Opinion – Page 365
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Comment
CML provides further evidence of the housing market becoming more buoyant
The Council of Mortgage Lenders today adds yet more weight to the view that the housing market is in a period of stability if not growth.Its June figures show a 23% increase in the number of home loans over the past month taking the total to a level not seen ...
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Comment
Survey shows widening North-South house price divide
The latest RICS survey out today adds yet more evidence to suggest a widening north-south gap in the housing market.Prices are now rising robustly in the equity-rich, high housing-demand south, while for most of Britain house prices remain on a downward slope. The exception to the north-south split is Scotland, ...
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Comment
Construction trade survey confirms worsening slump
The latest trade survey covering both the contracting and materials sectors underlines both the depth and the rate of decline in the construction sector with pessimism rampant across all sectors.As in all surveys there are glimmers of light and hope. The survey, compiled by the Construction Products Association, showed that ...
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Comment
Forecasters call the bottom of the house price slump
The increasing stretch of stable house prices is leading forecasters to call the bottom of the slump.The Nationwide late last month tentatively said it may be time to think the unthinkable that house prices may exit 2009 higher than they entered it.Last week much was made of the RICS saying ...
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Comment
Could the torment almost be over?
After 17 months of unrelenting torment, it looks like the UK construction sector is finally a step closer to recovery as the July CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index highlighted the slowest pace of decline since March last year (see index).This progress is largely on the back of an improvement in the ...
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CommentProve your worth: Net worth test
Money matters Banks looking to safeguard funding have a new test for construction projects’ guarantors, but how will it affect contractors?
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Comment
Let control take control
Your leader column (24 July, page 3) illustrates both the increasing complexity of trying to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and the growing potential role for building control in ensuring that this is done
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Comment
As a matter of tax
As somebody who has spent 47 years in the industry, with every penny earned being subject to PAYE, I think we are missing a fundamental point in this debate (24 July, page 9)
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CommentWe have a problem
It’s interesting that you have a health and safety blunders section highlighting, visually, people doing crazy things that put their and others lives in danger
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Comment
Flaws in Murphys law
I welcome Jim Murphy’s proposals to create almost 3,000 jobs for young unemployed people across Scotland through the Future Jobs Forum – including in hard-hit sectors such as construction
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Comment
Exaggerated defects
John Hughes D’Aeth (24 July, page 48) makes some valid claims about the value of latent defects insurance (LDI) but says it is no replacement for collateral warranties
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Comment
Its a mystery
I was interested to read the letter from James Preston-Hood (July 24, page 29) regarding the plethora of safety assessment schemes
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Comment
Positive thinking
With regards to the article “New zero-carbon definition cuts cost of home by £11k” (24 July, page 13)
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CommentWoolwich bridge: Crossings out
The Thames Gateway is being stymied by the lack of a bridge downriver of Woolwich. So, asks Nick Raynsford, why does the present mayor of London have no plans to build one?
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Comment
Wonders & Blunders
Bel Mooney can see the point of contemporary architecture when she looks at Calatrava’s Milwaukee pavilion – whereas a Bath hotel just shows up the mistakes of the modern age
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CommentHansom: Sporting life
Some unusual sports are cropping up across the industry, including in-office thought tennis, architectural gymnastics, extreme biking and Olympic-level prevarication. Go team!
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CommentAnyone for a free lunch?
Do clients want to dump frameworks so they can sit back and watch contractors desperate for work fight it out like dogs?
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CommentDesigner egotism: Delusions of adequacy
Architects who listen to their ‘inner voice’ and not the client produce bad buildings. It’s the deadly sin of designer egotism, says Robert Adam, and it makes us strangers in our homes
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Comment
Ignore those saying new construction orders are on the rise
I feel sure there will be someone penning near euphoric words about the 18% rise in orders in the second quarter, which is the opening line of the statistical bulletin released today.Ignore it.The new orders figures bounce about like a drugged kangaroo at a rave party, only it's tougher to ...