Opinion 鈥� Page 405
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Comment
Arbitrator appointment
The CaseThe defendant, Mrs Buck, engaged the claimant, Mylcrist Builders, to construct a single story extension to the front of her bungalow in Beltrise Herne Bay, Kent. A contract was formed on 8 December 2004 when Mrs Buck signed a letter, sent from the claimant, which confirmed that they were ...
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CommentThe Gulf rush
Booming economies, expanding populations and the most ambitious schemes anywhere in the world 鈥� the Gulf is undeniably the most exciting destination right now for construction. It鈥檚 not only growing at an extraordinary rate as markets around the world crumble, the way the industry works is also evolving almost as ...
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CommentGulf facilities management: Keeping up appearances
The Gulf states were slow to catch on to the need for facilities management, but now the market is in overdrive. Katie Puckett presents a five-step guide to getting a piece of the action
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Comment
With recession a near certainty, the question is how deep
The latest new orders figures and CIPS survey leave little if any room for doubt, construction is dropping into a recession fast and the drop looks deep.The more worrying thing about the figures is that last year forecasters were looking to the private sector to make up for expected falls ...
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Comment
When even words of comfort are frightening
The most profoundly worrying thing about the latest Nationwide house price index press release was a comment from Fionnuala Earley, the building society's chief economist, which I think, in the context it was placed, was meant to be soothing.Now I may be misinterpreting her words, but either way they are ...
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Comment
Materials imports surge despite slowdown
Despite a slowdown in workload, particularly in house building, the construction industry is spending more than ever on imported products and materials.Imports in the second quarter of this year leapt by almost 10% (more than 拢300 million) on the previous quarter to 拢3.47 billion, despite a reduction in the massive ...
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Comment
A 1990s revival: Dutch auctions, suicidal bidding and payment delays are back
I wasn't expecting it. I had a ring round of some long-standing contacts that I speak to fairly regularly.I guess I last spoke to them a couple of months ago, as things were starting to look a bit stickier with the figures heralding a dip in construction output.My chat with ...
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Comment
Two years of US house price falls and more to come
The latest release of the Case-Shiller index shows that house prices in the US have now fallen in every month for the past two years.The price of an average US home on the 20 city index measure is now 19.5% cheaper than it was in August 2006.But in some cities ...
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Comment
South West housing deals hit hardest as market slowed
If the health of the housing market is a function of turnover and price growth then the amount of stamp duty taken from residential sales should provide a fairly good means of diagnosis. In rough and ready terms.So it was interesting to see how each region fared in the regional ...
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Comment
Is buy-to-let really screwed? No, according to the figures. But...
What is all this about the "particularly hard-hit buy-to-let market" I keep hearing about in reports about the demise of Bradford & Bingley?The thing is, I tend to follow the figures a bit and was not aware of any of the "reliable" variety that had pointed to BTL being "particularly ...
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Comment
Are house prices sliding towards a cliff?
A snap survey by RICS has backed up the figures produced by Hometrack that homebuyers are demanding increasingly savage discounts from sellers.Hometrack puts that average discount at 10%, whereas RICS suggests 9%. But either way there will be a spread around that figure, so there will be some pretty deep ...
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CommentMaking this country grate
How can we beat Beijing at hosting Olympic Games and improve our place in the medal table? Well, we can make the most of our Britishness. Chris Addison explains how
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CommentEnterprise Managed Services Limited v East Midland Contracting Limited
The CaseThe Claimant sought to reverse the decision of an adjudicator, by which the adjudicator had decided that the Claimant was obliged to pay the Defendant the sum of 拢1,131,668.29 as damages for breach of contract. The parties to the Sub-Contract continued to place orders and undertake work under the ...
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CommentSustainable? They鈥檙e having you on
Much of what passes for sustainable architecture is nothing of the sort; it鈥檚 PR masquerading as environmental engineering. Robert Adam tells us what green building really means
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CommentThe camera sometimes lies
Open mike聽Thermal imaging is an invaluable tool, but beware: in the wrong hands, those pretty pictures don鈥檛 always tell the full story, says Rod Appleyard
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CommentInsolvency law: Flogging a dead horse
Despite changes to the law since the last recession, Chris Hill and Amanda Greenwood say that, as far as insolvency is concerned, adjudication rights are unclear
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CommentWebmaster review: Foster + Partners website
Architect Foster + Partners' website, fosterandpartners.com, scores well on usability but badly needssome search engine optimisation
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Comment
Housing market grinding to a standstill, says Hometrack
There is further evidence that the housing market is grinding to a standstill in the latest monthly figures provided by Hometrack.Hometrack figures put the annual drop in average prices at about 6.2%. This is a more modest drop than the figures produced by Nationwide and Halifax, but as I have ...
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Comment
Honesty 鈥�
I have just been reading about the Olympic media centre being 拢90m over budget. Can we never get it right?
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CommentThe Games people play
I very much enjoyed reading your article on the 1908 Olympics (5 September, page 42), but noticed a couple of historical errors.