Government

Graham Harle is chief executive of Gleeds Worldwide While everyone is struggling with how best to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, output from the construction sector has fallen for the first time in 18 months, according to the purchasing manager’s index. Gleeds’ own market survey found that eight in 10 contractors…

Mark Robinson is group chief executive of SCAPE  After a long hot summer of hustings and TV debates, the wait is finally over. Liz Truss has been elected leader of the Conservative Party and our new prime minister. The honeymoon period after taking office will undoubtedly be limited, with Truss’s…

Rob Burnell is regional director of Randstad UK There are two people who could become the next prime minister. The recent polling suggests Liz Truss has it in the bag. Rishi Sunak needs to be radical if he is going to move the needle and generate a last-minute surge of support for his…

Alexander Edwards is a partner at Rosling King LLP We all saw the Grenfell Tower tragedy unfold before our eyes in June 2017. In the aftermath, its disastrous consequences, and cladding in high-rise buildings in particular, triggered fierce debate across the country. Almost five years later, the Building Safety Act…

Continuing progress towards net-zero, and committing to long-term infrastructure spending and rail investment are among construction’s priorities for the incoming prime minister. With Conservative leadership candidates whittled down to just Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, Construction News has obtained comments from personalities from different parts of the sector on what…

Boris Johnson’s time in office was a tumultuous and historic period unlike any other. Throughout much of it, the prime minister rarely missed an opportunity to don a hard hat and get out on a construction site, as the industry he declared would Build Back Better was rarely far from…

Tim Claremont (left) is a partner and Gavin Hoccom is a senior associate at law firm Browne Jacobson The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent at the end of April. The government has described its contents as “the biggest changes to building safety regulation in a generation”. For once…

Chris Hallam is a partner at CMS Law Last month’s opening of the Elizabeth Line has reminded us – such that it was needed – that politicians don’t need to be asked twice to don a hard hat and hi-vis if there’s a photo opportunity in the offing. It’s play…

Rudi Klein (pictured left) is a barrister and Stephen Woodward is a risk management consultant. Klein was formerly chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group, which campaigned for 20 years to reform payment retentions in construction The construction industry has long had a problem with diversity of thinking. Too…

The new Building Safety Act extends liability for safety defects out to 30 years, bringing far-reaching consequences for contractors. Joshua Stein investigates