Opinion

Last week saw the closure of the Scottish Government’s consultation on a Scottish Aggregates Levy. Scott Brewster of Brewster Brothers outlines why he believes the Levy should provide a springboard for the resource management sector. One of the aims of the Scottish Government’s prop

Employment lawyer Pauline Hughes outlines the implications of changes to flexible working laws. The Scottish Government has recently announced that they will soon be passing new legislation around flexible working, updating the current rules to, ironically, make the scheme more flexible for emp

Anderson Strathern’s employment law specialist Musab Hemsi has long argued that engaging someone through the Construction Industry Scheme doesn’t necessarily always mean they will be defined as self-employed – and this recent ruling (Richards v Waterfield Homes Limited) confirms hi

Richard Hepburn, managing director at Millar & Bryce and Landmark Scotland, discusses the state of the Scottish property market. At Millar & Bryce we have witnessed increasingly regular changes to the Scottish property market, and none more so than a reduction in home completions since the r

Angela Pllu provides an update on Balfour Beatty’s ongoing journey towards the zero carbon construction site at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. It’s been a little while since we’ve updated on our journey towards the zero carbon construction site of the future on our Victorian

Continuing the regular Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) column in Scottish Construction Now, Jocelyne Fleming outlines the organisation's support for the Scottish Government's reuse and repair culture. Sustainability continues to be at the forefront of CIOB’s policy work. In order t

While the finalised version of the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) has environmental considerations at its heart, Alastair Wood asks whether it will have the ability to deliver on the Scottish Government’s 2045 net zero ambitions and whether planning will still be able to support the

Stabilising interest rates and availability of cash creates ‘welcome news’ for Scots home buyers and sellers as senior estate agent Peter Ryder predicts that UK residential property sales will hit over 1m in 2023. The property market in Scotland is less volatile regarding house price sta

Both residents and businesses are benefiting from Clyde Gateway's recent investments in green spaces, says Ian Manson. For Clyde Gateway, Scotland’s most ambitious regeneration project, there has been an increased focus on creating new green spaces. Aside from the many environmental reasons br

Hamish Trench talks about the recent Scottish Government consultation on the Land Reform Bill and the Scottish Land Commission’s response. Over the last four months, the Scottish Government has been consulting on its proposals for a new Land Reform Bill. This is a key stage towards development

Architect Chris Malcolm discusses how a holistic, people-centric vision can achieve more with less across publicly funded projects in Scotland. The ambition to deliver a more place focused, locally responsive approach to public service delivery across the diverse context of Scotland is fundamental t

Greater scrutiny and accountability may be helping to drive an attitude change in the construction sector when it comes to on-site water management. But is it happening fast enough – and could automated solutions help to accelerate things? Tristan Hughes of specialist provider OSSO discusses h

Typically, the construction industry has been a male-dominated world with little to no provisions for women, people of certain faiths or those with disabilities, but times are changing, writes CIOB’s Mark Harrison. I was appointed the Chartered Institute of Building’s (CIOB) first Head o

While 3D visualisation has been commonplace in construction for some time, Dr Harpreet Seth asks whether the industry is ready to take the next step and enter the metaverse. To many, the metaverse is a new word, a concept born of the internet age, a distant and scary place to contemplate visiti

Craig Fairfoull, head of sales and marketing at independent developer Dundas, reveals why Scotland's first time buyers are struggling to get on the property ladder. The outcry over the scrapping of the top rate of tax and the inevitable U-turn have served as cloud cover for a growing fiscal inj