26 | Tideway, Acceleration and Square Holes
26th August 2020
Bishop & Taylor discuss delays to the £4bn Thames Tideway project as well as the transport secretary’s new acceleration unit and a drill attachment that cuts square holes.
Re:Construction
A fortnightly podcast in which veteran construction industry journalists Bishop and Taylor have a natter about some of the week’s events in the UK construction industry, seeking meaning even where none may exist.
25 | Fit-out, Putin and the Versatile Brickie
19th August 2020
Bishop & Taylor turn their attention to the contents of the August issue of The Construction Index magazine, and cover remarkably wide ground…
24 | Prefabs, Planning Reform and Carbon Offsetting
12th August 2020
Bishop & Taylor are joined by structural engineer Kevin Lyons to discuss offsite construction. Our two regulars then also mull the government’s planning white paper and wonder whether contractors will be eager to pay plant hire firms a premium for carbon offsetting.
23 | Green Home Grants, Trustmark and Genoa’s New Bridge
5th August 2020
This was the week that we learned more details of the £2bn Green Home Grants scheme, with the condition that only Trustmark accredited installers could be used; and the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge opened, less than two years after the old Morandi Brige collapsed. Bishop & Taylor reflect on it all.
22 | Brexit, Standards and HS2
29th July 2020
With a no-deal Brexit on the cards, Bishop & Taylor discuss unresolved issues for the construction industry, including the future of product standardisation; and – with protests camps fighting a rear-guard action – they agree to disagree about HS2.
21 | Face Masks, Plan for Jobs & Tower Cranes
15th July 2020
Bishop & Taylor discuss the need for face masks (both in life and on site), Rishi Sunak’s Plan for Jobs, and (after the fatal 8th July collapse in East London) tower crane safety.
20 | New Deal, CITB and Interserve FM
1st July 2020
Bishop & Taylor discuss the Prime Minister’s Rooseveltian ambitions, the suspension of democratic accountability at the Construction Industry Training Board, and the sale of Interserve Facilities Management to Mitie.
Read more on all these topics, and more, at www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news
19 | Job Losses, Export Finance, Plastic Problems and Magic Paint
17th June 2020
In this episode Bishop & Taylor discuss industry job losses, how overseas contractors exploit UK state aid, construction’s plastic packaging problem and the remarkable claims of air-purifying paint.
18 | Post-Covid Recovery, Roads Ahead and Shrewsbury Pickets (Conspiracy, My Arse!)
3rd June 2020
Bishop & Taylor discuss the Roadmap to Recovery, the sudden flow of transport projects and the building workers (including TV’s Ricky Tomlinson) jailed nearly 50 years ago, whose convictions the Court of Appeal is now, finally, revisiting. Podcast, my arse!
17 | Restoration of Parliament, When Tiredness Kills & The Joy of Steam
20th May 2020
Bishop & Taylor recap recent events in the UK construction industry, including this week: planned building works in parliament are under review, a company that allowed its workers to drive home tired has been in the dock and an old steam engine has been deployed to great effect on a decommissioning project.
