Opinion – Page 364
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Comment
Summer sale has started in the housing market, says Rightmove
Today's Rightmove figures showing a drop of 2.2% in the price sellers are asking for their homes provides a reminder of the need to remain cautious about the direction of the housing market.The numbers are obviously being spun to point to the £5,000 drop in prices providing summer bargains to ...
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CommentPartnerships for Schools: How to get our fingers burnt
It may be more the season for barbecues than bonfires, but the trail of lighter fuel moved a bit closer to one of the most influential quangos in construction this week.
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Comment
RICS survey finds some breathing space before the real storm hits
The surveyors' body RICS found that public sector funding was providing some much needed relief for the construction sector.The shift in the numbers in its construction market survey was quite marked. The balance of firms seeing a decline in workload reduced to -26 from the -45 figure in the first ...
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Comment
Partnerships for Schools: How to get our fingers burnt
It may be more the season for barbecues than bonfires, but the trail of lighter fuel moved a bit closer to one of the most influential quangos in construction this week.Pressure has been mounting on Partnerships for Schools, the body in charge of more than £50bn of the education budget, ...
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CommentWaterworld
Liquid leisure is the order of the day this summer, whether it’s sailing the ocean waves, watching a play in the pouring rain or quaffing ale. Some people are even spending their hols designing WCs
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Comment
Copy-cat consultancy
McBains Cooper is a very happy construction consultancy this week. After all, we’ve just been handed the biggest piece of flattery I think we’ve ever had
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Comment
One giant leap for womankind
The work of organisations such as Women in Property may represent “one small step” (31 July, page 3), but the strides have got noticeably longer
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Comment
Martial bliss
Great to hear about the rise of women in the RIBA, RICS, RSPCA, etc (31 July, page 3) but the one thing you missed was that women are far better than men at getting money paid at a contracting business
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Comment
A fracas on the home front
Jon Neale (7 August, page 19) reaches the very doubtful conclusion that building homes for owner occupation will set the scene for a domestic version of the US sub-prime debacle
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CommentEU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive: The writing on the wall
The EU will soon be changing its directive on the energy performance of buildings. All well and good, says David Strong, but its plans for display certificates make no sense at all
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CommentIf at first you don’t succeed: Adjudication
Adjudication works best when each chunk is bite-sized, but that doesn’t mean you can keep bringing the same piece back again until you get the decision you want
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Comment
Much obliged: Infrastructure contributions
Many local authorities are demanding standard infrastructure contributions when they are not due at all. So can developers question this?
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CommentBeing a sport
Cricket and rugby have much to teach construction. Not least, as the last Ashes test so abundantly demonstrated, how to lose with dignity
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CommentBuilding buys a pint … for 39 essex street chambers
This is my first Building Buys a Pint, but I learn quickly: if you want to get a group of people together and talk about something other than work, don’t pick barristers or a bar which one of the senior partners part-owns
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Comment
Hold on to your cash
You know you are too old for a recession when you measure how well we are doing not by profit versus loss, but by the speed at which we are approaching the abyss. It really does not matter, because whatever the scenario, things are still getting worse. Yet somehow ...
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Comment
Recession deeper than we thought says Bank of England
The recession is proving to be deeper than the Bank of England expected when it previous produced an inflation report in May.That in part explains the extension of the quantitative easing programme that rather surprised many commentators.I have cut and pasted below some words of Bank of England Governor, Merveyn ...
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Comment
Redundancies in construction jump to 170,000 over 12 months
The latest employment figures show a continued shocking rate of redundacies in construction with another 42,000 jobs shed from the industry in the second quarter of this year.That makes a total of 170,000 recorded job losses over the past 12 months.The number of redundancies was slightly down on the previous ...
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Comment
How to stop suicidal bidding: punish the abusers
Let's start with an assertion: Suicidal bidding in construction is not consistent with fair trade and is not in the best interests of the consumer, the client, the industry or the long-term prosperity of the nation.It's a view. It has merit, particularly in the eyes of those who witnessed the ...