We are currently commemorating 70 years since the Battle of Britain. ‘The Few’ were in fact 2,353 young men from Great Britain and 574 from overseas, who saw so many of their colleagues die - we should always remember that, and them. Bombings throughout the country saw so much demolition, and so much rebuilding. Some enabled slum clearance and post-war housing improvements, some post-war developments were themselves torn down due to the various new materials/methods becoming unliveable – and un-loveable! But the massive building boom brought about many technologies we still use today in varying and more sophisticated forms, especially pre-fabricated and off-site products.
The east end of London is seeing one of its biggest redevelopments since the war. More than one hundred companies have expressed interested in taking over the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 games. Both West Ham United Football Club and AEG, which runs the O2 Arena, are thought to be in the running. Let’s hope that it’ll become a post-games success much sooner than it took the Millennium Dome to reach its eventual place on the ‘great venues’ map.
This time of year brings a glut of exhibitions; 100% Design in September, The Facilities Show early October, and Interbuild which last year became Interbuild Specifier and Interbuild Onsite, and this year morphed in to BEST: Built Environment Solutions and Technology. After another year of seeing some big construction names disappear, how important is it to have a presence at an industry expo - are you exhibiting a product or proving that you can afford to? And it’s party conference season too – by the time this issue hits your desk they’ll be over. Will carefully thought out plans to underpin our industry and re-start stalled projects be unveiled? Will funding be announced to build all of the social housing we keep being told is needed? Will investments be declared that ensure trainee and apprenticeship schemes can continue? What would you have put on the agenda? We wait, we wait...
