More Comment – Page 500
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Comment
Don't be fooled by contractors' reports of healthy profits
I am becoming a bit discomforted by persistent misplaced chirpiness. I keep reading and hearing things that tell me "it's not all bad in the construction sector".Fair enough, the construction sector is never "all bad". Come hell or high water I can find plenty of good things even in its ...
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CommentBuilding on Flickr
Astrid Kogler, deputy art editor, calls this picture by NJSR Architects’ Ian Bramham of l’Institute du Monde Arab in Paris a “beautifully composed, a truly sophisticated shot
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CommentStace buys a pint … for Building
It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m outside the Flying Horse as dusk falls wondering where all these old men in beige overcoats have come from
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CommentJourney’s end
A melancholy tale of thwarted hope this week, for a travelling bank manager, Gulf ex-workers in search of liquid comfort and the poor Yorkshire lass who’s taken a fancy to my prose
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By the people, for the people
The verdict of “very simplistic” by Stroud MP David Drew on the Homes and Communities Agency’s handling of the Cashes Green Community Land Trust (CLT) proposal seems fair (13 February, page 23)
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CommentJudgment, not luck
Building’s article on the complex alterations being carried out at Queen’s College in Oxford (6 February, page 40) makes for some interesting reading but unfortunately is inaccurate in parts
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Comment
School rules must be obeyed
As an acoustic consultant specialising in education, your article on new schools failing to meet acoustic standards (13 February, Building.co.uk) came as no surprise. That’s because BB93, the building regulation governing schools, is majorly flawed
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Comment
Languishing in L
Regretfully I wholeheartedly agree with the statement that Part L is not being enforced. Moreover, it is generally not understood and often ignored
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Comment
Back issues: Celebrating 150 years of incomprehensible rail fares …
February 1859: Our remarks touching the policy of railway companies
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CommentWe need a strategy
“It’s all very well calling for a Keynesian programme of public works to kickstart the economy,” wrote Rachel Sylvester in The Times on Tuesday, “but JM Keynes did not have to deal with the PFI.”
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Comment
Clive Sayer salutes a 5,000-year-old citadel, but is less impressed by a more short-term project …
My wonder is the fortified Cité de Carcassonne, the origins of which can be traced back to 3500 BC.
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Comment
Is there any value in valuing housing?
I thought it might be worth responding to the comment from Gerry. I don't get many comments and he raises a good point.My first reaction is to say that I couldn't agree more that people should see homes as homes and not as investments. I also feel that if we ...
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Comment
The power of the brand
So, Sir Robert McAlpine is the best brand in construction.So says a new list of the top 500 “business superbrands” in the UK anyway.The pathologically secretive contractor came in at number 101 on a list that was topped by Google, Rolls Royce and Sony.So publicity-shy is the company that the ...
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Comment
£1 trillion wiped off the value of UK homes
Let's not get too worked up about the £40 billion loss by RBS - those foolish bankers that went into a bidding war to buy ABN Amro at peak.If the Nationwide figures are any reflection of the true value of houses in the UK then we have just witness about ...
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Comment
White Young Green gives City a nasty surprise
All is clearly not well at engineering consultant White Young Green.It took the City by surprise today by bringing forward its half-year results from Friday at the eleventh hour. If there's one thing the market hates even more than bad news it's "sudden" news.Combine that with the fact it also ...
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Comment
Is this Government ignorance which I see before me?
The latest report from the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee called Housing and the Credit Crunch is well worth a read for a run through of the current travails of the industry.It seems broadly to "welcome" what the CLG and the Government more widely has been doing ...
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Comment
More mortgage cash from Northern Rock, but will it make a difference?
So Northern Rock is to get back into mortgages. I hear the cheers.The aim will be to get the first time buyer market moving. I hear more cheers.It will start lending on loan to value rates of up to 80% or even 90% - definitely not 100%, because that should ...