Legal

Henry Construction: a cautionary tale of shaky defences

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Iain Taylor is an associate in the construction and engineering department at law firm Fladgate Henry Construction Projects’ high-profile collapse has left creditors in its supply chain short of £43m. The company’s administrators have pointed to Ozel Group’s winding-up petition against Henry in May as the beginning of its downfall.…

Construction firms hit again by government immigration fees

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Joanna Hunt is head of immigration at Fieldfisher Recent developments in the immigration sector have been a bit of a mixed bag for the construction industry. When it was announced recently that several construction roles would be added to the shortage occupations list to enable companies to recruit overseas workers…

The price could be steep if your staff indulge in cartel behaviour

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Juliette Enser is senior director of cartels at the Competition and Markets Authority In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined 10 construction firms nearly £60m for illegally colluding over £150m-worth of private and public sector contracts. This was just the latest example of our focus to root out…

Building remediation: sizing up the Responsible Actors Scheme

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Matthew Cocklin is a partner at Devonshires Solicitors On 24 July, the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS) was launched in England using powers conferred by the Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022. The RAS is a scheme that eligible developers may join. Members are required to identify and remediate (or pay for…

Contracts need rewriting in the wake of second-staircase regs

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Stuart Bosley is managing director of quantum and project advisory at engineering consultancy DeSimone In a resolute move towards enhancing fire-safety measures, the government has taken significant steps in response to the lessons learned from the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Towards the end of 2022, a proposal was published to…

Ref rules against contractor in insurance dispute with RFU

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Hazel Cox is an associate and Fraser Askham is a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang The Court of Appeal has considered a joint-names insurance policy taken out by an employer that was expressed to provide cover greater than required by the building contract. In FM Conway Limited v…

How the new building-safety test lifts the veil on remediation liability

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Mark London is a partner at law firm Devonshires In June 2022, the Building Safety Act (BSA) introduced several new remedies for those who wish to either recover the cost of remediating buildings or to compel a landlord to remediate the building. These new remedies ranged from extending the period…

‘Golden thread’ will have an impact on lower-tier contractors

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Neil Boothroyd is an adjudicator, arbitrator and mediator at consultancy Gateley Vinden The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) enforces the importance of better industry practices – including the accurate recording and storage of building-safety information – following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire of 2017. To regulate standards, the BSA has…