At present fixing anchors cast into concrete consist of a screw threaded element attached to reinforcing rods within the concrete element, into which a threaded bar or other connecting element can be secured. The threaded bar is used to connect one concrete element to another. It is now essential that it such connections are going to fail, due to an earthquake or other building disturbance, that the connection elements fail in a ductile manner to avoid failure of the surrounding concrete in a non-ductile manner. Currently available fixing anchors do not provide reliable ductile failure.