Opinion

Morris & Spottiswood director for fit-out Scotland, Gordon Clyne, outlines how the companies can handle spikes in education sector projects during the summer break. As a business, we have been working in the education sector for over 50 years, and personally, I have for 15 years within Morris &a

As the movie about Thomas Edison and electricity 'The Current War' prepares for release tomorrow, Alan Wilson reflects on the history of electricity and the future of the industry. The lights went out in New York City again recently (14 July). Homes were plunged into darkness, the subways ground to

With the latest Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing 2 (EESSH2) targets announced recently by the Scottish Government, Stewart Little from IRT Surveys explains how asset managers can exploit technology to meet their obligations. 88 feet high, 88 feet wide and once around the equator. That&r

Procurement reform is right at the top of Construction Scotland’s priority, writes Ron Fraser. Construction touches all our lives, through the houses that we live in, the schools and hospitals that we visit and the roads and bridges that we often use in our daily activities. It’s quite l

Employment lawyer Jayne Harrison discusses the steps that construction employers can take to increase transparency in their efforts to tackle the gender pay gap. In the last few months, we have seen the Women in Construction Summit alongside European Women in Construction and Engineering. A year int

SELECT MD Alan Wilson gives his views on the report into construction issued recently by the Scottish Parliament. In issuing its report ‘Under Construction: Building the future of the sector in Scotland’, Holyrood’s economy, energy and fair work committee said that it wanted to und

By Jonathan Seddon, a partner and head of construction law at Morton Fraser If you are a developer and you've asked your contractor for a bond, then the chances are that the form of bond put forward will be the ABI Model Form of Guarantee Bond, or certainly something very close to that.

WSP associate Ewan Jures on the importance of district heating networks. Scotland has been at the forefront of the climate change debate for many years and even more so in the last few months - having agreed to an ambitious target of net zero emission by 2045, five years ahead of the rest of the UK.

Accountant Iain Masterton outlines key changes to VAT rules, details why they’ve been introduced and reveals what building contractors must do to ensure they are compliant. Forthcoming legislation changes could have a major impact on any building contractor business which is registered for VAT

By Malcolm Thomson, sales director at Scotframe With the UK and Scottish governments keen to tackle the housing crisis – and setting stretch targets for the number of new homes - institutional investors have pricked up their ears to the potential earnings from offsite construction.

The new Planning Bill gives Scotland just what it needs: a spur to replace conflict with collaboration. To make a success of the new system, councils will need to work positively and constructively with their delivery partners (home builders included) and talk to more people in each community, inclu

Scotland’s property market has fragmented since the new millennium, and here, Queensberry Properties’ sales and marketing director, Hazel Davies explains the importance of why developers are increasingly tailoring development designs and specifications for particular locations and h

Build to Rent is critical to addressing issues of a lack of housing supply but Scotland still lags the rest of the UK, writes Will Scarlett. With the news that L&G have committed to a Build To Rent (BTR) scheme for 338 apartments in Edinburgh, it is fair to say that BTR in Scotland is finally, a

Having come to the world of construction later than most, Patrick MacKenzie is now going through Kier's graduate programme.

It's important that developers behind housing applications understand that a design review is there not necessarily to cut numbers but to get to grips with place-making & quality, writes RTPI Scotland executive committee member Graham Marchbank. I am one of four planners representing RTPI Scotla