Opinion – Page 393
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Comment
Act on training now
It is exciting news that the newly formed UK Contractors Group will be making the skills shortage a priority (9 January, page 15)
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Comment
From where I stand …
I have just seen the health and safety blunder photo entitled “I can’t look” (9 January, page 31) and felt it necessary to write in
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Comment
Don’t recycle
Zaha Hadid’s Guggenheim-Hermitage museum design looks just like the Phaeno Science Centre in Germany.
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Comment
Opening doors
I am a second-year occupational therapy student at Coventry University. I am interested in receiving information regarding door access for some coursework
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CommentPulling a fast one
My, some folk have been quick off the mark this year: the government on high-speed rail, Masdar on its zero-carbon accounts, Bellway’s boss on getting to work, and nearly all Dubai on Dubai’s great ‘secret’
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CommentBuilding buys a pint … Balfour Beatty’s birthday
The cold snap hasn’t broken yet and I’m shivering beneath the magnificent arch at the entrance to the Natural History Museum.
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CommentGet the mechanics right
The delays to the Learning and Skills Council’s £5bn programme to upgrade further education colleges is a stark reminder of the reality gap between the government’s desire to accelerate public programmes and its ability to actually make this happen
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Comment
NHBC figures show new home starts down 47% in 2008
The number of NHBC registrations to start building new homes fell to 106,894 in 2008, a drop of 47% on a year earlier.But it is the comparison of the final quarter of 2008 with that of 2007 that brings the true scale of the trauma in the house building market ...
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Comment
Construction output to fall to 1996 levels by 2011, says forecast
Remember the pleasure and pain of Euro '96, the rise and rise of the Spice Girls, This Life and Chris Evan's TFI Friday on TV, John Major as Prime Minister and Swampy digging in against the road builders?Well some of it came flooding back to me when I realised that ...
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Comment
Mortgage lending at 2001 level spells more bad news for home sales
Mortgage lending last year was down about 30% on the 2007 figures and in the final quarter was running at well below half the peak level, according to the latest figures from Council of Mortgage Lenders.CML expects the level of lending to drop further in coming months, which may well ...
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Comment
Construction job vacancies collapse
Record redundancies may be the headline in today's news bulletins and tomorrow's papers as the ranks of the unemployed creep towards 2 million.But in the detail of today's labour market figures of more concern to the thousands of redundant construction workers now looking for new jobs is that vacancies are ...
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Comment
Plunging sales rates in 2008 and the threat to new housing development
The latest figures show that home sales in 2008 were down 43% compared with 2007, but scarier than that is the drop in level of property transaction over the second half of last year.This poses a real threat to even "technically" viable housing schemes.Sales are running well below half of ...
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Comment
Will construction win or lose from collapsing hope in the UK economy?
We are heading into the worst peacetime economic slump since the 1930s, according to the latest forecast by the highly regarded ITEM Club.This marks a massive collapse in hope for the UK economy. Just three months ago the ITEM Club's autumn 2008 forecast carried the sub headline "...the recession in ...
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CommentWhatever possessed you?: Early partial possession
Ann Minogue If you’re lucky enough to have a tenant lined up, you might be tempted to give them partial possession so they can make an early start on their fit-out. That way madness lies…
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CommentNot a problem, a solution
Like collaborative working, being sustainable was a child of the boom years.
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CommentThat was then, this is now
The recession gives us the opportunity to explore new ideas, says Gus Alexander. And, who knows, we might even get to think beyond the certainties of our home-owning democracy
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Comment
Every man needs protection: Financial security
These days, it takes nerve to enter into ordinary commercial relations. But luckily for all you cowards out there, what you lack in courage you can make up for in paperwork
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CommentGreen Tape: Sustainability regulation
To keep up with environmental regulations, contractors must build sustainability into their contracts