Hansom: Drying up

A serious drink problem

Prohibition-like conditions have taken effect at consultant EC Harris after the office bar was closed a month ago when someone forgot to renew the licence. So, perhaps it’s little surprise that it was packed out when the management got a temporary licence for parent company Arcadis’ 120th anniversary last week. Socialising conditions once again resembled twenties America the next day, but thirsty QSs have been assured that a new licence will be in place before the festive drinking season gets into gear.

Tough on the causes of homes

An excellent line-up for the NHBC’s annual lunch last week with, among others, shadow chancellor Ed Balls launching Labour initiatives on housing and infrastructure. Balls was doing his best to reassure a sceptical audience that he really isn’t a centralist planner with socialist leanings. Rather than accuse housebuilders of land-banking, as his leader Ed Miliband has done, he simply said a Labour government would look at whether land-banking was occurring “as some allege”. He also, curiously, referred to the success when in office of Labour’s “zero homes” policy. Presumably a mangled reference to the 2016 zero-carbon homes target. However, given that some in the industry feel that Labour’s plans to take land off housebuilders if they don’t build on it quickly will have exactly the opposite effect of what is intended, his slip may be nearer to the truth than he thought.

Powerpoint of no return

Construction Products Association economist and Building columnist Noble Francis is usually a picture of composure. But he met his match last week at the National Federation of Builders’ (NFB) conference in London in the form of a misbehaving Powerpoint presentation. In the sort of situation that would give any public speaker nightmares, Francis quickly found his slides were not loading on the big screen behind him. After a few moments of exasperated clicking, he finally got them moving … only for them all to race by to the end in a matter of seconds. “This is going to really throw me,” he admitted.

Child’s play

Also at the NFB conference, the government’s head of BIM implementation David Philp shamed any BIM refuseniks in the audience with the revelation that his seven-year-old daughter had designed a building using BIM. Admittedly it had been a Lego building, but Philp proudly said it had been “digitally procured” (using the Lego online store) and showed a picture of his daughter with the completed project. One contractor was overheard afterwards saying: “If a child can do it I must be overpaying my BIM guy.”

Recipes for charity success

Construction and cooking collide once more in the form of a charity cookbook produced by the RICS. The institution has form in this area, after its successful MasterChef competition earlier this year raised £12,000 for homelessness charity Crash. The cookbook features recipe contributions from high-profile figures in cooking and property, including Building editor Sarah Richardson. Crash is once more the beneficiary. The RICS Charity Cookbook is available to purchase online at rics.org/cookbook or in person at the London Bookshop at RICS HQ, Parliament Square.