More Comment – Page 514
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CommentComedy of errors
This week, causes for confusion include a mysterious marketing campaign, a dubious safety claim, a phantom contract and a rather naughty search term – plus, the RIBA’s clever job creation scheme
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CommentYou’ve made one tiny mistake: Absolute obligations
Even if a brief seems straightforward, beware of taking it on as an absolute obligation. After all, you never know what might happen
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CommentAll over bar the shooting: Frameworks
What better way to work, you say, than a lovely, co-operative framework deal? Fine. Just don’t expect it to be bloodless, painless, dispute-less or litigation-free
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Not lost in translation: Using NEC3 contracts abroad
There’s no reason why civil engineers and others shouldn’t use the NEC3 contract abroad – but bear the following points in mind …
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Blueprint for leadership
While I admire the quality of the work architects produce, I cannot help but disagree with Keith Mason’s Open Mike (24 October). There is only room for one leader, but that isn’t necessarily the architect.
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Negative energy
It is surprising that some people still believe electricity to be 100% efficient (and clean).
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CommentHow does your garden grow?
The refurbishment of the Axis Design, Ecoterrace (7 November, page 54 and again, below left) is to be admired – but what have they done to the garden?
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Old houses for new
Eco-towns? A valid showcase for future sustainable development, but even with the increased rates of new build sought by the government, estimates suggest that 90% of the buildings that will be standing in 2050 have already been built.
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CommentBuilding buys potatoes…for Kanvas Interiors
If Louise Frostick were ever to meet Jarvis Cocker, it’s fair to assume they wouldn’t get on, at least not on the subject of interior decor.
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Barratt slashes house prices by 43% - good or bad news?
Barratt's attractiveness to investors is a moot point.Some in the City believe the housebuilder is over the worst and say its shares are worth a punt at 60p-ish. They point to the rescue deal it struck with its banks in the summer.Others are more reticent. Included in that camp is ...
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Barratt chairman puts his money where his mouth is
At Barratt's trading update this morning one analyst questioned whether FD Mark Pain or chief exec Mark Clare would be buying shares in the company any time soon."It's a good mark of confidence from the directors in the company's fortunes," he pointed out.Pain was cagey and joked that his wife ...
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How bad will deflation be for UK construction?
The talk now is not of inflation but deflation.The latest inflation figures showed a fall for the first time in 15 months and the Prime Minister chided the opposition with the line that if this year was about inflation next year is about deflation.But what would it mean for construction?Well ...
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NHBC latest figures show deepening pain for house building in 2009
The NHBC figures for October show private sector house building plumbing new depths.The number of new registrations for the month dropped to just 3,454, compared with 14,698 last year. Taking the three months to the end of October registrations were down by 73%.While private sector completions were a shade perkier ...
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Are plunging rents a prelude to a mass buy-to-let sell off?
Here are the figures that the buy-to-let critics and cynics have been waiting for. Rents are plunging.Okay, this is only one month's figures from the surveyors' body RICS, but the many buy-to-let critics will see these as heralding a transformation of buy-to-let bulls into buy-to-let rats ready to flee the ...
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Asking prices crumble as hope of housing market recovery fades
For those who may have held lingering hopes of a lift in the housing market after the various interventions by the Government and the Bank of England of late will be disappointed by the message coming from the latest Rightmove figures.The November data suggests that increasingly desperate sellers are dropping ...
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CommentThe uses of adversity
No two ways about it: the downturn is depressing for everybody, except perhaps the bankers who kept their bonuses. But, says Gus Alexander, there are crumbs of comfort if you search hard
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CommentWebmaster top tips: Accessibility
Building's webmaster continues his series of handy hints by talking you through how to make your site accessible
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A decade of pay growth and shortening hours for the construction workforce
Whatever the current worries facing those working in construction, they can reflect on the past 10 years with satisfaction when it comes to pay and hours worked.Pay has risen far faster than for most other sectors and the number of paid working hours has fallen.Delving into the 2008 Annual Survey ...
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MJ Gleeson boss bags £70k bonus
When MJ Gleeson chief exec Paul Wallwork announced a pre-tax loss of £21m last month, he warned of more job cuts to follow the 335 already made this year.His £70k bonus - announced this week - must have been pretty hard to swallow for those already shown the door.The company ...