W London, the Soho hotspot, is stepping into spring with the launch of The Intention Stay. Immerse in a 360-experience throughout the hotel, designed to inspire a new sense of self-discovery and rejuvenation featuring products by best-selling Sunday Times author, manifesting expert and self-development coach, Roxie Nafousi.

Launching on 19^th March 2024, Roxie has carefully chosen a selection of her sell-out products for each guest’s Intention Stay including The Mantra Cards, The Manifest Deck and The Journal.

The immersive wellness journey also includes a programme of breathwork sessions led by Jamie Clements, founder of The Breath Space, designed to uplift mood, reduce blood pressure, and enhance relaxation. Jamie will be joined by author and meditation practitioner Ciara McGinely, leading sessions encompassing grounding, visualisation and reflection exercises. 

W London’s Roger Frampton, renowned TED speaker and Mobility Coach, will also lead sessions demonstrating effective stretches and movements for relieving joint pain and enhancing long-term mobility. Together, Ciara, Roger and Jamie will hold classes at the AWAY Spa and offer in-room videos for guests seeking tranquility from the comfort of their room.

Guests can also recharge at the Perception Bar with a limited-edition menu in collaboration with DIRTEA featuring their new Matcha Super Blend. The Intention Stay package is available to book from 1^st March 2024 for stays from 19^th March 2024 and the first five bookings will receive a copy of Roxie Nafousi’s best-selling book ‘MANIFEST: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life’. Prices start from £600.

The SanSwiss product brand has announced a new brand identity and will now be named RONAL. The shower enclosure and tray company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RONAL GROUP, and the new name emphasizes its proximity to its parent company.

Ronal forms the centre of an innovative brand family for the high-quality sanitary and wellness specialist trade. Three further innovative brands – KUDOS, GLASS 1989 and KAROL – complete the overall portfolio of RONAL Bathrooms to form a comprehensive supplier of high-quality products.

The new bathroom and wellness division of RONAL GROUP is headquartered in Härkingen/Gunzgen, Switzerland.

Oliver Brauner, CEO of the RONAL GROUP comments: “The newly named RONAL Bathrooms division for bathrooms and wellness will grow gradually. It complements the main business of RONAL Wheels, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of light alloy wheels for cars and commercial vehicles.”

Olivier Gunther and Sebastian Hainz, Co-managing directors of the newly renamed RONAL Bathrooms AG: “The name change with a new brand identity recognises the growth of the company and also the fact that we have developed a good deal further in the direction of a comprehensive solution provider and reliable partner for the bathroom and wellness sector with the expansion of the brand and product portfolio and the acquisitions of GLASS 1989 (Italy), KAROL Italia (Italy) and KUDOS Group (Great Britain) last year.

“We will continue to grow with RONAL Bathrooms, investing anti-cyclically in the market and, together with our Swiss parent company, communicate a clear and long-term commitment to the sanitary market in our external presentation.”

KUDOS complements additional innovative shower doors, enclosures, walk-ins, wet rooms and trays. The elegant, Italian-made bathtubs and bathroom furniture from the KAROL brand and the special wellness products from the GLASS 1989 brand, also designed and made in Italy, round off the bathing and wellness experience. What all RONAL Bathrooms brands have in common is a passion for innovative technology, perfect craftsmanship, exceptional design and comprehensive service. The promise of quality: Together we create a unique experience for our customers. With the special diversity of its portfolio, RONAL Bathrooms redefines the design possibilities of the modern bathroom. This is communicated by the guiding principle: “The art of modern bathrooms”.

The new brand identity of the RONAL Bathrooms brand family and the first four innovative RONAL Bathrooms compositions will be presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy, 16 April 2024, Hall 06, Stand D25.

About RONAL Bathrooms

RONAL Bathrooms (former SanSwiss) with the brands RONAL, KUDOS, KAROL and GLASS 1989 and almost 500 employees will be the new bathroom and wellness division of the Swiss RONAL GROUP headquartered in Härkingen/Gunzgen, Switzerland, from 1 April 2024. The production sites are located in the Czech Republic, Italy and Romania, Great Britain and South Africa. The sales companies of RONAL Bathrooms with activities in the most important European countries and selected overseas markets are located in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Romania, the UK and South Africa.

The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into eight housebuilders after it found evidence they may be sharing commercially sensitive information that could affect the price of homes.

The Competition Markets Authority (CMA) has released a comprehensive report after a year-long analysis of the housebuilding industry across England, Scotland, and Wales. Notably, the report highlights deficiencies in the current market, including alleged breaches of the Competition Act by eight prominent UK housebuilders.

The CMA uncovered evidence suggesting the potential sharing of information among competing housebuilders, such as sales prices and details of buyer incentives. It said this behaviour “prevented and distorted” competition. It could influence decisions around pricing levels and the rates at which the companies built new homes, impacting new home list prices. While not deemed a primary factor in the under delivery of new homes, the CMA expresses apprehension over its potential to undermine market competition.

Consequently, the CMA has initiated a thorough investigation under the Competition Act 1998 into Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, and Vistry. However, the CMA has yet to draw conclusions regarding any infringement of competition law at this juncture.

Key findings also attribute the persistent underdelivery of new homes to the complex and unpredictable planning system, together with the limitations of speculative private development.

The report highlighted concerns regarding estate management charges, where homeowners often encounter high and ambiguous fees for the upkeep of essential facilities like green spaces, roads and drainage. Quality issues in new housing have also surfaced, with a notable increase in snagging reports over the past decade.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: “Housebuilding in Great Britain needs significant intervention so that enough good quality homes are delivered in the places that people need them. Our report – which follows a year-long study – recommends streamlining the planning system and increasing consumer protections. If implemented, we would expect to see many more homes built each year, helping make homes more affordable. We would also expect to see fewer people paying estate management charges on new estates and the quality of new homes to increase. But even then, further action may be required to deliver the number of homes Great Britain needs in the places it needs them.

“The CMA has also today opened a new investigation into the suspected sharing of commercially sensitive information by housebuilders which could be influencing the build-out of sites and the prices of new homes. While this issue is not one of the main drivers of the problems we’ve highlighted in our report, it is important we tackle anti-competitive behaviour if we find it.”

As the construction industry faces a record skills deficit, with 40% of the industry looking to retire before 2030, the intention of increasing numbers of women to work in the sector has provided shoots of optimism for narrowing the skills deficit.

Recent analysis reveals that more young women are beginning careers in the construction industry than ever before. Despite this growth, there is still considerable work required to enhance diversity within the construction sector. Clive Holland, broadcaster on Fix Radio – the UK’s only national radio station dedicated to tradespeople – sheds light on the rise of women pursuing careers within the construction industry. 
 
According to Morgan Siddall’s report “Are we Gen Z ready?”, 57% of women and girls are deterred from pursuing careers in construction due to their perception of it as male dominated. Supporting this notion, data published by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) indicates that only 12.37% of engineers in the UK are female. The construction sector still falls far behind other industries in terms of gender balance, with only 14.7% of those employed in the industry being women, nearly 33% lower than the UK average.
 
The state of construction apprenticeships:
 
In the last five years, there has been little improvement in apprenticeship uptake within construction since 2018. The latest drop highlights the ongoing struggle of the sector to attract people amidst the skills shortage crisis. Due to a shortage of 225,000 tradespeople in construction and trades in the UK, 83% of construction businesses are currently strained by a lack of skilled workers, according to a survey by Search Consultancy.
 
Clive Holland, broadcaster on Fix Radio, comments on the impact of Britain’s skills deficit:
 
“Data from the Department for Education has revealed that the number of completed apprenticeships in England fell from 12,420 in 2018 to 7,700 in 2022. To put this issue under the microscope, 17,500 people apply for apprenticeships as electricians every year, yet only 2,500 pass their courses annually, while a further 8,000 electricians leave the industry each year.
 
“Our industry is losing record numbers of colleagues, with nowhere near enough new recruits entering the trade.”