Opinion

Gary Logan, chair of the Building Contractor Training Group (BCTG), explains how the training group is addressing the skills shortage, thanks to CITB funding. It’s well understood that the construction industry faces a shortage of skilled workers. To get round this, all industry stakeholders n

Courts can, in appropriate cases, devise a remedy to protect the good faith purchaser in a gratuitous alienation, the Supreme Court has concluded in a case that turned on the meaning of “adequate consideration” in the Insolvency Act 1986 and which has been remitted to the Inner House of

Roddy Cormack, construction law specialist and legal director at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, examines P-DfMA (Platform for Design for Manufacture and Assembly) and the general increase in off-site construction, and wonders whether SBCC is keeping up with the curve. P-DfMA is a relatively n

SELECT’s Alan Wilson details how the electrical industry is tackling demographic changes in the Scottish population. Electricity and electrotechnology underpin every aspect of modern Scottish society and the recently highlighted prospect of an erosion of highly technical skills as a result of

Highbridge Properties’ Guy Marsden looks at the Glasgow commercial property market and the increased levels of demand in the market, thanks to the growing pool of talent in the city. As a commercial property developer, my natural instinct whenever I go into a city is to look up – you rea

Kathie Pollard, policy officer at the Scottish Land Commission, explores how a new framework can help decision-makers assess the impact of vacant and derelict land (VDL) sites on their local communities. "This land can have a profound effect on the wellbeing of locals:” Darren McGarvey –

Halliday Fraser Munro design director Yunming Thomson discusses how community involvement in the early stages has transformed how we as architects approach the design of education projects.

With the Scottish Land Commission being asked to advise the Scottish Government on the establishment of regional land use partnerships, chief executive Hamish Trench looks at what the body will need to consider. The Scottish Land Commission is shaping a coherent programme of land reform spanning urb

BDP architect Lindsey Mitchell on the importance of designing education spaces which inspire and provide a year-round community asset. Like many who grew up in the 1980s, school for me was the building where I attended each weekday, was moved along corridors by prefects and herded by teachers into c

Construction law specialist Ross Taylor wonders if it’s now time for mandatory payment practices as the construction sector buckles under Brexit-driven worries. On 18 October 2019, the Office for National Statistics released the annual performance statistics for 2018, relative to the UK constr

Ahead of the Homes for Scotland annual conference, Nicola Barclay discusses the need for housing, the social and economic benefits of home building and the constraints facing the industry. For the first time since 2008 and the global recession, housing completions in Scotland have exceeded 20,000 pe

I was one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be from an early age. My five-year-old self created buildings with Lego from my imagination. So, when I grew up I did it for real and became an architect. When I was using my imagination as a child there were no barriers – such as the p

In a new report for Common Weal, former chief statistician Jim Cuthbert examines the newly developed 'Mutual Investment Model' that the Scottish Government has adopted for at least some future public infrastructure projects.

The new building regulations can ensure Scotland leads the way in delivering safe, compliant construction projects but they don’t come without their challenges, says Heather Holbrook. At the start of October, Scotland ushered in a new wave of building regulations, aimed at improving the safety

Public procurement policy and practice, when it comes to facilitating SME involvement, seems to be focused solely upon ensuring there are opportunities at a sub-contract level. But, asks Roddy Cormack, does this focus miss the sweet spot in terms of actual benefit to the SME economy? There are certa