Chair’s Letter: Service or Product?

/ Chairman's Blog

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The Office for National Statistics lists the construction industry as part of the service sector. This makes some sense in that we provide bespoke facilities to customers rather like a restaurant provides meals. However, our output is not a transient meal but delivers a very concrete asset which needs looking after for its whole life, a service we do not provide except reactively. We treat our output like a product, leaving the buyer to look after it. Owners are not…

Construction Contract Execution During Covid-19 and Beyond

/ Contractual Issues, JCT 2016 Edition

Blog Authors: Marcus Harling and Alistair Russell – Burges Salmon LLP Electronic signatures, data rooms, Mercury execution? Evolving working arrangements mean we should all double check exactly how to execute construction documents. Whilst smart contracts and digital signatures are still very much the immediate future, for most people they did not arrive in time to help with the complexities of contract execution created by the COVID-19 lockdown. Suddenly the traditional way of contract execution became almost impossible and old questions on remote Mercury compliant execution…

JCT Interviews…Richard Young

/ Interviews

In this series we shed some light on some of the key people who are involved with or give their time to support JCT, to ensure that all areas of the construction industry are represented and can contribute to the development of our contracts. We will look at how our interviewees contribute to JCT specifically and gain their views on JCT’s wider role within the industry. Richard Young BSc Hons MICE Senior director, CBRE Project Management Member, JCT Council Richard Young originally trained as a…

Chair’s Letter: Must Recession mean Regression?

/ Chairman's Blog

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE The 2008 recession destroyed a decade of progress in modernising construction practice as everyone reverted to pre-Latham/Egan behaviours. Progressive practice has climbed back in the last decade, but will it all be lost again? Two recessions ago, in 1992, the government asked Sir Michael Latham to report on how to improve the suffering construction industry. Construction always fares very badly in downturns as public and private clients typically slow or stop investing. Constructors and consultants shed staff and bid low…

Bunhill 2 Energy Centre

/ Case Studies

The Bunhill 2 Energy Centre, situated on the long-disused site of the old City Road underground station in Islington, is the second phase of Islington Borough Council’s Bunhill Heat and Power District Heating Network, launched in 2012. The innovative project uses waste heat from the Tube to provide sustainable, cheap heating and hot water to homes and other buildings in the borough. A JCT Design and Build Contract provided the contract solution. The Bunhill Heat and Power District Heating Network was supplying heating and hot…

AIMs Assets and Threads

/ General

Blog Author: Simon Lewis – Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP Whilst the world continues to struggle with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are signs that the construction sector is beginning to operate once again, albeit within strictly regulated parameters. Obviously, from an economic perspective this is a good thing but also there are a number of issues which are pressing for the construction sector and which should be progressed as swiftly as reasonably possible even in these difficult times. One of these…

JCT Interviews…Steven Carr

/ Interviews

In this series we shed some light on some of the key people who are involved with or give their time to support JCT, to ensure that all areas of the construction industry are represented and can contribute to the development of our contracts. We will look at how our interviewees contribute to JCT specifically, and gain their views on JCT’s wider role within the industry. BSc (Hons), MRICS Director: Construction, M&G Real Estate Limited Member of the JCT Council, BPF Representative Liveryman of the…

Digital First with JCT Online

/ JCT Product Updates

Instant access to the contracts and services you need at www.jctltd.co.uk/jct-digital JCT has been adopting a ‘digital first’ approach for customers using the JCT Online Store (www.jctltd.co.uk) to make it easier for those who have been working with construction contracts during the lockdown period, and to assist construction professionals in their return to work as the lockdown eases. JCT Digital provides a range of options for instant online access to any contract within the JCT 2016 Edition, enabling users to conveniently fill in and, depending…

JCT Interviews…Carys Rowlands

/ Interviews

In this series we shed some light on some of the key people who are involved with or give their time to support JCT, to ensure that all areas of the construction industry are represented and can contribute to the development of our contracts. We will look at how our interviewees contribute to JCT specifically, and gain their views on JCT’s wider role within the industry. Head of Professional Standards, RIBA Member, JCT Council, RIBA Representative Alternate, JCT Board Carys Rowlands is Head of Professional…

Chair’s Letter: Might Building Performance Become Contractual?

/ Chairman's Blog

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE At present, building contracts are designed to manage the completion of a capital project on budget, on time and without defects, dealing with failures should they arise. The new situation, driven by concern for climate change and for occupant safety, is that buildings must also perform as promised, over time. The reality today is that buildings are designed only to meet capital budgets, with little concern shown for the lifecycle costs which usually exceed capital costs. They are also designed…