Opinion 鈥� Page 378
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Recovery soon for construction?
The torrent of economic good news gushing from economists and think tanks is almost overwhelming.Hell's teeth it is a boost to confidence. But does this mean that the recovery is in sight for construction?David Miles, the new member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee recently told the Western ...
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Home sellers push up asking prices
The latest figures from the property website Rightmove suggest that sellers are feeling a bit more confident and are pushing up their asking prices.Rightmove puts the 1.8% rise in asking prices in April on top of the 0.9% rise in March down to the normal spring bounce. But the chances ...
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CommentThe special ones
We know designers are a great bunch because they keep telling us so. In the first of seven articles about the seven deadly sins of architecture
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CommentOutrageous fortune
To make it as an architect you have to be prepared to endure long periods of evil luck as you wait for the phone call that will turn everything around 鈥�
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How to recognise a consultant
聽A basic point to specify when appointing a consultant is what they will actually be doing. Here鈥檚 a handy guide to the behaviour of the most common species
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CommentAmateur dramatics
While Ramboll plays the Fool, some builders get into dangerous liaisons, a Gleeds boss plays the tortured hero contemplating his own demise and the press are heckled from the wings
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Comment黑洞社区 buys a pint 鈥� for Faithful + Gould
It鈥檚 day one of the G20 summit. Barack Obama is town and London is packed with protesters and police
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Short and tweet
Dispatches from the Twitter social networking site:Bryant Priest Newman, Birmingham-based architect
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Salmond fishing
This is an open letter to Scottish first minister Alex Salmond to express my concern at the lack of direction from the government in addressing the pressing concerns of construction in Scotland
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Pull together
The current market conditions are forcing clients and their supply chains to review costs and tender processes. However, as an industry we must resist any return to adversarial, lowest price procurement processes
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Iconic architecture
黑洞社区 (13 March, page 38) says the era of the icon is over and predicts more modest buildings post-recession. But you interview only architects. Why not some of the clients?
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CommentSending out an SOS
When Alistair Darling delivered his pre-Budget report in November, most firms were hoping that it would launch a lifeboat they could clamber aboard to wait out the worst of the recession
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HCA makes hay while the rain pours
On the face of it the achievement of the Homes and Communities Agency looks impressive - 50,000 affordable homes delivered "despite" the downturn and targets ticked off as met with the exception of one.Now, I am an advocate for the establishment of the HCA, but I am also an advocate ...
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Official figures put house prices 14.2% below peak
The latest official figures produced by Communities and Local Government to gauge house prices suggest the decline in prices accelerated in February to an annual rate of -12.3%, which puts them 14.2% down from peak.No particular surprise there. But there is a scrap of hope in the figures for those ...
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Is the housing market out of the woods?
More encouraging news for those involved in selling houses came from the surveyors' body RICS today with the release of its latest housing market survey.The survey adds further weight to the argument that the catastrophic collapse in house prices has been arrested, with the balance between surveyors reporting falls in ...
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Experian revises down its forecast for construction output
Industry forecasters at Experian followed their rivals and cut expectations of construction activity over the coming three years.The predicted decline in output in 2009 is now put at 7.8% followed by a slight drop of 1.7% in 2010 and a bounce back up of 1.6% in 2011.This puts the peak-to-trough ...
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House price futures on the rise
It has been a good spring so far for house builders in terms of sentiment if not in terms of actual sales. This is in sharp contrast to last year when market devastation created more ashen-faced residential developers than you could shake a stick at.There has been a bit of ...
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CommentAustralia's grand opera house
Sydney is finally going to restore J酶rn Utzon鈥檚 awesome opera house to his original design 鈥� but there is a big price to pay