EWS OPEN FOR PRAYER CAMBRIDGES 23M SUSTAINABLE MOSQUE A 23m sustainable mosque in Cambridge has opened for prayer. The Central Mosque has a 1,000-capacity prayer hall, community kitchen and caf, teaching rooms, two residential units and an underground car park. The form and fabric of the buildng ensures it can be naturally lit during daylight hours and naturally ventilated throughout the year, even during peak occupancy. Air-source heat pumps are used for underfloor heating and cooling. Power produced by rooftop solar panels provide the hot water and cooling, and 13% of heating. Rainwater is harvested for flushing toilets and irrigation. The services engineer was Skelly & Cooch and the building was designed by MarksBarfield. Brexit blamed for sectors first-quarter slump Pipeline of forward projects down by nearly 25% on past two years There was no growth in new construction work in the first three months of the year, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. The infrastructure and public sectors did grow, by 5.6% and 3.3% respectively, but these figures were cancelled out by falls in the private commercial and housing markets of 4.7% and 1.2%. There was an overall dip of 1.8% in March, which coincided with the date the UK was supposed to leave the EU. Output from the entire construction market grew by 1% in the first three months of 2019, thanks to a rise in repair and maintenance work, with the private housing and non-domestic sectors growing by 4.0% and 3.5% respectively. Central London is bucking the trend, with new office construction growing at its highest level in three years, according to a new survey from Deloitte. It reported that 37 new schemes broke ground in the past six months, with 3.5 million ft2 ofcommercial space started a rise of 38% since the previous survey late lastyear. SEC calls for action on payment as industry insolvencies rise Campaigning industry body the Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group has Four new starts at Kings Cross will add almost 1 million ft2, including a new headquarters building for Facebook, whileeight major refurbishment projects in the City of London got under way, delivering around 800,000ft2. There is concern, however, that the pipeline of forward projects totalling 30million ft2 was down by nearly 25% on thepast two years. Londons office market remains resilient in the face of uncertainty as we witness an encouraging increase in new construction starts, said Deloitte Real Estate director Mike Cracknell. This is testament to developers continued confidence in Londons office-leasing market long term. called for urgent action on measures to tighten payment security in the wake of the latest insolvency statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). There were 3,013 company insolvencies linked to construction in the year to the end of March, which is the highest number for any sector in the UK. SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein described the figures as alarming, adding that he was disappointed that, 18 months since the collapse of Carillion, we are still waiting for decisive action on payment. He said a large number of the business failures could be traced back to Carillion, but many are the result of worsening cash flow and widespread payment abuse. The London office market remains resilient SEC Group is promoting two private members bills in the House of Commons to improve construction payment security the Construction (Retention Deposit Schemes) Bill, laid by Waveney MP Peter Aldous, and the Public Sector Supply Chains (Project Bank Accounts) Bill, laid by Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham andSaddleworth. It plans to pursue these measures through to the next session of parliament. www.cibsejournal.com June 2019 7 CIBSE Jun19 pp07 News.indd 7 24/05/2019 16:01