Opinion – Page 366
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Comment
ConstructionSkills' three-card trick
Has anybody out in the real world actually spotted the three-card trick that the CITB is pulling on the industry that is taxed by government to pay its staff wages?We all pay a building-industry-only tax. The only two sure things in life are death and taxes, and since in the ...
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Comment
RICS: Housing market remains fragile, despite recent improvement
The message from the latest update on the housing market from the surveyors' body RICS is that while the market may have found a clearing it is not out of the woods yet.There has been a torrent of better news on the housing market with both the Nationwide and the ...
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Comment
The blame game
Here we go again. This week has seen a fresh round of HBOS-bashing after Lloyds revealed a £13.4bn hit due to bad loans – 80% of which came from HBOS.Most of that 80% would have been the responsibility/fault of former head of corporate banking Peter Cummings, the man no journalist ...
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Comment
Supporting innovation in a downturn
Help is at hand for those firms looking to capitalise when market conditions improve. For eco inventors in the East of England, BRE has set up an enterprise hub to offer advice to innovative SMEs on bringing sustainable technologies to market. Meanwhile in Wales British Gas is opening a centre ...
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Comment
Small steps
“She’s so good she should have been a bloke.” That was the comment from the chief executive of one of the industry’s largest companies after a meeting a super-smart analyst. It was a throwaway remark, but it’s redolent of the culture that survives in an industry that is still overwhelming ...
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Comment
CIPS talk of optimism is baffling
The CIPS appeared to be putting a rather positive spin on its July figures for construction activity on the back of a slowdown in the pace of decline and swelling optimism among its respondents.The press release reads: "Optimism about future activity levels in twelve months' time continued to increase in ...
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Comment
Now is the time to protect the specialist
Much of my time as the owner manager of an architectural mouldings contractor is spent with clients and architects helping them realise their dreams.We are always expected to do this for free. When I first entered the industry in the early eighties we would get fully-designed finishes that required us ...
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Comment
Why contractors can't help suicidal bidding when the workload turns down
The most concerning issue now facing construction as it dives deeper into recession is that of firms taking on work at less than cost.This is not sustainable business behaviour.More than falling workloads, falling prices defined the chaos that ravaged the industry during the recession of the 1990s.Worryingly, there are the ...
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CommentBuilding buys a pint … for Trident Building Consultancy
“So what do you want to talk about then?”
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Comment
A question of honour
Chris Cole, chief executive of WSP, was careful not to be drawn on the thorny subject of bad debt in the Middle East, as he announced the engineer’s half-year results this weekWhen asked about his talks with UAE developers and the possibility of fee cuts, he wisely offered a “no ...
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CommentHansom: The butterfly effect
The law of unintended consequences demonstrates its power, as the simplest of actions dooms nasal cells, the reputation of architects, two counties and millions upon millions of aphids
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Comment
A game of risk
Housing minister John Healey says the government is looking at a different kind of housebuilding model (17 July, page 12), “less development-based, and almost contractual”, which is designed to overcome “housebuilders’ reliance on the development land market”
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Comment
Forget the umbrellas
The government would be better off not tying all educational projects up in massive, cumbersome framework packages
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CommentHelp the aged
Regarding the news that Part L may or will force historic buildings to be energy efficient (24 July, page 38), I am a director of estates for a university and therefore have to deal with the dilemmas of conserving listed buildings while complying with the burgeoning legislation from the eco-warriors ...
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Comment
Stirling pounded
The Stirling prize is an inward-looking, self-congratulatory lovefest for architects and other associated luvvies to cuddle up to each other
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Comment
Big is beautiful
The article about David Fison downsizing from Skanska to Osborne (24 July, page 30) was interesting. We have gone through a similar process over the past few years
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Comment
Money management
As a keen supporter of, and a specialist in, all things NEC, I am biased, but Rudi Klein’s article is excellent (24 July, page 45)
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CommentIt's all in the game: Adjudication
Parties in a dispute set all sorts of rules and try all manner of tactics on each other, but adjudicators need to resist the temptation to join in the game
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Comment
Don't be absurd: Challenging a contract
If the meaning of a contract term is unclear, can it be challenged? A recent House of Lords judgment said yes – but there may be conditions
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CommentJustice for all: Cost of litigation
Lord Justice Jackson is worried about cases in which the legal costs are so disproportionate that small firms are denied access to the High Court. So he’s got some suggestions