All Features articles – Page 570
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Features
Mild, green, fairly liquid
Lord Falconer's planning green paper was designed to clean up the system by cutting through stubborn layers of built-up bureaucracy – but turns out to be a bit of a wash-out.
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FeaturesSwiss ease
From the land of chocolate and cheese comes another remarkable product – a slot-together modular building system, not unlike Lego, called Steko. Marcus Fairs went to see the first UK project to use the blocks – a cliff-top home in Cornwall
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Features
Community test
In the first in our series of revisits, Alan Cherry, chairman of developer Countryside Properties, meets one of his customers at the Greenwich Millennium Village to review the successes and failures of the country's highest-profile sustainable community
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Features
The colour of money
Do housebuilders have to go into the red in order to turn green? It looks like they do, because putting in ecological features can be so expensive that payback times may never come.
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FeaturesChris Mellor
Some people might think AWG's admission that it paid £22m over the odds for contractor Morrison is a cause for embarrassment. But, as Victoria Madine discovered, the water group's chief executive isn't one of them.
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Features
Five effects of company car tax changes
Large cars face heavier taxationFrom this April, tax on company cars will be based on carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre – so large vehicles with high fuel consumption will be hardest hit. A top-rate tax payer driving a £20,000 BMW 318 could end up £400 a year worse off.Employees could ...
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FeaturesGreen and bright
The team behind the timber-clad, grass-roofed techno-home known as the Integer House is to make a start on raising the IQ and lowering the energy bills of the rest of the country’s housing stock.
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Features
New breed of Eco flats
Manchester is to accommodate one of the first of a new breed of green high-rise housing blocks, with the development of an eco-tower at Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments’ Macintosh Village.
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Features
Appointments
Contractors CH Pearce has appointed Martyn Price, previously with Uniq, health and safety manager. Makers UK, part of the Keller Group, has appointed Andrew Hammond (left) managing director. Midas Group has appointed Murdo Mace managing director of Midas Construction and Paul Barber managing director of Midas Property Services.Mark Cardwell has ...
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Features
The ABC of CPD
Eleanor Cochrane speaks to Joni Tyler, head of the RIBA CPD Providers Network, about how continuing professional development can benefit your business
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FeaturesHanif Kara
Hanif Kara, founding partner of structural engineer Adams Kara Taylor, knows that image can be crucial when you're building a business. So how come he's so nervous telling Marcus Fairs about his own?
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Features
The roads to freedom
The workplace can be a tyranny. If the customer comes first, workers must come second, and the result is stressed-out, miserable staff. Eleanor Cochrane looks at a scheme to give us our lives back, plus a chance to record your views and an account of a firm that's got it ...
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Features
Five tips on how small firms can help staff juggle work and life
Develop clear guidelines - establish what the procedures are for changing hours, and outline which job roles have scope for flexible working. Clear guidelines will help counter any accusations that some employees appear to have more help than others.Consider the organisation’s culture - sometimes long hours are a necessity when ...
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FeaturesWorking with Christopher Wren
Greenwich's Old Royal Naval College is arguably the finest collection of early modern buildings in the UK. After being taken over by Greenwich University, it became what must be the most sensitive refurbishment project in Britain. Thomas Lane finds out how it was done.
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Features
Builder's craic exposed
The dark winter days are upon us and we all need cheering up a bit. So for one week only, Building throws political correctness out of the window, gathers its readers round the hearth and tells tales of the funnier side of site life …
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Features
Flexibility benefits
Why companies that don't promote a work–life balance are making a false economy
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Features
Bending the rules
If government proposals on flexible working become law, what will the consequences be for employers? Angela Daw explains all you need to know
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Features
Tender price forecast: Maintaining balance
So, how has the industry fared since the tumultuous events of 11 September? Surprisingly well, in fact. Despite continuing uncertainty, Davis Langdon & Everest reports that tender prices are still on the up, new orders are holding up and the private commercial sector is still leading robust growth
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Features
Appointments
ContractorsMalcolm Ward, former southern area manager for Galliford Midlands, has joined Try Accord as commercial business unit director.Willmott Dixon has appointed John Cooper construction manager.HousebuildersJayne Turpin, previously with Alfred McAlpine Homes, has joined Cala Homes as field sales manager.Ward Homes Anglia has appointed Sue Dance area sales manager.Millwood Designer Homes ...