Adrian Barrick Freelance
Building
Stories by this contributor.
-
Safety firsts
Health and Safety Awards 2004 Winners
Our inaugural Health and Safety Awards could not have been more timely.
-
Coming of age
Building awards 2004
Now – to paraphrase AA Milne – we are 10.
-
Housebuilders face shock land tax in Budget
2004 issue 10
Whitehall hints that Brown may impose levy on increase in land value triggered by planning permission
-
The McAlpines in court: An exercise in self-preservation
2004 issue 09
The McAlpines jealously guard their privacy. When Building sought to profile the clan in 1999, we were only able to communicate through an exchange of hand-written letters.
-
Pear-shaped housing
2004 issue 09
Why should housebuilders give two hoots about 2024?
-
BAA sacks T5 groundwork firm over financial concerns
2004 issue 07
Geofirma gets boot because of 'accounting irregularites' as ductwork supplier Hotchkiss faces axe over pay deal
-
Victims of the system
2004 issue 07
It's been a bad week for the paperclip posse. On Tuesday, the government and the Tories called for a mass cull of civil servants.
-
HBF warns Barker not to 'rig the market' for land
2004 issue 06
Housebuilders fear commercial developers and quangos will get 'special treatment' to boost competition
-
Immigration requires regulation
2004 issue 06
The Morecambe Bay tragedy has swung the spotlight back onto illegal immigrants in construction.
-
Guilt by association
2004 issue 04
Contractors may feel a strange empathy this week with those at the centre of the Hutton inquiry.
-
You’ll pay for this
2004 issue 03
Why are construction leaders so reluctant to join the political fray over tuition fees?
-
An affair of the heart …
2004 issue 02
How rich for journalists, of all people, to be lecturing others on the perils of boozing and bingeing. Well, yes, all right.
-
Back from the dead
2003 issue 49
Just when it appeared to be gently ebbing away, construction's strategic forum has sprung back to life.
-
Shouting down the plughole
2003 issue 48
First they got mad, now they're trying to get even.
-
Welcoming our guest workers
2003 issue 47
David Blunkett's imperious asylum policy – outlined in the Queen's Speech – may have profound implications for construction.
-
Too little, too late
2003 issue 44
"Four Pads" Prescott is in a pickle over housing again – and not just with his domestic arrangements.
-
What's behind the mergers
2003 issue 41
Where's the boss? Not been around much lately?
-
Pressing on with the PFI
2003 issue 39
The tiresome ideological struggle over the PFI resurfaced at the Labour conference (see news).
-
Housebuilders face 'wealth tax' on high-value schemes
2003 issue 38
Treasury-sponsored housing review looks at replacing section 106 agreement with tax on developments.
-
Desperate measures
2003 issue 38
Two important themes are emerging from Kate Barker’s inquiry into why we build so few houses.
-
Cracking the crusties
2003 issue 36
Remember Swampy? You might think those noisy, unkempt students who hijacked bulldozers at Twyford Down would have settled into a placid middle age in Basingstoke by now.
-
Holyrood: 300 design changes in July point to even more delays to come
2003 issue 34
The deadline for the Scottish parliament has been put back six months – but the indications are that it may slide further yet.
-
Worse yet
2003 issue 34
The smouldering row over the Scottish parliament has roared back into life after our disclosure that it won't be finished until July next year, eight months after the previous deadline. This further delay will lift the cost of the project to about £400m – either 10 times, four times, or double the original budget, depending on which estimate you believe (pages 12-13). It's a grisly saga that, bizarrely, barely merits a mention south of the border; but it's a top story in Scotland. In 24 hours la
-
Cad illustrations
2003 issue 27
For any male employer who's a little unsure about how to manage women, here's some helpful advice from the Womenback2work website.
-
Atkins poaches Clarke
2003 issue 25
Skanska 'not best pleased' after one of its top executives jumps ship to head UK's largest consultant.
-
Gordon plays house
2003 issue 23
Gordon Brown found himself in the opposite position this week of Captain Yossarian, Joseph Heller's cursed hero of Catch-22
-
The enemy within
2003 issue 22
There was quite an outcry last year when Building revealed Jarvis' claim that sabotage may have been to blame for the Potters Bar rail tragedy
-
Be very, very careful
2003 issue 20
Given the predicament of the UK market, it's no surprise to learn that fidgety construction bosses are turning their gaze overseas
-
Miliband's terms
2003 issue 19
Education minister David Miliband describes his mission to bring every secondary school in Britain up to scratch as "provocative" and "challenging". So it will be – and not just for educationalists and local authorities, but for their suppliers in construction, too. On the face of it, Miliband's timing couldn't be better. His £45-60bn programme to upgrade 4000 schools by 2020 comes just as everyone's scrambling to replace cancelled office projects. The most natural recipients of Miliband's mu
-
CABE on the threshold
2003 issue 18
One of the more remarkable British success stories since the millennium has been the rise of CABE, whose leading lights feature on this week's cover.
-
Adios Amey, hola Ferrovial
2003 issue 16
Imagine how happy Amey's shareholders felt when their £1bn investment (2002) was knocked down to £81m last Wednesday (see news).
-
Tear down the wall
2003 issue 15
It was just a throwaway line in Gordon Brown's excruciatingly prolix Budget speech, but its impact on contractors may be immense.
-
Leading the evolution
Building Awards 2003 Supplement
To all appearances, little has changed since the last Building Awards a year ago.
-
Not a holiday camp
2003 issue 14
A decade after it was launched, journalists have finally been given their first glimpse of Britain's biggest and most awesome building project, Heathrow Terminal 5. There's not much to see yet – just a few cranes and the odd dumper truck rumbling through the dirt (pages 24-27). But this is only the beginning. BAA proposes to spend £3.7bn on the terminal and associated infrastructure in three years: a rate of about £20m a week. It will ensure that this money is well spent by deploying the l
-
Bombs on a budget
2003 issue 13
This week, our attentions shift to the damage that the war is causing on the home front (pages 22-23). It would be a cruel irony if investment in public services was halted to pay for Iraq just when the contracts are starting to flow. But nobody is under any illusions that if our troops need more cash, they'll get it. Gordon Brown has just set aside an extra £2bn for them, in addition to the original £1bn, and the war is barely two weeks old. Next Wednesday's Budget could be the most critical fo
-
One or two points …
2003 issue 10
Wouldn't it be glorious if London could have a rail terminus to rival New York's Grand Central?
-
Fight Ken’s development tax
2003 issue 08
Today, we launch a campaign to win construction an exemption from Ken Livingstone’s congestion charge.
-
War: What it is good for
2003 issue 07
There's a stockbrokers' adage about trading in times of conflict: "Sell on the sabre-rattle, buy on the battle".
-
The devil's bargain
2003 issue 06
John Prescott can't cut a deal with the firefighters, but he's found more compliant negotiating partners in housebuilders.
-
Brown seizes control of PFI ahead of general election
2003 issue 05
Chancellor to take personal charge of delivery of new schools and hospitals as pressure grows to show results.
-
Dear Prudence
2003 issue 05
The word is "contestability".
-
The pleasures of privacy
2003 issue 04
If there was ever a moment for firms to consider going private, this is it.
-
Mustn't grumble
2003 issue 01
Tony Blair invited comparisons with Fraser of Dad's Army when he delivered a doom-laden new year's message, dominated by Iraq, al-Qaeda and the faltering global economy. He might also have mentioned gun crime, rail chaos, and hikes in council tax and national insurance – the latter courtesy of, er, Tony Blair. But he is not alone. City analysts are also playing Cassandra (see financial news). Their fears are based on the fact that profits have been 10% below what they forecast for the period aft
-
Food for thought …
2002 issue 50
e couldn't resist it. In anticipation of next week's festive feasting, our attentions turned to the traditionally less mouth-watering fare served on site. And who better to sample the pies and pasta than columnist Jonathan Meades? As restaurant critic of The Times, Meades is used to dining in rather grander surroundings than Bovis Lend Lease's canteen at the BBC media village site in White City. His verdict, on pages 24-27, is both predictable and uproarious. But he ends with a serious point, wh
-
Digital building is here
2002 issue 49
There's a scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks into a fashion boutique in 2054 and is greeted by intelligent adverts that know everything about him from what clothes he buys to what toothpaste he uses. This, say retail experts, is not inconceivable. Now substitute the mall with a site hut, and the adverts for a virtual architect full of design information. Is that plausible? Very possibly, the way things are moving. After years of vapid chit-chat about paperless offices and informatio
-
Whitehall's special needs
2002 issue 48
This should be interesting. Whitehall is about to undertake a crash course in A level public procurement. A notoriously dim pupil, it has been flunking basic tests for years. But political expediency demands that it achieve top marks in schools, hospitals and transport by the next election. Head teacher Gordon Brown is giving his witless charge every chance to succeed. It will have a personal tutor – or tsar, as they're known in Whitehall circles – in each subject, billions will be invested and
-
Prescott under fire
2002 issue 47
John Prescott has more to worry about right now than his deteriorating relationship with housebuilders (pages 24-25). Planning chaos is a political sideshow alongside the main drama of the firefighters' dispute and the threat – amid a London teachers' strike – of a new winter of discontent. But, although no lives will be lost in a planning wrangle, the consequences might be just as profound in the long run. Indeed, the crises are not unrelated. The teachers were striking to double their London a
-
Cleaning up the pensions mess
2002 issue 46
A year after Building warned of construction's pensions time bomb, employers and staff alike are getting the jitters about the cost of retirement. Our annual Hays Montrose/Building careers survey reveals that more than half of readers are worried about pensions, and – as a result – expect to work beyond 65 (pages 50-53). The days of executives decamping to an Algarve golf course in their mid-50s have gone. Today's bosses are more likely to be in the chairman's office, haggling for a £10,000 sala
-
Endgame on the underground
2002 issue 45
Is it nearly the end of the line for the part-privatisation of London's Tube? A year and a half after they were first chosen as the preferred bidders, the Metronet and Tube Lines consortiums were due to finalise their deals this month. But as passengers so often find, delays are occurring (see news). Metronet is in the worse position. It hasn't even started to raise the £2.6bn it needs, and its lead banks are refusing to hand over a penny without an indemnity against a fresh legal challenge by K
-
Firing the smoking barrel gang
2002 issue 44
It's easy to demonise labour agencies. The stereotype is straight out of a Guy Ritchie film: grubby back-street office, battered white van and dodgy-looking paperwork. Such outfits have no place in the world of integrated supply chains. But still, every contractor knows that if they need five brickies in the morning, these guys will dredge 'em up – from Albania, probably (pages 22-25).Contractors are faced with a choice: stick with market forces or act in the long-term interests of safety and
-
The end of the affair
2002 issue 43
Where – if anywhere – does Amey go from here? After a turbulent five months, during which two finance directors made spectacular exits, the support services firm's largest shareholder has called for the group to be broken up or sold. Amey is resisting such a move, but that hasn't silenced the speculation in the Square Mile about the future of the company – or its chief executive, Brian Staples. And with Atkins also fending off takeover rumours after the departure of its own boss, the City has fa
-
The unbearable cost of cover
2002 issue 41
Few tears were shed outside the Square Mile when crisis struck those apparently loathsome insurance companies after 11 September. A year on, though, insurers – in the great tradition of that industry – are passing the burden on to their customers. Now it is construction firms that face ruin as premiums multiply to freakish levels. Some roofers have been hit by a 1500% hike.It's hard to think of an issue – apart, perhaps, from site safety – that so unites all corners of construction. In contra
-
Home truths
2002 issue 40
-
We need a New Model PFI
2002 issue 39
And about bloody time. After five years of obfuscation, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown faced down the unions in Blackpool over the PFI (see news).
-
A bit of strategic thinking
2002 issue 36
Meet Peter Rogers, the new Mr Construction. Like his predecessor Sir John Egan, he is a top client and, although not exactly one of Tony's cronies, he's in the New Labour loop. But that's where the similarity ends. Egan, who made his name at Jaguar, was always the outsider; Rogers has been trudging round sites for 40 years. Part of the great Broadgate academy, he pioneered off-site fabrication and integrated teams long before the Rethinking Construction report in 1998. And in his first interv
-
We're sadder, but are we wiser?
2002 issue 35
So, has the worst building collapse in history changed construction? Everyone, including this magazine, seemed to think so in the aftermath of 11 September. As Sainsbury's cancelled its twin 40-storey towers in London, we suggested that skyscrapers would lose their mystique, and that the generational shift from building outwards to upwards would come to a halt. And as BAA, hotel chains and leisure operators slashed their spending, we said fear of flying would lead to a new economic chill. Later,
-
You had to be there
2002 issue 34
It is easy to mock RIBA president Paul Hyett for rolling up in Johannesburg this week (pages 18-19). The third earth summit has "fiasco" written all over it: 60,000 dignitaries are trying to save the planet in two weeks, thereby expending more greenhouse gases than Africa produces in a year. With an agenda packed with grand themes such as poverty, sanitation, and population control, what role is there for the humble architect? Very little, it might seem. But UK consultants, as part of the new Gl
-
The HSE's masterstroke
2002 issue 32-33
When Kier and Wates were hauled up before the beak last month, it was easy to conclude that the basis of the Health and Safety Executive's safety drive was browbeating illustrious contractors. But the shock tactic of raiding London sites gave a misleading impression. The HSE doesn't just want to put the frighteners on the majors, it wants to make everyone, from clients to architects, culpable for safety breaches. And now it has a blueprint for how that can be done (see news).Revitalising Cons
-
Making the desert boom
2002 issue 31
Who'd have pinpointed the Gulf as the venue for the next global construction bonanza? With an assault on Iraq looming and the revival of Islamic fundamentalism, there wouldn't appear, on the face of it, to be much of a market for Western-style hotels, malls and casinos. But that is precisely what is being planned in places such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.The demand for such developments – the largest of which is a £1bn paradise island scheme off the coast of Dubai – has been triggered by a
-
Builders under fire
2002 issue 28
Will they never learn? A government-backed investigation has uncovered evidence that shoddy workmanship is exposing buildings – particularly those constructed using timber frame – to increased fire risks (pages 26-29). Experts are concerned that failure to properly install plasterboard drylining and fire protection is allowing fire to spread uncontrolled through the wall cavity to floors above. These problems are compounded by fears that smouldering timber causes fire to reignite in cavities: Ox
-
Desperately seeking Susans
2002 issue 26
The case of Louise Barton, the latest City high-flyer to sue her employer for discrimination, is a reminder of construction's perennial prejudices. With a booming industry fretting over labour shortages, the debate has centred on whether to assimilate foreign labour or retrain over-25s – mostly men, one suspects. Yet women, who constitute less than 10% of the construction workforce, are a far larger pool of talent. The Construction Industry Training Board has set itself the target of recruiting
-
Is that the time?
2002 issue 25
Labour’s chance to deliver its £19bn investment in housing, schools, hospitals and transport is rapidly evaporating. Whitehall officials are muttering that without spectacular acceleration in the rate of spending, only a fraction of the planned facilities will be open when Tony Blair goes to the polls in 2005-6. The first signs of panic were evident this week when the Cabinet Office was restructured under Sir Andrew Turnbull to concentrate on the “delivery of better public services”, and the spe
-
Regs minister makes debut speech at Building reception
2002 issue 24
Building hosts Christopher Leslie and 150 industry leaders, MPs and peers at annual House of Commons event.
-
An illegal dilemma
2002 issue 24
It was apposite that construction minister Brian Wilson should make immigration the main subject of his first Building column (page 31). The issue is one of the most vexatious facing his government – the latest furore erupted last week when David Blunkett suggested educating the children of asylum seekers in accommodation centres. It also tops the agenda at today's European Union summit in Seville, as heads of government seek – probably in vain – to harmonise policies. But where some see a flood
-
Whitehall plan to give HSE 4000 extra safety police
2002 issue 23
Building control officers may be given safety powers – unless scheme is scuppered by departmental shake-up.
-
Ethics are not optional
2002 issue 23
A housebuilder, now sadly deceased, once recounted the tale of how he won permission for luxury flats in Europe by agreeing to sponsor the local football team and paying for the mayor and his family to stay at The Ritz for a month. That was 20 years ago, but international construction has always had a whiff of corruption about it. Only last week, an official in Lesotho was jailed for 18 years for accepting £3m in bribes, and the state prosecutor is threatening to charge Balfour Beatty and others
-
Another ruddy shake-up
2002 issue 22
Tony Blair's unexpectedly sweeping reshuffle raises as many questions for construction as it answers (pages 22-23). Few will bemoan Stephen Byers' departure, and Alistair Darling has said that he's not going to "tear up" the 10-year transport plan. But then he was drawn into an ugly spat with Downing Street after he rejected Lord Birt's toll motorways. So who exactly is driving transport policy? Similarly, Lord Rooker's arrival as housing minister will bring hope that the botch job that is socia
-
Anatomy of a fiasco
2002 issue 21
As the World Cup kicks off in the beautiful (and completed) arenas of Japan and South Korea, our attention is again on England’s beautiful (but unstarted) stadium in Wembley. Three consultants’ reports presented to MPs last week cast new light on the cost of the troubled project and the controversial way Multiplex was chosen as contractor. As far as the tendering was concerned, one might argue that it’s a bit like dredging up the question of whether England’s third goal in 1966 was over the l
-
Making sense of Potters Bar
2002 issue 20
We know what caused the Potters Bar rail crash, but we still don't know who. Jarvis, which is responsible for the track, claims to have evidence that the faulty points were sabotaged – a possibility highlighted in Building last week, despite being dismissed by rail experts. Investigators seem adamant that incompetence or human error was to blame (see news). In pressing the sabotage theory so ardently, Jarvis is playing a dangerous game. It risks being seen to place more importance on salvaging i
-
The industry’s Beckenbauer
2002 issue 19
Mott MacDonald’s merger with Franklin + Andrews, exclusively revealed in Building last week, reopens the debate about the future of QSs. Martin Bishop, Franklin + Andrews’ chairman, thinks copycat mergers are likely, as is another round of soul searching for QSs (page 20). Bishop saw no future in independence, and thought that a merger with another QS would only be “more of the same”. So, recalling our columnist Tanya Ross’ rallying cry to the profession a couple of years ago, it was a case of “
-
Land and freedom
2002 issue 18
How far should Whitehall intervene in the housing crisis? Last week's disclosures that the House Builders Federation is lobbying Downing Street to get more land for homes and that Lord Falconer is planning "prefabs for key workers" (see news) has polarised opinion. Interventionists argue that the shortage of homes for nurses and teachers will make the reform of public services pointless, and that dereliction in towns like Burnley will foment support for the far-right. Free-marketeers counter tha
-
A fiasco in extra time
2002 issue 17
'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go – again. It came as no surprise to the construction or soccer fraternities that the latest round of the epic Wembley Stadium fixture slipped into extra time this week (page 11). As the government's 30 April deadline passed, a German bank – West LB – was about to be brought on to fund the £715m deal as a substitute for Barclays. An announcement was due from the FA today, and heads of terms have been agreed over financing. But the final whistle won't be blown for
-
Prudence's big gamble
2002 issue 16
So, what did Gordon Brown do for – or to – us in the Budget? Depending on your degree of cynicism, he either put 42 new hospitals in the post, or republicised those already sent. Either way, the good news is that a glistening 21-century NHS will boost employment through building facilities as well as staffing them, as Lord McAlpine observes (page 33). Construction will, of course, have to pay its share of the bill, in the form of higher National Insurance. And, as a nasty consequence, the NI hik
-
The best of the bunch
Building Awards 2002 Supplement
Earlier this month, Building obtained a draft of Accelerating Change, Sir John Egan's critique of construction's progress since Rethinking Construction. Although he was impressed by the general reaction, he admits to being "frustrated that the rate of take-up has not been as rapid as it should have been".Well, perhaps Sir John might feel a little more cheerful if he reads this profile of the 2002 Building Awards winners and finalists. Not only are all in fairly rude health, but the service th
-
Built on sand?
2002 issue 15
Poor housebuilders. For nearly a decade, they've given the City what they thought it always wanted – year-on-year growth in profits and, latterly, double-digit margins. The response from the Square Mile? Utter indifference. The sector is rated at less than half the stock exchange average. Even contractors, with their 2%-if-you're-lucky margins, have been positively rerated in recent times (pages 24-27). Housebuilders and the City must share the blame for their unhappy relationship. To even th
-
How Part L will change your life
2002 issue 12
Nick Raynsford's decision to make buildings greener by overhauling the Building Regulations was always going to have dramatic consequences for the industry. When first mooted in 2000, it threatened everything from masonry construction to the dear old lightbulb – and might have forced the Queen to fit PVCu windows in Buckingham Palace. Well, none of that looks likely. But the new Part L of the regulations, which comes into force on Monday, will still be one of the most profound legislative change
-
Summit to tackle university crisis
2001 issue 28
Industry bodies are to meet DTI minister Brian Wilson next week to discuss the higher education crisis in construction, writes Adrian Barrick.
