More news – Page 4602

  • News

    Treasury set to introduce VAT purge

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    The government may use the construction sector as a guinea pig for an attack on VAT avoidance. Paymaster-general Dawn Primarolo last week floated the idea of introducing legislation to stamp out VAT avoidance in the supply of construction services. If successful, it would be introduced in other industries. The scheme ...

  • News

    JLE sparks' £2263 pay-off

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Electricians on the troubled Jubilee Line Extension have agreed a deal guaranteeing them a £2263 pay-off when they leave the project. The figure is dependent on productivity increases and will be paid to electricians who have worked on the project for at least two years. Electricians who ...

  • News

    Legionnaires outbreak

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Health officials in South Wales are trying to trace the source of three cases of Legionnaires' Disease before it claims another victim. An infected building cooling tower or rogue water system may have caused the outbreak, which has killed a woman of 59 and a man of 36 since 11 ...

  • News

    Police launch inquiry into opera house vandalism

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    CID reports "extreme criminal damage to auditorium" on site plagued by industrial action.

  • News

    Farcical war of words over London Mayor's HQ

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Farcical war of words over London Mayor's HQ Developer pulls out, then changes its mind, while Lord Fawsley and Sir Jocelyn indulge in cut and thrust.

  • News

    Housing associations face tough funding rules

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    A Housing Corporation consultation paper to be published next month will set out stricter rules on the allocation of public funds. Officials briefed housing association chief executives on the changes at a private conference organised by the National Housing Federation last week. Applications for Housing Corporation grant will be scrutinised ...

  • News

    Site hazard victory

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Hundreds of workers in the construction industry could soon be in line for £60 000 payouts for white finger , an industrial injury caused by operating vibrating machinery. Transport and General Workers Union construction secretary Bob Blackman congratulated the government on its landmark decision to offer coal miners ...

  • News

    Australian group to create 'backpacker' hotel chain

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Schemes in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Liverpool, York and Bath may follow west London project.

  • News

    Scottish councils to spend £190m on PFI schools

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Edinburgh leads the way with £80m investment in new-build and refurbishment.

  • News

    Urban design must rescue South Bank, says Duffy

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    London arts complex does not need grand architectural gesture, says author of masterplanner's brief.

  • News

    Specialists squeezed by tender push

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Last-minute invitations to tender give subcontractors increasingly tough time constraints in race towards millennium deadline.

  • News

    Small firms uniting to win work

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Bidding consortia comprising small and medium-sized construction firms will soon be springing up around the country, following a successful pilot project in Hampshire. Key Consortia, a limited company set up by local contractors and architects, has paved the way by winning a share of a £180m regeneration scheme in ...

  • News

    Company collapse blamed on tax rules

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Directors in dispute as firm caught out by government clampdown on bogus self employment.

  • News

    Surveyors say output set to rise in 1999

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Confidence in the construction market has risen for the first time in two years, says a new survey. The RICS construction market survey for the fourth quarter of 1998 showed the number of firms expecting output to increase over the next 12 months was up 7% on the previous ...

  • News

    QS courts mystery partner

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Top 20 quantity surveyor McBains Cooper is understood to be in talks over a possible merger with a mystery partner. A McBains spokeswoman confirmed that a deal was in the offing but added that the company was keeping the lid on the details for the moment. It's early days ...

  • News

    Amey may up £81.5m bid for airport FM company

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Servisair criticises hostile bid as wholly inadequate ; rival bidders have two weeks to declare interest.

  • News

    Ashe Construction divides to multiply

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Hertfordshire-based Ashe Construction has announced a shake-up aimed at taking the company into the big time. The company is to split into three divisions operating from offices in Southampton, London and Hitchin, Hertfordshire, with the Hitchin office overseeing the other two. Chairman Robert Blake said the centralised structure ...

  • News

    Laing beats Bovis to 1998 number one

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Contracts worth £1.37bn keep Laing on top in chart of 1998 as Tarmac takes monthly honours.

  • Features

    Why the new parliamentary building is costing £1.2m for each MP

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    Portcullis House is a building with a unique function on a uniquely difficult, uniquely expensive site you'd expect it to come in a little over the odds. But Building has obtained a full cost breakdown that tells a tale of exorbitant specifications and horrendous professional fees.

  • Features

    The man on the tube

    1999-01-29T00:00:00Z

    QS Rafudin Bacchus played a feckless loafer in Channel 4's post-pub sitcom Tottenham 2, but now he's back on the job with London Underground. So, where does his heart really belong?