• Water win sees Mott MacDonald Bentley hunt for new staff

    Water win sees Mott MacDonald Bentley hunt for new staff
    Mott MacDonald Bentley is hosting a  recruitment event this month for new roles across the South of England after winning a major contract with Wessex Water.
    The engineering and construction company secured its first ever framework win with Wessex Water late last year among AMP8 announcements across the UK water sector.
    The win has created additional employment opportunities spanning design, commercial, and engineering disciplines, with construction jobs expected to ramp up in the next 18 m
  • Alun Griffiths set to rescue firm he sold for £36m

    Alun Griffiths set to rescue firm he sold for £36m
    The founder of Welsh civil engineering contractor Alun Griffiths (Contractors) is understood to have bought back the firm he sold for £36m to Tarmac eight years ago.
    Alun Griffiths, now 84, has teamed up with former directors Tim James and Simon Dunn to rescue the Abergavenny-based business after a troubled spell under CRH-owned Tarmac’s ownership.
    The deal is expected to be officially announced shortly, with the new leadership team aiming to rebuild the £260m turnover business
  • Landsec to pump £2bn into new house building drive

    Landsec to pump £2bn into new house building drive
    Developer Landsec is ramping up plans to establish a £2bn residential platform by 2030 as it shifts investment focus away from London offices and into large-scale housing schemes in the capital and Manchester.
    The property giant is preparing to start on site from late 2026 across a trio of major residential-led projects that will deliver more than 6,000 homes.
    At Finchley Road in north London, enabling works and demolition have already been completed for the first phase of a consented 1,80
  • Vital Energi lands £250m Gatwick decarbonisation deal

    Vital Energi lands £250m Gatwick decarbonisation deal
    London Gatwick has joined forces with specialist renewable energy provider Vital Energi to advance its £250m decarbonisation programme.
    Work over the next five years will see the airport switch to zero carbon heating and improve energy efficiency.
    Vital Energi will now work on transforming infrastructure across the airport to deliver zero carbon solutions like heat pumps and move away from gas.Work will focus on 50 airport buildings, including the North and South terminals, engineering fac
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  • Severfield to start steel on McAlpine car battery site

    Severfield to start steel on McAlpine car battery site
    Severfield is set to start on site with steelwork next month at Sir Robert McAlpine’s flagship £4bn Agratas gigafactory site in Somerset.
    The order for the full structural steel package for the first phase of the mega-job has been signed with production now underway at Severfield’s Dalton site.
    The firm will be supplying and fabricating structural steel, supplying decking and applying intumescent paint coatings.Sir Robert McAlpine has been overseeing site preparation work for T
  • NPC supplies pile croppers at Kier super prison

    NPC supplies pile croppers at Kier super prison
    National Pile Croppers (NPC) has landed a deal to supply its products during the construction of the £684m HMP Glasgow super prison.
    Kier is main contractor on the job for the Scottish Government where NPC will be supplying an array of its hydraulic pile croppers.
    Kier has been on site since October 2023, undertaking works to remediate the complex brownfield site which once housed a gas works before the start of the main construction process.
    Roger Bullivant has been appointed the piling c
  • Tide gets go-ahead for over 1,000-home London scheme

    Tide gets go-ahead for over 1,000-home London scheme
    Volumetric housing specialist Tide has bagged planning approval for a 1,051-home scheme near Bermondsey in London.
    The revised scheme for Ilderton Road in Southwark ramps up affordable housing by 55% to 186 social rent units and boosts the co-living element from 605 to 865 homes.
    Designed by architect tp bennett, the four-block development will transform a vacant brownfield site with a mix of high-density housing and upgraded public realm, including a revamped central pocket park.Constructi
  • Plans go in for 100 acre Port of Tilbury expansion

    Plans go in for 100 acre Port of Tilbury expansion
    Plans have been submitted for a 100-acre extension of the Port of Tilbury.
    Construction work on the site the size of 70 football pitches could start in 2026 with a target of being fully operational by 2030.
    Owner Forth Ports has submitted an outline planning application to Thurrock Council for a range of activities including general industrial storage, warehousing and processing; a construction material and aggregate terminal; container handling and storage and and vehicle storage.Work on the T3
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  • Construction output flickers into life in March

    Construction output flickers into life in March
    Construction output rose 0.5% in March, driven by gains in new work and repair activity but overall growth for the first quarter of 2025 remained flat.
    The March uptick followed a revised 0.2% rise in February and a 0.3% dip in January, leaving Q1 output level with the previous quarter. New work rose 0.9% over the period, while repair and maintenance slipped 1.2%.
    Milder weather helped boost activity, with five of nine sectors reporting growth in March. Infrastructure and private housing led the
  • Munnelly founder hands over CEO role to son

    Munnelly founder hands over CEO role to son
    Munnelly Group founder Phil Munnelly is handing over the CEO reins to his son Paul David Munnelly in a boardroom reshuffle at the top of the family-run business.
    After more than 40 years leading the London-based construction group he founded in 1982, Phil Munnelly will become chairman, taking on a more ambassadorial role while remaining involved in strategic decision-making.
    His son has served as chief operating officer for the past two-and-a-half years.Phil Munnelly said: “This leadership
  • Mayor backs 46-storey student tower at Canary Wharf

    Mayor backs 46-storey student tower at Canary Wharf
    London’s mayor has given Canary Wharf Group the planning green light for a 46-storey student accommodation tower at its Wood Wharf estate.
    The scheme at 7 Brannan Street will deliver 912 bedrooms and is the latest move to diversify the growing residential community at the Docklands district.Designed by Howells, the tower will feature communal and leisure spaces at ground, mezzanine, ninth and roof levels. Plans also include new ground floor retail and two waterside public gardens.
    The proj
  • Skanska lifts margin to 4.3% as profit hits £78m

    Skanska lifts margin to 4.3% as profit hits £78m
    Skanska UK bounced back to full profitability last year bouyed by strong margins at infrastructure and FM businesses.
    This improvement more than offset lower returns from its building arm to almost triple pre-tax profit to £78m despite revenue slipping back to £1.27bn (2023: £1.33bn).
    Operating profit roared back to £54.1m (2023: £6.3m) as margins soared from 0.5% to 4.3%.Skanska said it had benefitted from stronger project performance across long-term FM contracts
  • Durkan dogged by legacy jobs despite return to trading profit

    Durkan dogged by legacy jobs despite return to trading profit
    South East housing contractor Durkan has clawed its way back to a trading profit but still ended the year deep in the red as legacy fire safety costs continue to bite.
    The contractor posted an operating profit of £133,000 before exceptionals in the year to 30 November 2024, marking a turnaround from a £3.8m trading loss the year before.
    But after shouldering nearly £15m in exceptional charges for fire remediation and redundancy costs, it slumped to a pre-tax loss of £8.3m
  • Inland Homes creditors face £38m hit

    Inland Homes creditors face £38m hit
    Unsecured creditors hit by the collapse of Inland Homes will not get anything for the £38m of unpaid invoices they were left holding when the house builder went under..
    The grim news for subcontractors and suppliers was confirmed in an update filed at Companies House by administrators from FRP Advisory.
    Inland Homes went into administration in October 2023 after the AIM-listed business had its shares suspended amid mounting losses and delayed accounts.The FRP report said that unsecured cre
  • Morgan Sindall starts £38m Caerphilly leisure hub

    Morgan Sindall starts £38m Caerphilly leisure hub
    Morgan Sindall has broken ground on a £38m wellbeing and leisure centre in Caerphilly, transforming disused land into a major new community facility.
    The scheme is being delivered with Alliance Leisure for Caerphilly County Borough Council and forms a key part of the town’s 2035 regeneration plan.
    The scheme is designed by Watson Batty and managed by Hadron Consulting.Located near Caerphilly’s public transport interchange, the new hub will transform a patch of disused scrublan
  • Crown Golf tees up £1bn plan to build 3,000 homes on course land

    Crown Golf tees up £1bn plan to build 3,000 homes on course land
    Crown Golf has teamed up with London fund manager Fairway Capital to redevelop land around its golf courses into more than 3,000 homes worth over £1bn.
    The joint venture will transform parts of eight golf courses across Greater London, the South East and South West – with nearly 1,000 affordable homes and several new community facilities in the mix.
    The regeneration push is backed by Australian Bangarra Group that owns Crown Golf.The plan is to retain core golfing operations while un
  • Sureserve swoops for rival compliance outfit Kinovo in £56m deal

    Sureserve swoops for rival compliance outfit Kinovo in £56m deal
    Sureserve has agreed a £56.4m deal to buy smaller compliance rival Kinovo as it looks to expand its grip on the country’s social housing sector.
    Kinovo turned over £64m last year and specialises in electrical safety and maintenance work, will be taken private under the all-cash offer backed by its board.
    Shareholders will receive 87.5p per share – a 41% premium on the pre-bid price.Kinovo operates mainly in the south east and East Anglia employing around 250 staff through
  • Barking build to rent towers face rebuild

    Barking build to rent towers face rebuild
    A £50m build to rent scheme in east London is facing a major rebuild after construction defects were discovered.
    Building work on the blocks at Axe Street in Barking started in 2020 and was due to finish in 2022 but stalled near the completion phase.
    Original developer Lindhill employed main contractor Shapoorji Pallonji UK Ltd to build the 170 apartment scheme on the site of the former Abbey Sports Centre.The UK offshoot of the Mumbai, India based Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Pvt. Ltd w
  • Green light for Peterborough Station Quarter £48m revamp

    Green light for Peterborough Station Quarter £48m revamp
    Plans to regenerate Peterborough’s railway station and surrounding areas has been given the green light by the government.
    The approval clears the way for construction work to begin on the first phase – dubbed ‘City Link’ – later this autumn, subject to the Government’s forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
    City Link will replace the existing Cowgate underpass with a new direct pedestrian and cycle route between the station and the city centre, creating a
  • 145 firms win places on £800m building safety framework

    Fusion21 has confirmed the suppliers successfully appointed to its national Building Safety and Compliance Framework worth up to £800m over four years.
    A total of 145 specialist firms – 81% being SMEs – have secured a place on the framework designed to support members to manage and maintain safe buildings and demonstrate building compliance.
    Peter Francis, Group Executive Director (Operations) at Fusion21 said: “Our members continue to invest heavily to ensure the bu
  • London new home starts plunge 38% as Building Safety Act bites

    New home registrations in London have slumped 38% as the capital becomes the only UK region to record a sharp fall in new housing starts.
    The figures from warranty provider NHBC highlight how the new building safety regime is stalling high-rise projects in the capital, with developers facing delays under the new Gateway 2 approval process run by the Building Safety Regulator.
    While the rest of the country saw strong growth, London starts dived as tighter rules and slow approvals hit confidence i
  • Pension giants pledge £25bn for infrastructure push

    Britain’s biggest pension funds have signed up to a new Mansion House Accord that could unleash up to £50bn of investment into UK infrastructure and businesses.
    Seventeen pension providers, managing around 90% of active workplace savers’ defined contribution pots, are backing the deal which doubles last year’s investment target and ringfences a minimum £25bn for UK projects by 2030.
    The move aims to channel billions into clean energy, science, tech and infrastructur
  • Safety row over London tower ducking fire regs by 30cm

    Firefighters and housing campaigners have called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to block construction of a residential tower development in Penge town centre that they claim ducks new fire safety rules by just 30cm.
    Bromley Council has approved the scheme despite strong objections from the London Fire Brigade, which said the decision to lower a residential block to 17.7m – just under the 18m threshold for requiring a second staircase – was ‘not ethically justified’.
    Joint ven
  • Countdown starts for £1bn Birmingham highways bid race

    Birmingham City Council has kicked off early market engagement for a major new highways and infrastructure framework worth around £1bn over eight years.
    The new framework for maintenance and upgrade work will be split across five lots covering a broad scope of works from minor road improvements to major capital civil engineering schemes across the West Midlands.
    It will be open to other local public bodies and include delivery routes such as construct-only, design and build, and early cont
  • Acciona wins £400m Thames waterworks upgrade

    Spanish contractor Acciona has bagged a £400m job to overhaul Thames Water’s Coppermills treatment works in north-east London.
    The project covers a huge package of civils and MEICA works to boost supply resilience and modernise ageing assets at the busy operational site in the Lea Valley.
    Key elements include a new 700 Ml/day high lift pumping station, recirculation and run-to-waste systems for 32 slow sand filters, and upgrades to contact tanks and the existing power supply and dist
  • Operator spots cracked mast on Hinkley tower crane

    Serious structural defects in a tower crane at Hinkley Point C have prompted nuclear safety regulators to issue a formal improvement notice to the project’s main contractor.
    The faults were uncovered in February when a crane operator spotted a failed connecting pin and visible cracks in a mast section during routine pre-use checks on the Somerset site.
    The incident, reported under RIDDOR, did not lead to any injuries or collapse, but the discovery raised red flags over equipment safety man
  • New scaffolding training trade body launches

    A new industry trade body called the Scaffolding Training Alliance (STA) has been formed.
    The launch by a group of access industry construction professionals and leading scaffolding training providers comes amid uncertainty in the industry caused by planned changes to the Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS).
    CISRS has been the industry standard training scheme for 60 years but the Enquirer understands changes proposed by its owners at the NASC have not gone down well with a n
  • Higgins Homes and site workers face manslaughter charges

    Higgins Homes PLC and four men have been charged in connection with the death of a woman in Bethnal Green in 2018.
    Michaela Boor, 28, was struck by a pallet containing more than two tonnes of bricks that fell from a tower crane on a Higgins Homes building development in St Pauls Way in Bethnal Green.
    She died in hospital the following day.The charges following an investigation by the Met and the Health and Safety Executive.
    Higgins Homes has been charged with corporate manslaughter and safety of
  • Midgard lands £145m deal to build Edition Birmingham

    Midgard has been confirmed as contractor on the Edition Birmingham residential scheme under a £145m deal.
    Construction will start shortly on the scheme for developers Court Collaboration and Select Property to build 581-homes with phase one expected to be completed in 2027.
    Edition Birmingham will sit adjacent to Centenary Square in the heart of the city containing apartments split between two connected towers – the 46-storey Centenary Tower and Park Residence at 15 storey.JRL Group
  • McAleer & Rushe set to break £500m turnover barrier

    Design and build contractor McAleer & Rushe is on track to break through the £500m turnover barrier this year after posting strong 2024 results driven by a string of major project wins.
    The design and build contractor grew turnover by 13% last year to £491m, with a forecast to hit £550m this year as momentum builds across its residential, student, and later living markets.
    Pre-tax profit jumped 46% to £16m, while cash at bank rose to £71m, up from £53m in

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