News

The Health and Safety Executive should be given the job of enforcing safety regulations on North Sea oil platforms like it does for onshore construction, says the Management, Science and Finance Union. The call follows an MSF survey showing that safety devices added to all Norwegian oil rigs are missing…

The ADLO's new chief has no truck with private sector whingers reports Grant Prior.Private contractors looking forward to the slow death of direct labour organisations are in for a rude awakening with a new champion to fight the cause of local authority workforces. DLOs have been on the rack during…

A growing body of opinion in the Conservative Party wants the Government to allow local authorities to spend the £6-7,000 million received from council house sales on new housing, claims Labour housing spokesman Clive Soley. Mr Soley cites Sir Geoffrey Howe's new year message which talks of teenagers 'apparently destitute…

A labourer badly hurt after plunging into a manhole has started a High Court action for compensation.Brian Plaskett, 42, of Canonsleigh Road, Dagenham, Essex, alleges negligence against Marshway Building of Fowley Avenue, Redbridge, Essex.The accident happened in October 1987 at a site at West Close, Wembley, Mr Plaskett says in…

House prices fell faster in the last quarter of 1989 than in any other quarter recorded by the Nationwide Anglia building society. And prices will continue to fall for the coming few months, said the society this week.The sharpest falls were in the south where prices dropped by more than…

Housing and Construction Minister Michael Howard was suddenly propelled into the Employment Secretary's chair after the shock resignation of Norman Fowler.Mr Howard will be succeeded by Michael Spicer, who has been parliamentary under secretary for energy for 18 months.According to the official statement, Mr Fowler wants to spend more time…

Mowlem has been sacked from its £80 million management contract at one of London's top sites after a contractual dispute with the developer. Late last year, Carlton Gate Development - a joint venture of Declan Kelly and Eagle Star Properties - wrote to Mowlem terminating its contract at the £200…

A New Year call for interest rates to come down to between 12 and 13 per cent, and the mortgage interest relief threshold to go up to £50,000, has come from Building Employers Confederation chairman Peter Rainbird.Without these measures, he warns that there will be pent-up demand for private housing…

A shake-up in construction management proposed by the Health and Safety Commission will do nothing to stop the toll of death and disaster on Britain's building sites. That is the message from construction union UCATT which has come up with its own ideas on improving site safety.Last September the HSC…

Clearly there will be problems in deciding whether an event causing damage could have been reasonably contemplated.The scope of loss or damage to which the condition applies has been extended to include third party property, personal injury, sickness or death of any person and 'loss of profits or loss of…