All Leader articles – Page 31
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CommentDo the right thing
It’s just a coincidence, of course, but the opaque sky over Britain this week accurately reflects the overcast mood in much of the construction industry.
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CommentInnocence abroad
Schools are out, summer is here and the mind naturally turns to jetting off (or, for the more environmentally squeamish, catching a train) to foreign climes
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CommentPublic madness
Not another one! That is the initial reaction to the news that the Rafael Viñoly-designed visual arts centre in Colchester languishes unfinished while its contractor and client squabble over the escalating budget.
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CommentThe path to happiness
Happiness, there’s not too much of it around in construction at the moment.
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CommentSinging the blues
What a diabolical week. The swingeing job cuts – 4,000 across publicly quoted companies alone – make painful reading and all the signs are that things are going to get an awful lot worse.
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CommentChina goes to town
China is ravenous for British expertise. And no wonder: in 20 years’ time it could account for more than half of the global market for construction services
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CommentThe flood plan
Amazingly, we’ve got yet another challenge to contend with when we build, but this time it’s long overdue.
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CommentState aid
So, is the industry about to enter a more enlightened era? That’s the idea behind this week’s launch of an industry–government manifesto for improving construction’s performance in several key areas, from sustainability in the ecological sense to sustainability in training and recruitment.
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CommentJust no more U-turns, OK?
Gordon Brown is probably regretting a number of things right now – the 10p tax debacle, Crewe and Nantwich by-election tactics, and the sly assault on gas-guzzling cars in the last Budget spring readily to mind.
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CommentWhat happens in the second act?
After what has seemed like endless dithering on the part of the government, and endless lobbying campaigns by the interested parties, the reform of the 1996 Construction Act is finally on its way.
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CommentIt just gets worse
When the Office of Fair Trading accuses the supermarkets of price fixing, consumers don’t demand assurances at the checkout that the butter they’re buying has been fairly priced.
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CommentParadise postponed
You don’t hear much about Sir John Egan these days. Integrated teams, lean construction, innovation … all the great doctrines he set out in Rethinking Construction back in 1998 have faded with the years. It’s not hard to see why.
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CommentMarket testing sustainability
Is sustainability going to be the next casualty of the credit crunch? With houses recording their first annual fall for 12 years, and Tony Pidgley describing the crisis as worse than the nineties, it’s hard to imagine consumers squandering their angst on solar panels.
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CommentIn urgent need of repair
What a shabby week it’s been for construction. In fact, one of the shabbiest weeks in living memory.
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CommentSquashed flat
So farewell to Erinaceous, possibly the most bizarrely named company in the construction sector: the hedgehog has finally curled into a ball and rolled out of the door.
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CommentSurvival of the fittest
At the start of the year we carried a comment piece from David Pretty, the former Barratt chief executive, detailing two scenarios that housebuilders would have in place in the run-up to the spring selling season.
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CommentAll your regs in one basket
Hallelujah. The government is finally taming the Building Regulations.