Blog

Globalisation – winners and losers

/ Chairman's Blog

Blog author: Richard Saxon CBE, JCT Chairman Construction used to be the most local of industries. Buildings were made from the nearby materials by local craftsmen and master masons. There were no ‘professionals’. As modern materials came in so they were sourced from further afield and professionals emerged to decide how to use them. Whilst bulky materials are expensive to ship, the UK has largely gone over to importing building products, with a major negative balance of payments for manufactured components. For a wide variety…

JCT launches new website and online store

/ Latest News, Press Releases

The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) has launched a new website and a dedicated online store for customers to access and purchase JCT products. JCT contract users have been able to purchase contracts via the JCT website since 2013, but the success of this service, along with a continued increase in sales of JCT contracts has driven the need for an improved, dedicated store site. The new shop site at www.jctltd.co.uk offers a user-friendly online shopping experience, optimised to work fully across desktop, tablet and mobile…

Judging Panel set for JCT’s most creative student competition to date

/ Education, Skills and Students, Press Releases

The judging panel for the JCT Student Essay Competition 2016 has been announced. The competition offers both support and a creative opportunity for construction students, with a winning prize of £1,000 and runner-up prizes of £250 available. In a change to previous competitions, students are able to present their ideas in any way they wish, be it essay, video, set of designs or drawings, photographic/visual essay – whatever they feel best enables them to present a creative idea on the topics of skills shortages, sustainability,…

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

/ Case Studies

With a clutch of awards, including a RIBA National Award 2015, the 2015 Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year, and shortlisted for the RIBA Sterling prize, the extension to the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester is a masterpiece of transparency and integration with its exterior parkland space. A JCT Standard Building Contract provided the contract solution. The University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery first opened in 1908, and was designed by J.W. Beaumont. The north-south facing façade is the original red brick and terracotta, neo-Jacobean…

1-6 Copper Lane

/ Case Studies

The client-driven community housing development, 1-6 Copper Lane, is an innovative and highly collaborative solution to the problem of finding affordable housing in London. As with many innovative and inspirational projects JCT was the contract of choice, the Intermediate Building Contract provided the solution here. 1-6 Copper Lane is London’s first purpose-built co-housing scheme. Located in Stoke Newington, in the north of the city, the development consists of six homes that approach lifestyle choice and economics in such a way to make home ownership more…

JCT 2016 Edition – New Features Announced

/ JCT 2016 Edition, Press Releases

JCT Chair, Richard Saxon CBE, has provided an update on the forthcoming JCT 2016 Edition of contracts, summarising the main new features, in a presentation to delegates at the Olswang Annual Construction Conference on Thursday 4th February. Richard Saxon’s presentation covered a range of topics, including a history of JCT, the philosophy behind the organisation’s consensus approach, and JCT’s uniqueness as an industry-wide collaborative body: “It could be said that JCT is one of the only fully industry-wide collaborative forums. As well as helping us…

Making Good with Rectification Periods

/ Contractual Issues

Blog author: Hugh Saunders – 3PB Do you still talk about the “defects liability period”? So do I, and I don’t blame you because the phrase has been around for so long, even though modern JCT contracts use the term “Rectification Period”. Whatever you call it, problems can arise because although the clauses look quite simple there is actually a number of things going on. First, neither term really describes what the contract actually means; second, on the expiry of the Rectification Period, there is…

Over Payment is Careless

/ Contractual Issues

Blog author: Peter Hibberd Following Galliford Try vs Estura [2015] EWHC412 (TCC), a case concerning summary judgement to enforce the decision of an adjudicator as to payment of an interim application, there were various comments by observers on whether or not the payer has a right to repayment by the contractor on account of an overpayment and speculation as to whether there should be an express term to this effect. JCT Design and Build Contract 2011 (the contract in that case) makes it absolutely clear…

A Question of Programme

/ Contractual Issues

Blog author: Will Cooper – Senior Associate, Clyde & Co LLP The programme produced and maintained by a contractor is one of the most important documents for any works. Of course, the programme’s primary function is to ensure effective sequencing of the various components of the works. However, it has an important secondary role in assessing contractor applications for extensions of time and assisting with the resolution of disputes between contractor and employer, roles not always readily appreciated by contract draftsmen. It is the second…

One Building or Two?

/ Chairman's Blog

Blog author: Richard Saxon, JCT Chairman The conventional client for a construction project has focussed on achieving success in getting their requirements delivered to quality, on time and on budget. It has been a capital project mind-set, measuring achievement over the period up to the final account. Those clients who own the building tend to change the accounting status and the leadership involved at the end of the capital phase, handing the facility manager, who is rarely involved before this point, a bundle of information…