Author Archives: Contributor

Simon Shaw is a senior associate at Mayer Brown  On 17 May 2018, Dame Judith Hackitt declared that the Building Regulations regime in the UK was “not fit for purpose”. Following this, there have been a number of cases and legislative changes relating to fire-safety matters for the industry to…

Nicola Hodkinson is the owner and director of Seddon  The Bank of England’s recent base rate cut to 5 per cent is being hailed as positive for the industry, particularly for simulating the mortgage market and the construction of new housing. The move also has the potential to attract pension…

Regulatory changes are driving developers to look more closely at material reuse rather than disposal, but old habits are hard to break, finds Kristina Smith Almost overnight, as the world emerged from Covid, Roy Fishwick noticed a change in attitudes towards reused steel. “Back in 2016, 2017, I was talking…

Pictured left to right: Alison Short, partner, Richard Black, partner, and Jennifer Fitzmaurice, principal associate PSL, Eversheds Sutherland Construction in the UK is heavily reliant on the importation of goods and materials. Unfortunately, the process of sourcing, acquiring and paying for goods has recently been beset by problems, such as…

Sam Stacey is the former director of the Transforming Construction Challenge For four years from 2018, I led the transforming construction challenge (TCC) – a UK Research & Innovation-backed initiative that was match funded by industry to encourage the shift towards manufacturing and digital processes. It set out to champion…

Clive Feeney is group managing director of LHC Procurement Group Labour’s determination to build 1.5 million homes over the lifetime of this parliament has created a national debate and one crucial question: how? There are several obstacles. First, there’s the construction skills shortage: the Home Builders Federation warns that for…

James Eager, director at Eric Wright Construction According to the latest figures from the S&P Global UK Construction Purchase Managers’ Index (PMI), the construction growth rate has reached a two-year high, providing yet another indication of the sector’s resilience and adaptability, regardless of the many negative pressures it faces.  “We…

Adrian Bingham is a partner and Olivia Barrett is a trainee solicitor at Collyer Bristow There has long been recognition that claimants’ rights of action should not remain open indefinitely. The first statute to address this systematically was in 1623, and its six-year limitation period for contracts and actions of…

Construction starts and main contract awards outperformed the previous year, while detailed planning approvals lagged.  Averaging £10.2bn per month, work commencing on site during the three months to July experienced a mixed performance, decreasing 10 per cent against the preceding three months but increasing 8 per cent compared to last…

Project starts fell against the previous quarter and last year. More positively, growth in main contract awards on the preceding three months and a year ago provides a boost to the development pipeline. Housing overview Totalling £10.46bn, residential work commencing on-site during the three months to July fell 5 per…