Author Archives: Contributor

Chris Doran and Daniel Barchet are partners at law firm Weightmans In 2023, the construction industry demonstrated strong resilience in the face of persistent pressure, economic fluctuation and a flurry of transformational legislative changes – leaving the industry rife with uncertainty that will likely persist as we head into the…

Which projects are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the year ahead? Keith Cooper reports Houses of Parliament Politicians and construction firms alike are standing by for more details on the beleaguered Palace of Westminster restoration. After more than 7,500 hours of surveys being carried out…

Graham Harle is chief executive of Gleeds Worldwide As we bid farewell to another year, I always look forward to seeing which words the various dictionaries select to sum up the preceding 12 months. I felt Collins’ choice of ‘permacrisis’ was particularly apt in 2022, the year of post-Covid economic…

Andrew Parkin is global head of acoustics and chair of the Cundall Futures Group at multidisciplinary engineering and design consultancy Cundall Change is something the built environment has struggled with, but as an industry we need to accept that it is inevitable. As net-zero carbon drives the agenda, consultancies and…

Peter Johnson is founder of cladding specialist the Vivalda Group ‌2023 was a year of unexpected announcements. First, we saw sobering trading updates on consecutive days from two well-known FTSE 250-listed building materials distributors, both admitting that sustained hikes in interest rates were having a negative impact on turnover and…

Harry King is a junior associate at law firm Quigg Golden Liquidated damages, also known as liquidated and ascertained damages (LADs), are a contractual agreement on damages that are designed to cover costs when a project runs past the agreed completion date. LADs are common in construction, as they provide…

The familiar name of Hanson has been replaced by Heidelberg Materials. This is not just a name change, though. It’s a bid to bring the full resources of a multinational building-materials group to bear on major industry issues such as decarbonisation, recycling and digitisation. Hanson has for many years been…

Charlie Fitzgibbon is managing director of Edinburgh Construction The construction labour model in the UK is unsustainable, with fewer and fewer people entering the industry as a career. This may not be news – the Farmer Review, commissioned by the Construction Leadership Council, made this case back in 2016. But,…

Chris Ridge is technical policy manager at the Thermal Insulation Contractors Association (TICA) The Building Safety Act doesn’t begin and end with higher-risk buildings (HRBs); it will have a much wider impact and some aspects will apply to all building types. This includes providing evidence that individuals and organisations appointed…

Amelia Spechko is an associate and Christian Charles is a partner at law firm Fladgate The Technology and Construction Court has handed down judgment in Lendlease Construction (Europe) Ltd v Aecom Ltd, providing guidance on a range of issues that have wide-reaching, practical implications for private finance initiative (PFI) projects…