More news – Page 4076
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NewsPay for your own security in Iraq, Bechtel tells contractors
Tight security and cries of 'Vultures, vultures' greet firms as they gather to hear main contractor's message
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News
Driver goes into administration
The managing director of regional contractor Driver Construction resigned this week after the firm was put into administration
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News
Inquiry to redress gender balance
The Equal Opportunities Commission is to launch an investigation into the construction industry next month after it found that only 1% of construction trainees on the government's modern apprenticeship scheme were women
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News
Second-round bids for Rochester Riverside
Architect John Thompson & Partners has put together a team to pitch for the design-led, second-round brief for the Rochester Riverside regeneration project in Kent
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Comment
Options run out
Deciding the colour of the tiles on the bathroom walls used to be the biggest choice a homebuyer had to make. Now housebuilders are producing optional extras catalogues, offering everything anyone could want. In the USA buyers spend about 10% of a new home’s sales price on extras, and although ...
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FeaturesMcCarthy & Stone asked 394 local authorities whether they had assessed the housing needs of older people.
Why does this matter? Because it is depriving elderly people of housing choice and making it difficult for retirement housebuilders to meet the increasing demand for their product.
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Comment
The great public–private divide
As a practicing architect and a judge for different housing design awards, I am acutely aware of the issues at the sharp end of the housebuilding industry.
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Features(Where) The mummy lives
They may have taken longer to build than planned, but judging by their popularity, there's no curse on Crest Nicholson's Ingress Park homes. Josephine Smit talked to director Stephen Stone as he paid a call on one of the residents.
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FeaturesHow low can he go?
Famed for an audacious, but failed, bid for Tay Homes, Country & Metropolitan boss Stephen Wicks had better luck with his acquisition of NorthCountry Homes. Now he's championing rock-bottom sale prices and planning his next buy. Josephine Smit met him.
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Features
Factfile
Planning approvalsThe southern market may be slowing but Berkeley Group is still feeding its development pipeline, with the highest number of approvals in April. Overall, the emphasis has moved away from London and the South-east, with most approvals being won in the West Midlands and the North-west.New-build completionsPrivate completion numbers ...
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Features
How buyers spend £30,000 on extras
Homebuyers are spending an average of £3200 and up to £30,000 on optional extras and upgrades, according to a Homes survey of 30 housebuilders – including the top 10. But what are they buying with their money? Here are the 10 most popular extras
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News
Optional extras
We're talking creature comforts this month, indulging in those optional extras that soon become must-haves – after all, once you've enjoyed the luxury of an on-tap masseur or the added light from a conservatory, do you think you'll be willing to give them up?
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Features
Get it right: Plumbing and electrical
The Annual Customer First Survey carried out on behalf of Zurich Insurance Building Guarantee is in its fourth year. The survey provides information on customers' satisfaction with their new homes. This year's survey shows a growing frustration with plumbing and electrical installations. Problems can usually be attributed to errors in ...
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News
Protecting your own
With esculating insurance premiums crippling small contractors, four trade bodies have stepped in to offer cheaper alternatives.
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Comment
A friendly suit
The claimant, Roy Hammond, sought damages of £973,264 arising out of the repudiation of a contract to provide central heating and plumbing services to the 130 cottages and other properties on the Glynde Estate in East Sussex, of which the first three defendants were trustees and the fourth defendant was ...
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FeaturesWe've got your results
The Cumberland Infirmary was the prototype PFI hospital, and therefore a test-bed for how well the private and public sectors work together. Building visited it three years after it opened and makes a disturbing diagnosis
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Features
European whole-life costs
Quantity surveyor Franklin + Andrews' cost research unit has produced its annual study of whole-life costs. Here we hold up the results against last year's figures and pinpoint fluctuations in construction, ownership and labour costs for a notional manufacturing plant in 12 European countries
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News
Wrekin back in black after business shake-up
Wrekin construction has turned in a pre-tax profit of £2m for 2002 after making a loss of £800,000 in 2001
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Comment
Death by Venice
The A-list of tourist destinations thrive on their history, uniqueness, beauty and immutability. Which is precisely what makes them so deadly