£100 Million and the Myth of the Master Programme
There is a moment on every large regeneration programme when the Gantt chart stops describing the project and starts describing the hope. It usually happens somewhere around the second decant. Why the programme fails first Estate regeneration is not a construction sequence with residents attached. It is a rehousing exercise with construction attached, and the […]
The Procurement Act Will Not Rescue a Bad Decision
The Procurement Act is a genuine improvement on what it replaced. It is clearer, more flexible and more honest about the fact that lowest price and best value have never been the same thing. Anyone who has run a public sector tender under the old regulations will recognise the relief. But there is a persistent […]
Gateway Two and the Quiet Cost of Waiting
There is a particular silence that settles over a project waiting on a Gateway Two determination. Nobody can build. Nobody can demobilise. And nobody is entirely sure who is paying for the interval. The statutory position is straightforward enough. The commercial position is not. Standard forms were drafted for a world in which regulatory approval […]
The Building Safety Act Has Changed Who Carries the Risk — Not Who Understands It
Four years on from Royal Assent, the Building Safety Act is no longer a piece of prospective legislation to be discussed at conferences. It is a live operating condition on every higher-risk building in the country, and it has done something the industry has spent decades avoiding: it has named people. That is the reform’s […]