It’s finger on the pulse time to see what is happening in our jurisdiction, particularly the light of recent events, i.e. lack of funding and down valuing of assets.  Essentially we are noticing a slight upturn now in housing starts and this is to be welcomed.  It is allied to an initiative with a number of banks who are trying to kick start lending but still strictly from their point of view.  It is my considered opinion at this stage that lending is slower than it should be, and I also believe that houses have now reached, in most cases, their proper selling price.  Lo and behold when this stock runs out, as suppliers are looking more for their product, house prices will effectively rise slowly.

Leaving that aside public procurement is another big issue.  Yes the large companies are getting a number of good high key roads and enablement jobs through, the infrastructure is being looked after.  Although public spending is critical to the Government’s plan for recovery, I believe there will be a cap on public spending in the near future.  So where does the next tranche of work come from?  Well it’s going to come from the private sector, and I am beginning to believe that Northern Ireland PLC should be investing in itself.  We are easily 25 years behind in tourism.  There are not enough tourism outlets and upon examining our capital cities and large borough, the actual infrastructure for entertaining and eating out is very poor; so there is a wealth of opportunity out there for the entrepreneur.

Leaving that aside there are a number of people writing about procurement methods in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  These are once again coming under scrutiny.  The extreme approach that was adopted with the GCCC Contract in the Republic of Ireland doesn’t appear to be working.  It is causing friction and suddenly the Employer is waking up to note that it is less cost effective to have pre-priced all the risk and are taking a degree of risk themselves in the hope that with good management and control, the contract will stay within bounds of budget.  Where does that control actually come from?  What’s to become of public procurement?  They are now actually looking at the more traditional form of contracting and trying to get accommodation between the parties.  But the key to this is that they provide adequate funds and fees to the professionals who to run the projects on their behalf. 

More time will be spent on putting the contract documents together.  In particular the specifications and plans which will have a higher degree of accuracy, therefore reducing the possibilities of enlarged claims at the end of a project.  Remember any project is only as good as the paperwork that goes before the Contractor, because he will be looking for areas of advantage.  Those areas can be cut out completely by good lead in times for Consultants and proper fees to allow them to do their work.  That then transmits through to the Contractor getting a fair price for the job he is doing; he will not have to be speculative in claims.  It is “cause and effect”.  Am I arguing against our own practice?  No, we are a practice who looks to settle and resolve disputes and have done successfully for many years.  However, what I do believe would happen is that more and more issues will be resolved by dispute resolution boards within contracts.

To this end, I now speak about Mediation.  I was once a sceptic but now I am totally committed to it.  The reason being, I have been involved in several multimillion pound mediations recently, all of which have settled, and settled to the benefit of both parties. Cut out major legal fees, major distress going through litigation, and give a degree of certainty.

Now why do I believe it is good?  Well, it is actually only as good as the mediator you get!  It is quite clear to me that there are a lot of people holding themselves out as mediators with qualifications and everything else and they don’t have a clue or the charisma of how to bring parties together.  I believe good mediators are born.  It is such a natural thing to see a good mediator at work.  Yes they have studied to get themselves a number of tools that they can use, but in the main, it is their personality that is important.  I have sat as mediator on a number of sizable issues also, and have found great success with the parties, but I also believe you have got to curtail and manage expectations.

To this end, there is a new mediation centre being set up in Northern Ireland for Construction, it is known as the Mediation Centre NI and it will be available to our construction companies within the next two months.  It will have within its ranks a small number of highly qualified mediators, no bluffers or duffers!  There will be a small number of lawyers, a small number of counsel and a small number of construction and engineering mediators, maybe 6 in all.  But they will be the guys who can settle your dispute, they will be the guys who are not nervous about approaching a multi party mediation; I have carried out a few of them and boy are they interesting!

However, this initiative is being brought about by my view of the needs for mediation at a high level in our community.  I know the courts welcome mediation, I know the Industry welcomes mediation.  Now we have to cure the sceptics by providing a very top level mediation panel.  So watch out for the new web page and watch out for a new beginning to resolving disputes in the UK, all based here, in Belfast.