All Letters articles – Page 83
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Comment
Same old story
As I read Tom Potbury’s article about age discrimination (16 September) I must confess to a wry smile.
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Comment
Ruskin and retentions
The letter from Peter Whitbread (16 September) on the subject of retentions requires a response.
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A load of hot air
With reference to your article about the failure of natural ventilation systems (9 September), we can identify with many of the points made in the article.
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Oi! Mr Blitz! No!
Perusing the September edition of Regenerate, mainly to note how the South-east is going to “cock up” the London Olympics, I read with interest the article by Roger Blitz concerning the Muslim community.
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Comment
True colours
As a 26-year-old building surveyor working for a large contractor, I had hoped that your graduate article (16 September) would have addressed all the issues the construction industry faces.
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Comment
How to get paid
After reading the article on proposed reforms to the Construction Act to address payment abuse (2 September), I’d like to draw attention to a simple solution – the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998: Agree payment terms at the outset of a deal and stick to them;Explain your ...
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Short on time
Your opening statement “Ask anyone in construction what the biggest problem they face is and there is just one answer: the skills shortage” (16 September) caught my attention. Is the skills shortage really the biggest problem for construction people?
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Comment
Taxman tales
With reference to JT Emanuel’s letter on plans to revise the CIS (9 September), he says “part of the blame for the Revenue not taking any notice [of industry complaints] lies in the fact that the industry’s negotiators are not builders”.
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Comment
We’re not using CDM right
Any attempt to get the industry to recognise the financial and other benefits to be gained from improved logistics is to be applauded.
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Comment
Recycling centre is rubbish
I was astonished to read in Specifier (9 September) that one of the North London Waste and Recycling Centres is described as “an absolute Rolls-Royce of a job”.
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Partners in crime
I sit and wonder whether Egan’s theory of partnering “twice as much for half the price” will ever be as famous as Einstein’s formula for the relationship between mass and energy, E=mc2. Partnering is the new “in thing” and at least 50% of local authorities are attempting to do it. ...
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Comment
Watching the defectives
Regarding your piece on defects in new homes (9 September): the research undertaken within the School of the Built & Natural Environment, at Glasgow Caledonian University, is based on more than 100,000 pieces of data relating to defects in a broad range of house types, constructed by more than 200 ...
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Recruitment faces dire future
Your article outlining the current recruitment problems in Essex (9 September, page 110) failed to mention three other developments that will “make high demands upon the local construction industry”. These are the Thames and Haven Gateways projects, both of which provide for thousands of homes and huge industrial and commercial ...
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Why retentions must go
I read your article “Blood and money” (2 September) with great interest.
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Comment
… Or how about a £500 answer?
We are a small company with a turnover of £1m and have worked successfully with small and major contractors. In all cases 100% of funds are released on completion of our works.
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Why can’t we be more German?
The article on logistics in the UK is timely. If our recent experience as a small firm of architects is anything to go by, our German cousins beat us hands down. We needed eight 250 kg L-shaped pre-cast concrete units for a client near the M25 and found that British ...
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An eye to the future
I would like to point out that the South Bank Centre is not seeking to increase the rent for the BA London Eye from £65,000 to £2.5m as stated in your issue of 2 September (page 15 - see related articles). The South Bank Centre and Bromley council, which has ...
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Comment
Four years later
I write as the author of the DTI/Bovis Lend Lease report on the Mid City Place project in London, which was referred to in your article “Driving us crazy”, (2 September - see related articles). Although it is pleasing to see that Mid City Place still being held up as ...
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Comment
Local jobs for local people
In the 12 August issue of Building there is an article entitled “Ethnic minority firm gets helping hand in Burnley” (page 18 - see related articles). The implication of this article – the same implication as contained in a separate recent article in Building about social enterprises – is that ...