News

Having been in place for more than 50 years, the original concrete roof at Walthamstow School for Girls was showing signs of structural deterioration and the roof structure and finish needed replacing.

As the responsible local authority, London Borough of Waltham Forest wanted to find a roofing contractor with the necessary construction knowledge and experience to carry out the work to the highest standard and within the required timescales. They also needed to have already completed the full OJEU process.

After 17 years’ service at LHC, our Group Director, John Skivington has made a decision to retire early. John will remain in the business for a while to complete some key LHC projects but hopes to be handing over the reins to his successor by next Spring, giving John time to pursue other interests, including his long-held passion for community-led housing initiatives.

You will have read a lot about modern methods of construction (MMC). You may have even investigated where you can incorporate it into your plans. But if you haven’t introduced it to any of your projects yet, now’s the time, thanks to a significant development in government policy, says John Skivington, Group Director of LHC.

Seventeen offsite manufacturers have won places on a new £330 million framework for the public sector.

The Modular Buildings (MB2) framework from LHC allows local authorities, social landlords and other public bodies to source preapproved specialist suppliers who can design, supply and install permanent, temporary, and refurbished modular buildings.

In October 2020, LHC issued an advice note regarding the use of the new UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) mark which replaced the European CE mark.  We advised that due to the period of co-existence of the two marks in the UK until 1 January 2022, LHC would accept certification using both CE and UKCA marking regimes between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2021.

A new guide has been launched for local authorities, housing associations and other registered providers that are looking to procure energy efficiency works.

As the Government and wider housing sector seek to ramp up their retrofit efforts to achieve net zero stock by at least 2050, it’s more important than ever for social landlords to ensure they have routes to procure compliant and quality suppliers.

The new guide from LHC provides details of its £800 million Energy Efficiency Measures and Associated Works (N8) framework, which runs until 8 November 2024.

Social housing providers must be backed by further, mid- to long-term Government funding to enable them to lead the country’s drive towards net zero.

Public sector procurement specialist LHC has welcomed the Environmental Audit Committee’s (EAC) call for more money and longer-term commitments to meet the energy efficiency retrofit challenge.

LHC is currently in the pre-planning stage of their New Build Housing Construction (H2) framework.

It will deliver a range of traditional housing as well as low, medium and high-rise construction, sheltered, student and keyworker accommodation, care homes, and mixed use sites, development agreements and land purchases. Associated civil engineering and infrastructure works required for new build housing and net zero buildings will also be covered under the framework.

Doors opening to architecture careers for aspiring young students in Southwark

LHC Community Benefit Fund has made a contribution to enable Open City to deliver their Accelerate programme in Southwark.

We encourage ‘small spending’ which makes a ‘big difference’ for projects to grow their impact and attract funds from other sources.

As a result, we are proud to highlight Octopus Community Networks, one of our first investments, have gone on to secure £200,000 from the National Lottery Fund to extend their work on food poverty.