I recently attended a conference in the UK that discussed future trends affecting the global construction industry, and what struck me was the stark lack of consensus, clarity and strategy we have in Australia around the future of our construction and engineering industry, compared with many other countries.

In response to a recent report highlighting New Zealand’s problem with embodied carbon in construction, the head of a metal industry organisation Nick Collins has suggested carbon is only part of the story and that a wider approach is needed to clean up the construction industry, which includes a bigger role for the local metal manufacturing sector.

Having to pay high cumulative prices to find out what the rules are for construction doesn’t make sense. It’s like getting a licence and then having to pay to access each of the road rules. One of the comments on this story since we first posted suggests it just might be unconstitutional. It certainly feels unjust.

Comment: You could never accuse David Chandler of being a shrinking violet.

Rectifying an information and evidence shortfall in the now widely cited building and construction crisis needs to be an important part of improving policy making and regulation. 

 In July, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the state’s minister for planning, Richard Wynne, trumpeted that $600 million would tackle Victoria’s high-rise cladding crisis. It was paraded as a safety solution for owners of affected buildings but the “fix” was a contemptible confidence trick.

The Daily Tele was shocked at how David Chandler’s articles in The Fifth Estate have been so critical of the government but he still gets the gig as building commissioner.

The most sustainable buildings are the ones we already have. How do we care for, maintain and creatively repurpose our most precious built environment assets?

UK construction firms have been figuring out how to prepare for a no-deal Brexit for some time, but now that Boris Johnson is PM, most are even more worried as orders are reaching new lows.

The fallout of this building crisis, at the end of the current property boom cycle, may see many developers close doors and get out of development activities.

The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation has announced more than $85 million in finance for social and affordable housing across NSW.

“We’ll all be rooned,” said Hanrahan. If he’d been talking of the building industry he might just have been right. Especially when you think how shonky it’s starting to look and especially when you think how big a part of the economy it is.

The European Commission estimates that almost 75 per cent of Europe’s building stock is energy inefficient, with a renovation rate of just 0.4 to 1.2 per cent per year, depending…

The construction industry is normally fiercely in favour of low taxing governments, less red tape and anti-nanny state interventions.

Builder, designer and TV Host Barry Du Bois says the results of a school survey he took part in were “hideous”. Du Bois started looking at classroom design as part…