Opinion – Page 372
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Comment
The conservatory con
It’s good news that the regulations are becoming more onerous in England. However, in Scotland we have had minimum U-values for conservatories for some time
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Comment
Answering Mr Arrowsmith
As stated in your recent article “Betrayal of trust” (15 May, page 34), NICEIC does have some sympathy with Mr Arrowsmith’s situation
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Comment
The key to the code
“The problem is that we are making it up as we go along” (leader, 22 May, page 3)
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Comment
But they won’t do VAT
I completely agree with your leader on 13 March that the government should have taken the cue from the EU and cut VAT on maintenance and refurbishment to 5% in the last budget
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Comment
Why nobody wants to buy
Tumbling fees, dwindling workloads and payment periods stretching beyond the horizon
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Comment
Playing by the regs
This year there are more government consultations on greening the built environment than ever before.For a start, there are the consultations on the traditional ڶ Regulations - consultations on Parts L and F were imminent as we went to press. These have been joined by higher, policy-level consultations as the ...
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Comment
A glimpse of the future as 56% of surveyors see workload fall
Construction workload is expected to continue to collapse at a rapid pace according to the latest industry survey by the surveyors' body RICS.Surveyors experienced declines in workload across all regions and all sectors illustrating the broad spread of this recession. Across the board, more than half of surveyors saw less ...
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Comment
Design and builders
So Cabe is going to vet public projects to make sure they don’t look completely awful. Well, that’s a good thing of course, but we should ask ourselves why it’s become necessary
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Comment
Latest GDP figures confirm plunging construction workload
The update on the preliminary GDP figures for the UK's economic growth confirm construction activity was down in the first quarter by 8.6% compared with a year earlier. This puts industry workload on a level with that last seen in the summer of 2003.The figures have remained unchanged since the ...
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Comment
Homes sales continued to perk up in April, but it's too early to call it a recovery
The official figures for property transactions will make comforting reading in April for those selling homes.They seem consistent with the prevailing view that the housing market, in terms of sales and not prices, is showing some signs of bouncing back up from the floor reached at the turn of the ...
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Comment
It's up to us
Your editorial (1 May, page 3) says “the Exchequer is applying brakes by way of efficiency savings”. About time, I say!
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Comment
Get your facts straight
I read with interest your article asserting that the government will miss its carbon reduction targets of 12.5% by 2010/11 (1 May, page 10)
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Comment
But is it legal?
I was interested to read the published response from Peter Whitbread in your 8 May edition regarding “Lip service won’t do: discrimination in construction” (24 April, page 52)
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Roger that
I have for many years felt that Roger Knowles, chairman of Baqus, was the voice of reason and practicability in the building industry so I was delighted to read his letter in Inbox (15 May, page 32)
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Comment
All publicity is good
The essence of ڶ’s editorial in the 9 May edition (page 3) is that the Prince of Wales’ intervention into the quality of design of the built environment, is a good thing. Up to a point
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Comment
Not just any old wood
Regarding our timber study for the Wood Window Alliance (24 April, page 69), it is important to realise that the negative value for embodied carbon was based on the knowledge that the timber would be sustainably sourced from a well-managed forest, and that in the future, most of it would ...
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Comment
In the pink
There’s a healthy glow over construction this week, from red-flag-waving anti-monarchists, creatively priced vino and the coy blushes of Chinese officials. Oh, and some football team or other
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Comment
The meme machine: What do you think is normal?
Disputes arise when parties feel that things have strayed too far from the norm. They find that terribly upsetting. Why? Well, there’s a theory that explains that...
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Comment
Talk first, procure later: Competitive dialogue
Engaged on a major project? Here’s a message from the Office of Government Commerce: engage with business and identify your needs before embarking on procurement