Opinion

Frederik Murphy-Jackson is the founder of FMJ Plastering In the turbulent landscape of the UK construction industry, a pressing concern has emerged: a severe shortage of qualified and skilled tradespeople. The sharp rise in home improvements has magnified the lack of skilled workers within the industry, hampering the timely completion…

Julie White is managing director of D-Drill & Sawing and chair of Build UK I have always been a huge advocate of apprentices, so National Apprenticeship Week gets my full backing every year. It’s in my blood, you see. More than 40 years ago, my dad, Peter White – who…

Kingsley Clarke is operations lead at Southern Construction Framework With a recent report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) finding that there were 45 fatalities in the construction industry in 2022/2023, up from 29 the previous year, it’s more important than ever that the right health and safety training…

Andrew Kitley is managing director of Kitall In the construction sector, the extent of support for neurodivergent individuals significantly varies depending on the employer. A notable observation is that the highest levels of awareness and support are often found in companies where leadership openly identifies as neurodivergent. This personal connection…

Marc Preston is chief executive of Vertice Development Management and New Foundation Counselling, and director of Construction Disputes Experts  The impact of poor mental health within the construction industry is now an undisputed fact, with suicide statistics escalating every year. In 2021 there were 507 deaths and, without proper address,…

Aidan Steensma is of counsel in the infrastructure, construction and energy disputes team at CMS London A smash and grab adjudication (SGA) involves a party claiming a sum that was applied for but never challenged in a valid payment or pay-less notice (or the ‘notified sum’). The paying party must…

Lord Moylan is chair of the House of Lords Built Environment Committee Modern methods of construction (MMC) should be increasingly attractive, given their claims of being more efficient, addressing labour problems and the demonstrable success seen in commercial and high-rise buildings. However, we aren’t seeing the delivery of MMC housing…

Duncan Rudall is chief executive of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors You may be surprised to learn that 91 per cent of all those working in the built-environment industry have felt overwhelmed at some point in their careers. Indeed, underneath the constant banter and camaraderie that bring the UK’s…

Sam Barnes is a partner and national head of cost management at consultancy RLB UK Last year wasn’t the best of years to be a contractor. The last seven months of 2023 saw major contractors such as Henry Construction, Buckingham and Michael J Lonsdale go into administration, and in November,…

Emma Mottram is director of operations for social housing procurement consortium EN:Procure Procurement is an expensive game. Going by the latest government figures, one pound of public money in every three is spent on public procurement – totalling some £300bn per year. The Procurement Act 2023 comes into force later…