Opinion 鈥� Page 365
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Forecasters call the bottom of the house price slump
The increasing stretch of stable house prices is leading forecasters to call the bottom of the slump.The Nationwide late last month tentatively said it may be time to think the unthinkable that house prices may exit 2009 higher than they entered it.Last week much was made of the RICS saying ...
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Could the torment almost be over?
After 17 months of unrelenting torment, it looks like the UK construction sector is finally a step closer to recovery as the July CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers鈥� Index highlighted the slowest pace of decline since March last year (see index).This progress is largely on the back of an improvement in the ...
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CommentProve your worth: Net worth test
Money matters聽Banks looking to safeguard funding have a new test for construction projects鈥� guarantors, but how will it affect contractors?
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Let control take control
Your leader column (24 July, page 3) illustrates both the increasing complexity of trying to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and the growing potential role for building control in ensuring that this is done
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As a matter of tax
As somebody who has spent 47 years in the industry, with every penny earned being subject to PAYE, I think we are missing a fundamental point in this debate (24 July, page 9)
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CommentWe have a problem
It鈥檚 interesting that you have a health and safety blunders section highlighting, visually, people doing crazy things that put their and others lives in danger
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Flaws in Murphys law
I welcome Jim Murphy鈥檚 proposals to create almost 3,000 jobs for young unemployed people across Scotland through the Future Jobs Forum 鈥� including in hard-hit sectors such as construction
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Exaggerated defects
John Hughes D鈥橝eth (24 July, page 48) makes some valid claims about the value of latent defects insurance (LDI) but says it is no replacement for collateral warranties
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Its a mystery
I was interested to read the letter from James Preston-Hood (July 24, page 29) regarding the plethora of safety assessment schemes
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Positive thinking
With regards to the article 鈥淣ew zero-carbon definition cuts cost of home by 拢11k鈥� (24 July, page 13)
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CommentWoolwich bridge: Crossings out
The Thames Gateway is being stymied by the lack of a bridge downriver of Woolwich. So, asks Nick Raynsford, why does the present mayor of London have no plans to build one?
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Wonders & Blunders
Bel Mooney can see the point of contemporary architecture when she looks at Calatrava鈥檚 Milwaukee pavilion 鈥� whereas a Bath hotel just shows up the mistakes of the modern age
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CommentHansom: Sporting life
Some unusual sports are cropping up across the industry, including in-office thought tennis, architectural gymnastics, extreme biking and Olympic-level prevarication. Go team!
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CommentAnyone for a free lunch?
Do clients want to dump frameworks so they can sit back and watch contractors desperate for work fight it out like dogs?
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CommentDesigner egotism: Delusions of adequacy
Architects who listen to their 鈥榠nner voice鈥� and not the client produce bad buildings. It鈥檚 the deadly sin of designer egotism, says Robert Adam, and it makes us strangers in our homes
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Ignore those saying new construction orders are on the rise
I feel sure there will be someone penning near euphoric words about the 18% rise in orders in the second quarter, which is the opening line of the statistical bulletin released today.Ignore it.The new orders figures bounce about like a drugged kangaroo at a rave party, only it's tougher to ...
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ConstructionSkills' three-card trick
Has anybody out in the real world actually spotted the three-card trick that the CITB is pulling on the industry that is taxed by government to pay its staff wages?We all pay a building-industry-only tax. The only two sure things in life are death and taxes, and since in the ...
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RICS: Housing market remains fragile, despite recent improvement
The message from the latest update on the housing market from the surveyors' body RICS is that while the market may have found a clearing it is not out of the woods yet.There has been a torrent of better news on the housing market with both the Nationwide and the ...
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The blame game
Here we go again. This week has seen a fresh round of HBOS-bashing after Lloyds revealed a 拢13.4bn hit due to bad loans 鈥� 80% of which came from HBOS.Most of that 80% would have been the responsibility/fault of former head of corporate banking Peter Cummings, the man no journalist ...