All Analysis articles – Page 24
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FeaturesSorry, but these rules don’t work
Quantity surveyors are piling pressure on the Home Office to rethink the laws that are keeping foreign workers out of the UK – and sending some badly needed ones back home.
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FeaturesEnergy rating issues: The window – a 21st century solution
Last week Building revealed that air-conditioned buildings could face a D rating when non-residential energy certificates are introduced next year. So does this mean the end of air-con? Or will tenants simply ignore the certificates when choosing their offices?
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FeaturesOut of the blue ... and into the red
A furious argument is brewing in the Treasury over a surprise change to accounting rules that could suddenly dump billions of pounds of PFI liabilities in the government’s lap. Mark Leftly looks at what the rule says, and what it could mean for Gordon Brown
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FeaturesNever again
In the past four months accidents involving tower cranes have left three people dead, including a member of the public. To prevent further fatalities Building is calling for rigorous checks, better supervision and public accountability for these potentially dangerous pieces of equipment.
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FeaturesThis is Year Zero
In 10 years’ time, the home pictured is going to be the industry’s standard product, if the government’s call for a zero carbon ‘revolution’ is successful. Vikki Miller assesses its chances
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FeaturesWho’s going to drive this?
There is only one place in Britain where crane operators are trained: the National Construction College in Norfolk. Now a decision by the local council has thwarted plans to prevent it sliding into dereliction. Sarah Richardson and Angela Monaghan look at what, if anything, can be done to retrieve the ...
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Features‘We don’t hug trees and do Kum Ba Yah’
Murray Coleman is not a man to mince his words, as Mark Leftly found when he trailed the new Bovis Lend Lease construction boss around one of the contractor’s more problematic PFI projects
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FeaturesTypical. You wait years for a report setting out government policy on vital areas like housing and transport and then three come at once …
Ahead of Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget report on Wednesday, the government released a series of weighty tomes on policy strategy. Here David Blackman and Mark Leftly provide an at-a-glance guide to them
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Features‘A lot of the guys won’t work on timber frame again’
This July, a site in north London turned into a terrifying inferno in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee. Nobody knew why. Now the London Fire Brigade has talked exclusively to Building about what happened and the dangers inherent in multistorey timber-frame sites.
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FeaturesThe abdication
Here is Richard Rogers, flanked by his heirs apparent: Ivan Harbour, on the right, and Graham Stirk. But when will the great man go? What will his successors do when he does? And in the meantime, can they stop Marco Goldschmied’s legal actions taking away their offices? Martin Spring investigates ...
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FeaturesFive days in June
Although it’s mostly a question of hobnobbing and hats, the punters at Royal Ascot do like to see the races as well. Mark Leftly and Tom Broughton report on why its new grandstand was built with restricted views, and what’s being done to put it right
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Features‘It’s a marvellous thing to do, but it’s a stupid way of doing it‘
So says the assistant headteacher of this school in Bradford, which was meant to show what the government’s flagship school building programme will do for Britain’s children. Instead, it’s more evidence of how it’s failing them.
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FeaturesOff to a trying start …
The stadium is the subject of a row before its design is even begun and the client’s chairman has departed in mysterious circumstances … Vikki Miller reports on the difficult early days of the London Olympics
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Features‘The more the OGC is decimated, the more celebration there will be’
The Office of Government Commerce spent the first six months of this year undergoing a review that questioned its very existence. Whether it lives or dies is unknown. What is certain is that it will never be the same again.
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FeaturesWe wish to make a complaint
The supply of gas, water and electricity seems to present terrible problems to the companies whose sole business is to do just that – and things are getting steadily worse. Lorraine Cushnie finds out why
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Features‘Maybe we are just waking up to a serious problem’
After two men died in a crane collapse in Battersea last week, the public suddenly started treating all cranes with suspicion. Sarah Richardson looks at whether they have good reason to
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FeaturesThe future of construction training in this country hangs on what happens to this crumbling site. Why?
By 2009, the National Construction College’s flagship facility in Bircham Newton, west Norfolk, stands a good chance of being shut down. Many industry observers will probably snigger that the construction sector cannot even build and maintain its own training centre. Unfortunately, there’s precious little to smile about.
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FeaturesBlair’s last lap
With Tony Blair fast running out of time to tackle the policy issues of central concern to the construction industry, Building spoke to 10 of its leading figures to see what they want from Blair before he goes. Or will it be left to Gordon Brown to take the baton ...
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FeaturesAmec - The reckoning
After a glorious decade at the helm of Britain’s leading construction empire, Sir Peter Mason is leaving a company suddenly engulfed by a £140m after-tax hit and a severe identity crisis. Mark Leftly reports on what went wrong
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FeaturesRun for it!
The success of the Olympics will rest on what Ray O’Rourke and the CLM consortium does in the next 90 days. Mark Leftly considers the race ahead, and how it will be tackled