Re:Construction

It’s all about the stars! Huge scepticism is required when reading online reviews, but they can still matter. Bishop & Taylor (4.5 stars) discuss the latest Glassdoor ratings for top contractors and a new app for rating asbestos removal operatives.

Bishop & Taylor discuss highlights of the latest Construction Index UK Top 100 construction companies, as well as share price trends, and a new scheme to get Hampshire building again.

Taylor credits Bishop with raising demand for dogs, while Bishop credits Taylor with raising consciousness of the threat to chalk streams. Of greater relevance, however, is the use of a hydrogen fuel cell system to provide power for a pioneering construction project in Lincolnshire.

With the new school year starting, it’s a time of fresh beginnings; should you still work from home or return to the office? 

A Loughborough University study finds how well construction has adapted to the constraints of Covid-19. 

Meanwhile trade secretary Liz Truss appears to have no truck with the construction industry, shutting it out of her 11 trade advisory groups. It’s Bishop & Taylor time on Re:construction.

Bishop & Taylor discuss delays to the £4bn Thames Tideway project as well as the transport secretary’s new acceleration unit and a drill attachment that cuts square holes.

Bishop & Taylor turn their attention to the contents of the August issue of The Construction Index magazine, and cover remarkably wide ground…

Bishop & Taylor are joined by structural engineer Kevin Lyons to discuss offsite construction. Our two regulars then also mull the government’s planning white paper and wonder whether contractors will be eager to pay plant hire firms a premium for carbon offsetting.

This was the week that we learned more details of the £2bn Green Home Grants scheme, with the condition that only Trustmark accredited installers could be used; and the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge opened, less than two years after the old Morandi Brige collapsed. Bishop & Taylor reflect on it all.

With a no-deal Brexit on the cards, Bishop & Taylor discuss unresolved issues for the construction industry, including the future of product standardisation; and – with protests camps fighting a rear-guard action – they agree to disagree about HS2.

Bishop & Taylor discuss the need for face masks (both in life and on site), Rishi Sunak’s Plan for Jobs, and (after the fatal 8th July collapse in East London) tower crane safety.