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n Social housing protest

The general secretary of UCATT, George Brumwell, and Labour housing spokesman John Battle were among those launching a petition last week against cuts in the social housing building programme.

Co-ordinated by Building Industry Link Up, the campaign aims to involve building workers as well as politicians and representatives from housing charities.



n Waterman subsidiary

Engineering consultant Waterman International has established a German subsidiary based in Berlin. Its work in Germany over the past two and a half years has involved both refurbishment and new-build projects.



n Merivale sells Blyth

Commercial development company Merivale Moore has disposed of its Norfolk-based contracting company TH Blyth which it bought in 1988.

TH Blyth, which has a œ1 million turnover, was bought back by its own management for an undisclosed sum after Merivale decided to concentrate more on its commercial property interests.



n Roofing president

Sir Colin Corness, chairman of Redland, has been elected president of the Institute of Roofing. He succeeds Sir Owen Aisher, founder of Marley. Sir Colin was md at Redland from 1967 to 1982.



n Steel research

More than œ20 million of construction-related research funding has been approved by the European Coal and Steel Community consultative committee.

Among the projects being funded is research into steel components for housing, and design rules for composite steel and concrete bridges for high speed railways.