A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from across the CIOB community and social media.
Time to stop changing standard contracts beyond recognition
Construction Leadership Council’s Samantha Peat argued against the increasingly common practice of adding clauses amending industry-approved forms of contract.
This article is absolutely correct. Too many clients, aided by their lawyers, distort initially balanced contracts to exploit their power position in a project. This is an ongoing source of industry problems and hardly benefits clients as suppliers and their insurers often cannot deliver the unreasonable obligations they are asked to undertake. Standard form contracts are valuable as they are and should be used that way.
Richard Saxon FRICS FRIBA
Is this ‘bastardisation’ of the documents a result of clauses deemed too restrictive by clients/developers and general contractors? Or are the design/engineering teams too accommodating and not demanding enough? The design responsibility matrix and information delivery requirements are good for stipulating what is to be delivered, and key to ensuring the measure of what matters.
Pierre Venter
The PPP comeback: a broken model or a new opportunity for construction?
Anthony Walker made the case for reviving a new generation of well-designed public-private partnership models.
I’m retired now but was part of a team that successfully negotiated and delivered three PFI housing schemes. I agree with Anthony that the model of private and public schemes should not be abandoned and learning experience could help develop the model.
None of the schemes were without challenges. The procurement process was certainly lengthy and the room full of contracts on signing day bore witness to the scale of the document negotiation with the legal representation of the parties.
A better risk share arrangement would certainly deliver better value, as would standardised contracts. Payment for the procurement process would enable parties to invest the time and resources necessary to speed up the process.
A single project bonding and insurance and warranty arrangement for all parties would save costs.
I remain of the view that PPP could form a part of the government’s delivery of the housing targets with carefully crafted and balanced risks and rewards drawing on private contractors’ expertise.
Andrew Board
Will the Grenfell fire engineer recommendation fix the competence problem?
Professor Michael Parrett FCIOB told CIOB People fire engineer training must go further than theory to prevent more deadly disasters.
Training has always been a hot topic and I believe it is better to understand the complexities of the range of subjects we partake in.
Perhaps degree apprenticeships backed by hands-on experience would be far better than a university course. Considerations could be made to extend the learning, ensuring it is completely regulated, with no loopholes.
Ian Robertson
Information Management Initiative: information management for all
Nima launched an initiative to replace the previous information management mandate, which in turn superseded the 2016 UK BIM mandate.
This brings to mind the original target to have everything in place by 2020. A standardised way of specifying requirements has been available since PAS 1192, although terminology has evolved and new concepts have been introduced over time.
Now the target appears to have moved to 2030, will there be a review of the lessons learned from the 2020 timeline to understand why it wasn’t achieved and to better support this new goal? I do feel that although a few individuals are now BIM Experts and do BIM things, the majority of projects still do things traditionally and wastefully when it comes to BIM.
Sarah Meah
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