News All the latest news from around the building industry Make your voices heard, urges closet engineer Ken Shuttleworth Awards speaker dreams of world without starchitects Building services engineers have been urged to stand up to starchitects and shout about their skills and innovation. Ken Shuttleworth, founding partner of Make Architects, told the audience at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2015 that prima donna architects had been kings of the castle for far too long and it was now the time of the engineer. The guest speaker said: Never has there been a more exciting time to be an engineer. You havethe skills to produce the cool stuff that we all need. You can make a difference. The timing is perfect for you to come out of the shadows and get your voices heard. Dont hold back, make that difference. The planet needs you just go for it. Shuttleworth added that, for far too long, architects have taken all the credit for the hard work of engineers, and it was time for that to change. He instructed the 700-strong audience at Grosvenor House to tell architects to sod off when they tried to call the shots. Starchitects have taken over, with their dazzling shirts, big watches, and big, pointy, shiny buildings. This has to stop, he said. I have a dream of a world without starchitects, where engineers lead the charge. A world where buildings no longer need their own personal power plants just to keep going. A world where buildings work in harmony with nature. A self-proclaimed closet engineer, Shuttleworth told the audience: This is the new age of the engineer. This is your time. This is your moment in the limelight. l Read more on the CIBSE Building Performance Awards here. Government departments are among the worst late payers MP brands unfair payment as unethical as tax evasion Public sector clients are among the worst late-payment offenders, according to two major new reports. Surveys by the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group have revealed that up to 90% of government departments withhold payment from contractors, pushing many to the brink of collapse. Freedom of Information requests from the SEC Group showed that public sector managers withhold as much as 10% of contract amounts owed in the form of payment retentions, to bolster their working capital. SEC Group chief executive, Rudi Klein, said the situation was scandalous, given that the bulk of retention cash is provided by small firms that have major difficulties in accessing finance. Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, Debbie Abrahams, is leading a parliamentary campaign to tackle late payment. The public sector should be the foundation on which we build a fair payment culture, she said, adding unfair payment was as unethical as tax evasion. The NAO was also highly critical of government departments for failing to check whether payments were reaching small firms down the supply chain. In many cases, it suggested the governments approach was simply boosting the working capital of main contractors. The Cabinet Office is responsible for ensuring fair payment practices across government departments, but the NAO discovered it was one of the worst offenders. Only 25% of public bodies in England even monitor their payment record, its report showed. The NAO noted the damage this does to small firms cash flow. It called for wider use of project bank accounts by government to stop main contractors abusing the process. Projects threatened by skills shortage Up to 27,000 construction projects could be at risk because of the worsening skills shortage. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has predicted that 54% of businesses in the surveying sector will be turning down work by 2019. In a survey by RICS, 85% of respondents said that a shortage of qualified candidates meant they had problems recruiting in 2014; 43% of surveying firms said they had turned down an average of five contracts per year because of a lack of skilled staff. RICS believes the number of companies turning down work will grow by 11% in the next four years. Alan Muse, director of built environment professional groups at RICS, said: Its very unlikely that well have the capacity or the capability to fulfil planned projects. Specialist contractors, meanwhile, are increasing their prices to reflect demand for their skills. The latest survey by the National Specialist Contractors Council found that 44% had increased their tender prices in the fourth quarter of 2014. bidders given cash in EdR auction The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has awarded 1.28m to 18 organisations to reduce peak electricity demand, as part of the UKs first Energy Demand Reduction (EDR) auction. Participants in the pilot made applications based on how much energy they could save, and at what cost. The funds went to firms that are running projects such as LED lighting or efficient motors that could save energy in the cheapest way possible. The 18 successful bidders will receive payments once savings are delivered and evidence is received. All the winners are required to achieve a minimum reduction of 100kW between 4pm and 8pm; as a result, at least 1,855,548kWh will be saved across the country during the winter peak period, claims DECC. We want to see if reducing demand on the electricity grid can be a cost-effective solution that will work alongside building new power stations - guaranteeing our energy security, cutting emissions and lowering energy bills, said Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey. This auction is the first of its kind in Britain. If this goes well, demand reduction could compete alongside new generation in future capacity auctions. MAx FORdhAM MAKES cOnTAcT Skanska announces 300m project Skanska is to build a 300m research centre and corporate headquarters for drugs company AstraZeneca in the UK. The Herzog & de Meurondesigned HQ will be on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and is expected to be completed in 2017. It will be home to AstraZenecas research into cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and will also be the companys largest centre for oncology research. balfour beatty gets third offshore power link Max Fordham has been appointed as part of the Sheppard Robson-led team for the 6m remodelling of the Contact Theatre in Manchester. The project marks a return to the site for the practice, which provided environmental engineering on the original project, designed by Alan Short and Associates, which opened in 1999. This is one of the first if not the first naturally ventilated auditoria of the modern era, said Matt Dickinson, senior partner in charge of Max Fordhams Manchester office. The principles we employed here are very similar to those seen at liverpools Everyman Theatre. The revamp will increase the theatres capacity and overhaul the back-of-house, public and hospitality spaces. The original fabric of the building will remain unchanged, with the distinctive H-shaped chimney pots acting as acoustically attenuated ventilators for the building. Balfour Beatty has snapped up the power transmission network for the Gwynt y Mr wind farm, off the north Wales coast its third sea-to-land power system. The company will jointly own the 352m transmission system with infrastructure investor Equitix. The network includes more than 80km of sub-sea cables and three substations connecting the 160-turbine farm with the National Grid. Make to put tower in Tower Hamlets Tower Hamlets Council has given the go ahead for a 53-storey, mixed-use skyscraperon the Isle of Dogs, in East London. The Meridian Gate scheme, designed by the architectural firm Make, will provide 400 homes, along with office space, cafs, public gardens, and a childrens play area at the foot of the tower. Local planning officers said the development would be an elegant tower which makes a positive contribution to the skyline. Make partner Frank Filskow added that its slender design maximised the opportunity to provide a significant new park for residents and the local community close to the West India Docks. The consultation drew 24 objections to the scheme from neighbours concerned about loss of daylight and, the size of the building being out of keeping with the surrounding area. But the council report said that the tower read as part of the Canary Wharf cluster of high-rise buildings. The development will include 104 affordable and social housing properties. "