NEWSBRIEF

3i leads pipeline firm buy-out

Derby-based contractor McLoughlin Pipelines (MLP) has been acquired in an institutional buy-out led by venture capital specialist 3i. MLP specialises in installing pipelines for water and gas companies in the UK and Ireland. Included in the buy-out was MLP's sister company Eric Johnson Stubbs, which is also a pipeline contractor. The two companies have a combined turnover of £20 million and employ 250 people.

engineers seek higher status

A poll of 4,500 members of the Engineering Council, the body which oversees the 37 engineering institutions, has come out strongly in favour of a national campaign to promote UK engineering as a stimulating career. The survey also revealed that nearly two thirds of the respondees wanted to use the prefix title of Engineer before their name, in the same way as Doctor is used by medical practitioners. Just over half of respondees called for a certification system to be adopted to vet engineers engaged in certain specified areas of work.

BLUE FLAGS FOR BROWN FIELDS

The National Housing Federation is calling on Government to give former contaminated sites a quality seal of approval before they are built on. The federation claims that a "blue flag" scheme is "essential if purchasers and residents are to have confidence that formerly contaminated land has been cleared-up properly".

SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INITIATIVE

The Scottish House Builders Association has launched a new service that is said to guarantee mortgages to house buyers. The service is available to SHBA members and is being handled by HIFAL - an independent company within the banking and mortgage giant Halifax. The scheme is intended to make purchasing a new home faster and tempt buyers away from the second-hand housing market. The House Builders Federation, which represents firms in England and Wales, said it was not intending to follow suit because "most of our members have links with the major lenders."

REFORM PLANS FOR RICS

Radical plans to reform the 130-year-old Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have been given the go-ahead by the institution's ruling general council. A call to rethink the structure and purpose of the RICS and how these can be adapted to meet the needs of its 100,000 members was made by president Richard Lay, a couple of months ago. General Council has now endorsed Lay's call and has earmarked £100,000 to pay for the work of eight task forces - each will look into a specific area. These topics are: education, research, national and local organisations, merging with the Incorporated Association of Valuers and Auctioneers, promotion, residential agency, and international matters.

PILING instrumentation system tested

May Gurney is trialling a new instrumentation system for monitoring the installation of continuous flight augured piles. The system, the PL2000, has been fitted to the cab of one of May Gurney's piling rigs and monitors all the auguring parameters such as depth and drilling rate as well as details like concrete supply rate. From the information gathered, it should be possible to highlight defective piles. The equipment also has a wireless datalink which can receive data such as pile schedules and layout drawings.