NEWSBRIEF

SHEFFIELD SET TO AXE 77 JOBS

Sheffield City Council is poised to axe 55 staff from its construction and building services department, together with a further 22 employees in the highway and lighting services. The job losses are a result of shortfall in the workload of the two departments of around £3.5 million and £1.6 million respectively.

BANS FOR TWO DIRECTORS

Two directors of HMC Construction (Services) of Manchester, which collapsed with debts of £326,000 in October 1996, have been disqualified from being company directors. Francis Joseph Garvey of Stretford, Manchester and Trevor Green of Sunnyhank, Bury were banned for five and six years respectively for allowing HMC to trade "at the risk of creditors" and for "causing or allowing the company to make payments to themselves to the detriment of creditors".

PROPOSED TAX COULD COST 20,000 JOBS

Building material producers are facing a £200 million tax bill that could lead to as many as 20,000 losing their jobs over the next 10 years, if the Government goes ahead with its Climate Change Levy proposals to make polluters pay for greenhouse gas emissions. The warning came from Building Material Producers' president Peter Johnson who said: "The proposed tax is seriously ill conceived. So little did Government understand about industry that it assumed in its proposals that a 50 per cent discount would ensure that the competitiveness of intensive energy users would not be harmed. Not one of these sectors is suggesting that this can be achieved at a rebate level of less than 90 per cent."

ENGLISH HERITAGE SAYS FRENCH STONE IS OK

Architect Foster and Partners has been thrown a lifeline over its selection of French limestone instead of Portland stone for the Great Court project at the British Museum. Last week, English Heritage announced that the French stone was acceptable. The decision follows concerns that were raised over the appropriateness of using the material on the museum, which is clad in Portland stone, and its durability.

WORKLOAD BOOST FOR FMB MEMBERS

The Federation of Master Builders has reported an increase in workload by its members for the third quarter of 1999, compared with the previous quarter. The number of firms reporting a higher workload rose by 9 per cent (to 38 per cent) while the number recording a lower workload dropped by 6 per cent (to 24 per cent). Sectors showing the most promise were private commercial and private industrial, for both new build and refurbishment, together with repair, maintenance and improvement to private and social housing. However FMB reports that the private and social housing new build sectors were disappointing.

Electrician ballot result due today

The result of the electrical contracting pay ballot is due today (27 October). Electrician members of the AEEU have been voting on an employer offer of a 2-year deal. Votes were being counted on Tuesday. The offer is generally reckoned to be worth about 5-6 per cent on average in each of the two years. But consolidation of travel allowances has produced headline increases of up to 30 per cent over two years in some basic rates.

Tarmac in £6m acquisition of Moffats

Tarmac has bought the family firm of Moffatts (Drumquin) for £6 million. Moffatts operates in the west of Northern Ireland, producing over 500,000m tonnes of aggregates a year from quarries at Dunaree and Carn.