Legislation to transform the Highways Agency from April next year into a government owned company – a GoCo – was set out in the Infrastructure Bill in April, creating a legal framework for the new entity to oversee England’s strategic roads network.
Blog and Comment
Hold onto your Panama hats
The Arcadis survey of construction disputes has been running for four years, and the latest survey shows no sign that the global market for construction lawyers is slowing down.
Clients get new safety focus
Health and safety is a perennial problem in the construction industry, but one that the industry’s leading players have been giving serious attention to.
Late payers may be in last chance saloon
Pressure is mounting on the construction industry’s late payers to get their houses in order and find ways to stop log jamming the industry’s cash flow.
Intelligent client needed
Our news pages are full these days with stories about public sector procurement. The public sector has always been crucial as a client for construction, but changes in procurement have made it increasingly so.
Plea bargaining to combat corruption
Corruption in business is endemic across the European Community, costing the EU economy almost £100 billion a year in lost tax revenues and foreign investment; and the problem is getting worse.
‘Day of shame’ for Whitehall contract managers
The UK government is pushing ahead with plans to outsource more government services despite the growing evidence that the UK public sector is nowhere near capable of managing the large contracts involved.
Need to reset ground rules
Public sector construction procurement is in crisis. Stories of procurement foul ups across the public sector have been headline grabbing for years of course, and there have been government responses, such as sending some civil servants off to be better educated in project management.
Bribery Act must show its teeth
Evidence has been coming thick and fast recently that despite the introduction of the UK’s supposedly harsh Bribery Act in 2010, corruption is still endemic in construction. Corruption is endemic in life generally, it has to be said, and in no way should construction be regarded as anything unique in this respect.
Funding needs planning
What is the best way to end decades of floundering, delay and indecision in the planning of the UK’s infrastructure? Few would probably say let’s create a quango to tackle the problem, but that is what has emerged as the main recommendation of the review of UK infrastructure planning by Sir John Armitt.