Claritas was delighted to help Bricks Capital as developer/investor and True Student as operator when their incumbent contractor went into administration before the completion of this important scheme.   Adopting a Construction Management approach, Claritas was able to quickly deploy a team to complete the project keeping the original delivery team, consultants and subcontractors in place.

Jon Wardle, Claritas CEO commented, “The CM route really can be a ‘life saver’ for projects in distress, on this occasion it provided the ability to continue with existing consultants and trade contractors which was critical to achieving cost and time efficiencies whilst maintaining risk transfer”.

Martin Phillips, who has been the PM for Morfa Road since the project commenced said “I worked on the scheme for two years prior to Claritas coming on board.  Morfa Road was challenging for many reasons but is has given me great satisfaction to be retained as part of the delivery team and see the successful outcome and it is a project I am personally very proud of”.

The final scheme sees the delivery of  706 rooms across two types of apartments and suites in this five and six storey development. Each block provides an area of communal living including a coffee shop, gym, study area and cinema room.  MMC elements included fully fitted out bathroom pods and all rooms and communal areas were fitted out to Cat B including full FF&E.

This excellent drone footage provided by @fotohaus really demonstrates the scale of the scheme, the high quality finishes and a real insight to ‘student life’ at Morfa Road. 

We are also delighted that Martin Phillips has stayed on with Claritas post completion and joins the business in the capacity of Planner bringing a wealth of expertise to all Claritas projects during the preconstruction and delivery stages.

Despite the awful weather, the Claritas team was delighted to welcome Medway Development Company to the site to mark the occasion of topping out at Chatham Waterfront. 
 
We are delivering 197 new homes on the Waterfront in the historic town of Chatham, including 1,142m2 of commercial space and extensive public realm areas for music, art and events as part of Medway Council’s regeneration masterplan.
 
Jon Wardle, CEO commented “This is a significant milestone for this project and the collective team, It has been great to see the project progress from concept to site and delivering through a Construction Management contract has enabled more flexibility to navigate the challenges facing the industry at this time as we head towards a successful outcome for all involved”.
 
The Waterfront development is being delivered in conjunction with a further 115 homes at Garrison Point which is nearing completion and occupation. 

Our project at The Mall Ealing is beginning to make its stamp on the Broadway skyline! Working with our innovations partner Intrastack, the 9 storey co-living development being constructed for Urbane London is demonstrating the efficiencies in speed and logistics of this specialist off-site system.

Paul Owen, Claritas Project Manager said, “You couldn’t find a tighter site accessed via a 4.5m gap and flanked on all four sides by occupied buildings and a mainline station. The system has been delivered with ease and we can stack the wall panels for the entire building within the limited space we have. Delivered floor by floor the external panels are craned into position after each concrete pour and the frame is flying up”.

Andy Higson, Business Director at Instrastack commented, “The innovation partnership between Claritas and Intrastack is about finding the best-fit solutions for the client, and the construction project. Through working closely with the Claritas team from early-design stage, we have collaborated, and developed the right solution to address the many challenges of the site and optimised the design to fully-realise the many benefits of this lightweight-construction solution”

The scheme is also up for Best Practice recognition by the Claritas Safety Health and Environment committee. A site that is so tight would struggle to be as tidy with traditional materials, and it would be logistically challenging to deliver and store them. The system contributes to less carbon emissions through fewer materials deliveries and less waste to remove, in turn increasing health and safety.

Photo Credits Diane Aukland / Fotohaus

It was great to come together on Friday for a company-wide briefing held at the Institute of Structural Engineers, followed by Christmas drinks.

The afternoon had a strong focus on health and safety and it was great to hear site managers share experiences and debate important issues.

Jon Wardle, CEO was also delighted to announce that Claritas has achieved continued accreditation across the quality, environmental, health and safety ISO standards. The auditors had commented in their closing meeting that “members of the Claritas team were very passionate about the business and all confirmed the same ethos independently.”

The key message for the future continues in the vein of our overarching objective and culture, “to help transform our industry, breaking free of traditional transactional relationships to create something that works better for everyone”.

Jon commented “There is no denying that there are challenging times ahead across the entire industry, but by pulling together as a team we will succeed.”

Our current project at Aytoun Road, Stockwell involves constructing 33 shared ownership apartments for Network Homes.

Part of our added value delivery for Network Homes has seen Claritas working in collaboration with Network, Lambeth Council and the Construction Youth Trust. Throughout August and September, we supported the Lambeth Made Construction programme through various activities both on and off site, which focused on supporting young people in Lambeth who are classified as NEET with work experience and other employability skills.

Activities included helping the CYT to launch the programme and speaking with the young people about opportunities in construction as well as some work experience activities and visits to site. This included conducting interviews for four of the young people with our MEP partner London MEP, which resulted in one of the participants, Jacob being offered and accepting a four year electrical apprenticeship.

Jo Davis, Customer Relationship Manager at Claritas and our EST & Social Value champion commented “I am grateful to my colleagues that have volunteered their time to support the Lambeth Made Construction programme and to LMEP, it is so pleasing to see this successful outcome. We all wish Jacob the very best as he embarks on apprenticeship.”

We are delighted to announce the promotion of Marc Klus, previously Claritas’ Estimating Manger to the role of Preconstruction Director.

Marc has been an instrumental leader within the preconstruction team since joining Claritas in 2020. With a background in Estimating that spans 15 years Marc has worked across multiple sectors and brings a wealth of experience to the team.
Marc said “its important to ensure we ensure the highest levels of attention to detail during the precon stages giving our customers the confidence of a realistic price and programme and delivery for their project from the outset”.

Jon Wardle, CEO commented “I am pleased to welcome Marc to the Senior Leadership team, his commitment to developing robust relationships with customers and supply chain is conducive to the transparent and positive culture of Claritas and his attention to detail will ensure that we develop our delivery strategy from day one”.

A Swansea Uni Maths and Sports Science Graduate, Marc is a keen Rugby man and enjoys spending time with his wife and young family outside of work with high hopes that both his twin daughters and young son will one day be in the England First 11 !

Claritas is delighted to have secured a place on the Notting Hill Genesis Framework, to work alongside Notting Hill Genesis in the delivery of £2.8bn worth of new homes for London.

This is a significant achievement for Claritas being selected through a rigorous selection process with emphasis on quality and equality and diversity.

The Notting Hill Genesis framework is highly regarded and open to other registered housing providers operating in and around London.

Matt Cova, Claritas Group Managing Director commented “this will provide superb opportunities for Claritas to collaboratively work with Notting Hill Genesis to deliver their ambition of building new homes their residents will love. Our teams will work hard to integrate within the communities and create a positive experience and legacy post completion”.

The aim of the framework is to support NHG in the delivery of high quality homes in vibrant successful places with a focus on creating thriving communities.

Delivering social value for our customers and our stakeholders is of great importance to us and we were really pleased to provide a significant contribution in the provision of a new cupboard at The Arc Community Centre, Islington in partnership with the Hyde Group. Claritas sourced and funded the project with DGP Logistics despatching the manpower to complete the work. The cupboard was required as a valuable asset to the community food bank which operates from the centre.

Damien from The Arc said “The work that you guys have done is absolutely vital to the smooth running of the centre.  The cupboards also mean that everything can be safely stashed away and out of sight enabling us to use the room for more community activities and hire the space to generate essential income as well as reducing wastage through lack of suitable storage”.

Claritas continue to work with the Hyde Group and the Hyde Foundation through our involvement with the Hyde Main Contractors framework and, as we deliver 126 new homes for them in Stafford Road Croydon. So far we have created two job vacancies, and we have set targets for local spend as well as training and learning opportunities for a variety of groups within the community. The whole team at Claritas is keen to contribute and colleagues from across the company have pledged volunteering hours to work across a range of community projects.