Opinion – Page 389
-
Comment
Golden opportunities
I have lived and worked in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia, over the past 25 years and never regretted a minute of it. Some of my friends have been there for more than 30 years.
-
Comment
Rethinking Britain
Historically the construction industry has been used as either a brake or an accelerator for the UK economy – subject to the whims of the party in power
-
Comment
Not-so-lucky dip
As a bricklayer with 24 years’ experience in the subcontracting game, it is with some relief that my son and I no longer subcontract
-
CommentOne hell of a job
So are we all agreed, then? What the government needs is a construction industry that is able to turn public investment into buildings and jobs
-
CommentWhat remains
The housebuilding industry that emerges from this recession will bear little resemblance to the one that grew out of the nineties slump
-
Comment
Private housing starts dive well below levels in 1980s and 1990s recessions
Housing starts in England plunged in the final quarter of last year to levels not seen in modern times.At the depth of the last house building recession during the worst three month period at the end of 1992 private firms started 19,227 homes. In the final quarter of 2008 just ...
-
Comment
War, Peace and Taylor Wimpey
“I am so fed up with this process.”This was the verdict of someone involved in the fraught and never-ending Taylor Wimpey debt talks this week.They were referring to the latest delay in signing off on a restructuring deal that has been more than six months in the making.Pen was expected ...
-
Comment
Inflation, deflation, Japan and paradoxes
So consumer price inflation isn't falling as fast as many commentators had expected. Is that a surprise? Well not really.Ok there are lags in the systems. But with oil price falls, the cut in VAT and deep discounting the big plot twists pre-Christmas, it was hard to see where the ...
-
Comment
More buyers sniffing around for bargain buys in the housing market, says RICS
More green shoots appear to be sprouting in the housing market with the surveyors' body RICS finding an increase in interest among potential homebuyers over the past three months.Sensibly RICS economists are not getting over excited by this, after all interest from buyers was at basement levels and was almost ...
-
Comment
Could buying up unsold private stock be stifling social house construction?
Is it just me, or is there a link between the deals being struck through the Government's National Clearing House to take unsold private homes into the social sector and the recent collapse in new construction orders for social house building?I ask because I have been doing some analysis and ...
-
CommentThis is an emergency
The argument this week over whether Ed Balls meant to say we were in the worst recession for 100 years may have caused mild hysteria in the media, but it won’t have raised many eyebrows in construction
-
Comment
The FD revolving door keeps spinning
Another week, another new finance director.The latest move sees David Wilton promoted to take over the reins from Bob Hartley at White Young Green. The reshuffle sees Hartley move sideways to become services director as WYG braces itself for the recession.The last few months have seen FD changes at Atkins, ...
-
CommentThe new realism
The economic downturn isn’t without its consolations. It seems to be ushering in a new age of collaboration in construction and a more sober reckoning of what we’re about
-
CommentBuilding buys a pint... for East
East are a busy lot. In December last year they landed the job of working out what should happen to the whole district of Farringdon over the next 25 years, including planting a Crossrail station in the Smithfield meat market area
-
CommentBecause we care
Not yet found the perfect gift for your loved one? How about a bottle of Zaha perfume, a £100m apartment or two or maybe just a trip to the UK’s most romantic building? Wherever that may be...
-
CommentThe choice is theirs
In response to your article on the Greater London Authority’s housing targets ("London council in crisis talks over affordable homes target,"), the GLA’s approach is based on realism and focuses on working closely with local councils
-
Comment
Like with like
With reference to the issue of foreign trades taking UK jobs, while the government is correct in stating that we can all apply for these jobs, that everything is fair and square and minimum wage laws and so on are covered, this does not mean that the wages paid to ...
-
Comment
Local difficulty
Your correspondents, Patrick Cooper and Sally Hughes, do not want the John Roan School to move to a new site on the Greenwich Peninsula as part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. They are perfectly entitled to their views, although I do not myself agree with them.
-
Comment
It's simple really
To meet the BSF programme, we need to respond to the current financial environment