Opinion 鈥� Page 377
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CommentIs the housing market turning?
This is, of course, the question that everybody wants to know the answer to. So let鈥檚 put all the evidence together and work out what it tells us...
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CommentPlaying golf with Superman: Multiple adjudications
If you had to decide a dispute involving 51,000 job orders in 28 days, would you need to wear your underpants outside your clothes? Well, the following case put this to the test
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Lip service won't do: Discrimination in construction
Now there鈥檚 even more reason to make clear your commitment to equality and diversity: if you don鈥檛, you won鈥檛 secure those multimillion-pound public sector contracts
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CommentI beg to differ: Response to Rupert Choat on the Construction Act
Rupert Choat has many useful things to say about the proposed amendments to the Construction Act. But in his criticism of payment security, he鈥檚 just plain wrong
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CommentApprenticeships: has the system collapsed?
Apprentices are one of the main victims of the recession, but if they suffer today, it鈥檚 a sure thing that the rest of the industry will suffer tomorrow. So how can they be saved?
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CommentAbout all we could hope for
The Budget might not have been all that the industry would have wished for, but for a country facing its biggest public debt since the war, it was about what you鈥檇 expect
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CommentWeb poll: The Chelsea Barracks furore
As Prince Charles pooh-poohed Lord Rogers鈥� design and proposed Quinlan Terry instead, nearly 1,000 readers rushed to our online poll to tell us which they prefer. The results so far? Terry 67%, Rogers 33%
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NSCC survey of specialists highlights strategic industry problems
I was passed a draft copy of the latest state of trade survey undertaken by the specialist contractors' body NSCC. It covers the first quarter of this year and tells pretty much the story you'd expect - orders and inquiries down and firms working at lower and lower capacity.It is, ...
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Budget 2009: Draw your own conclusions, if you can
"I can't quite decide whether it was smoke or mirrors," said KBC Peel Hunt analyst Robin Hardy in summing up yesterday's Budget.Most observers said the Chancellor's economic growth forecasts were chipper to say the least and when asked to pick out the positives, there was generally an uneasy silence at ...
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Welcome to 黑洞社区's expert economists
Welcome to 黑洞社区s new economic panel. We have assembled a panel of experts to help make sense of these fast moving and uncertain economic times. They will regularly comment on economic developments as they unfold and give an insight into what these might mean whether it's and event as big ...
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Budget 2009: initial thoughts
Budget day as ever was interesting and obviously, the devil is in the detail, especially when it is bad news. However, the Chancellor's speech and the Budget document provide us with some initial thoughts.The macro figures are as bad as expected and potentially worse; 拢175bn public borrowing in 2009/10 and ...
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Brace for public investment cuts
Three things stood out in yesterday's Budget: First, the shocking state of UK public finances, second, the Chancellor's gambling on a very rapid rebound of the economy to make his numbers add up and third, that the construction industry will almost desperately hope for private sector demand to return by ...
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What's in the budget for construction?
Snap analysis immediately after the event tends to be prone to knee-jerk reaction, but the thing that immediately springs to mind about this budget is the optimism regarding GDP growth in 2010 in 2011. While I wouldn't neccessarily argue with a 3.5% decline for this year, 1.25% growth for 2010 ...
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Home sales perk up in March
Another little ray of good news for estate agents and house builders came from the latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs for property transactions.They do provide a hint of a glimmer of hope that the housing market may be experiencing some revival, with the highest level of monthly sales ...
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Chancellor provides optimism in the gloom...and that's what's worrying
The direct measures aimed at construction-related activities and businesses in the 2009 Budget will be welcomed in some quarters, mainly among the house builders.Though I am not so sure I would go with the instant view from the surveyors' body RICS that: "Measures announced by the Chancellor will help move ...
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Budget reaction: The impact on built assets
The Budget has placed built assets at the heart of nurturing economic recovery, achieving efficiency savings and delivering better public service outcomes. The Chancellor is now forecasting a budget deficit of 拢175 billion this year and 拢173 billion in 2010/11, peaking at 79% of GDP in 2013/14. He is also ...
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Construction job vacancies evaporate as recession bites
The latest batch of employment figures provides little comfort to the thousands of construction workers who are now looking for jobs, as vacancies in the industry have plunged deeper.The figures show that in the three months to March this year there were 12,000 recorded vacancies for jobs in construction. This ...
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Local builders set to shed more jobs as the recession deepens
The latest survey of local builders by the FMB suggests that more jobs will shed over coming months with a majority of a third of firms expecting to cut jobs over the coming six months.It has to be said that the survey for the first quarter of this year is ...
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Inflation down but far from out, despite cheaper cucumbers
For the first time in a year the annual rate of inflation measured on the CPI index dropped below 3%, dropping from 3.2% to 2.9%.The main contributor to the fall in inflation was lower energy costs, which contributed to a drop in the rate of inflation for housing and household ...