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Antony Phillips is head of real estate at law firm Fieldfisher Preemptive injunctions are becoming an increasingly common way of protecting construction sites from acts of trespass by individuals or groups. While trespassing takes many forms, common trespassing problems affecting derelict or partially finished brownfield and urban sites include unauthorised…

Sarah Baldry is vice-president of people and marketing at artificial intelligence-based healthcare service Wysa The construction sector has some of the worst rates of mental health among business sectors in the UK, with men in the industry three times more likely to die from suicide than the average male. Yet,…

Rebecca Hartshorn is the national framework director at John Sisk & Son The UK could easily find itself in a period of tumultuous politics in the near future, but it’s vitally important that public sector projects are able to continue as normally as possible. The potential for a change of…

Mike Smith is technical director at the Electrical Contractors’ Association The recent introduction of several Building Safety Act secondary regulations marks a change in the way that electrotechnical firms must approach their work. The act, which became law in April 2022, is not just one piece of primary legislation. It…

Derek Horrocks is chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group (NHDG) To calm fears that undoubtedly arose following the recent rollback of several government green initiatives, including the disbanding of the energy-efficiency taskforce, the government has pledged a further £80m to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF). By its own…

Mark Collins is executive director at Bentley Project Management With a general election coming in the next year or so, and the third round of levelling-up funding on the horizon, it’s crunch time for a host of major regeneration projects looking to squeeze the last remaining funds from the current…

Clayton Kingman is UK head of building envelope at SIG Distribution‌ In an industry where cost is always a priority, we have developed a culture of doing enough to meet standards, but we’re not focused on developing the expertise or investment to do better than “just enough”. ‌The recently introduced…

Karen Morean is a construction partner and Patrick Trevor is a solicitor at Devonshires Most standard-form building contracts envisage the role of an independent party making administration decisions under the contract. The JCT design-and-build suite refers to this role as the employer’s agent (EA) while other JCT standard forms refer…

Tony Wells is chief executive of Merit The construction industry’s declining productivity means projects are becoming expensive and unaffordable. Productivity for building, specialist installations, and architectural and engineering (AE) firms in particular, are significantly below the UK average. Industry fragmentation is the fundamental problem that is preventing the implementation of…

Andy Beard is global head of cost and commercial management at Mace Without a deep and diverse supply chain, the construction industry and its ecosystem falls apart. The supply chain’s centrality to success makes the recent collapses of industry stalwarts so worrying. Stories about contractors failing to pay and adopting…