operations - Wave Homes and Nick Whitehouse, Chairman and Managing Director - Terrapin Ltd were followed by lively discussion and debate. The whole session received positive and encouraging feedback.

We launched a prototype of the new Housing Forum Members' Innovation Newsletter which is one of the regular outputs from the Working Group looking at "Increasing Innovation in the Supply of New Homes", please click here for more information

We held a lunchtime reception, sponsored by Ian Williams, new Executive Member of the Housing Forum,where Dennis Lenard, Chief Executive of The Housing Forum and Constructing Excellence launched two new publications:

• Delivering Service Through the Supply Chain
  A leaflet produced in collaboration with Ian Williams. It outlines the findings of a series of Supply Chain seminars on Partnering.

  Please click here for more information



• How to Arrange an Apprenticeship in Housebuilding
  The second in the series of "How To.." guides produced in partnership with the HBF, the NHBC and CITB-ConstructionSkills. The publication is a practical guide for house builders, schools, colleges, career advisors, young people and their parents/ guardians.

  Please click here for more information

Judith Harrison, Director - The Housing Forum and Krystyna Blackburn, Project Director - The Housing Forum spoke at two fringe sessions in the Theatre of Innovation on:

• The Prefabulous Home Initiative
• Sustainable Training for Sustainable Communities.

Membership News

Housing Forum Members Meeting

Following the Constructing Excellence merger with another membership organisation, Be (Collaborating for the Built Environment), to become Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment announced in April this year, we are reviewing the benefits our members receive. We would like to find out our members' thoughts on the benefits that we offer and what you would like to have in the future. All members should have received a questionnaire by email. It should only take a few minutes to complete on line and we would be very interested to have your feedback.

The results of the survey will be announced at the Housing Forum Annual Members Meeting and lunch on Tuesday 2nd August 2005 at 11.30am - 2.00 pm which will be held at Warwick House, 25 Buckingham Palace Rd, London, SW1W 0PP. Invitations and an agenda will be sent out to all members shortly.

Any new membership packages resulting from the survey will be available as of 1st April 2006. The current package of benefits for Housing Forum members is set out in "Housing Forum: a prospectus for the future within Constructing Excellence 2004 - 2006" click here to download

To download the Housing Forum Membership form click here

Demonstration Exemplar

Westminster INTEGER Towers Project at Glastonbury House, Victoria, London

Team Members
Enabling Concepts
Mouchel Parkman
Cole Thompson Anders
WSP
Franklin & Andrews
Wates
CityWest Homes

Construction Start: December 2004
Construction Finish: June 2006

Main Innovations include:

• New sky lounge and communal gardens.
• New Estates Office and Neighbourhood Centre.
• IT innovations: software in lifts to improve performance; community digital TV pilot.
• CCTV and Community alarm security measures.
• Modern Apprenticeships.
• Decent Homes improvements

Events

PREFABULOUS HOMES VISIT TO KINGSPAN CANCELLATION

We were sorry to cancel the breakfast visits to Kingspan that were scheduled for the 21st and 22nd June. Unfortunately the factory was not yet in a position to receive visitors. The visits will be rescheduled for some time in the Autumn. Watch this space for further information.

Contact details

The Housing Forum, Constructing Excellence, Warwick House, 25 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0PP.

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