All Comment articles – Page 59
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NewsTwo arms tied behind our back
Open mike It is in the interests of both landlords and tenants to improve a property’s energy efficiency - but they won’t until we change the law that constrains them
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CommentFalling mortgage approvals indicate gloomier times
House price indices are less helpful for forecasters when housing transactions are low
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CommentHansom: Tough sells
The Conservative housing minister at the Lib Dem party conference, a strangely familiar ’iconic’ development in Dubai and a super-luxe London apartment with its own secret tunnel
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Comment
Spending cuts: Education was just the start...
After the shock of the education spending massacre, the cutbacks will probably provoke despair rather than anger
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NewsQuestion time for Cameron
The Tory conference is going to be subjected to minute scrutiny in the hope that ministers will fill in some of the many blanks in policy. Sarah Richardson and Roxane McMeeken list the most important
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CommentNot with a bang but a whimper
We’re fighting our corner with all the eloquence and ferocity of a strangled budgie, and as yet more thousands are laid off, no one is there to so much as protest at our fate, says Richard Steer
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CommentLib Dems pick a row over education
Passions run high at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool as they debate free schools and the ’new’ academies
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CommentLess really is less
To retrofit a building for energy efficiency, it’s no good tinkering with insulation or installing a heat pump. Only whole-structure solutions will change our future
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Comment
Maglev's inflexible
The only problem with maglev (and the reason it is not being adopted widely, even in China) is its inflexibility and inability to handle the passenger flows moving between cities (3 September, page 38).
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Comment
How much wood?
I found the words in Building’s leader (27 August, page 3) and the article on timber frame fire risk (page 9) incredible
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CommentHansom: Leaping lizards
There’s much hurling this week as industry leaders chuck themselves off buildings, press officers throw themselves into their work and Ann Widdecombe launches herself into the highland fling
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CommentThe industry that played with fire
David Hayhow gives an insurer’s-eye view of the row over whether timber frame is a safe construction material. As you might expect, he has some fundamental concerns
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CommentDonkey work and urban planning
A Kenyan island with an unusual freight-transportation system has inspired Amanda Levete to think again about designing for cities without cars
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Comment
Tradition be damned
Ah, the past, how it used to be (Inbox, The silent QSs, 10 September, page 22).
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CommentGreat crested newts!
As your recent article describes (27 August, page 36), the scale of the London Gateway Development - and the fact that the site lies at the heart of one of Europe’s most important estuary and wetland habitats - presents unique challenges
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FeaturesThe collapse of Connaught
The Sidmouth concrete specialist that morphed into a £600m social housing contractor was one of the greatest success stories of the past 30 years, and one of the landmarks of the industry. Andrew Hankinson reports on why it fell - and if the banks should have saved it
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Comment
The big squeeze
Connaught’s difficulties have highlighted what most of us who work in the social housing repairs sector are already aware of
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CommentBeware Greeks bearing gifts
One lesson the Connaught story tells us is that clients are too ready to accept prices that aren’t sustainable
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CommentKicking out the jams: Academies framework
If contractors were peeved at not being on the academies framework before, they’ll be shedding some tears after the latest piece of news…