Ah, April. The daffodils are blooming, lambs are skipping round the fields, and the government has introduced a raft of new legislation, which is bound to make your lives more… er… interesting.

First there’s Site Waste Management Plans. The aims of the plans – which apply to all projects costing over £300,000 – are good: less waste, more recycling. But one of the outcomes of the new legislation is more paperwork on site. Quite a lot more.

Second there’s the Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act.

The unions say this is a toothless tiger because it won’t lead to company directors going to jail, but it could mean potentially crippling fines of up to 10% of a firm’s annual turnover. For those running sites, a death will mean that it is the police who investigate rather than the HSE. And if you can be classed as ‘senior management’, you may end up in court. Time to check your training and procedures.

Finally, there’s Energy Performance Certificates, which were originally to be required for all commercial buildings over 10,000m2 being let or sold from 6 April. However, with weeks to spare the government decided to introduce a six-month grace period due to fears that there weren’t enough assessors. How organised.

On top of all this new legislation, there is the looming shadow of a slowdown with all the joy that brings: banks demanding more security on loans, increased insolvencies and firms up and down the supply chain looking to maximise on their return from existing projects as future work looks more patchy.

For those with a healthy order book, things may indeed feel sunny and spring-like. But beware! There could be dark storms just around the corner.

Source

Construction Manager