The Federation met the Finance Minister Nigel Dodds on Monday 1 September 2008 to discuss the state of the construction industry.

The Federation calls for urgent action to start the recovery of the house building sector to stop job losses, support the wider economy and to meet housing need. Click on the title for full details.

The Construction Sector in Poland offers very good opportunites at present. Poland has secured over 25 billion Euro of EU funding to be spent on its infrastructure over the next five years.

The CEF is to gather objective evidence on the effects of the Credit Crunch.

The Federation has played a leading role in the establishment of a new lobby group for the construction industry, the Assembly Construction Group (ACG). At its first meeting MLAs were fully briefed on the difficulty currently faced by the industry.

The Federation has compiled a list of contractors interested in building slurry tanks. 2000 tanks need to be built by the end of the year. This equates to a £100 M investment in only six months. Click the title to view the list.

Minister Michelle Gildernew MP MLA has congratulated the organisers of the seminar, “Give Tanks for £100m.” As a result of this seminar the CEF have compiled a list of builders interested in carrying out the FNMS work.

Recently the Federation met with Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the Trade Unions, the Colleges and the Department of Education and Learning (DEL) to discuss the future of the apprenticeships programme.

The single biggest issue for the housing market is the lack of funding to support new mortgage lending. The Federation welcomes an initiative by the Council of Mortgage Lenders to stimulate market investment in the mortgage market.

We understand that HMRC is now focusing on removing gross payment status from contractors for non compliance under the CIS tax scheme.

Following the introduction of NI Water as a government company, some members have reported delays in obtaining Article 161 agreements, road bond inspections and reductions.

Members of the Construction Employers Federation(CEF)can now avail of free legal advice from the Federation’s legal partner, Carson McDowell.

The latest Calculation for the definition of Prime Cost is now available.

The Federation is in the process of meeting with the four main local Banks to discuss the downturn in activity in the construction industry and in particular the difficulties being experienced by house builders in the current market climate.

On 17 June 2008 the European Parliament decided to keep clean soil within the Waste Framework Directive.

The Federation has written to HMRC in Belfast requesting that blank monthly returns for the CIS Scheme be issued in plenty of time to enable firms to send back the completed return before the industry shuts down for the holiday period.

The Assembly Committee for Employment and Learning has published its First Report on Training for Success (TfS), the Department’s programme for apprenticeships that commenced in September 2007.

The serious downturn in construction activity was debated in the Northern Ireland Assembly on 21 April.

The Federation has joined with Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew, in calling on farmers, builders and suppliers to work together to deliver a £100m investment in slurry tanks within the next six months.

On 30 May 2008 twenty members of the Belfast Builders’ Association ventured into the sewers of the city.

An Energy Performance Certificate indicates how energy efficient a building is and must be accompanied by a list of cost effective improvements.

The Federation recently organised a site visit to Poundbury in West Dorset.

Chris Carvill, Managing Director of the Carvill Group, was elected as the new President of the Federation at the AGM on 21 April 2008.

The current issue of the serious downturn in construction activity was debated in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday 21 April 2008.

The Federation has been engaged in an intense round of lobbying to ensure that the Government’s plans to introduce developer contributions for social and affordable housing do not make house building in Northern Ireland economically unviable.

The CEF Specify Construction Excellence Awards have returned for 2008 and, for the first time, were launched at Stormont Buildings in recognition of the industry’s role in the regeneration of Northern Ireland .

Following the tragic death of a young man, the PSNI are warning employers against fitting seats in their vehicles without seatbelts.

Northern Ireland Water is reminding small businesses and other non-domestic customers that new charges came into operation from April.

To compliment the new CEF corporate identity the Federation launched this new website on Thursday 1 May 2008.

The Federation has been extremely active over the last few months in meetings with Ministers, MLA’s and senior Departmental Officials regarding the proposals to introduce developer contributions for the provision of social and affordable housing.

Members can now avail of half an hour free legal advice over the telephone on most areas of law affecting the construction industry.

CEEQUAL is an assessment and awards scheme for publicly-rewarding high environmental quality of civil engineering projects.

It is now official – the Tax Treatment Qualification Tests (TTQT) applied by HMRC have commenced.

Until 31 March 2007 developers provided a road bond surety through the DRD Bond Surety procedures

On 9 October 2007, the Chancellor announced that the National Insurance concession for centrally managed holiday pay schemes would be withdrawn on 30 October 2007 with the exception of the scheme for the construction industry

Another success for the Federation in the short term is the announcement by the Planning Minister Arlene Foster of the launch of a pilot scheme for streamlining the consultation process between the Planning Service and Derry City Council.

Members should be aware of important proposed changes regarding the provision of social and affordable housing arising from Sir John Semple’s report earlier in 2007