Opinion

Rudi Klein is a barrister and former chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group It is extremely gratifying that the government has accepted the recommendation for a construction regulator, albeit implantation is delayed until 2028. More than 30 years ago, as chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group,…

Quentin Fox is a partner and head of professional risk at law firm Weightmans The final Grenfell Inquiry report, published in September, marked an end to the seven-year probe into the horrific apartment block fire that took the lives of 72 people on 14 June 2017.  The report and the…

What’s going on? The government seems to have woken up to the reality that it needs to listen to the construction industry. Last month it gathered more than 50 chief executives from across construction and planning to discuss how to unblock barriers to growth. It then appointed Mace-executive-turned-MP Mike Reader…

Tim Clement is director of social value and sustainability at Morgan Sindall Construction We are standing on the cusp of transformation, with shifts already happening because of our ageing population, strained social infrastructure, Brexit realignment and the rise of artificial intelligence, with all the automation it will bring. Any transformation…

Kuldip Dhanoya is partner and head of public procurement at national law firm TLT The Procurement Act 2023 takes effect in the UK (with limited application to Scotland) from today (24 February), following four years of development triggered by the Green Paper: Transforming Public Procurement in December 2020. It reflects…

Damien Sharkey is managing director of build-to-rent developer HUB How can we balance the need to ensure building safety with development certainty, to allow the delivery of much-needed homes? As the Building Safety Act rightly makes clear, delivering homes that are safe to live in is fundamental and non-negotiable. But…

Jon Bootland is chief executive of the Passivhaus Trust Projects being built to the Passivhaus standard now account for approximately 1 per cent of all new homes under construction, according to figures the Passivhaus Trust has just released. This new data shows that the standard is now a mainstream option…

Mark Farmer is the founder of Cast Consultancy and the author of the independent Department for Education review on construction skills One of the central conclusions I arrived at in writing the recent Industry Training Board review, Transforming the Construction Workforce, is that the solutions to the industry’s future capacity…

Sophie Gawin is a construction site management Level 6 apprentice at Willmott Dixon I chose this apprenticeship because I was excited about the opportunity to learn on the job and complete placements around the business to learn about each discipline. I liked the idea of having a degree, all while…

Daniel Vincent is an estimator/quantity surveyor at Legendre UK As an apprentice at Legendre UK for over four years, I’ve been lucky enough to experience firsthand the dynamic and enriching environment that smaller companies can offer. At a time of rapid change for the construction industry, an apprenticeship in a…