Projects And Construction Law Update - June 8, 2015

Please see below Clyde & Co's latest projects and construction law update - a regular review aimed at providing up-to-date information for those in the construction and infrastructure industry.

We look at industry news as well as recent court decisions concerning:

a dispute under the 1987 FIDIC Red Book challenging the public procurement process the need for clear drafting if absolute obligations are intended the ability of an adjudicator to award restitution a dispute under an NEC term service contract the danger of failing to comply with contractual requirements for submitting payment applications Industry news

CDM 2015: ICC amendments imminent, PPC2000 and TPC2005 amendment sheet published

The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) has published amendments to the Infrastructure Conditions of Contract (ICC) which are available to download on the ACE website here. The amendments address the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/51) (CDM 2015), which came into force on 6 April 2015.

An amendment sheet addressing CDM 2015 has also been published for the PPC2000 and TPC2005 standard form contracts. The amendment sheet is freely available to download as a PDF here.

House of Commons publishes briefing paper on PFI costs and benefits

The House of Commons library briefing paper, PFI: costs and benefits, explains the background to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and its reform in 2012 by the creation of Private Finance 2 (PF2). It also sets out the advantages and limitations of PFI, while considering whether PFI provides value for money, and the future of private finance and PF2. Please click here to review this.

Queen's Speech 2015: construction implications

The Prime Minister's introduction to the Queen's Speech 2015 began by describing Britain as a "two-speed country", split between those that can afford to own their own home, and those that cannot. The government wants to address this through a Housing Bill, which will extend the Right to Buy to the tenants of Housing Associations and will require councils to sell vacant, high-value council houses and to put that money into building affordable homes. Other measures include building 200,000 discounted Starter Homes for young first-time buyers and ensuring suitable brownfield land is ready for development through the introduction of a statutory register for brownfield land.

Other Bills announced by the first majority Conservative government since 1992 include:

High Speed Rail (London-West Midlands) Bill (HS2), which grants planning permission and compulsory purchase powers for the first phase of the HS2 route from London to the West Midlands. Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, which will provide for powers over housing, transport, planning and policing to be devolved to England's cities as part of government plans for "a balanced economic recovery" and to...