More news – Page 3561
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Comment
Quality over quantity
Your editorial on Building Schools for the Future (3 November, page 3) got the wrong end of the stick. The real challenge for Tim Byles is not to deliver 3,500 schools or to spend £45bn; it is to find a way to marry quantity with quality.
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CommentBSF fails the history test
Building Schools for the Future may be in deep trouble. After a six-month review, Pricewaterhouse Coopers is expected to supply a solution.
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Comment
Less competition won’t help
There is no such thing as a free lunch, especially with consultants or bidders. Someone has to pay. Your editorial about school bids urges less competition and less regulation. Three bids are the minimum basis for competitive tenders to indicate the area of price. Extend your logic, why have any ...
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Comment
A lesson plan
What a sad story of waste and stupidity (3 November). In a week when our children are reported to be the worst in Europe, our government creates so much red tape that it costs a contractor £2m to be unsuccessful in bidding for Building Schools for the Future.
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Comment
Don’t close the college!
We the undersigned are all leaders in the construction industry, and we back the National Construction College in its fight for survival. Your editorial piece and associated feature (Building, 29 September) highlighted perfectly the scale of the investment challenge that the College faces.
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CommentDon’t try this at home, kids
We’re doing wrong by our children all over the letters page this week. Andy Hopkins, a planning supervisor at BCHT Group, sent us this snap of devil-may-care window fitters in a Bradford school zone. Should do wonders for construction recruitment …
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FeaturesFoster joins the pod people
This Toronto university faculty looks like a tribute to Will Alsop, but it’s a very Foster building, too
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CommentHow to play the green card
David Cameron rode into Westminster on his bicycle almost a year ago as the new leader of the opposition, and promptly captured the high ground on what is becoming the leading domestic issue of the day – climate change.
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CommentMake time wasters pay
At the moment there is no bill for court costs but action needs to be taken against defendants who insist on playing silly games and pile up court costs on the way
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Comment
First, engage the brain
What do Olympic venues and nuclear decommissioning have in common? Both require contracts that force the project team to think through everything that is to happen – which makes them ideal for NEC3
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FeaturesToday India, tomorrow the world
Cyril Sweett boss Dean Webster on the firm’s plans for international growth
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FeaturesFive days in June
Although it’s mostly a question of hobnobbing and hats, the punters at Royal Ascot do like to see the races as well. Mark Leftly and Tom Broughton report on why its new grandstand was built with restricted views, and what’s being done to put it right
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Features‘I can’t tell you on the hoof what our policy would be’
Finding out where David Cameron stands on the big questions is a tricky matter, but at least he is starting by putting his own house in order. Thomas Lane spoke exclusively to the Tory leader, then met the architect and builder who are tackling the green makeover of his family ...
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Features130 go mad in Stockholm
Give 130 young engineers £65,000 and a conference hall in Stockholm and what do you get? Emily Wright discovered the answer at WSP’s latest Taskforce jamboree
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NewsOlympic boss Shiplee calls for open relationship with industry
In his first interview since taking on the role of construction director at the Olympic Delivery Authority, Howard Shiplee, has called for a professional and open relationship with the industry.
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News
Climate change bill to improve housing stock
The government has highlighted the importance of improving the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock as part of a package of climate change measures outlined in the Queen’s speech.
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News
Reverse e-auction launched
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is launching a reverse e-auction framework to procure construction materials for the education sector.
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NewsCameron sketches in green policies
Conservative leader David Cameron this week outlined his commitment to promoting greener business practices in an interview with Building.