More Comment – Page 488
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Ten into six doesn’t go
It was a shame to see that CNP has become the first big-name QS/project management casualty. At the end of the day consultants are all about people and my sympathy goes out to all who have and will lose their jobs, shareholdings, and so on. Consultants have been hanging in ...
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CommentArchitects, take a bow
Prince Charles didn’t say he’d employ Lord Foster to make over Highgrove – that would really have been a great way to make up with the modernists
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CommentWhat price victory? Winning back legal costs
You’ve won a legal battle so it’s only reasonable you get your costs reimbursed, isn’t it? Ah, if only it were that simple
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CommentTime and punishment: Interest on unfair debt
If you don’t pay a legitimate debt, you are liable for interest on top. That’s only fair. But what if the creditor was at fault in some way, or the invoice was wrong?
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Fancy a change? How to be an expert witness
If you’ve just been made redundant, it might be time to consider a career as an expert witness. Here are a few tips to get you started …
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CommentWonders & blunders
Tom Foulkes salutes Hadrian’s 2,000-year-old Pantheon in Rome, but quietly hopes the brutalist Southbank Centre has a somewhat shorter lifespan
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Traders see a brighter future for house prices - but still expect a further 17% drop
Follow the money they say. Well the money punted in the futures market suggests that average house prices still have at least 17% to fall.That puts the peak-to-trough drop at more than a third.But the good news for those selling homes is that the mood among the traders has perked ...
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If it's growth you want, start looking again at house building
I received a bit of a teasing prod this morning from my good friend the editor of CJ, Aaron Morby, when he rang me up to quiz me on house building targets."Don't you think we are seeing a recovery in house building?" Which he followed with: "I hope you don't ...
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Bovis restructure: The recession's wake up call
Searching for a silver lining to recession for construction isn't easy. But there's growing evidence that, dire as the industry's current situation may be, the tough conditions are providing parts of the industry, just like the financial sector, with a much needed wake up call.Bovis Lend Lease's business overhaul, announced ...
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Redundancies ravage the construction workforce - 141,000 jobs gone in the past 12 months
The numbers made redundant in construction over the past 12 months have mounted to 141,000, according to the latest set of figures released by the official statisticians at ONS.Almost 100,000 of those redundancies were made in the six months from October last year to March this year.These figures will grossly ...
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Look east to find some shelter from the storm
My good friend Martin Hewes has just past me some details of the latest Hewes & Associates forecast for new work construction output. It will not make for comfortable reading if you happen to be trading heavily in Yorkshire & Humberside.That region is set to be the hardest hit by ...
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Surveyors feel a stronger pulse in the housing market
The latest survey of the housing market by the surveyors' body RICS has provided yet more evidence that the rate of decay in the housing market may be easing, with the average surveyor busier than at time since last November.The uplift in buyer inquiries seems to be driving the strengthening ...
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Google's favourite architects
Who is the starriest of all the starchitects? Frank, Norman or Zaha? Or maybe Daniel Libeskind or Richard Rogers of Chelsea Barracks fame?Well according to Google the most searched for living architects are Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.The search engine reckons that there are 135,000 searches for these two architects ...
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The prince and the profession
So is he about to aim another missile at the architectural profession? Or will he finally offer it an olive branch? As the red carpet is rolled out at the RIBA next Tuesday in preparation for the Prince of Wales' lecture to mark its 175th anniversary, speculation about what he ...
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Watch out for snake oil salesmen purveying good news
There are few things more odious than selling false hope to desperate folk.But I am seeing ever more evidence of this sad occupation.I would have posted a blog on the latest new orders figures yesterday, but I was out of the office either in meetings, on the train or socialising ...
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CommentLet's be practical: Challenging a certificate of completion
Even when a ‘final and binding’ certificate of completion is issued, there may be room for the parties to challenge the validity of the decision
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CommentCold comfort: Paying damages to a firm in the red
It’s a chilling situation indeed to find yourself forced to pay hefty damages to a firm so far in the red that it’s positively crimson. Camden council can tell you all about it
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Farming today: The logistics of building wind farms
Developers might be keen to jump on the renewable energy bandwagon but building a wind farm has its own logistical, commercial and legal challenges
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CommentAccidents will happen
Spare a thought for those singled out by fate for special treatment, like the chairman who lost his bag, the woman who preferred injury to dishonour … and the union man who invented a new way to protest
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CommentWhat would Taiichi Ohno do?
As the Japanese say, waste is futility and failure. But, in the form of overconsumption, it has also been the bedrock of our industrialised economies. Here’s how we can do without it