THE HOUSING GRANTS, CONSTRUCTION AND REGENERATION ACT 1996.

All UK civil engineering contracts entered into after 1 May 1998 are now governed by Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996-the so-called 'Construction Act'. This paper summarizes the nature and purpose of the new legislation and reviews the structure and provisions of Part II of the Act together with the linked Scheme for Construction Contracts. The author reports on initial industry reaction to the legislation and draws some preliminary conclusions concerning its strengths and weaknesses, areas of potential difficulty in operation and its likely future impact.