All articles by Matthew Richards – Page 2
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NewsStar architects chosen for Crossrail station redesigns
McAslan and Wilkinson Eyre among practices appointed as Crossrail boss lays out PFI funding plan.
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News
VAT threat to listed buildings
Alteration works to cathedrals, castles and other listed buildings in the UK could be subject to VAT under planned European legislation
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News
Laing lands £350m Dubai airport …
A Laing O'Rourke joint venture has beaten off three rivals, including Balfour Beatty, to win a £350m airport contract in Dubai
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Features
No contest
As more PFI projects line up on the horizon, it seems that fewer contractors are willing to bid for them. So is the government's flagship policy in trouble? We look at the PFI model as it goes global and asks if the UK's lumbering original can compete.
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Features
Need an energy boost?
As the tired old commercial sector flags, a bright and bouyant industry sneaks up from behind and overtakes it. We jog alongside
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NewsHigh-profile banks start to pull out of PFI funding
Abbey National and Bank of America close PFI teams, leaving the sector open to pension fund investment
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Features
Meet the board
Why is the construction industry facing a skills shortage? The answer may have something to do with the gentlemen at the top table
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News
Row erupts after shock survey
Most top construction executives are unconcerned about the lack of women and people from ethnic minorities in the industry, according to a survey by accountant KPMG
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FeaturesThe leveller
Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, has construction's lousy record of recruiting women in her sights. But she's not out to give the industry a bashing: she has more subtle ways of making it see sense
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Features
Learning the lingo
You hear those corporate catchphrases every day. You may even use them. But do you really know what they mean? Make sure with our jargon-busting guide to talking the talk
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News
Inquiry to redress gender balance
The Equal Opportunities Commission is to launch an investigation into the construction industry next month after it found that only 1% of construction trainees on the government's modern apprenticeship scheme were women
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News
Management team set to bid for UK arm of Ballast Nedam
Dutch parent group to distribute sales literature for contractor next month after year-long restructuring
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Features
No industry is an island
Most construction laws are made in Europe, not Britain. FIEC vice-president Peter Andrews tells Building how we need to learn effective lobbying from our EU neighbours
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FeaturesBudget? Fudge it!
Politicians, bureaucrats, voters and contractors all want to believe that ambitious public projects offer value for money – but the costs quoted in a shocking new book tell another story. Could PFI be the solution?
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FeaturesBridging Tactics
As the designer of military bridges used in the Iraq war, Tom Foulkes took pride in last month's victory. But will the head of the Institution of Civil Engineers win an internal battle for change?
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Comment
Talking tongues
Conferences in Brussels could give an Englishman an inferiority complex, what with rampant trilingualism and gourmet fingerfood. Seek solace in the Berlaymont
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FeaturesWhere eagles dare
Building a climbers' shelter 3000 m up a French mountain is a job for high-fliers only – and even then it can end up being a real cliffhanger
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News
Prescott asks Egan to tackle skills 'disgrace'
Sir John Egan is to head a review of skills shortages in the construction industry. Deputy prime minister John Prescott has called him over fears that the industry may not be able to deliver the government's regeneration programme.
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Features
What goes around …
… comes around, as discovered by those graduates who've had their pockets stuffed with cash by paranoid employers, some of whom have given themselves pay cuts … Matthew Richards reports on the 2003 Building/Hays Montrose consultants' salary guide.