Legal

Detectives investigating the Didcot Power Station collapse in which four men died have said the probe is entering its “latter stages”, as the ninth anniversary of the tragedy approaches. Coleman & Company employees Ken Cresswell, 57, Chris Huxtable, 34, John Shaw, 61, and Mick Collings, 53, died when the 10-storey…

Charis Beverton is a partner at law firm Winckworth Sherwood Since last summer’s general election, development conversations have centred around Labour’s target of building 1.5 million homes over the next five years. In December, we heard the prime minister again double down on that pledge as part of the government’s…

David Pickstone is a partner and Anastasia Nourescu is a senior associate at law firm Stewarts HMRC has recently intensified its scrutiny of research and development tax relief claims, targeting inadequate submissions from rogue advisers and seeking to narrow the interpretation of the rules around subsidised and contracted-out R&D. Construction…

Joanna Rees is a partner at law firm Blake Morgan The collapse of ISG in September created waves across the UK’s construction industry. It served as a painful reminder of the knock-on effects that insolvency can have throughout the supply chain, and the challenges it creates in both the private…

Lyn Crawford is a partner at law firm DAC Beachcroft In a dispute over the completion of groundworks as a precondition to the purchase of land, the court recently ruled that an expert determination clause (EDC) can be separable from the underlying agreement, even if that agreement has been terminated.…

10. Supply chain needs helping hand but future is bright, says Caddick MD Caddick Construction managing director Paul Dodsworth told CN senior reporter Joshua Stein that some good had come out of ISG’s collapse a few weeks earlier, in an interview published in October. “I put a post out on…

Áine McGuinness is a senior associate at legal services firm DWF AI is rapidly gaining traction across various industries, and the construction industry is no exception. One of the most promising applications is the use of AI-driven smart contracts, which can perform tasks that would traditionally require manual intervention. For…

Lena Barnes is a senior associate at Devonshires Now the dust has settled following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Providence Building Services Ltd v Hexagon Housing Association Ltd [2024], it is worth reflecting on the impact this decision will have on existing and future construction projects. The case turned…

Tomas Vail is an advocate and arbitrator at Vail Dispute Resolution The Conflict Avoidance Coalition – a group of organisations that aims to reduce the costs of disputes in construction – has called on industry stakeholders to commit to “stopping conflict before it begins”. Given the sector’s susceptibility to project…

The forthcoming Procurement Act will change the way public sector contracts are handed out. Kristina Smith canvasses industry opinion on the changes The Procurement Act was due to come into force on 28 October 2024. Designed to wrap four pieces of legislation drafted under EU law into one, the act…