Construction News
30 June 2011
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£1 billion of work won in the year, says Interserve
Interserve, the support services and construction group, has won £1 billion in contracts in the year to date, the firm said in a trading statement. -
1970s homes 'more energy efficient'
Houses built 30 years ago in an innovative scheme to cut energy use and costs are more efficient than homes built to the latest standards, a report has said. -
Aberdeenshire council seeks contractors for £220m framework
Aberdeenshire council is inviting contractors to bid for a framework - worth up to £220 million -covering work under its capital plan over the next four years. -
Babcock to offload VT's American defence arm
Babcock has said it will look to sell off the US defence operations of VT Group, which it acquired earlier this year. -
Balfour bolsters US presence with £58m takeover
Balfour Beatty has acquired US contracting firm Howard S Wright for £58 million. -
Balfour seeks strong second half trading in 2011
Balfour Beatty is expecting to boost its order book in the second half of the year due in part to its recent acquisition of US contractor Howard S Wright. -
BAM lands £20m green hotel deal
BAM Construct has won a £20 million deal to build a 200-bed eco-friendly hotel at the University of Nottingham. -
Bam wins low carbon funding
Bam Construct UK has become only the second contractor to ever win government funding for non domestic low carbon projects. -
Beijing green building park to showcase UK construction
The Building Research Establishment has joined forces with Chinese developer Vanke to help create a Green Building Park in Beijing that will showcase UK construction techniques. -
Bourne and Billington join forces to target high-rise contracts
Bourne Steel and Billington Structures have launched a joint venture to target major high-rise contracts. -
Bovis Homes confident as orders increase
Bovis Homes is confident it can deliver higher returns to shareholders as it predicts increased margins in the second half of 2011, the house builder said today. -
Capita Symonds to deliver £3bn Kenyan city
UK consultant Capita Symonds has been appointed as programme delivery partner for the £3.1 billion ($5 billion) Tatu City development in Nairobi, Kenya. -
Care UK appoints Davis Langdon to deliver 30 new homes
Davis Langdon has been appointed as delivery partner to help Care UK develop 30 new residential care homes across the country over the next five years. -
Carillion reports increased margins as UK re-scaling continues
Carillion has reported strong progress as it continues to focus on increasing operating margins and re-scaling its UK construction business, the company said today. -
Climate committee pushes for faster insulation rollout
The government needs to ensure 8.3 million additional lofts are insulated in the UK by 2022 in order to meet its carbon emissions targets, according to the latest report from the Committee on Climate Change. -
CN's first ever online map of construction fatalities
Construction News has published the first comprehensive online map of construction fatalities to enable firms to learn from where, when and how people are losing their lives in the industry. -
Construction decline to continue after May slump
Construction activity is expected to continue to decline over the next three months albeit it at a slightly weaker pace, according to the latest research from industry economists Experian. -
Construction insolvencies reach 5,126
Construction and manufacturing have been the hardest hit sectors since 2009 despite a slight improvement in the last quarter, according to a new insolvency report by PwC. -
Construction Parliamentary Update - 1 July 2011
A round-up of all the construction news from Westminster this week, brought to you by the Madano Partnership -
Construction performance improves despite squeeze
Construction firms’ profitability has fallen to its lowest level since 2000, the 2011 UK Industry Performance Report has found. -
Costain content as tendering remains strong
Costain is continuing to trade in line with expectations as tendering remains strong in its key markets, the company reported today. -
Costain/Skanska in pole position for £250m Paddington Crossrail job
A joint venture between Costain and Skanska is understood to be in line to win the £250m contract to build the Crossrail station at Paddington. -
Councillors vote to continue with Edinburgh Tram
Edinburgh’s troubled tram project will go ahead after councillors voted against a move to scrap it. -
Councils prepare for Green Deal work worth billions
Private finance is set to back the Green Deal market as councils gear up to begin the first stages of multi-billion-pound housing retrofit programmes. -
Cyril Sweett to drop the 'Cyril'
International consultancy Cyril Sweett is to lose the first half of its founder’s name as part of a historic rebrand which will be launched on Monday. -
Davis Langdon appointed to make case for HS2
Consultancy Davis Langdon has been appointed to produce the cost and risk model for the High Speed Two rail project. -
DfT hands out £155m for green transport schemes
The Department for Transport has dished out £155 million of funding for 39 low carbon transport schemes. -
Diversity investment promises payback
Construction firms’ commitment to workplace diversity could become a key factor in winning work, a new report suggests. -
Dorset building firm saved following sale
Begbies Traynor has announced the sale of a Dorset-based building firm out of administration with 20 jobs set to be retained. -
Download Contract Leads - 4 July 2011
Download PDFs of the latest contract leads here -
Earls Court £8bn project could start next autumn
Work on the £8 billion Earls Court scheme could get underway as soon as next autumn, the developer leading the project said today. -
Energy minister: UK wants to be a serious nuclear nation once again
Energy minister Charles Hendry has delivered the clearest government statement of support for new nuclear build yet after he told a conference that there should be no doubt the UK wants to be a “serious nuclear nation once again”. -
Enterprise records £135m loss in 2010
Support services contractor Enterprise will pursue a “relentless” efficiency drive after posting a £135m pre-tax loss in 2010. -
Figures reveal flat housing market
House prices were flat in June as low mortgage applications and sluggish new buyer inquiries kept the market subdued, lender Nationwide said today. -
Financial services boost ISG trading
ISG’s London Fit Out team has achieved a 40 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue on the back of growing demand from financial services clients. -
Firms fined over £50k after father’s roof fall death
Two firms and a company director have been prosecuted and fined more than £50,000 after a father of two fell to his death while working on a refurb job. -
Full list of green projects granted £155m DfT funding
Following the Department for Transport’s announcement on the recipients of £155 million of funding for low carbon transport schemes, a full list of the projects has been released. -
Galliford Try on track to meet housebuilding ambitions
Galliford Try says it is on track to meet its target of becoming a major housebuilder after completions rose 27 per cent in the year. -
GF Partnership ceases trading
Quantity surveyor, claims and dispute resolution consultancy GF Partnership has ceased trading with immediate effect. -
Greater Manchester deal with HCA secures £320m funding
The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities has signed an agreement with the Homes and Communities Agency securing at least £320 million of investment in affordable housing until 2015. -
Higgins wins Middlesex school extension
Higgins Construction has been appointed to build a new £7 million arts centre for the Lady Eleanor Holles School in Middlesex. -
Hill International gives UK staff notice by email
Hill International has given notice by email to project and cost management staff at its London office with immediate effect, Construction News has learned. -
Hill International sees wave of job losses
High-profile departures and redundancies have taken place in several offices around the world at claims and cost specialist Hill International. -
Hinkley Point deals on hold to 2012
EDF Energy could take a further year before awarding a major contract for the main civils package for Hinkley Point C, according to a source close to the procurement process. -
Hinkley Point planning application to be heard this month
West Somerset Council has confirmed it will meet at the end of this month to consider EDF Energy’s application for planning permission for site preparation works at Hinkley Point. -
ISG bags £3m Essex housing redevelopment
ISG Jackson has won a £3.2 million project with registered social landlord Family Mosaic to redevelop a former sheltered housing site in Colchester, Essex. -
KPMG appoints former Infrastructure UK chief
Consultancy KPMG has appointed former Infrastructure UK chief executive James Stewart OBE as chairman of its global infrastructure practice. -
Laing O’Rourke wins Cheesegrater
Laing O’Rourke has beaten Skanska to win the contract to build the £290 million Cheesgrater tower in London. -
London continues to lead the commercial property market
There is a growing divide between London and the rest of the UK in the commercial property market according to a new Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey. -
London set for £21bn residential work until 2020
London is set for a surge of residential development with £21 billion projects currently on-site or planned until 2020 according to new research. -
Makita warns against fake tool batteries
Makita has issued a warning about the use of unofficial copies or imitations of the battery packs used in its cordless power tools. It says the unofficial packs are “unsafe due to no cell monitoring, the internal wiring is too small and many will only charge to half capacity.”Tony Coleman, technical and warranty manager for the company, says many of the non-OE batteries he has seen do not communicate with the battery charger. This lack of communication raises safety issues as a heavily -
Manchester approves £110m university campus
Plans for a £110 million university campus in Hulme have been approved by Manchester City Council. -
Margins improve as Taylor Wimpey nears North America sale
Taylor Wimpey has said it expects to see continued improvement in its margins in the UK as the sale of its North American business nears completion. -
Market activity remains strong but job losses hit five-month high
The commercial sector continued to perform strongly in June, however construction job losses hit a five month high and concerns were raised over future spending. -
McLaren Construction wins part of £41 million mixed-use housing project
McLaren Construction has been appointed as main contractor on three of the four phases of regeneration firm Spenhill’s £41 million mixed-use development. -
Mergers and acquisitions plummet
The value of mergers and acquisitions fell by 96 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, as international investors’ views of UK firms cooled. -
Michael Ankers to step down as CPA chief in 2012
Chief executive of the Construction Products Association Michael Ankers has announced that he will retire in April 2012. -
MOD reveals shortlist for £500m Scotland and Northern Ireland contract
The Ministry of Defence has announced the names of four shortlisted bidders for the £500 million regional prime contract for Scotland and Northern Ireland. -
Morgan Sindall bags place on £1.2bn Gatwick framework
Morgan Sindall has been appointed on the £1.2bn framework programme of upgrades and improvement for Gatwick Airport. -
Morgan Sindall margins squeezed
Margins are being squeezed at Morgan Sindall as an increasingly competitive market takes its toll on the construction giant. -
Multibuild lands £5m contracts
Balfour Beatty’s Stockport-based construction and fit-out arm Multibuild has been awarded two contracts worth a combined £5 million. -
Network Rail invites bids for New Street steelworks package
Network Rail has begun procurement of the steelworks contract – worth up to £8m – for its extensive redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station. -
New advanced payload system for Bell loaders
Bell Equipment UK has added an advanced payload system (APS) to the options list for its range of wheeled loaders. The “plug and play” system is said to provide extremely accurate payload data and was designed by Bell to cater for customers wanting more information than is provided by the standard factory-fitted embedded payload system (EPS). Neville Paynter, managing director of Bell Equipment UK, says: “Production costs are continually increasing, so we wanted to help our customers -
New Doosan fuels savings
Banner Contracts has replaced its long-serving S470LC with Doosan’s new DX520L crawler excavator, which is already impressing its new owner with greater output and savings of 100 litres of fuel a week. -
New work on offer despite gloomy forecasts
Contractors should look to non-traditional ‘niche’ areas to counteract the forecast fall in construction activity, economists have said. -
Nuclear chiefs await energy market reform for new nuclear
The three energy consortiums hoping to develop eight new nuclear reactors in the UK have said they are progressing with their plans while they await final market reform deals from the government. -
Olympic site death natural causes
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed a crane driver found dead on site at the Olympic Park died of natural causes. -
ONS data reveals 20 per cent jump in steel price
The latest Office for National Statistics report on building materials has revealed that the cost of fabricated structural steel has shot up by almost 20 per cent in the year to May. -
Output set to fall by 3 per cent over next two years
Contractors should look to carve niches in growing sectors and work across Greater London to mitigate against predicted drops in output, says a leading industry commentator. -
Persimmon predicts profit increase despite lower turnover
Persimmon has seen a “fairly stable” start to the year despite a slight drop in sales, chief executive Mike Farley said today. -
Prisk transfers RDA assets to HCA
Land and property assets owned by the axed regional development agencies will be transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency, government has confirmed. -
Ray O’Rourke given honorary knighthood for services to construction
Ray O’Rourke, chief executive of Laing O’Rourke, has been awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of his services to the construction industry in the United Kingdom. -
Read any good plans lately?
Every week we seem to have another government plan to read, last week it was the Low Carbon Construction Action Plan. As one industry commentator said, we certainly can’t complain that the government is ignoring construction. -
Redrow sells Scottish division for £49m
Housebuilder Redrow has announced the sale of its Scottish operation for £49 million to Springfield Properties. -
Revenue reveals tactics to catch out tax cheats
Tax investigators have been challenged to “show their teeth” after they revealed plans to search the books of leading builders’ merchants to stamp out black market traders. -
Rydon wins first new build free school job
Rydon will be the first contractor to design and construct a new build free school created by the Government’s Free School under a £2.8 million contract. -
Sellafield awards £160m waste contracts
Sir Robert McAlpine, Bechtel Babcock Nuclear Services and Clarke Chapman Group all secure work on nuclear site. -
Sisk/Roadbridge bags Forth Crossing job with cut price bid
A John Sisk/Roadbridge joint venture has won the contract to upgrade the M9 at Junction 1a - part of the Forth Replacement Crossing project - with a bid worth £20 million less than the original valuation of the job. -
SME job losses raise fears of industry brain drain
Small and medium-sized firms’ workloads and employment levels have fallen for the 14th quarter in a row, raising fears of an impending skills shortage. -
St Katharine Docks set for facelift after £156m sale
St Katharine Docks looks set for a facelift after the landmark site was sold to a joint venture for £156.3 million. -
St Modwen to build £5m youth centre for Longbridge regen scheme
St. Modwen will build a £5 million youth centre as part of the Longbridge regeneration project in Birmingham. -
Stalled retail schemes to provide ‘grey at the end of the tunnel’ for Cyril Sweett
Cyril Sweett is targeting around 30 major retail schemes across the UK which could start on site next year, according to chief executive Dean Webster who this morning unveiled a mixed bag of results. -
Strand flats 'weeks from completion' when fire broke out
Property developers were just weeks away from delivering a luxury set of apartments at the Marconi building on The Strand when fire broke out on the roof, it emerged this morning. -
Support group lobbies EU to outlaw blacklisting
A delegation of trade unionists and safety representatives from the Blacklist Support Group has met with the EU commissioner for employment to discuss legislation to outlaw blacklisting.The meeting with EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion László Andor was organised by MEPs Stephen Hughes and Glenis Willmott and took place in Brussels last week.The delegation presented Mr Andor with evidence that their activities as union safety reps in the UK constructio -
Surge in sales provides fresh optimism
There are indications of growing confidence among truck and van buyers, including those related to the construction industry, who feel the worst of the recession is over.Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for May show that van sales (up to 3.5 tonnes) were almost 20,000, which is 17 per cent higher than the same month last year. Registrations of new tractive units jumped by almost 61 per cent to 1,381, while in the multi wheel truck sector, sales increas -
Tax financing not available until 2013
Contractors will be forced to wait until at least April 2013 for the opportunities arising from a government scheme to harness local business taxes. -
Tesco branches out into double glazing
Supermarket giant Tesco has begun selling double glazing with local fitters set to benefit from installation work. -
The case of the agent with hire authority
Comment - Tamsin Travers and Richard CravenWe all know about agents. Actors, the FBI and building societies have them. Plant hire conditions can make the supplied driver or operator the plant hirer’s ‘agent’ and on 1 October new ‘agency’ workers regulations come into force. But where, legally, might ‘agency take us?Lanstar Limited, an environmental waste management and recycling company, found out too late. L -
Volvo gains more ground with its FMX model
Volvo’s FMX truck continues to make headway in the construction and off-road sectors including the first tractive unit in the UK entering service with timber haulier David Wood.The FMX tractive unit is configured as a 6x2 tag-axle to keep the tare weight as low as possible and is fitted with Volvo’s 13 litre 373 kW (500hp) engine and its I-Shift fully-automated gearbox. Mr Wood says he is impressed with the FMX’s off road ability: “All in all, it’s coping very well. There’s plenty of h -
West Ham take legal action over 'secret payment' claim
West Ham United has confirmed it will take legal action over claims that it made ‘secret payments’ to an Olympic Park Legacy Company executive during its bid to take over the Olympic Stadium.
