All Comment articles – Page 54
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Comment
Cost insight: feeding the beast
For 50 years QSs have relied on the BCIS as a vital data source, but their hunger for insights into costs just keeps growing. Who can capture all that information?
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Comment
Are customers loyal or just too lazy to go elsewhere?
Our marketing expert explains how earn loyalty from your customers
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Comment
FITs: Time for a rational response
Feed-in tariffs should have been brought down gradually over a period of time instead of the knee-jerk reaction we’ve seen
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Comment
Safety in numbers
Nobody is safe from the acquiring arms of foreign firms (apart from architects), but is this the grisly end of UK independence or just small companies fighting for survival?
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Comment
Architectual competitions: Judgement day
Those judging architectural competitions need to be wise, ethical and very well informed. That’s why the tittle-tattle of public opinion should be ignored
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Comment
BIM and the QS: Better late than never
Why are the majority of QSs reluctant to use BIM? It’s time to get on board before early adopters in the contracting market get too far ahead
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Comment
Healthcare: Get well soon
When we think of healthcare, we think of patients, but at the moment it’s the estate that’s sick. It needs leadership, innovative development ideas - and a good bedside manner
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Comment
Social housing: Locked out
Families living in social housing rely on subsidies to make ends meet, but with higher rents and reduced benefits affordable homes are becoming anything but
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Comment
Tory conference Q&A: the construction minister
Emily Wright cornered the construction minister Mark Prisk, at the Tory party conference this week…
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Comment
Hadid's Evelyn Grace Academy: Gove won’t like it
Zaha Hadid’s school runs counter to today’s politically austere mood, but this inspiring piece of design is a worthy winner of this year’s Stirling prize
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Comment
Uncertainty will only hurt the NHS
The coalition has made a mess of its restructuring of the NHS, creating confusion and waste when what it needs is steady, incremental modernisation
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Comment
Economic crisis: The battle for Britain
The business secretary reckons we face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war. Shame then that politicians have all but surrendered our future to the pluck of bankers
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Comment
Construction and finance: Where's the money?
Construction’s recovery depends on finding finance for major projects and infrastructure. But the banks are risk averse and investors are lacking in long-term vision
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Comment
Monitoring is answer to Stunell's green fears
Monitoring buildings’ energy performance is essential to achieve our low carbon goal – if we fail in reducing emissions it will have serious consequences
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Comment
'Upbeat' Vince sees no sunny uplands for the economy
The mood of the Liberal Democrat conference is matched by Birmingham’s leaden skies
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Comment
PFI: Going private
PFI has had a bad press, but with its combination of risk put on the private sector, predictable cashflow and growing demand, you could be seeing a lot more of it around
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Features
The free schools programme: Fancy free
Rachel Wolf, at 26, is in charge of delivering the government’s free schools programme. In the week the first of these schools open, she tells Sarah Richardson about how construction firms can get involved, and the importance (or not) of good design
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Comment
Providing schools: Creative classes
We don’t have enough places for kids in the schools their parents want. A new approach is needed: adapting other public buildings for education and bringing in private help to show us how
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Comment
Reading the riot act
If your project suffered a loss as a result of the riots this August you may be able to claim compensation under a JCT contract or even from the police through a 125 year old statute
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Comment
The case for skyscrapers: Scaling new heights
The 9/11 attacks made us nervous about erecting tall buildings but actually we need them more than ever - after all, they offer a more sustainable solution than urban sprawl