Juliette Enser is senior director of cartels at the Competition and Markets Authority In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined 10 construction firms nearly £60m for illegally colluding over £150m-worth of private and public sector contracts. This was just the latest example of our focus to root out…
Author Archives: Contributor
Building remediation: sizing up the Responsible Actors Scheme
Matthew Cocklin is a partner at Devonshires Solicitors On 24 July, the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) was launched in England using powers conferred by the Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022. The RAS is a scheme that eligible developers may join. Members are required to identify and remediate (or pay for…
Does the UK have the capacity to retrofit the nation’s homes?
Decarbonising the nation’s homes requires an immense and multifaceted retrofit effort – but is the construction sector sufficiently skilled to deliver it? Keith Cooper investigates Turning tens of millions of homes green is a huge task for construction, and its workforce will play a pivotal role. But it’s a job…
Contracts need rewriting in the wake of second-staircase regs
Stuart Bosley is managing director of quantum and project advisory at engineering consultancy DeSimone In a resolute move towards enhancing fire-safety measures, the government has taken significant steps in response to the lessons learned from the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Towards the end of 2022, a proposal was published to…
Ref rules against contractor in insurance dispute with RFU
Hazel Cox is an associate and Fraser Askham is a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang The Court of Appeal has considered a joint-names insurance policy taken out by an employer that was expressed to provide cover greater than required by the building contract. In FM Conway Limited v…
Willmott Dixon to use pre-WWII steel beams for office refit
Willmott Dixon will reuse 100 tonnes of 1930s steel salvaged from the former House of Fraser on London’s Oxford Street for an office retrofit near Tower Bridge. Developer FORE Partnership is removing the steel beams from the former department store, claiming it is the first time pre-Second World War steel…
The merits of ditching plastic
With sustainability at the top of many homebuyers’ agenda, it’s time to move over to metal Whether it comes from planners, developers or homebuyers, pressure on the construction industry to be more sustainable is increasing as environmental concerns rise. Guttering and drainpipes have for decades been mainly made from plastic,…
Taking on embodied carbon
By reducing its own emissions, Aggregate Industries is helping customers to hit their goals too Construction is under pressure from government, regulators and clients to improve its carbon performance, and Aggregate Industries hopes that pursuing its own decarbonisation will also help customers reach their goals. As far as possible, it…
How the new building-safety test lifts the veil on remediation liability
Mark London is a partner at law firm Devonshires In June 2022, the Building Safety Act (BSA) introduced several new remedies for those who wish to either recover the cost of remediating buildings or to compel a landlord to remediate the building. These new remedies ranged from extending the period…
‘Golden thread’ will have an impact on lower-tier contractors
Neil Boothroyd is an adjudicator, arbitrator and mediator at consultancy Gateley Vinden The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) enforces the importance of better industry practices – including the accurate recording and storage of building-safety information – following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire of 2017. To regulate standards, the BSA has…