TriConnex Sponsor ‘Best Mixed-Use Development’ at Showhouse WhatHouse? Awards
Showhouse held the WhatHouse? Awards Gala on Friday (18th November) at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel, London, celebrating the best new homes in Britain with over 1500 industry professionals.
The event was hosted by former Leader of the Conservative Party William Hague and England Rugby World Cup winner and broadcaster Maggie Alphonsi.
TriConnex sponsored the awards, and Director, Chris Doré presented the ‘Best Mixed-Use Development’ category with gold, silver, and bronze awards being presented to the following winners:
Gold: Battersea Power Station, London, Battersea Power Station
Silver: High Street Quarter, Hounslow, London, Barratt London
Bronze: East Wick & Sweetwater, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, Places for People and Balfour Beatty Investments
Congratulations to all of the winners on their successes.
TriConnex discusses electrical capacity competition with Showhouse Magazine
TriConnex Director Chris Doré speaks to Showhouse magazine as part of their Utilities Special discussing the competition housebuilders are facing for the UK’s limited electrical capacity.
Find out how TriConnex focuses on finding compliant, cost-effective solutions – so developers can get on with building homes, without having to worry whether utilities will be in place.
Read the full article on p31 here
TriConnex Sponsor ‘Medium Housebuilder of the year’ at Housebuilder Awards 2022
The Housebuilder Awards 2022 returned to the InterContinental London – The O2 on Thursday 10th November.
The Housebuilder Awards celebrates excellence in all aspects of the housebuilding sector, including customer satisfaction, marketing, design, community initiatives, staff development and sustainability.
TriConnex were one of the event sponsors, and so members of the team attended the black-tie ceremony, and Managing Director, David Topping proudly presented the ‘Medium Housebuilder of the Year’ award to winners ‘St Modwen’ and ‘The Hill Group’.
The Hill Group have won the ‘Medium Housebuilder of the year’ award for three consecutive years – congratulations to Hill on this achievement.
Congratulations to all of the winners on their achievements and to the finalists.
TriConnex speaks to Housebuilder Magazine about Grid and Connection Challenges
TriConnex director Chris Doré recently spoke to Housebuilder Magazine as part of their article on Squeezing the grid
“The lack of grid capacity is such a threat” Chris commented “it’s risk number one or two for developers. You can get planning but if you have no electricity your viability doesn’t exist,” he stated in a warning to Housebuilders
“Developers have a long process. They have to go through consultations and engage with the public. It could be years before they get to the point where they need electricity. And when they get to the end, they may find the capacity isn’t the same. That goes straight to the bottom line.”
Chris also joined peers talking about Connection Challenges and how utility companies can help housebuilders manage capacity
Commenting in that article he highlighted that “Developers used to be the biggest thing in town in terms of demand for new grid capacity, and it was easy to predict costs. But times have changed, with a number of businesses now eager to snap up capacity before housebuilders. “
Read more of Chris’s insights alongside others in the industry HERE on pages 44-48 and 65-72
TriConnex achieves Best Companies ‘Ones to Watch’ accreditation
We are pleased to have received the Best Companies ‘Ones to Watch’ accreditation following successful completion of our recent employee engagement survey.
The ‘Ones to Watch’ accreditation is awarded to organisations that secure a BCI (Best Companies Index) score of at least 600 in their b-Heard survey.
The b-Heard survey enables employers to gain honest and insightful feedback, asking employees to rate their responses anonymously and confidentially to a series of questions based on 8 factors covering wellbeing, leadership, and personal development etc.
Achieving the ‘Ones to Watch’ status confirms that TriConnex is an organisation that represents good levels of workplace engagement and that we are showing promising signs for the future.
TriConnex also featured in the Regional and Sector league tables of the recent ‘Best Companies Live’ event which celebrates the very best in workplace engagement.
Best Companies state “It is a standard of excellence towards which many organisations aspire, but only the best achieve.”
David Topping, TriConnex Managing Director added: “At TriConnex we realise that our greatest strength is our people – we’re a service-based business and our future success depends on the experience we deliver to our customers. So it’s really important to have highly engaged and motivated teams, and that we create an environment where each individual is able to perform at their best and whose contribution is truly valued. Our Best Companies achievement recognises the progress we’re making and demonstrates how we are living our values and taking feedback on board.”
TriConnex support Edith Borthwick school’s Jubilee Picnic
We continue to strive to give something back to our local communities, and we are pleased to have developed a strong relationship with Edith Borthwick school, by supporting a variety of events and improvement projects.
Edith Borthwick, a special day school for students with severe and complex learning difficulties, organised a summer picnic in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The sponsorship they received from us has helped them to plan and run this well-organised event with lots of activities for the children to enjoy.
With over 250 guests attending, the picnic was a huge success and enabled both families and students to come together and enjoy a relaxed afternoon of amusement, therapeutic bubbles, and refreshments.
Vicky Faulks, Chairperson of the Friends of Edith Borthwick, commented “We were able to create a magical and relaxed atmosphere for everyone. Thank you so very much for the sponsorship and ongoing support, it genuinely makes a difference!”
The Home Heating Energy Transition has begun
In the 2019 Spring Statement Philip Hammond, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a new Future Homes Standard (FHS). And now, a little over three years later, we’re at the first milestone in the journey to full FHS implementation in 2025.
The Future Homes Standard will feed into new Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) building regulations. For housebuilders, it’s a game-changer.
To meet the required 75%-80% reduction in emissions required by the FHS, gas boilers will no longer be an option to heat homes and provide hot water. So after more than 60 years of gas being the home-heating method of choice for housebuilders, what’s next?
It’s taken a while to understand exactly how the Future Homes Standard will drive change, and even now it’s not entirely clear. However, we know enough. Enough to recognise that alternative heating methods are needed from 2025 and beyond; initially heat pumps and maybe heat networks for appropriate schemes.
Right now, we see that developers are refining their approaches. Deliver the 31% emissions reduction as required by the FHS transitional process (2022 to 2025) by including efficiency-orientated fabric improvements and PV alongside a gas boiler, or step straight to heat pumps?
As a utility connections provider to most large housebuilders in the UK, we know that more and more housebuilders are planning future developments without gas. And a new challenge has also emerged – the need to secure greater electrical load capacities from increasingly constrained local electric networks as new approaches to heating homes are introduced. This makes early planning and choosing partners who are highly experienced in dealing with DNOs and grid connections an essential step for any developer to take.
Linking back to the first milestone in the FHS journey that I referred to earlier. For developments to be able to be built under the current 2013 building regulations, building notices and plans need to have been submitted this month, otherwise the transitional (31% reduction) requirements referred to above will apply.
The energy transition of home heating is now very much underway.
Author: David Topping, TriConnex Managing Director
Showhouse Magazine Broadband Special - Featuring TriConnex
This month’s Showhouse magazine features a Broadband Special and TriConnex Director Chris Doré discusses (on p43) the expectations, customer satisfaction and ‘day one’ connection considerations that are so vital in delivering this essential utility.
Check out the full article here
TriConnex Business Development Team get caked in mud for our community
Last week the Business Development Team here at TriConnex spent a muddy day volunteering at a local Play & Resource centre. The charity provides recreation facilities and respite care for children and young adults.
The team got together and spent a day in the charity’s outdoor area, helping to improve their garden facility by tidying it up, planting flowers, jet washing the paving slabs and making it look refreshed.
After enjoying the first volunteering session so much, they decided to return to the charity for a second day, helping to paint their main indoor space.
Tom Barker, Business Development Manager commented “What a fantastic muddy day it was! Well done to everyone involved, I know we all really enjoyed it.”
Commercial Team Volunteer at Local Nature Reserve
As part of our volunteering scheme, employees can take up to 5 working days paid per year, to dedicate their time to support a charity, institution, or community group, by volunteering their time.
Six Members of our Commercial team recently completed a full day volunteering at Marshall Park in Braintree, Essex, helping members of the council to tidy up the nature reserve.
The volunteering project was arranged through Braintree District Council, but the volunteering is collated and organised by ‘The Friends of Hoppit Mead LNR’, a charitable organisation.
The team was collecting litter from around the nature reserve as well as destroying weeds and taking part in the organisation’s annual ‘Balsam Bashing’.
‘Balsam Bashing’ is the process of destroying the Balsam weeds that grow along the riverbank. The team had to pull the Balsam out from the ground and stamp on the roots. These plants can grow up to 6ft tall and are a threat to other plants, as well as damaging habitats along banks and riversides. Our group removed huge amounts of the plant from the riverbank, so it was a successful day.
Well done to Anna Pringle, Millie Bauckham, Jess Pooley, Ellie Ivey, Josh Aylward and Ricky Clark for volunteering your time and helping the local community with this project.