NEWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF Hurley Palmer Flatt buys digital consultant Engineering consultant Hurley Palmer Flatt (HPF) has bought the digital information and BIM management business Concentre Consulting for an undisclosed sum. Concentre will operate as an independent subsidiary of the HPF Group to offer standalone or combined services. Our investment is another step forward to support buildings becoming a digital asset, said HPF Group chair and CEO Paul Flatt. This will give our clients the ability to accelerate their own digital transformations, to adopt proven processes, drive new digital tools and understand the cultural organisational changes required to deliver in a digital environment. Troubled Interserve secures rescue plan Interserve will reduce its debt from 600m to around 275m as part of a rescue package that involves issuing new shares. Existing lenders will supply another 75m of liquidity and the giant firm which was thought tobe on the brink of financial collapse will issue around 480m in new shares. CEO Debbie White said: The board believes this agreement will secure a strong future for Interserve. This proposal has been achieved after a long period of intensive negotiation, and has the support of our financial stakeholders and the government. Domestic energy efficiency slows down Energy efficiency levels in English homes has not increased since 2015, according to a new edition of the English Housing Survey. The average SAP rating has been steady at 62 points for three years. While this is a major improvement on the 45-point average in 1996, there was no change in the average rating of homes between 2016 and 2017. The survey also reported that 25% of privately rented homes do not meet the Decent Homes Standard, which requires tenants to experience a reasonable degree of thermal comfort. That figure falls to 19% for owner-occupied homes and 13% for social housing. However, the overall proportion of non-decent homes has fallen from 35% in 2007 to 19% in 2017. Warning of fire-break failures two years before Grenfell BRE studies highlighted danger of fire spreading in concealed cavities Studies commissioned by the government, and carried out by BRE, two years before the Grenfell Tower tragedy, highlighted thedangerof fire spreading through concealedcavities and called for a change to the Building Regulations. BRE experts analysed 20 fires between 2003 and 2013, and explained to officials at the then Department for Communities and Local Government that some fire barriers were found to be missing or incomplete, or incorrectly positioned. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said the reports which were received in 2015 were now being made public as part of its review of fire regulations in the wake of Dame Judith Hackitts review. Grenfell Tower was being refurbished at the time, but the reports were treated as confidential, although BRE also said it transmitted its findings to the industry. Poor workmanship with inappropriate materials are the main reasons for the inadequate protection of concealed spaces, one of the BRE studies reported. It added that these concerns were not disputed by manufacturers, but that there are no driverstoencourage more effective solutions to be developed. Melbourne tower had combustible cladding An apartment complex in Melbourne, Australia, which was engulfed in fire last month, had the same combustible cladding as thatused on Londons Grenfell Tower, according to local firefighters. Nobody was seriously injured in the fire, which spread up the exterior of the building to the 27th floor, but was brought under control within an hour. Sprinklers were activated on four floors and 150 residents evacuated. Developers ignoring sprinkler advice The London Fire Brigade (LFB) says housing developers are consistently ignoring its advice to fit sprinklers in new residential buildings. The LFB carried out spot checks on 15 new or refurbished blocks and found that just two had sprinklers fitted. It wants Part B of the Building Regulations to include sprinklers as a mandatory measure in all purpose-built blocks of flats or in all blocks more than six storeys high at the very least. It also advises their use in all buildings housing vulnerable residents, including care homes and sheltered accommodation, and wants sprinklers to be retrofitted in older residential blocks. To ignore brigade fire-safety advice is reckless and the government needs to act now, said LFB Commissioner Dany Cotton, who added that the LFBs spot checks had proved that the construction industry was not able to self-regulate. Although we are telling people that sprinklers will save lives, we cant force developers to fit them. The regulations already state that sprinklers should be installed in new tower blocks above 30m, but Simon Rooks, of the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association, believes their use should not depend on building height or whether a building is old or new. We urgently need a solution that ensures sprinkler systems become an integral component in fire safety systems across the country, he said. 10 March 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Mar19 pp10 News v2.indd 10 22/02/2019 16:28