Blog

Assessing the Draft Building Safety Bill

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Michael O’Connor – Partner, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP Taken with various accompanying measures relating to building safety – such as the Fire Safety Bill currently passing through Parliament, various changes to the Building Regulations and the establishment of funds for the replacement of both ACM and Non-ACM cladding and the cost of waking watches, worth £1.6bn – there is no doubt that the measures comprise the most wide-ranging reforms in building safety for 40 years. Building Safety Regulator Initially confirmed by the Government…

JCT Training Online – Flexible Learning Options for JCT Contract Users

/ Education, Skills and Students

JCT has developed a new package of online training to sit alongside its traditional, face-to-face courses. The programme aims to provide more flexibility for contract users following the restrictions and wider working implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme started on the 26 November 2020, where two courses, “JCT Design and Build Contract 2016” and “JCT Contracts 2016: The Legal Perspective”, were delivered as live, interactive webinars. The new digital JCT Training comes from the same expert trainers as the physical courses – all either…

Construction’s New Playbook

/ General, Legislation

Blog Author: Richard Saxon CBE – JCT Chair You may not know that I have been a long-time fan of American Football. The game is sometimes called ‘violent chess’ as it’s based on pre-planned ‘plays’ by one side’s offence team and the other’s defence team. The plays are radioed into the quarterback, the leader of the offence, by a coach on the side-line and the whole team must remember the moves implied by the coded name of the play, then execute it flawlessly. All the…

Brixton Windmill Community Centre

/ Case Studies

London’s last surviving working mill gets an upgrade with a new community centre, built on a JCT Intermediate Contract. The new community centre at Brixton Windmill has been a project many years in the planning for the Friends of Windmill Hill (FoWH), which was completed last year with funding from Lambeth Council. The charity is responsible for the preservation and maintenance of the Grade II listed windmill, the last remaining working flour mill in London. The brief for the new community centre was to provide…

JCT Interviews…Victoria Peckett

/ Interviews

Partner, head of construction, CMS-CMNO Chair, JCT Drafting Sub-Committee In a special edition of ‘JCT Interviews…’, we talk once again with Victoria Peckett, chair of the JCT Drafting Sub-Committee (DSC), to update us on JCT’s current work and what we can expect from the next edition of the JCT contract suite. JCT: Victoria, thanks for joining us again. You are about to embark on your next term as chair of the DSC. What do you find enjoyable/rewarding about the role, what are the biggest challenges?…

JCT Young Professionals Group

/ JCT Young Professionals Group

A focus group within JCT for professionals within the first ten years of their career, as well as students, whose members are interested in elevating their professional profile, expanding their industry network and connecting with peers, and giving back to the industry through fostering a long-term engagement with JCT. A platform for young professionals across different sectors of the industry to network and share experiences and ideas in an informal way. A link between young professionals and industry experts for the sharing of knowledge and…

Karen Kirkham appointed as new JCT chair

/ Latest News, Press Releases

Karen Kirkham, who is a solicitor and head of construction at BDB Pitmans LLP, has been appointed the new chair of JCT. She is the first woman to hold the post. Karen has 30 years’ experience working with JCT contracts, advising clients from all sectors of the industry. Her clients include commercial developers, occupiers, charities, local authorities, public infrastructure companies, contractors, sub-contractors, architects, and individual householders. She has been listed as a leading construction legal practitioner in Chambers since 2008 and regularly publishes articles on…

Canopy House, Nairobi

/ Case Studies

This residential property, built for a British-raised Kenyan working for the UN, combines a mixture of renovation, extension, and smart sourcing of labour and materials to provide luxury on a budget. Key to saving costs was the use of a JCT Minor Works Building Contract with contractor’s design. The large site for this property, set in well-healed Nairobi suburb, already contained a bungalow which presented two initial challenges. Firstly, budget precluded the option to completely remove the structure and secondly, the undesirable aspect of the…

JCT welcomes publication of The Construction Playbook

/ Latest News, Press Releases

The publication of the The Construction Playbook, a new guidance document released by the UK Government for public sector procurement, has been welcomed by JCT at their December 10th Council meeting. JCT is listed within the Playbook as one of the key standard form contract providers recommended for use on public sector projects. The Construction Playbook is a guidance document aimed at professionals across public sector bodies who are responsible for the planning and delivery of public work programmes and projects. The 12-chapter document sets…

Data driven culture vital to delivering benefits of Construction 4.0

/ JCT Povey Lecture, Latest News, Press Releases

Establishing a data driven culture that encompasses people, processes, and products is vital to delivering transformative benefits to the construction industry and its clients, said Dr Damien Buie, group technical director, Laing O’Rourke, in delivering the JCT Povey Lecture 2020 on Wednesday 18th November. In his presentation, ‘Safety in numbers – Resilience and Certainty Through Data’, Dr Buie described Laing O’Rourke’s own journey toward Construction 4.0 – delivering a closer alignment with clients, creating a safe working environment, and consistently delivering quality engineering solutions that…