tilities or Underground Assets or Services are known more simply as Gas, Electricity, Water, Drainage and Sewerage. Early attention to these assets needs to be taken in any building project as these come into play in some way or another. This is true even if it is as simple a task as turning them off while work is being done and then turning them back on. Important information for the architect , planner and contractor to know as early as possible is what utilities are present. What they will need to establish is not only where any pipes and or cables are and run but also their size and position / depth. Very often acquiring accurate information, particularly on drainage runs and the depths and inverts of drains, will require a topographical survey. This information is vital when drawings are being prepared so that any planning application to help to prove that drains will run and meet Building Control approvals.

Information will also need to be found about where many of these services are found in the street adjoining the property and this can be done via a streetworks search to each utility provider for the area. Even when all this information has been obtained it is vital that the conditions governing the easements in which the utilities are laid are established and understood, ideally making contact with the utility provide as early as possible. This can even be the case if the work taking place near to an asset is as simple installing some fencing.

A mistake when dealing with Underground Assets such as Electricity or Gas could prove fatal. Equally, interrupting an electricity supply by digging through a main cable using a JCB could not only prove fatal but might lead to a massive insurance claim for consequential losses from third parties in addition to the added costs to the project itself. Other considerations involving utilities may include making arrangements to maintain supplies if other parts of the property are being used regularly or making alternative arrangements such as a generator for electricity for the duration of the project. In any and every event, the key thing is to have as much information as possible to hand BEFORE any work takes place and that when the project is about to start, to make sure that the Contractors Dial before they dig.

It has been a delight and blessing for Church Growth Trust to partner with our sister organisations in the planning, preparation and involvement at the recent Living the Passion conference held in October in Daventry. The theme Together IN Christ, Together WITH Christ, and Together FOR Christ, was a perfectly suited and God ordained theme throughout the packed weekend. Times of Bible teaching, fellowship, and seminars filled the weekend so that everyone could gather safely and enjoy time together.

A recent comment from a delegate said “The teaching by Derek Burnside was excellent very simple, but profound and very easy to understand. It was useful to have some background information to the different agencies who were involved in the conference”.

We were able to share the vision and mission of Church Growth Trust with all the delegates and had some helpful conversations at our exhibition stand throughout the weekend.

We want to share some of the highlights from the weekend in the clip below.

At Church Growth Trust we are always keen to see our church properties improved, so that they are more attractive, welcoming, accessible for all and making best use of the space available.  We have been talking for a number of years to Potters House Church Southend, who occupy Coleman Street Chapel in Southend-on-Sea, about ways of improving the building to achieve all of these things.  We have now agreed the details of the work, obtained planning permission and sourced the funding, and the project is almost complete.  This will provide a permanently ramped access and a better positioned accessible WC, as well as new entrance door (glazed to make it more welcoming, modern and attractive) and a larger reception/welcome area, with direct access to the main worship area, accessible WC and balcony. 

Previously there was an external access to the balcony and a large internal staircase that was taking up space in the worship area.  The kitchen and rear meeting room have also been improved, so that the Chapel is much more suitable for the church’s use. 

As the Pastor Steve Gabriel says, “we as a church are so blessed to have Church Growth Trust helping us with these major improvements to the property, which not only helps us to comply with legislation, but also makes the building much more flexible, attractive for people to come in and provides more space for us as we grow over the next few years”. 

There are many “T”s in a building project. Thanking God for His blessing and provision of a building and the finance is always a good place to start!  Talking to your residential neighbours would be the next key action to take. It is crucial to commend the gospel in the way the work is implemented and this means Telling our neighbours exactly what is happening. Hopefully this will have been done already at the planning phase.

During the building phase agreeing, for example, the Time for the work to start on site each day and how much time is spent on site on a Saturday will be vital to avoid discontent and possible complaints to the Local Authority. Providing a point of contact within the church will be a great kindness and help to head off any potential issues that might arise. There is a vital need to live as a good neighbour during the project because the building work will finish and you will still be neighbours!

The Training of all key staff used by the contractor / builder is another area to consider. It is important that the church’s project manager has sight before the project begins of all the relevant training and qualifications of the staff being used on the project. The purpose of this is to ensure that people are doing what they are trained to do which limits the potential for accidents and also ensures that insurance covers in place are not invalidated.

Tea time will be important to the contractor and his staff – there needs to be an exclusive and safe space allocated for the workers to take lunches and comfort breaks away from the working area. The space will also need a fresh water supply.

Traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, loading and parking is another key consideration to ensure that both pedestrians and other road users are not unduly inconvenienced or put in harm’s way by the works. This will mean careful risk assessing of transport and traffic including a safe system of working where perhaps deliveries are made outside the rush hours and children going to school. Equally, there will need to be complete separation of pedestrian traffic so that there is NO possibility of people straying onto the work site.

The Fellowship Property Trust, which is the trusteeship services of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, has made the decision to close and written to all the churches for which they act as trustee.  Many are setting up Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) to hold their own trusteeship, but some are not doing so and are being directed to Church Growth Trust (CGT).  We are delighted to work with these churches.  It is however a major task taking on so many trusteeships at the same time (Giles Arnold, CGT’s Chief Executive, has reviewed the deeds for 48 churches and met in person or on Zoom over 30 of these over the last six months!). 

There have already been a number that have asked to use CGT’s services.  Seven churches have so far decided to gift their properties to Church Growth Trust and these included Hey Street Evangelical Church in Cleethorpes, where the church had decided to close and the property has now been relet to a new church.  Two churches have asked CGT to become sole managing trustee of their property.  These include East Dean Free Church near Chichester, where the congregation is small, but determined to continue with their Gospel work in reaching their village and the local area. 

Two churches have asked CGT to take on a custodian trustee role and 11 have asked for us to become their holding trustee (with at least 17 more yet to decide).  These range from congregations that are small in number and mostly elderly often in villages, such as Burnopfield near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Alfold near Cranleigh, to larger churches in cities like Nottingham and Liverpool. 

“Every church is different” says Giles Arnold, “and unfortunately there is no such thing as a standard set of deeds!  So, every trusteeship situation has to be looked at individually and the options available to each church are discussed, so the best solution for each one can be agreed and then put in place.  If variety is the spice of life, I am certainly living it up!” 

If you are interested in Church Growth Trust’s trusteeship services, please get in touch with us on enquiries@churchgrowth.org.uk or 01536 201339, or look at our booklet on trusteeship services. 

Hebron Church in Stockton-on-Tees have not only been successful in reaching their community, by evangelism and mercy ministries (they run a foodbank from their property), but also have strived to keep their building in good condition.   

When Church Growth Trust were recently gifted the property, we carried out a survey to report on repairs that are required and compliance issues that need to be dealt with.  One of the major points of discussion was the roof, which was showing signs of nail sickness.  As it was the original roof and therefore over 120 years old, the church needed to consider that it should be replaced within the next few years.  They therefore raised the funds, partly through grant-funding, to completely re-roof the main parts of the building.   

There were a number of other matters that were pointed out in the survey that were connected with the main roof, including work on the gable end walls, flashing, capping stones and removal of a redundant chimney, and work that was required to the flat roof.  These have all been included in the re-roofing work, which has been carried out successfully by a local contractor.  The church worked well with the contractor, who showed a great deal of flexibility, and they managed to keep on good terms with all the neighbours (important for their local witness).

The church also tried some innovative methods, including using concrete tiles with feathered edges to give them the appearance of natural slate.  It is hoped that the new roof will last as long as the old one and will not need to be replaced this century!

afe and secure storage of materials and equipment is a key matter of any building project and a mark of a good and competent contractor. It must be said too that this is true not only on a building project but also in the use of the new property.

As has been seen in previous articles the contractor is normally “in debt” through the life of a project. Whilst a large part of this will be wages for workers and sub-contractors, the remainder will be for materials and equipment. If building materials or equipment are damaged when they are stored on site or lost / stolen this represents an actual loss to the builder and a potentially significant increased cost to the client. This increased cost takes the form of time delays whilst the lost items are replaced and the project is stopped. Today this is much more likely with the shortage of certain building materials.

Coupled to this are the increasing costs from the suppliers that arise because of the shortage. The contrast is that safe and tidy storage of materials and equipment on site contributes in large measure to both their being kept in good condition and also to their not hurting anyone. Often the hasty and clumsy storage of items can lead to these falling over or dropping, leading to their being damaged and worse, hurting someone as they fall. Interestingly this also applies to church materials and equipment when the building is finished and re-occupied.

Most readers will have seen at some point hazardous stacks of chairs in a church building that are too high, too heavy and often unbalanced. Churches normally keep too much stuff in too few cupboards and on too few shelves. Cupboards will spring open as soon as the latch is turned due to the weight of materials pressing against the door. When you meet these situations, do not walk by. Take action, even if you are a visitor to that church. Tell someone and if possible help them to take some action to address the unsafe issue there and then, if perhaps only in part with a warning notice. Safe and secure storage of all materials and equipment will go a long way to minimising the risk that anyone is hurt and that in the case of a building project, it can move forward smoothly, safely and as planned to its completion.

ecommended considerations in a building project include the following:

Retention is a mechanism in the contract by which a client is legally able to protect itself at the end of project for faulty workmanship. The retention is normally a percentage of the total contract price and is retained for an agreed period – typically six or twelve six months – after which time it is paid out to the builder upon the satisfactory rectification of any building defects which have arisen during this period.

Building Insurance – Most buildings carry building insurance but insurers need to be notified in advance of the start of a building project to be sure they are on notice. This lets them make any changes to the cover or any actions on site that they require for the cover to remain valid and effective. For example, if hot working is taking place and a fire starts as a result causing damage to the property,  it can be seen that if the insurer was unaware of the building project this could cause a problem with the policy and any claim

Liquidated damages – these are damages that can arise on the project and impact the client immediately and financially. It would be normal for the client to specify the level of Liquidated Damages to cover the impact of the project running beyond the agreed contract period so that the building is unavailable for use or that no rent is payable. The sum covered will need to be agreed with the builder before the contract is signed.

Advance payment – in order to begin work on site the builder will need to buy building materials and potentially hire equipment. In some circumstances the builder may asked to be paid an advanced sum to cover this, but the amount needs to be considered in the light of both the value of the contract as a whole and the build time. Certain written Building Contracts will have a provision for dealing with advanced payments if required. Normally the remaining contract sums will be paid in arrears on submission of monthly valuations based upon works completed on-site which will include carrying forward an element of retention, as described earlier. The key to the advance payment and any subsequent payments is trust. The client must be completely RELIABLE in the paying of invoices promptly when they are submitted and approved. Delay can be very serious for a builder and the longer the delay for the larger amount of money could imperil both the viability of the builder, the project and the client / builder working relationship.

uality contractors are hard to find and even harder to hire since they are likely to be in high demand. Project teams can almost become quixotic about this and lose touch with reality. However, the speed at which building costs can rise will be one quandary that a client will be in as they decide if they can afford to wait for the “right” builder.

If a project team decide that they want to delay for a specific contractor then they need to consider other impacts that can arise. For example, keeping neighbours informed as to when building work is and is not going to start and how long it is going to take can become questionable. It carries with it a reputational risk, both for the church and for the gospel.

Another issue to consider, and which is current, can be that an architect may have specified or the planners require the use of particular building materials / finishes which today may be in good supply but at the moment that the contractor becomes available are in short supply. This will lead not only to increasing the materials price but also increasing the overall cost of the project through additional unforeseen delay as it waits for the product to become available.

Another aspect of a building project to watch quite closely is the delay between securing a planning permission and starting the project itself. This can be overlooked as the tasks of raising enough finance for a project, keeping up with rising prices and agreeing a contract with the quality builder then satisfying the pre-conditions of the permission can, in some cases, mean that the planning permission expires and has to be re-applied for before the project can start. The best way to avoid this potential quagmire is for clients to be quick-witted, once permission has been secured, to determine what quotient of time is available to satisfy all pre-construction matters and to appoint a Quality contractor.