Housing associations

As part of a wide scale refurbishment project from Enfield Council, Langley Structures Ltd delivered a series of Flat to Pitched (FTP) roof conversions across multiple residential premises in New Southgate. This project recently won RCI’s Pitched Roofing Awards for ‘best use of a flat to pitch system’.

The project saw the conversion applied to seven buildings located on Bowes Road, Cross Road and Massey Close in Enfield, as part of the larger ‘New Southgate’ refurbishment being carried out in the area. Approved in 2010, the New Southgate regeneration project provides quality homes, local shops and community services across the neighbourhood.

Langley Structures worked alongside Playle & Partners LLP’s, who provided lead architectural services as well as project management, contract administration, quantity surveying and principle designer roles. ENGIE, Langley Structures’ Approved Contractor, delivered the regeneration solution.

When evaluating opportunities to cut costs in social housing refurbishment or retro-fit fire sprinkler installation in high rise blocks as part of a fire safety framework agreement, pipe boxing probably wouldn’t feature highly, yet Pendock products are helping HAs and LAs save money and time on site.

The Pendock Profiles range of specialist casings and pipe & fire sprinkler boxing has been a common feature in social housing for well over 30 years and have been used on heating system refurbishments, boiler upgrades and fire-sprinkler installations by most UK social landlords on countless projects.

Thermal Stores have been an effective and highly efficient hot water solution in the UK for almost 40 years. However, many installers today revert to an unvented cylinder solution for mains pressure hot water, mainly due to a lack of awareness and understanding of thermal store technology.

McDonald Water Storage have seen thermal store popularity rise however, particularly in apartment applications, as they overcome many of the frustrations both installers and housing providers have with unvented cylinder installations, including the hidden costs of the difficult G3 requirements and ongoing annual maintenance.

Hosted from our Technical Workshop the second episode of Aico TV will feature our Managing Director Neal Hooper and Paul White, IT Specialist discussing the creation of Aico TV and the Studio. This will be followed by the World of Work: Careers advice and guidance with members of the Aico team with Careers Live taking place this week. Finally, we have an interview with Alan Lewis, founder of Adrenaline Sporting Events, and to finish we have a popular FAQ presented by Kieran Smith.

From appliances to energy management, the role of ‘smart home’ technology continues to expand. Previously only seen in private homes, smart technology is making inroads into affordable housing too. This comes as no surprise to those in the industry, since Housing Associations are already taking advantage of technology for effective asset management or improving tenant comfort and wellbeing.

Last week saw the launch of the premiere episode of Aico TV, featuring Aico colleagues as well as guests. Formatted into segments, the episode is hosted by two Aico colleagues, Alex Garmston and Holly Moore who introduce the episode and each segment of the show.
To begin the episode, National Sales Director Steve Trafford explores Aico’s journey, from humble beginnings to becoming the UK market leader in Fire and Carbon Monoxide protection and the expansion into IoT and the connected home. Steve journeys through the Aico timeline, highlighting how innovation is at the heart of the company through the advancements in products and technology while retaining the quality that Aico is synonymous with. This leads onto Managing Director Neal Hooper speaking with Shropshire Business Live TV’s Carl Jones and Roy Amyes, Coaching and Personal Development Consultant about the importance of training and development and how Aico have embedded this into their core values.

Social landlords are increasingly realising that the Internet of Things (IoT) can bring many benefits directly to their organisations through improved maintenance efficiencies, investment optimisation and compliance. It is also increasingly clear that there are many benefits to residents including improving health, safety and wellbeing while also providing opportunities to help them save money. This isn’t just anecdotal evidence, but is clearly backed up by recent research HomeLINK carried out with over 50 landlords. Figure 1 indicates that the resident related benefits such as tackling fuel poverty and improving living conditions and energy efficiency are among those most associated with IoT adoption in social housing.