It would be hard to find evidence of anything good that came out of the collapse of Carillion; it was in fact an unmitigated disaster that will resonate deeply within the construction industry for years to come, and around which legal actions are still in the offing.
Blog and Comment
Contracts need risk management
The headline news from the most recent Arcadis survey of global disputes is that the sums involved in disputes have more than doubled but the number of disputes has stayed about the same. Disputes are being resolved faster at an average of 13 months compared to 15 last year, and the UK is maintaining its lead in speedy dispute resolution, taking only 10 months on average.
Toxic and dysfunctional industry awaits its revolution
The Times gave more space to construction and its problems in a series spread over three days in May than the industry has probably ever received at one go from a national newspaper. None of it was good.
Derailment inquiry exposes risk management shortfalls
A great divide exists between those who take proactive action to prevent undesirable events and those who just muddle along and wait until the bad thing happens before belatedly doing anything about it.
A bank that doesn’t go far enough?
One thing that can be confidently said about the newly announced National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) is that it won’t be funding very much of the procurement of the UK’s national infrastructure.
Insurance problems threaten the UK’s future
Insurance has never felt cheap to companies in the construction sector, although many or most of them never took the sort of risk management measures highlighted in our regular insurance articles, so to a large extent often had only themselves to blame if they were paying higher premiums than they need have.
Covid procurement highlights need for reform
Much, if not all, of 2021 will be spent dealing with the fall out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and hopefully learning from the way the UK mobilised its central government procurement systems to combat it. There is much to learn.
Early estimates only part of the procurement problem
The UK’s poor procurement practices are highlighted yet again by the news that the £19bn Crossrail project can’t be completed with the money available to the project. Crossrail should have opened in December 2018 but is currently hoped to be completed by the first half of 2022.
Lowest price obsession hasn’t gone away
The Cabinet Office has announced new measures to deliver social value through public procurement in ‘Taking Account of Social Value in the Award of Central Government Contracts’.
A persuasive influence worth holding on to?
Scotland famously enjoys its own legal system, separate from that of the rest of the UK. Although in commercial law there may be little of major difference between decisions made under Scots law and those that might be reached in England, the principle of a separate and distinct legal system is important to the devolved nation, as it has been to Scotland since the Act of Union of 1707.