NEWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF Mitton forms modular partnership Mitton Group has agreed a partnership with modular and portable building company Enviro Building Solutions to provide mechanical and electrical services for the latters projects. Enviro has been designing and constructing modular buildings for the healthcare, education, retail and commercial sectors for more than 30 years. The demand for its modular solutions is on the increase and, with projects becoming larger and more complex, the company decided it needed to collaborate with an M&Especialist. BFM topic guide launched BSRIA has launched a free-todownload topic guide on soft landings and business-focused maintenance (BFM). It stresses the importance of customising building maintenance schedules to focus on the specific requirements of the business in question, identifying critical assetsand then shaping maintenance activities to support those functions. The topic guide aims to inform those involved in the design, construction and operation of a building about how an effective BFM regime can be developed and achieved through the soft landingsapproach. Offsite construction is key to solving school-places demand Wider use of modular construction is required, researchers say The UK must build more than 600 new schools in the next two years to meet soaring demand in the primary and secondary sectors, according to research by procurement firm the Scape Group. It said more than 385,000 additional pupils would enter the primary and secondary school system in England by 2021/22, creating demand for at least 12,000 new classrooms. The biggest rise in demand is predicted to be in London, the South East and the South West, but the whole country will experience a 5.5% rise in its schoolage population. There will be a rise of at least 3% on current pupil numbers in every region of England by 2021/22, according to Scape, with Birmingham and Manchester needing to build the equivalent of 53 new schools in two years. Scape said wider use of offsite modular construction will be essential to keep up with the demand for school building projects and ensure the process is cost-effective. Chief executive Mark Robinson said local authorities were feeling the strain: We must focus on delivering a strategy and solutions that not only provide high-quality, modern spaces for teaching and learning, but also offer local authorities cost certainty, value for money and timely delivery. A campaign to promote modular construction of schools was launched by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in 2015, but only 70 have so far been built using offsite methods. Apprenticeships down 26% since levy The number of new apprentices has fallen by 26% since the launch of the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017, according to Department for Education statistics. During the 2017/18 academic year, 375,800 apprenticeships were started a fall of 24.1% compared with 2016/17, and 26.2% lower than the number recorded in 2015/16. This places in doubt the governments stated aim of creating three million new apprenticeships by 2020. The government has also admitted that 2bn raised by the levy remains unspent. All businesses with an annual payroll of more than 3m pay 0.5% of their wage bill into the levy to fund new apprentices. They can use that money and receive a further 10% government contribution to finance training of their own apprentices. For companies with payrolls of less than 3m, the government will pay 95% of the cost of training an apprentice. A recent rule change has also led to employers being able to pass on 25% of their levy funds to smaller companies in their supply chain. 10 May 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE May19 pp10 News.indd 10 26/04/2019 16:56