Retrofit can produce the lower-carbon answer in an estate appraisal and still fail to become the preferred construction option once structural life, fire safety, resident decant, housing quality, additional homes, programme and long-term cost are added to the same decision. Public-sector options appraisals reviewed by London Construction Magazine show why the choice between retaining an exist…
The government is expanding its PlanAssist artificial-intelligence planning tool to 15 English councils after early testing cut the time spent on selected planning tasks by 58%, alongside new rules giving professional planning officers greater responsibility for straightforward applications. The package gives Housing Secretary Angela Rayner something planning reform often lacks: measurable op…
Temporary safety measures on ageing residential blocks can remain in place for years when demolition, strengthening or regeneration moves more slowly than the engineering assessment originally assumed. Public structural reports reviewed by London Construction Magazine show the same problem appearing in different forms: restrictions on potential sources of explosion, vehicle-impact protection, wak…
Britain's ageing council housing stock has a problem that cannot always be seen in the concrete. In some post-war blocks, engineers are trying to establish structural histories from incomplete drawings, old correspondence, council minutes, previous surveys and targeted opening-up because the record of what was actually built or strengthened decades ago is incomplete. Public structural rep…
Oxford Street was packed with pedestrians when London Construction Magazine visited on Friday 30 October, four days after almost one kilometre of the West End shopping street became permanently traffic-free. The immediate benefit is easy to see. Between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street, people now have considerably more space to move between shops, cross the street and spread beyond p…
