Opinion 鈥� Page 625
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A hit or miss affair
PFI contracts often include incentives and penalties to ensure good performance on services. But if they are not well targeted, they'll miss the point
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Pass master
Accelerating Change is a clarion call for risk-sharing. Some hope, when Jarvis and others are busy amending the standard form of subcontract to pass the risk downstream
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What's a computer for?
What is it with construction firms and IT? In the 1990s, many of the big players spent millions installing state-of-the-art systems only to find they had wasted their money. Staff didn't know how to use them, they quickly went out of date and were incompatible with their business partners' software. ...
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On a permanent high
National Construction Week highlighted the positive developments taking place in the industry. All we have to do now is keep this spirit alive all year round
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You poor SAP
Few cases in construction have tested the 'satisfactory quality' standard of the Sale and Supply of Goods Act. Here's one, about boilers, that got a bit heated
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Architectural schizophrenia
A conflict sometimes arises between an architect鈥檚 duties as employer鈥檚 agent and as an independent certifier. But as long as no bias is shown, they can do both
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Closing time
Clear contractual arrangements can save arguments over when practical completion has occurred. But be careful 鈥� an overly stingent definition can backfire
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Don't be nice, be fair
Partnership and trust are great, but that's not what contracts are are there to promote. They are there to make sure that people do what they say they will
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Legal letters
This week, why it can make sense to sign an adjudicator's terms, naming and shaming poor adjudicators, support for Judge Thornton's defence of enforcement and the power of greed
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The unbearable cost of cover
Few tears were shed outside the Square Mile when crisis struck those apparently loathsome insurance companies after 11 September. A year on, though, insurers 鈥� in the great tradition of that industry 鈥� are passing the burden on to their customers. Now it is construction firms that face ruin as ...
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My Stirling Prize hell
The fashion guru dragooned onto the Stirling Prize panel lifts the lid on the five days of relentless architecture that preceded Saturday's big night
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Prescott takes control
John Prescott's recent changes to regeneration policy have persuaded some that things might really get better for deprived communities. And they might, too 鈥�
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Now even friendlier
Use new formula Adjudication Rules鈩� from TeCSA, the kinder way to get rid of stubborn, dried in disputes (now comes with 100% enforcement guarantee!)
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Tales you lose
Don't get too smug reading about Jeffrey Archer's latest chiding 鈥� his case holds a warning to all of us about the danger of telling porkies and making up evidence
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Invisible pleasures
Medieval builders who died before their cathedrals were finished were lucky, because once a building's built, everything it could be is erased by what it is