News & events

DGA Ebriefing January 2023 - 24 Jan 2023

Welcome to the first DGA E-Brief for 2023, which will once again be a regular quarterly feature of the DGA calendar, bringing both commentary on developments within the construction industry as well as expert articles relating to the core quantum / commercial and delay analysis services provided to our clients across the DGA Group offices.

Welcome to the first DGA E-Brief for 2023, which will once again be a regular quarterly feature of the DGA calendar, bringing both commentary on developments within the construction industry as well as expert articles relating to the core quantum / commercial and delay analysis services provided to our clients across the DGA Group offices.

I would also like to bring your attention to some upcoming full day training seminars we are offering on a mixture of these two disciplines, being held in March and offered in London and Birmingham. Our regular trainer Scott Milner is covering the contractual and commercial aspects, ably supported by David Waddle and David Fogarty on the separate subject of programme, delay and extensions of time. A copy of the detailed flyer for these events is included within this edition.
You can book directly on our training website www.dga-group-trainingservices.com.

Our articles for this edition cover the topics of staff costs related to project delays, acceleration claims, the Security of Payment Act down under and the 2022 Building Safety Act in the UK from our guest contributor, Natalie Pilagos Partner at Wedlake Bell LLP.

Natalie’s article is particularly relevant at this time, given Michael Gove’s announcement today as Housing Minster for the UK Government, using powers granted to him under the Building Safety Act, whereby he set a deadline for Developer House Builders to sign contracts within the next six weeks to guarantee they will fix unsafe cladding, or face the consequences which could mean being banned from the housing market.

The Building Safety Act is both looking to remedy the past and look forward hopefully with the industry learning the lessons of the past. Natalie provides some useful analysis of the legislative detail it brings and ten particular aspects worthy of particular note in this respect.

Jon Youl, Director in our London office, looks at the principles required to be met in order to justify entitlement for the reimbursement of staff costs in a proven delay period, the reasons for the likely success in this respect of certain personnel over others and the ability to recover ‘on costs’.

David Fogarty, Associate Director in our UK Delay Analysis team, provides us with ‘Part 2’ of his look at acceleration claims, this time reviewing the issue of ‘Constructive Acceleration’. This is a situation regularly purported as having occurred by contractors where employers have allegedly coerced such behaviour without showing a willingness to instruct or, indeed, pay for such expensive measures. David’s article crosses borders with comparisons of how constructive acceleration is viewed in both the UK and Australia.

Lastly, Will Lee, Associate Director in our Australian business and based in our Melbourne office, looks at the challenges faced by nationwide contractors as provided by the existence of ‘eight’ different Security of Payment (SOP) Acts in place across the various states, all designed to ensure prompt payment to contractors on construction projects. Will looks at the Murray report (2017) and identifies where the implementation of certain of Murray’s recommendations now would provide relief to the process by making it both clearer and simpler.

Construction remains a great industry to be involved in and faired better than most over the last couple of years when faced with challenging conditions. Although forecasts for growth are modest or stagnant in some sectors of the construction industry, Australia, the UK and Singapore in part due to shortages of manpower and skills, a return for longer term and sustainable growth is anticipated by market watchers.  

Thank you to all the contributors to this edition. I hope our audience enjoys reading our latest E-Brief and if you would like to discuss any of the featured topics, the wider DGA training services or any related matter, please feel free to contact any of our offices.

Jim Bourke
DGA Group Managing Director

To read the full edition please click here or visit The Reading Room