Opinion – Page 634
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CommentFront line
High land prices are squeezing housing associations out of building homes, says Peter Hibbert, but Richard Donnell says there are plenty of opportunities if associations market their skills
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Hands off our law
Appeal judges have given adjudication a rough ride recently. They should remember that the industry likes it and it's up to parliament to make the laws
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Talking shop 'til you drop
The Society for Construction Law is a hotbed of ideas and opinions, as this year's Hudson Prize results show. That's why it shouldn't have a single voice
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Land and freedom
How far should Whitehall intervene in the housing crisis? Last week's disclosures that the House Builders Federation is lobbying Downing Street to get more land for homes and that Lord Falconer is planning "prefabs for key workers" (see news) has polarised opinion. Interventionists argue that the shortage of homes for ...
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Just my opinion …
The principles outlined in Constructing the Team were created on a commonsense, rather than expert, basis. So have they actually been adopted?
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The ASP with a sting in its tail
Using extranets to transmit documents can save a fortune, write Gillian Birkby and Jon Nugent. But what if the system crashes or, even worse, the application service provider becomes insolvent?
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Prepare for the high jump
Faced with hefty insurance premium hikes, it's tempting to increase the excess you pay or reduce cover. Don't do it – there are other ways over this hurdle
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A fiasco in extra time
'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go – again. It came as no surprise to the construction or soccer fraternities that the latest round of the epic Wembley Stadium fixture slipped into extra time this week (page 11). As the government's 30 April deadline passed, a German bank ...
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The Top Scam Awards
OK, they're not the most prestigious accolades, but the prize ceremony for concocting those ways to wriggle out of the Construction Act can still reduce you to tears
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It's a side issue
Judges are getting to like adjudication. But they're going to like it a whole lot more when adjudicators can demonstrate a judicial fairness when deciding cases
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Silence isn't golden
You might not be in agreement with someone, but are you in dispute? It's an old issue, and the precedents are confusing – just make sure you speak up
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European antifreeze
Karl vs Palisade showed that if you freeze a debtor's assets, the human rights lawyers get you. Now it seems they'll pounce even if you just freeze the money
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Strength in perversity
These days, a building's quality is defined by whether it works as an advertisement for itself – a fact brought home by one wilful masterpiece that doesn't
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The reckoning
Is adjudication living up to our hopes? Hardly, when it has increased disputes, failed to deal satisfactorily with complex cases and become prey to bully-boy tactics
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One way to look at it
A firm working for Alfred McAlpine put a whole load of different disputes in one basket and presented it to an adjudicator … What happened next?
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Prudence's big gamble
So, what did Gordon Brown do for – or to – us in the Budget? Depending on your degree of cynicism, he either put 42 new hospitals in the post, or republicised those already sent. Either way, the good news is that a glistening 21-century NHS will boost employment through ...
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Business as usual
The City largely ignores construction, believing it to be far too risky an enterprise. We should return the compliment and just get on with making money