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DECEMBER 2016 PRO INSTALLER

www . proinstaller . co . uk

Tamsin Tweddell , a senior partner at London-based building services engineers Max Fordham , has been crowned ‘ Woman of the Year ’ at the Building Awards .

The prize acknowledges and rewards stand-out achievement by a woman in the construction industry , in an effort to highlight positive role models to enhance the sector ’ s appeal for other women . “ It makes me proud to work for a practice where nearly a quarter of the engineers are women ,” Tamsin enthused . “ Engineering has , for too long , been seen as an industry only for men .” She hopes that this award will help promote the role of women in the industry . “ Diversity is essential if we are to find new ways of thinking about the problems we will face in years to come .” Tamsin was recently elevated to senior partner at Max Fordham , the first woman to do so at the practice , having joined in 2000 . She is the sustainability team leader at Max Fordham – which also has offices in Cambridge , Edinburgh , Manchester and Bristol - and specialises in building performance . She has an impressive portfolio of project work , most recently leading the sustainability programme for the development of Keynsham Civic Centre in its ambition to achieve an in-use ‘ DEC A ’ rating . Tamsin also serves as chair of the Diversity Working Group at Max Fordham , helping to extend the appeal of engineering beyond the gender imbalance to other groups that have also traditionally found the industry difficult to engage with .

The annual Building Awards were held in November at Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane , London .

www . maxfordham . com

The Federation of Master Builders ( FMB ) supported Labour ’ s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell when he highlighted access to finance problems faced by small and medium-size enterprises ( SMEs ). The FMB said he would do well to apply his more interventionist approach to house building finance . Brian Berry , chief executive of the FMB , said : “ The Shadow Chancellor was correct in identifying the difficulty SMEs have in accessing finance as a key barrier to growth . In few industries is this more true than in housebuilding . Despite some improvements in recent years , too many SME house builders struggle to secure finance on affordable terms . If these firms can ’ t borrow , they can ’ t build . Mc-

Donnell has spoken about funding investment in infrastructure , and it ’ s vital that housing is not excluded from such plans .” He concluded : “ Businesses are often understandably sceptical of government intervention , but this is one area where it would almost certainly be welcomed . Mr McDonnell could do worse than to revisit some innovative ideas in this area , such as the Help to Build policy of guarantees on private loans to SME house builders , which were endorsed by the Lyons Review and made it into the last Labour manifesto . “ The idea of well-funded regional development banks could also have a real part to play in an improved financial offer to the SME house building sector .”

www . fmb . org . uk