I live in a house that was built in 1890. I’m sure the Victorians who commissioned it never imagined putting a bedroom in the attic (except perhaps to squash in an extra servant) or that anyone might take out the chimney breasts, or that a family might want quite so…
How did you choose your career? Were you helped by a wise career counsellor at school? If you were, I’d like to know, because over the years I’ve encountered many people who would firmly declare the opposite. One, a successful and widely celebrated car designer, told me he was advised…
Parliament has been sent packing, the Brexit outcome remains a battleground and what will surely prove to be a deeply divisive general election is lurking around the corner. Major infrastructure projects remain in limbo, the future value of the pound is anyone’s guess, and nobody knows under what terms we…
In the Looney Tunes world inhabited by Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, you can keep moving smoothly ahead after you’ve accidentally strayed off a cliff – so long as you don’t look down and notice the thin air beneath you. The real-world is less forgiving, even in the metaphorical…
The written terms of reference for the government’s hasty HS2 review provide a flavour of what to expect from the exercise. The terms establish guidelines for cost-benefit and risk-reward analysis, setting the likely costs, delays and disruption against capacity and connectivity improvements, regional economic transformation and environmental benefits. The document…
Anyone hoping for a ‘turbocharged’ approach to housebuilding, to borrow the latest Whitehall vernacular, may need to wait a while. Turbochargers are famous not only for making things go faster, but also for introducing lag between demand and response. In this case we may need to wait until newly installed…
Boris Johnson’s new cabinet has brought two fresh faces to the key offices of state for the construction industry. Grant Shapps (pictured above) has taken over from Chris Grayling as transport secretary, while Robert Jenrick (pictured below) has replaced James Brokenshire as housing secretary. Mr Shapps is a former housing…
Boris Johnson is our new prime minister, for better or worse. His elevation brings certainty to one important question – who will attempt to lead us out of the Brexit quagmire – even if those willing to actually follow him may prove to be in the minority. When he is…
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) has said delivery of the delayed Crossrail project “appears to be unachievable” and may need “re-scoping and / or its overall viability reassessed” in a new report. The body's annual report rated the London rail project as 'red' in a delivery confidence assessment yesterday. The…
I’m delighted to join the Construction News team as its new editor, in the same week we celebrated the very best of the industry with the Construction News Awards 2019. The winners amply demonstrated that even within the cloud of uncertainty created by Brexit, great work is being done, big…
Construction News Read UK Construction Industry News, Analysis, Opinion and data