Blog Author: Nigel Blundell and Hamza Sekkar –  Pinsent Masons The current volatile and unpredictable market conditions pose a risk to the success of major projects. However, there are ways that contractors and clients can manage risks associated with inflation in their contracts. We look at three options available under the JCT suite of standard form contracts that contractors and clients alike should consider at a project’s outset. Current practices Deleting the fluctuation provisions in standard form contracts had been an accepted practice for many years….

Blog Author: Peter Hibberd Recently, the Bank of England governor claimed that his ex-chief economist’s view that inflation may reach 4% was alarmist and that we should not overreact to rising prices. Overreacting is one thing but making sensible provision is another. Fluctuations in labour and material prices in relation to construction projects can, and do, quickly erode a contractor’s margin. Over recent years, price inflation has been benign, which has led to those entering building contracts giving less consideration to its impact and to…

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…