Richard Steer
ProfessionalIs the industry waking up to the benefits of dispute resolution?
With nearly three quarters of respondents to a recent survey having encountered disputes or claims specific to Covid-19, it is becoming more common for contracts to add risks associated with Brexit and Covid to the list of outcomes for which the client or developer is not responsible.
ProfessionalHow will consultant salary hikes affect development costs?
Recent salary surveys are predicting large hikes for consultants due to pent-up demand during the pandemic.
ProfessionalCan landlords benefit from recent Budget tax breaks?
For some in the built environment, it looked like the recent Budget did not offer much in the way of tax breaks for commercial property landlords.
ProfessionalWill Covid fallout lead to a rise in disputes for construction industry?
From designers to demolition experts and cost managers to contractors, the effects of Covid have been felt by all and will continue to be felt for a long time.
ProfessionalWill construction costs increase after works begin post-lockdown?
Coronavirus means it will never again be business as usual for clients, consultants and contractors. In the short term, construction is going to cost more, take longer and force change in a quicker period of time.
ProfessionalFighting the fear
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” or so wrote Franklin D Roosevelt as the 1930s Depression reached its zenith in the US.
ProfessionalHow would post-Grenfell sprinkler proposals affect project costs?
We now have the response to the consultation on fire safety post Grenfell, with news that all new blocks of flats extending six storeys or higher could require sprinkler systems under proposed government plans.
ProfessionalHow can procurement mitigate the risks of office development?
According to the latest Deloitte crane survey, activity in the office sector continues apace, with 3.5m sq ft started in London alone over the six months to May – a 38% increase on the previous survey last autumn.
ProfessionalIs the future of permitted development looking bleak?
As Louis XIV’s finance minister reportedly put it, “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least amount of hissing”.
ProfessionalWhat can housebuilders do to improve their public image?
With the Help to Buy (HB) equity loan scheme slated to wind up in 2023, there has been a recent media frenzy surrounding housing secretary James Brokenshire’s reported concerns about the behaviour of some of the UK’s most prominent housebuilders.
ProfessionalIndustry needs support from the banks to survive Brexit slump
Shortly after the autumn Budget, a story caught my eye. It’s a cautionary tale for all of us working in the built environment and concerns the holy trinity: Brexit, builders and banks.
ProfessionalGovernment with all eyes on Brexit has lost its focus on housing crisis
The government has made a number of announcements recently concerning the future of property development.
ProfessionalDutch have come up with novel way to combat lack of bricklayers
The latest figures on construction output from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the industry suffered quite badly over the winter.
ProfessionalProperty must fight back against bad press and celebrate successes
I am not being unnecessarily jingoistic but the UK truly has one of the best property and construction industries in the world.
ProfessionalNew approach to the green belt would help ease housing shortage
There has been a distinct sense of buck passing in political discourse of late. Housebuilders have been held partly responsible for the housing shortage.
NewsWe must look further afield to find ways to kickstart housebuilding
There is little that all the major political parties agree on at the moment, not even the rebuilding of their own Palace of Westminster. One thing, however, that unites them all is a common acceptance that we need more houses and we need them quickly.
ProfessionalOutcome of the Grenfell safety review is likely to prove costly
Who will forget seeing the images of Grenfell Tower burning? Like a kind of horrified, unwilling voyeur, I - like so many - felt frustrated and helpless knowing that it would prove impossible to help those trapped.
ProfessionalConstruction industry uneasy in the face of potential recession
When the UK election was called, the phrase “strong and stable” government was coined and was then repeated as a mantra.
InsightLabour shortages key concern for construction post-Brexit
At a careers fair for sixth-formers I attended recently, an unhelpful teacher described working in the built environment as being a bit like being an elevator attendant - with an equal number of rises and falls on a daily basis. He exaggerated, but he had a point.
ProfessionalOnly a minor Brexit vote effect on construction – fingers crossed
The decision to leave the EU was a huge shock for most of us managing the construction of the built environment.
