Opinion – Page 575

  • Comment

    Divided we fail

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    If we want buildings that don't endanger their occupants or break down in other ways, then we must play safe with their design.

  • Comment

    The Santa clauses

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    Clients have the same approach to indemnity clauses as small children do to Christmas lists. It's understandable, perhaps, but it's hardly realistic …

  • Comment

    The accidental jurist

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    If a party makes a mistake about what it is agreeing to, what are its chances of wriggling out? The Appeal Court has just made a controversial ruling on this point

  • Comment

    It's the contractors

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    Colin Harding's open letter to John Prescott (June 4, page 33) is typical of the lovely fellow.

  • Comment

    no, it's the architects

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    I was interested in Colin Harding's letter to John Prescott and that of Brian Law regarding the CDM Regulations (4 June, Letters, page 34).

  • Comment

    Way out with the count

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    While I was genuinely impressed with the victory of off-site manufacture over traditional build in your two-round bout (Homes, May, page 24), I feel I should point out that someone had not done their sums properly. The total cost per unit for traditional build should have been £218,000, making the ...

  • Comment

    Ups and downs

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    I was interested to read that Rod Maceachrane, commercial director of the National House Ðǿմ«Ã½ Council, says that dispute resolution cases are down 14% year on year (16 April, page 43). The NHBC Annual Review records 4128 cases in 1997/98 rising to 7673 in 2001/02. The last figure was ...

  • Comment

    A reader writes - Hobson's choices

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    John Hobson, until recently the man in charge of construction at the civil service, gives us his take on the future of sustainability and regulation

  • Comment

    Wonders & blunders

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    Paul Burgess praises an atrium that makes the heart soar, but missed chances just make it sore. And check out the new Back Issues …

  • Comment

    A profitable loss

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    The defendant let certain premises to the claimants under a lease within which the claimants were covenanted "well and substantially to repair renew cleanse and keep in good and substantial repair and condition and maintain the demised premises". Upon expiry of the lease the tenants claimed repayment of an amount ...

  • Comment

    Leader

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    The BDA has published the results of the first annual survey of the key performance indicators identified in our Sustainability Strategy (see news).

  • Comment

    The joy of bricks

    2004-06-18T00:00:00Z

    I love brick buildings – if only the product was marketed imaginatively so that we had more of them, says architect Dr James Campbell

  • Comment

    The truth about the NFB

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    I read with interest a story on Eastern European labour in last week's Ðǿմ«Ã½ (4 June, page 9).

  • Comment

    The nature of the beast

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    It may surprise you to learn that lawyers and academics are still not entirely sure what an adjudicator is, what they can do, and what they are like

  • Comment

    A sustained attack

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Sustainability is at the top of the government's agenda at the moment. The industry is being bombarded with reports on how to use fewer natural resources and a sustainable buildings code has been proposed that will force designers of public sector buildings and social housing to specify sustainable materials. English ...

  • Comment

    Open mike: Read 'em and weep

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    As Jeff Howell's postbag shows, the people the government encouraged to buy their own homes in the 1980s were cut adrift with no idea what to do when they failed

  • Comment

    Hansom

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    More heartwarming stories of everyday xenophobia, madness, greed, buck passing, fraud, sin, error, confusion, doubt, marble and identical twins

  • Comment

    The guests are arriving

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Isn’t the point of the European Union’s single market to increase the flows of goods, services, capital and labour, and thereby increase economic efficiency?

  • Comment

    The meddle detector

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The Construction Act is coming under review but, while there are good arguments for some change, the scrutinisers should remember: if it ain't broke …

  • Comment

    We need some fog lights

    2004-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Two years after Judge Seymour said you couldn't introduce new material once an adjudication had started, we're not much wiser about whether he was right