NEWS ROUNDUP
In December 2025, the government announced in the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus that it will publish a new strategy for the built environment professions, trades and occupations in 2027. This will support the government’s vision for a building system where buildings are safe, high-performing, and sustainable. The aim is to provide an environment where companies and individuals are enabled to thrive by allowing them to operate in the interests of current and future building users and the building system is trusted. This call for evidence is a route to gathering the information needed to inform this strategy. Responses have been encouraged from those involved across the whole building lifecycle on subjects including: Pre-design, design and specification, construction, occupation and maintenance and cross-cutting issues, themes and challenges.
At the recent NXT BLD conference, held on 14 May, founding partners NXT BLD and Bentley Systems launched NXT Activate, a developer-focused accelerator for early-stage companies building transformative software for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors. The accelerator aims to back startups that are creating applications to solve the industry’s most critical challenges by breaking down data silos and unlocking more efficient workflows from design through operation.
Bentley Systems has announced that ProjectWise, its connected data environment for infrastructure project delivery and OpenGround, its geotechnical information management and reporting software, have achieved FedRAMP authorisation at the moderate impact level. FedRAMP, which stands for federal risk and authorisation management programme, is a US Government initiative that accelerates the adoption and use of secure cloud-based services by the federal government. Bentley achieving FedRAMP authorisation enables federal agencies and their ecosystem partners to adopt its secure, compliant cloud-based products to strengthen data-centric workflows for infrastructure programs, from transportation and water systems to defence and environmental programmes.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has successfully reached a deal with EDF and other investors to construct and operate the Sizewell C nuclear power plant. Sizewell C is projected to have a baseline cost estimate of £38.2bn, with construction being completed by summer 2039. Upon its completion, it could power the equivalent of six million UK homes for 60 years. However, to help fund construction, electricity bills for the typical household could rise up to £19 a year by the time it opens in 2039. Once construction has been completed, DESNZ’s modelling predicts that the net benefits for consumers could be up to £18bn, primarily delivered through energy bill savings and reduced electricity costs although, as a large infrastructure project, DESNZ’s modelling of these benefits shows they will not outweigh the costs to consumers until after 2060.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, in partnership with Ordnance Survey and the Lancashire Local Resilience Forum, has created a 3D model of Blackpool Pleasure Beach to support safer, more effective emergency planning response. The amusement park, dating to 1896, contains 125 rides and attractions and attracts over five million visitors a year.
With traditional 2D plans struggling to represent the height, depth and complex access routes of such a dense and vertical site, OS consultants shared their expertise in UAS operations to upskill LFRS and help them maximise their UAS capability in 3D mapping.
LFRS was then able to capture high overlap aerial imagery of Blackpool Pleasure Beach using its drones and process it into a high-resolution 3D mesh model of the entire site. This detailed reconstruction accurately reflected the park’s varied structures, heights and confined spaces.