Blog

JCT Chair to take part in Construction Blockchain Session at Futurebuild 2020

JCT Chair, Richard Saxon CBE, will be participating in the “Construction Blockchain: BIM and Smart Contracts” session at Futurebuild on Wednesday 04 March 2020. The session, hosted by the Construction Blockchain Consortium (CBC), outlines the emerging applications of distributed ledger technology, and includes the presentation of a white paper from the CBC, for which Richard wrote the forword. Delegates will be updated on developments in technologies such as Blockchain, DApps, and smart legal contracts, and why they need to be considered in order to fully…

JCT Interviews…Charles Edwards

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 Chambers and Barrister at New Temple Chambers Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors Member…

House Lessans, County Down, Northern Ireland

This family home, built on the site of a small farmstead in County Down, Northern Ireland, used basic materials but a high level of attention to detail to create an outstanding quality building on a very modest budget. Designed by McGonigle McGrath Architects, with Hans Crosby as main contractor, it was winner of both the RIBA and Grand Designs House of the Year 2019 and was built on a JCT Intermediate Building Contract. The brief for this project was to create a simple property to…

Digital Technology Will Change the Culture of the Construction Industry

  A vision for the future of the construction industry and society as a whole was shared by Professor Alan Penn in delivering the JCT Povey Lecture 2019, entitled “Our digital future: space and place in a digital world”. Professor Alan Penn delivered his lecture to JCT delegates at 18 Smith Square, London on Wednesday, 20 November 2019. Professor Alan Penn showed that throughout human history, developments in technology have impacted the way in which we have developed our built environment, and how we have…

Construction Contract Mistakes: That Wasn’t Quite What We Meant

Blog Author: Victoria Peckett – CMS When rectifying contracts to fix drafting mistakes, what happens if the parties disagree on what was meant? Construction contracts are often so voluminous that it can be easy for mistakes to creep in when putting them together and for the executed contract not to reflect what the parties think they have agreed in all respects. Often these mistakes can be sorted out by agreement — either the parties will amend the erroneous parts in manuscript before dating them, or…

Working With BIM and JCT Contracts

Blog Author: Mark Pantry – Fenwick Elliott In May 2019, JCT introduced a new Practice Note, BIM and JCT Contracts. JCT says that the aim of the Practice is to further the understanding of BIM related legal and contractual issues and suggest ways of approaching such issues in a collaborative and constructive way. Mark Pantry explores the extent to which JCT have achieved this. The construction industry continues to make progress with the implementation of digital technology in construction projects. It is, however, widely accepted…

Chair’s Letter: Towards Value-based Procurement

Blog Author: Richard Saxon, CBE I return to this topic again as it advances continuously. Government struggles with its procurement policy as forces pull in opposite directions. On the one hand, established practice is to seek lowest capital cost for design and construction in order to spread available resources over the most constituencies possible. On the other hand, there is growing awareness that processes seeking lowest first cost tend to produce poor value. Value is not just price, but a more complex concept embodying benefits…

Alliancing With Excellence

Blog Author: Peter Hibberd Those involved with construction frequently berate themselves and others for its poor performance; often rightly. However, there remains a failure to recognise fully what can be done to improve. The tendency to concentrate simply on improving efficiency is not enough because one can be efficient without creating value. What must be improved is quality and productivity as these will create project life value for the client and a better return to the participants without increasing costs disproportionately. Those two objectives are…

JCT Povey Lecture 2019 – Our digital future: space and place in a digital world

JCT Povey Lecture 2019 “Our digital future: space and place in a digital world” Alan Penn, professor, architectural and urban computing, The Bartlett, UCL; chief scientific advisor to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government About the Povey Lecture The JCT Povey Lecture is an annual event at which an eminent person is invited to give their thoughts on significant matters that are relevant to the construction and property industry. The purpose of the lecture is to stimulate thought and encourage ways of continuing to…

Digital technology will change the culture of the construction industry

A vision for the future of the construction industry and society as a whole was shared by Professor Alan Penn in delivering the JCT Povey Lecture 2019, entitled “Our digital future: space and place in a digital world”. Professor Alan Penn delivered his lecture to JCT delegates at the Local Government Association, London on Wednesday, 20 November 2019. Professor Alan Penn showed that throughout human history, developments in technology have impacted the way in which we have developed our built environment, and how we have…