More Comment – Page 509
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CommentHansom: A fresh start
It’s a brand new year, and we’re giving up being gloomy, sowing discord, drinking champagne and getting people’s company names wrong. Starting next week, of course
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CommentHappy new year (yes, really)
Sorry, folks, but joyful prospects for 2009 are thin on the ground
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Homes in the US sold for $1,000, will we see like here?
An article on CNN money caught my eye. It seems that homes in areas of the US hardest hit by foreclosures (repossession) are being dumped at throw away prices.At these prices you could practically buy up a neighbourhood for what it used to cost to buy a half decent home ...
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Hard cash or car crash - what's driving visitors to Rightmove?
A press release from the property website Rightmove that dropped into my inbox this morning caught my eye. Of course it was promoting its wares - that's fair enough.But what I found interesting was the interpretation Rightmove has put on the fact that record numbers of people logged on to ...
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Is Persimmon afraid of the big bad City wolves?
This fortnight sees the big housebuilders update the City on just how appalling they think 2009 will be.It can't be a fun prospect.After a dozen or so highly numerate analysts have picked holes in their powerpoint presentations, most chief execs and FD's will probably need a quick single malt before ...
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House price falls in 2008 more than double those of the 1990s
2008 will go into the record books as the year house prices fell at their fastest rate, with prices dropping over the year at more that double the pace of the previous record fall in 1992.The Nationwide data out today puts the annual rate of collapse in prices for 2008 ...
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Construction industry ends 2008 on a record low
Happy New Year, or is it? The first piece of hard data on performance of the construction industry we get and it is a "new" record low for the Purchasing Managers' Index compiled for the buyers' body CIPS.The overall PMI measure for construction in December came in at 29.3 against ...
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CommentTricks with contracts: PFI and the Construction Act
A draft bill to outlaw ‘pay when certified’ clauses leaves PFI lawyers wondering how to secure reasonable cash flow for clients. Here are some ideas
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CommentWith the pope’s blessing: Awarding interest
Usury may be a sin, but that doesn’t mean it’s against the law. But then, working out just what the law does say about charging interest can be a bit of a poser …
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Adjudicators jurisdiction
The CaseDeerglen (Jersey) (“Deerglen”) was the main contractor employed to design and build a six-storey office building known Liberty Wharf Phase three in Jersey. Deerglen engaged Air Design (Kent) (“Air Design”) as a subcontractor to carry out the mechanical services work for the project. A written agreement for “basebuild” works ...
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It means what you want it to mean: Force Majeure
‘Force majeure’ can mean just about anything, which is a problem if you want to invoke it in a contract dispute. So, how is this Napoleonic throwback best used?
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CommentMy digital life: Richard Burgess
This festive season, Mr Burgess will be watching TV and meeting friends – strictly offline. But he did bravely venture into the ether to make sure his daughters meet Father Christmas
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Luck of the Irish
On a recent visit to Northern Ireland, I was amazed by how easy it was to acquire a CSCS card there compared with mainland Britain.
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Negative charge
I cannot disagree more strongly with the media’s dismissal of the government’s zero-carbon target for new housing.
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A game of risk
Confidence in the construction sector is at rock bottom. What construction firms badly need is a scheme that eliminates most of the risk associated with doing business.
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We gotta rep to protect
It has been brought to our attention that your publication (10 October, page 95) used the term “formica” in a manner that could be interpreted to mean decorative plastic laminates in general.
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A Christmas cheer
On behalf of our charity Wishes 4 Kids, I would like to thank you and all those involved for the generous donation of £6,000 that was raised during Building’s poker tournament in October. We decided to use the money to grant the wishes of six very poorly children.
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CommentCountdown to Christmas!
Regardless of our straitened circumstances, fun must be had. Chris Addison explains how, with a bit of ingenuity and a set of crayons, we can make the most of what we have
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CommentBuilding buys a pint... for Quattro Design Architects
This must be some sort of a record. No, not the drinks tally, which is tame by some standards, but the distance that tonight’s group has travelled. Representatives from architect Quattro Design have made the trip all the way from the West Country – Bristol and Gloucester to be exact.
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CommentComplete baubles
Plenty of seasonal fare here: a ghost story that Dickens would have been proud of, at least one joke worthy of a Christmas cracker, 10 Santas, and a well-earned nap in a snoozarium