Author Archives: Contributor

As the UK’s vaccine programme reaches more and more people, we can see the end of the pandemic, and start to consider what its long-term effect on our economy and built environment will be. One of the most direct changes it could have is on how we design and build…

Over the past year, the issue of professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums has quietly been moving up the agenda for construction companies. Across our industry, PII premiums have soared while coverage exclusions have also increased. This is driven by a number of factors including an increase in historic claims in…

A new suite of FM contracts aim to offer a more consistent procurement strategy

Over the last year, I have seen UK contractors changing their operations at a scale and pace I never expected. When the 2016 Farmer Review urged rapid construction modernisation or risk extinction, this is what it meant. But we have such an exciting opportunity as an industry to go beyond…

With the collapse of international travel throughout the pandemic, combined with the Brexit rhetoric of ‘taking back control’, it might seem counter-intuitive to suggest that recent events have left workers more vulnerable to exploitative practices – but this is exactly what happened in 2020. The COVID-19 crisis has hit the…

I feel a mix of amusement and surprise hearing TV and radio debates about decarbonisation of heat, major infrastructure projects, electric vehicles, battery storage, public sector funding. Just a few years ago, who would have thought that on prime-time radio, we’d have 15 minutes of discussion about the detail of…

The Construction Playbook is the latest initiative from the government to address the challenges prevalent within the construction industry. It provides guidance and sets expectations for how all supply chain parties should engage with each other when working on public sector projects. One of the challenges where the playbook will…

Plans for a £288m London Centre for Music have been axed in favour of an upgrade to the existing Barbican Centre. The 14-storey concert hall was due to be built on the south-eastern edge of the Barbican Estate – where the Museum of London is currently located – and provide…

The construction industry has made great strides with health and safety, especially around worker safety and preventing physical injuries and deaths. But there are huge improvements that still need to be made in protecting the mental health of workers. “Remember that an employer’s duty under the Health and Safety at…

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. With so much brilliant innovation going on in the scientific world at present, it feels like a great opportunity to encourage more organisations to consider the outstanding talent that is waiting to be discovered. Historically, construction and engineering have been…