More Comment – Page 479
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Comment
House prices likely to rise say surveyors
The shortage of homes on the market has provided surveyors with increased confidence that house prices may rise, according to the latest RICS survey.For the first time since May 2007 more surveyors polled by the RICS expect house prices to rise than expect them to fall.And the RICS sales to ...
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It's worse in construction than we thought say forecasters
The latest forecasts to emerge in the current round all see the future prospects for construction as far gloomier than was expected when the number crunchers examined the figures three months or so ago.Experian now expects a 12% decline this year compared with an 8% fall and Hewes has shaded ...
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CommentOur predicament
Both parties admit that the axe will have to fall on public spending soon, although politicians have been too squeamish to describe this in detail
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CommentChelsea changed everything
The fall of Rogers’ Chelsea Barracks scheme was not so much the cause of an enjoyable public row as the effect of a fundamental change in the way we do design
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CommentPrivates on parade: Mediation
You probably like to think that mediation is a private dispute resolution method where everything is kept secret. But it seems the courts can order you to reveal all
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CommentHansom ’tis the season to be what?
In the building industry this week we find tidings of joy, hustle and bustle at train stations, cosy quilts, lots of presents and a fun quiz. Um … it is July, isn’t it?
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Comment
Do your own dirty work: Land remediation
Cleaning up contaminated land is one of the more scary tasks that developers face, so it’s vital to make sure that your contract is up to snuff. Here’s how to do it
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CommentLost in Translation
Designers can have 10 great ideas before breakfast, but if they can’t find ways of making the bureaucracies that run our world understand them, they’re doomed
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Don’t get the wrong idea
I enjoyed the interview with Steven Morgan of BAA (26 June, page 26), but it was easy to misinterpret what he had to say about frameworks and collaborative working
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Good riddance
It was striking to see the large number of articles and letters in last week’s edition (26 June) fretting about, and even anticipating, the demise of partnering and frameworks and the return of dreaded competitive tendering
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Find the combination
Looking behind the headlines (26 June, page 26), I wonder if BAA is really looking to “ditch” frameworks or to question how and where they are used and to what effect?
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CommentWhat would Aristotle do?
What a relief to read Steven Morgan’s views on procurement at BAA (26 June, page 26).
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Get it sorted
My small practice recently lost out because we didn’t “fit the selection criteria”. This was despite the fact that we had worked on about a third of the client’s properties and had performed to everyone’s satisfaction
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Fight, fight, fight! (productively)
The trouble with advocates of single-stage competitive tendering and the collaborative crowd, is that they are both coming from the extreme end of their respective spectrums
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Wonders & blunders
Guy Austin revels in Renault’s stunning underground Oxfordshire laboratory but a Hampshire new town is about as much fun as having your teeth drilled without anaesthetic
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Steve Morgan: fresh air not hot air
Someone that spoke to Steve Morgan shortly after he returned to Redrow via a boardroom coup in March said he was pretty upset by what he found.Or as Morgan himself might have put it: "F-cking furious".The scouser had been away from the company he founded in 1974 for nine years, ...
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Comment
Recent housing data poses the question: Higher, Lower or Stick for prices?
The latest Halifax house price figures showing a 0.5% drop, stacked on top of recent data from Nationwide, Hometrack and a range of others, suggest that prices may be holding steady.But what should we read into that? Which way from here for prices? Will this period of relative stability (a) ...
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Comment
Hopes of a recovery on shaky ground
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the latest CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) would provide a better read than June’s figures. After seeing the rate of contraction ease consecutively for four months, the PMI took a turn for the worse fuelling speculation of a ‘w-shaped’ recession.Coming in with a reading ...