Our Director of Estimating, comments in ‘Diggin Deep for the Environment’ feature in Housebuilder

Our Director of Estimating, Anthony Davis features in the ‘Diggin Deep for the Environment’ piece in this month’s Housebuilder Magazine and commented:

“The Future Homes Standard includes in its simplest form, likely increases in costs for wider foundations and improved floor solutions, as well as how to deliver the increase in excavation and minimise the volume of offsite disposal.

Tamdown has been working with its customers in two fundamental ways to help them meet the Future Homes Standard. Firstly, to identify the technical, material and budget impacts of the various approaches to the FHS. Secondly, to ensure that the significant resources available to Tamdown are used to deliver the increased demand for foundation installations in the transition period, which is allowing customers to stagger their approach to adopting the new technology.”

Read the full article on p50 here


Tamdown Launch HSQE Awareness Programme

For the next 12-months, Tamdown will be running a HSQE Awareness Programme, which will focus on a different initiative each month. The aim of the programme is to raise awareness around each topic, helping to inform and give all our people improved knowledge.

Each month the Site Management Team will be promoting the campaign by delivering briefings on best practice to our site teams, which can then be applied to the workplace, enhancing our working environments.

This collaborative approach will benefit our people and our customers through enhanced communication and engagement across our teams. A positive and pro-active Safety Culture across the business is a key area of focus for all our teams, at all times.

All of our sites are now sharing and communicating our HSQE Awareness Campaign, and our Contracts Managers are leading the programme on our sites.

Photographed Paddy Mohan, Jason Downes and Marcus Jones, Contracts Managers.


Tamdown Sponsor ‘Small Housebuilder of the year’ at Housebuilder Awards 2022

The Housebuilder Awards 2022 returned to the InterContinental London – The O2 on Thursday 10th November.

The Housebuilder Awards celebrates excellence in all aspects of the housebuilding sector, including customer satisfaction, marketing, design, community initiatives, staff development and sustainability.

Tamdown were one of the event sponsors, and members of the team attended the black-tie ceremony, our Managing Director, Rob Kendal proudly presented the ‘Small Housebuilder of the Year’ award to winners ‘Castle Green Homes’.

Congratulations to all of the winners on their achievements and to the finalists.


Apprentice and Trainee Engagement Day

Our Apprentice Groundworkers and Trainee Engineers recently visited our Nexus Park head office to understand more about what is happening in the business and build a network with colleagues and one another.

The day included various talks and meet and greet sessions from different people in our business. Rob Kendal, Managing Director and Barry Maile, Construction Director spent the morning with the apprentices, covering Tamdown’s history, who our major clients are and the sites we operate on. The session gave the group the opportunity to find out more about each other as well as asking questions and looking at recent drone footage of our sites.

The trainee’s and apprentices also met with Anthony Davis, Director of Estimating, Mark Cain, Plant and Procurement Director and Sam De Freitas, Payroll Coordinator. They discussed what the different departments do and got to know more about each person’s role.

Jon Ireland, Director of HSQE, led the afternoon session with a presentation, covering how we report on accidents, our HSQE stats, common risks for a construction worker and how we use this information to create a better safety culture. Jon also spoke about how the behaviours of construction workers can influence safe environments and how it is our priority to ensure at the end of every day, everyone goes home safely.

The day counted towards the apprentices ‘off the job’ learning which provides them with useful knowledge alongside skills gained on-the-job and counts towards their final apprenticeship grade.


Tamdown win ‘Subcontractor Of The Year’ award at House Builders Eastern Winter Ball

We are pleased to share that on Friday 4th November, Tamdown won the ‘Subcontractor Of The Year’ award at the House Builders Eastern Winter Ball.

The annual event this year raised money for The Curve Foundation – a charity who are at the forefront of mental health and provide the resource of mental health nurses to go into schools to support children, young adults and families with mental health issues and learning differences.

A live auction was held with a range of items up for grabs, including ‘a Table of 4 at The Lock restaurant at Twickenham for the England v France rugby match’ donated by Tamdown, and also an ‘Apple iPad’ donated by our sister company TriConnex.

We are pleased to have supported the event and charity and to have taken home the subcontractor award, well done Team Tamdown.


Meet Erika Chinery, Management Accountant at Tamdown

Erika Chinery, Management Accountant for Tamdown, has recently become a fully qualified accountant – a great example of how we are “Building Bright Futures” for our people at Tamdown.

Erika joined the business eleven years ago as a Trainee Purchase Ledger Clerk while undertaking a Business Administration Apprenticeship with us, and upon completion of her course, moved into the role of Purchase Ledger Clerk.

Keen to increase her understanding of finance and accountancy, Erika went on to study all levels of AAT (a professional body for accounting technicians) which then enabled her to move into the role of Assistant Accountant.

But the learning and development didn’t stop there… after completing her AAT exams, she started ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) which led her to move into her current role as Management Accountant, working directly under our Finance Director, and also becoming a line manager.

Erika commented
“I like that my role offers variety – not every day is the same and because I have experienced other roles in finance, I can provide support to the team where required and pass on my knowledge. I also enjoy problem solving and using my knowledge and experience to find better ways of doing tasks.”

Learning and Development is a fundamental part of how Tamdown supports our people and Erika has embraced this to develop and grow with the business – congratulations Erika.


‘Roots for Foundations’ Tree planting – 488 trees planted July-September 2022

Tamdown continues to sponsor the planting of a tree for every foundation we complete on our customer’s sites, we are pleased to announce that we have sponsored a further 488 trees in Q3 (July-September 2022), giving us a total of 1432 trees planted year to date (January-September 2022).

Our partnership with ‘The Future Forest Company’ is helping to grow a whole new forest in the UK – for our sponsored tree this quarter, new Birch trees have been planted in Noddsdale, Largs, Scotland. The exact location can be seen here

We are committed to sustainability and by planting new trees we are helping to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, restore biodiversity and fight climate change.


Tamdown deliver aid to Ukraine border as part of the Plant & Hire Aid Alliance

Around 5 pm last night (17th October 2022) Tamdown Plant & Procurement Director, Mark Cain, arrived in Kosice on the Slovakia/Ukraine border following a two-day journey across 8 countries.

Joining a convoy of 15 vehicles as part of the Plant and Hire Aid Alliance, our van transported blankets and stretchers over to war-torn Ukraine. Many of our staff donated money or blankets to the cause.

Rob Kendal Tamdown MD said “Well done to everyone involved, a fantastic effort and commitment to make a difference.’

Mark commented about the journey: “We all take things for granted in life, ‘stuff’ that we only miss when it’s gone. The volunteers that were at the warehouse offloading our aid were all Ukrainian teenagers… they missed their country and their way of life.

Tamdown has no influence over the war however, our efforts, with support from our parent company Nexus Infrastructure, ensure the thousands of blankets, as well as stretchers, that we transported will make a difference to a large number of affected people. The blankets I am told will be used in underground bunkers.

A huge thank you to all involved.”


‘Roots for Foundations’ Tree planting – 510 trees planted April-June 2022

January this year saw the launch of our ‘Roots for Foundations’ Tree planting campaign, which sponsors the planting of a tree for every foundation that we complete.

We are pleased to share that we have sponsored a further 510 trees in our second quarter (April-June 2022) taking us up to 944 trees planted this year to date (January-June 2022).

Through our partnership with ‘The Future Forest Company’ our trees are helping to grow a new forest in the UK, on the Isle of Mull. Watch this video to find out more about the planting site.

The initiative of planting the right tree in the right location is supported by the variety of species that surround our planted trees. These include Downy Birch, Alder, Hawthorn, Hazel, Sessile Oak, and Willow trees.

At Tamdown we are committed to sustainability and recognise the impact our operations have on the environment. This is just one example of what we are doing to reduce the carbon in our atmosphere.

Decarbonisation and reducing emissions are key to our future, but we must also actively remove CO2 from our atmosphere. Our initiative of planting new trees supports this, making a measurable difference to global CO2 levels.


Tamdown begin to take delivery of new mild hybrid vans

We are pleased to have started taking delivery of our new fleet of vans, each equipped with the latest mild hybrid technology and euro 6 engines. The van’s impressive eco-boost engine produces compact precision power, giving an efficient MPG.

Ford’s Fiesta van was carefully selected after a thorough review of business operations, with a key focus on how our business can reduce our emissions and move to a greener fleet.

The new vehicles are compliant with ultra-low emission zones, and we expect that the vehicles will require less maintenance than our previous diesel fleet, whilst creating less waste and reducing downtime.

With 20 already on the road, our team will be busy coordinating delivery to our site teams over the coming weeks, as we roll out around 100 vans in total.