Opinion 鈥� Page 359
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Comment
A better way
I was very interested to read the framework discussion between Don Ward and Stan Hornagold (7 August, page 32)
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Nobody鈥檚 perfect
Arguments against frameworks 鈥� here and elsewhere 鈥� seem to pick up on a few cases of bad procurement and apply these as true across all frameworks
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Comment
Sad state of affairs
With regards to the letter by KD Overment in your issue of 31 July (page 22), I have been involved in many projects for university buildings and find the attitude of the estates departments often depressing
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CommentIt happened in Hertfordshire
Back in the fifties, one council changed the way everybody built schools. And the buildings it created can now be born again as models of sustainability
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A removeable feast: how long will schools funding last?
The education sector is one of the areas to have remained buoyant during the recession. Capital funding has increased fourfold since 1997/98, putting it at just over 拢4.1bn. Altogether, the education sector is providing 拢6bn a year for construction through public funding and indirectly through the PFI. These workloads are ...
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Back to schools: building in a recession
Question one. How can we keep spending billions on school building while struggling with the biggest crisis in our public finances since the war? Not easy, is it? Even a grade A* economics student would struggle with this one.Not many of us are putting our hands up and offering ...
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CIPS: construction still the sick man of the UK economy
There is nothing remarkable about the latest CIPS construction survey other than the comments, which are somewhat more guarded than those that accompanied last month's data.It found workload in the industry still falling on its measure which registered 47.7 in August against a no change mark of 50.0. This compares ...
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Health and safety 鈥� time to get real
Today鈥檚 blog will probably get me branded as a heretic, or worse. You see, I think that the biggest source of waste (of time and money) in the industry is the proliferation of health and safety paperwork. I also think that the touch screen test is next to useless and ...
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Why the price of an average house is not going up
Average house prices indexes may be on the rise, but the price of an average house is not.That, unless I very much mistake it, is the message from the latest Hometrack survey, which in August measured the first rise increase in house prices since July 2007.But as is well documented ...
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CommentHansom War of the words
It鈥檚 summer and everyone鈥檚 getting hot, bothered and a bit worked up, from PRs bickering over press releases to complaints about Chinese cooking and some giggling about a silly name
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CommentPayments in Dubai: On the receiving end
Veterans of the Middle East will tell you that the region doesn鈥檛 play by the same rules as, say, Europe or North America
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CommentWhen is a duck an albatross?
Davis Langdon鈥檚 recent purchase of architect DEGW may mark another mutation in the DNA of cost managers. But there are reasons to think it will be a problematic one
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Devon鈥檚 deadline: Perils of e-tendering
If a contractor has to submit an electronic tender by a certain deadline, what excuses can it offer if it鈥檚 a few minutes late? Well, as this case makes clear, there aren鈥檛 many 鈥�
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Wonders & blunders - 28 August 2009
Geoff French considers two behemoths of the industrial age, and while he praises the masterful transformation of one, hopes only that the other will be put out of its misery
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CommentTrain drain: Impact of ConstructionSkills鈥� cutbacks
ConstructionSkills鈥� cutbacks could mean companies get 20% less in training grants than before, which is why it is important to be aware of all the changes
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How do I鈥� obtain a summary judgment?
In the latest entry in our guide to cutting your legal bills to the bone, Claire McNamara explains why and when and how you should apply for a summary judgment
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On the receiving end
鈥淚 would think very hard about working in Dubai again. It has done us a lot of damage.鈥� So says David Marks, the co-founder of architect Marks Barfield. Anyone reading about what happened to him after his client in the emirate quietly stopped paying its bills will find it easy ...