All Comment articles 鈥� Page 450
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Comment
Musings from the Tory conference
David Cameron鈥檚 rousing finale to this year鈥檚 Conservative Party Conference 鈥� focused on family, community and country and highlighted health, regeneration, education and housing. The importance for our sectors in focusing on the benefits of investment in infrastructure, and the role of built assets in enabling efficiency, rather than ...
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Future traders think the tide has turned for house prices
The futures market is now pricing in strong growth in the housing market, with the Halifax index priced to rise by 6% over the coming 12 months and by 12% over 5 years.This is a marked rise in the prices from just a month ago and reflects the uplift in ...
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Who'll do "a Parsons Brinckerhoff" next?
Contractors are still pondering the implications of Balfour Beatty's canny swoop on American infrastructure firm Parsons Brinckerhoff last month.The almost universal reaction has been one of envy at a deal that takes Balfour up the food chain and further into the white collar world of consulting while strengthening its US ...
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Put your house in order
In a world of short tender periods and poor contract information, clients are expecting contractors to be gamblers
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Punish the guilty
Cover pricing saves the contractors the cost of tendering and they can agree between themselves who will get the next tender
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CommentGaps in the framework
If you鈥檝e got a framework, a lot of contractual stuff is written into it. But there are still vital clauses that have to be agreed on the jobs themselves 鈥� so what happens if they aren鈥檛?
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Suspend the fines
Although the process of investigation and the resultant findings were necessary to halt bid-rigging, I among many others will be disappointed by the level of fines imposed by the OFT, which may cripple or close some companies
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Doubt its illegality
The 13 roofing contractors that the OFT found guilty of price fixing in 2006 were not engaged in 鈥渟imple cover pricing鈥�, but bid-rigging
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CommentCosting the earth
You may think that, given the importance of a housebuilder鈥檚 landbank, there would be a well understood way of valuing it. And you鈥檇 be wrong
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Take a cut of future contracts
There may be such a thing as an innocent cover price, if the contractor does not want to bid but does want to show willing. However, cover prices can be used to share the work around and the only reason for that is to keep prices high
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CommentJCT homeowner contract: Get the picture?
The JCT鈥檚 contract for home extenders is a very useful document, not least because it turns a lot of those complicated words into drawings we can all understand
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How do I 鈥� fund a claim?
Even if you are reasonably sure of success, funding can be an obstacle to pursuing a claim. Luckily, there are three alternatives to stumping up the cash yourself
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CommentHansom:聽Claws on the catwalk
As London Fashion Weekend draws to a close, it seems construction is still in the mood, getting huffy about shoe design, contemplating the female form and knocking back champagne. Back to reality, guys
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CommentWonders & blunders with Fergus Henderson
Restaurateur Fergus Henderson considers a temple to chaos, fine dining and the wet fish trade in the City of London and, er, the City of London
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Blame the clients
One aspect of the Office of Fair Trading鈥檚 cover-pricing inquiry that seems to have been missed is the effect of clients and their professional advisers
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Learn basic morals
Why do the construction companies seem not to understand their own lack of morality?
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Be ashamed (i)
If a member of the RICS were found guilty of anything 鈥渇raudulent鈥� they would be stripped of their MRICS status and would most likely be fired by their employer