• Blenheim House creditor claims explode to over £60m

    Claims from unsecured creditors to administrators of Surrey-based contractor Blenheim House Construction have rocketed to more than £60m – more than triple the £19m originally flagged when the firm went under.
    The surge has all but wiped out earlier hopes of a 10p-in-the-pound return for suppliers and subcontractors.
    In a fresh update, administrators from S&W Partners say unsecured claims received to date “far exceed” the £19m owed to 578 unsecured credito
  • John Lewis ditches plan to be house builder

    John Lewis Partnership has scrapped its house building arm and pulled the plug on plans to deliver around 1,000 rental homes across three sites, blaming a “fundamental shift in economic conditions” for the big U-turn on build to rent.
    The employee-owned retailer confirmed it is withdrawing from the build-to-rent sector after concluding the numbers no longer stack up in today’s higher-rate environment.
    The group had secured planning to build above existing Waitrose stores in Bro
  • Tilbury3 approval shores-up capital’s aggregates supply

    The Port of Tilbury has secured outline planning approval for its 143-acre Tilbury3 expansion, unlocking a major new phase of industrial and logistics growth on the Thames.
    Thurrock Council’s decision clears the way for a flexible, rail-connected port zone capable of handling container operations, large-scale warehousing, vehicle storage and industrial processing.
    Crucially for the construction sector, the consent also covers the import, storage and distribution of aggregates and bulk cons
  • Highland Council names first £2.1bn contract winners

    Highland Council has appointed main contractors for the first projects to be delivered under its new £2.1bn Highland Investment Plan (HIP).
    Morgan Sindall, Morrison Construction, Robertson Group and Ogilvie will work on seven key multi-million-pound projects across the region from Thurso to Inverness.
    The HIP is a £2.1 billion, 20-year capital investment programme led by the Council to deliver improvements to local infrastructure and servi
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  • Mainland Power fits solar system at recycling centre

    Mainland Power has completed the design and installation of a full solar panel system on the roof of a plasterboard recycling shed owned by waste management specialist Countrystyle.
    Work involved installation of a 680 kWp rooftop solar PV system comprising 1,400 high-efficiency 490W modules, paired with 10 x 60kW SolaX string inverters and full TIGO optimisation across the arrays.
    Due to the site’s consistently high energy demand, 100% of the energy generated is consumed on site, with the
  • Willmott Dixon wins London Fire Brigade HQ overhaul

    Willmott Dixon Interiors has landed the preconstruction role for a major refurbishment of London Fire Brigade’s historic headquarters in the heart of the capital at 8 Albert Embankment.
    The contractor will take the Grade II listed building through Stage 3 and 4 design ahead of a full overhaul that will bring the 1937 Art Deco landmark back into full use as the Brigade’s HQ for around 840 staff.
    Plans include full renewal of mechanical, electrical and public health systems, new life s
  • Willmott Dixon wins historic London Fire Brigade HQ overhaul

    Willmott Dixon Interiors has landed the preconstruction role for a major refurbishment of London Fire Brigade’s historic headquarters in the heart of the capital at 8 Albert Embankment.
    The contractor will take the Grade II listed building through Stage 3 and 4 design ahead of a full overhaul that will bring the 1937 Art Deco landmark back into full use as the Brigade’s HQ for around 840 staff.
    Plans include full renewal of mechanical, electrical and public health systems, new life s
  • 30 win £655m Metropolitan Housing remediation deal

    Metropolitan Housing Trust has appointed 30 contractors to a £655m fire and structural safety remediation framework spanning its housing stock and wider public sector call-offs.
    The Southern and East of England social landlord will use the panel to deliver projects from minor works up to major schemes over £5m over the next seven years.
    Amber Construction, Equans Regeneration, Higgins, Mulalley & Co and Thomas Sinden are among the firms securing both larger project lots.The
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  • Glencar signs deal for Luton industrial scheme

    Glencar has has been engaged at pre-construction stage to progress the Hillwood Park Luton scheme through the next phases of detailed design and delivery.
    Developer Hillwood has secured planning for the 16 acre site which will contain 284,575 sq ft of new industrial and logistics accommodation across eight Grade-A units.
    Construction is expected to begin in March with units ready for early occupation from January 2027.Glencar has worked on other Hillwood schemes in Crewe and Wigan.
    Peter Goodman
  • McLaren confirms supply chain for giant data centre

    McLaren has confirmed its main supply chain partners after officially signing the shell and core contract to build the first of three giant data centre buildings at Ada Infrastructure’s Docklands campus.
    McLaren’s contract includes the infrastructure for the whole campus and the interface for a future district heating network.
    In addition to the three 70 MW data centre buildings, the project features a community multi-purpose facility and enhanced public spaces around the site, inclu
  • Hydrogen deal for Lower Thames Crossing worth £32m

    The value of a contract to supply the largest volume of green hydrogen ever produced for a British construction project has been confirmed at £32m.
    British specialist GeoPura has landed the deal at National Highways’ Lower Thames Crossing project which will be the first major British infrastructure project to be carbon neutral in construction.
    Diesel will be replaced with hydrogen, electric and other low-carbon fuels across the project.The eight-year deal with GeoPura has already sta
  • Morgan Sindall tops £5bn revenue as profit jumps over a third

    Morgan Sindall Group passed £5bn revenue for the first time last year as margins widened and pre-tax profit leapt 35% to £233m.
    Despite wider industry headwinds the firm’s order book climbed to a record £19bn including preferred bidder work, mainly on the back of regeneration and construction successes.
    The group posted revenue of £5.02bn for the year to 31 December 2025, up 10% on £4.55bn last time.Adjusted operating profit, driven by an outstanding year for
  • Morgan Sindall gets start date for new railway line

    The go-ahead has been given to start main construction in April on the restoration of the Portishead Line.
    The passenger rail link between Bristol and Portishead was closed in 1964 but 5.5km of disused line will now be restored and new stations built.
    The restored railway will provide an hourly direct train from Portishead to Bristol Temple Meads in around 25 minutes.The deal was originally let to VolkerFizpatrick in 2023 but Morgan Sindall will carry out the work as part of the wider £80m
  • Contractors get start date for new railway line

    The go-ahead has been given to start main construction in April on the restoration of the Portishead Line.
    The passenger rail link between Bristol and Portishead was closed in 1964 but 5.5km of disused line will now be restored and new stations built.
    The restored railway will provide an hourly direct train from Portishead to Bristol Temple Meads in around 25 minutes.The deal was originally let to VolkerFizpatrick in 2023 but Morgan Sindall will carry out the work as part of the wider £80m
  • Olympian clears gateway 2 for UK’s tallest co-living scheme

    Olympian Homes has secured Gateway 2 approval for a planned 46-storey co-living tower at 56 Marsh Wall on London’s Canary Wharf.
    The 833-studio room project is the tallest scheme of its kind in the UK to clear the Building Safety Regulator hurdle.
    Contractor RG Group will deliver the developer’s first wholly co-living scheme under its new Vivus Living brand, which will be rolled out with further planned London projects.Leeds-based Demolition Service is now expected to start site clea
  • Winvic wins £112m Digbeth resi tower scheme

    Clarion Housing Group’s development arm Latimer has awarded Winvic Construction the £112m main works contract to deliver a 481-home mixed-tenure scheme in Digbeth, Birmingham.
    Work on the 34-storey block will start in October once demolition contractor PJ Careys clears the 1.3-acre Clyde Street/High Street site.The site is home to a former Safestore industrial facility and surrounding hard-standing car parking. Demolition will get underway next month.The scheme will provide 288 affor
  • Dalkia lands £33m British Museum energy centre job

    Dalkia has clinched a £33m deal to deliver a flagship low-carbon energy centre at the British Museum as part of its sweeping masterplan overhaul.
    The firm will act as principal contractor on the Energy Centre Programme, overseeing civils, architectural fit-out and a full upgrade of the museum’s ageing infrastructure across the Bloomsbury estate.
    The project forms a critical strand of the British Museum’s long-term redevelopment, aimed at reshaping the historic institution for t
  • Whitehall heavyweights drafted into CLC board shake-up

    The Construction Leadership Council has pulled senior Whitehall figures into its boardroom in a governance shake-up designed to hard-wire the industry more tightly into Government decision-making.
    The reset gives formal board seats to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and the Cabinet Office, embedding senior civil servants inside the body that helps steer construction strategy.
    Becky Wood, CEO of NISTA, and Clare Gibbs, Director of Markets, Sourcing & Suppliers
  • CITB tells contractors no more money for training courses

    The CITB has run out of  funding for training courses booked under its Employer Network initiative.
    Contractors are now being told no training bookings can be made until after March 31 leaving firms in limbo for more than a month.
    One angry contractor said: “We received no warning about this – we were just hit with an email saying they had run out of funds.”The email – shared with the Enquirer – states: “Thanks for sending the training request through.
    &l
  • Bouygues sues DfE over mega schools framework award

    Bouygues has issued a High Court challenge after being edged out of the Government’s £15bn schools mega-framework by a scoring gap of just 0.13% from its nearest bid rival.
    The contractor claims flawed scoring and a botched moderation process cost it a place with the panel of firms on the coveted southern region major projects lot.
    It alleges the Department for Education failed to assess bids properly under the Procurement Act 2023 by making manifest scoring errors and applying undis
  • Enquirer joins forces with construction film maker

    The Enquirer is teaming-up with a leading London film maker to offer pioneering construction firms the chance to showcase their latest innovations.
    The new Construction Enquirer Originals series will be produced by brand storytelling specialist Superbeam.
    The video-led series will highlight the best the industry has to offer and how firms are shaping the future of construction.Videos are the perfect way to reach a modern audience with Superbeam bringing cinematic values to construction stories.
  • Height trim at London Silk Street in bid to win City approval

    Lipton Rogers and LaSalle Investment Management have slashed the height of their controversial London 1 Silk Street office scheme in a fresh attempt to win over planners and Barbican residents.
    Revised plans submitted to the City of London Corporation cut more than 10m from the western side of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed block, removing three storeys from earlier proposals facing Cromwell Tower.
    The move follows strong criticism over daylight loss and massing impacts on the neigh
  • £33m lifeline for stalled Rhyl hospital health hub

    A long-delayed upgrade of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl is finally moving after the Welsh Government confirmed £33m to kickstart construction of a new health hub.
    The funding unlocks the first phase of a wider £60m transformation of the site and sees modular specialist MTX Contracts appointed to deliver the centre.
    The funding commitment follows more than a decade of false starts.
    Back in 2013, ministers backed plans for a £22m, 30-bed hospital on the Royal Alex site tha
  • Didcot demolition disaster probe enters eleventh year

    Thames Valley Police have issued an update on the investigation into the partial collapse at Didcot Power Station which killed four men ten years ago.
    Today marks the decade anniversary of the tragedy on February 23 2016 which cost the lives of Ken Cresswell, John Shaw, Michael Collings and Christopher Huxtable.
    A force statement said: “Our dedicated team, alongside the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), continues its investigation, which is expected to be completed this year.“Furthe
  • Ealing to flatten 105 half-built homes after Henry collapse

    London’s Ealing Council is set to bulldoze 105 part-built affordable homes after concluding it is cheaper to start again than salvage schemes left stranded by Henry Construction’s collapse.
    The homes were being delivered under a £40m contract awarded in January 2022 to build Passivhaus-standard housing across six small infill sites in Greenford, Southall and West Ealing.
    Work began later that year but ground to a halt in June 2023 when Henry Construction went into administratio
  • TClarke targets £1bn revenue and beefs up board

    Building services specialist TClarke has set its sights on breaking through the £1bn annual revenue barrier as it strengthens its board for the next phase of expansion.
    Group chief executive Mark Lawrence unveiled the ambition as the building services contractor confirmed three senior managing directors will join the board of TClarke Contracting from March.
    The appointments see Clive Carr, managing director for built environment, Lee Crozier, managing director for data centres and infrastr
  • Green light to complete Derbyshire warehouse park

    Clowes Developments has secure planning from South Derbyshire District Council for two units of 542,000 sq ft to complete its Dove Valley Park development in Foston.
    The final phase will also provide 329 car parking spaces and 42 HGV docking bays alongside an Innovation Centre designed as a central hub for businesses across Dove Valley Park and the wider area.
    Marc Freeman, Director at Clowes Developments, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for South Derbyshire to secure much-needed jo
  • Telford Living plan in for 520-bed London student scheme

    Telford Living has lodged plans for a 520-bed student block in East London’s Bethnal Green area.
    The UK residential arm of CBRE-owned Trammell Crow Company has lodged a planning application with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the scheme on the former LEB Building site off Cambridge Heath Road.
    Designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the proposals include a mix of cluster flats and studios, plus student amenity space. Ground-floor community and affordable retail units are also pl
  • M&E delay pushes Hinkley C first reactor start up back a year

    Mechanical and electrical headaches have pushed first power at Hinkley Point C back yet another year – with the price tag swelling by £1.4bn to £48bn at today’s prices.
    EDF has confirmed lower than expected productivity on the vast electromechanical installation programme means Unit 1 is now scheduled to start up in 2030.
    That is a year later than the previous best-case 2029 target, itself already two years behind the earlier 2027 revised timetable and five years adrift o
  • Quartet wins London council £570m home estate revamp

    London’s Haringey council has selected a quartet of contractors to deliver its £570m Estate Renovation Plan to drive a decade-long upgrade of 20,000 council homes.
    The borough has split the programme into four geographic patches in a bid to speed up delivery and tighten accountability.
    Equans Regeneration will cover the west of the borough, United Infrastructure takes central areas, Hugh LS McConnell will handle the east (south), and Mulalley and Company has secured the east (north)
  • Drone squad to fight fly tippers

    The Environment Agency is launching an upgraded 33-strong fleet of drones to fight fly tippers.
    The drones will carry laser mapping technology to capture evidence to help secure successful prosecutions of waste criminals.
    The agency has also developed a new screening tool that enables officers to scan and cross-check lorry licence applications against waste permit records – with suspect operators flagged before they have a chance to move waste illegally.The new capabilities are backed by a
  • Bradford’s 1,000-home City Village gets green light

    Bradford’s long-awaited City Village regeneration scheme has cleared planning to pave the way for up to 1,000 homes in the city’s former commercial heart.
    The flagship scheme, driven by Bradford Council and regeneration specialist ECF – the partnership between Homes England, Legal & General and Muse – will transform the ‘Top of Town’ area covering Chain Street and both Oastler and Kirkgate closed shopping centres.
    Phase one has now been waved through and w
  • Signs of a building recovery as pipeline begins to stir

    The first flicker of recovery is beginning to show across the building sector, with consultants and architects pointing to early signs that a market held back by delay and uncertainty may finally be edging forward.
    Cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald has revised its 2026 average tender price inflation forecast up to 3.0%, from 2.5%, reflecting persistent cost pressures and a pipeline that is starting to stir rather than stall.
    It is not a demand surge driving the upgrade, but a combination o
  • Contractors being conned by fake skills cards checks

    Fraudsters have set-up a network of bogus websites in a bid to cheat the CSCS skills card checking system.
    The scam was rumbled by construction identity validation specialist PPAC Systems and some of the fake sites have been been shut down.
    But the sophisticated fraud could still see more unqualified workers get on sites because of its complexity.The scam involves setting up replica sites posing as the official place to validate CSCS cards offered by qualification body GQA.
    Each bogus card has a
  • Kier lands £120m delayed Edinburgh eye hospital job

    Kier has been appointed to deliver the long-awaited £120m replacement for the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh, ending years of uncertainty over the troubled project.
    The contractor will act as principal supply chain partner for NHS Lothian on the new specialist facility at the Edinburgh BioQuarter in Little France.
    The project will replace the ageing Eye Pavilion, which was first declared “not fit for purpose” in 2014.
    Since then the scheme has been hit by funding
  • Bidders days for £5.4bn Southern Construction Framework

    Southern Construction Framework is stepping up early market engagement ahead of tendering its £5.4bn work programme with a pair of regional Suppliers’ Days next month.
    The sixth generation framework, jointly re-procured by Devon County Council and Hampshire County Council, will replace the current Southern Construction Framework when it expires in 2027.
    Free events will be held in Exeter and Winchester, giving contractors and supply chain firms an early steer on how SCF-6 will be str
  • BAM Construction UK returns to profit

    BAM’s UK construction arm has bounced back into the black after swinging from a £24m loss to a £27m profit in 2025.
    In a turnaround year for the building business turnover at the construction division edged up 7% to £979m, driving the recovery in adjusted EBITDA after the prior year’s red ink, stemming mainly from the Co-op Live job in Manchester.
    The UK civils arm again proved the engine room. BAM Nuttall generated £81m profit on £1.55bn revenue, delive
  • City skyline revealed after record planning approvals

    The City of London Corporation has revealed a new skyline CGI showcasing what the Square Mile’s tall buildings cluster will look like in around six years’ time.
    The computer-generated images show what the City of London’s financial district will look like from above, once all of the buildings that have either been granted planning permission, or are already under construction are completed following a record year of planning approvals in 2025.
    The Corporation said 2026 had seen
  • Acheson staff win 90-day wage payout a year after firm folded

    Thirty-one former staff at collapsed Dorset contractor Acheson construction have secured a 90-day pay award after a tribunal found the firm failed to properly consult before making redundancies.
    The court ruling follows Acheson’s slide into administration on 18 February 2025, when administrators were appointed after the business filed a notice of intention the previous day.
    At the time, around 40 redundancies were made immediately, with most of the firm’s 48-strong workforce losing t
  • Balfour Beatty to start £200m Lincoln link road in March

    Balfour Beatty will break ground next month on Lincoln’s long-awaited North Hykeham Relief Road after ministers confirmed more than £110m of funding for the £200m job.
    The dual carriageway will link the A46 Pennells Roundabout to the Lincoln Eastern Bypass, finally completing the city’s full ring road and relieving pressure on the A46 corridor.
    Backed by the Department for Transport, the scheme is designed to unlock 4,500 homes and 7 hectares of employment land while easi
  • Employee-owned Kilnbridge delivers record year

    Concrete frame and structures specialist Kilnbridge Group has delivered its strongest results since switching to employee ownership, with pre-tax profit jumping 81% to £6.7m on the back of surging turnover and a £300m forward pipeline.
    The group posted a 50% rise in turnover to £129m in the year to June 2025 on the back of HS2 work, commercial and energy schemes.A £300m order book (2024: £200m) now underpins the next phase of growth, giving the business strong visib
  • Worker killed on Norfolk housing site

    A construction worker has died after an accident on a housing site in Sprowston, Norfolk.
    Emergency services were called to the Tilia Homes site on Tuesday morning where a new estate is under construction.
    Site sources told the Eastern Daily Press that the victim suffered a broken neck when roof trusses fell on him.The source said. “Trusses fell on him and broke his neck. I am unsure whether they were being delivered using cranes.”
    A spokesman for Tilia Homes said the victim had been
  • Starmer backs £14bn vision for Welsh rail overhaul

    The Prime Minister has signed off a sweeping £14bn vision to overhaul Welsh rail, confirming seven new stations and almost £445m of immediate funding to get schemes moving.
    Keir Starmer will today formally endorsed Transport for Wales’ long-term blueprint for railway improvement alongside First Minister for Wales Eluned Morgan.
    The Spending Review cash will kickstart a pipeline designed to support 12,000 jobs across Wales and drive a decade of rail construction.Seven new statio
  • Cardo snaps up painting and fire coating specialist

    Private equity-backed housing maintenance contractor Cardo Group has sealed its sixth takeover in 12 months after snapping up employee-owned decorating specialist Trident Maintenance Services.
    The painting and fire coatings specialist employs around 100 staff and operates across England and Scotland.
    Last year the firm turned over £18m and more than doubled pre-tax profit to £1.7m, underlining its strong position in the compliance-driven coatings and refurbishment market.The deal str
  • Keenan saves 54 jobs as FK Group falls into administration

    Keenan Holdings has rescued 54 jobs and key live contracts from the collapse of facade specialist FK Group into administration.
    Administrators from BTG Begbies Traynor were appointed over FK Group – comprising FK Group, FK Facades and FK Construction – last Friday after the business was hit by sustained inflationary pressures and wider market challenges.
    In the run up to the appointment of administrators to the Altrincham business, 57 redundancies were made.A further 54 employees hav
  • Keenan saves 54 job as FK Group falls into administration

    Keenan Holdings has rescued 54 jobs and key live contracts from the collapse of facade specialist FK Group into administration.
    Administrators from BTG Begbies Traynor were appointed over FK Group – comprising FK Group, FK Facades and FK Construction – last Friday after the business was hit by sustained inflationary pressures and wider market challenges.
    In the run up to the appointment of administrators to the Altrincham business, 57 redundancies were made.A further 54 employees hav
  • Jerram Falkus Construction files administration notice

    Historic London contractor Jerram Falkus Construction Ltd has filed an administration notice.
    The notice of appointment to appoint an administrator was lodged yesterday and comes after the firm’s sites suddenly shut this week.
    One supplier told the Enquirer: “We turned up at one of their jobs to make a scheduled delivery on Monday and the gates were locked.“Their people seemed in total shock as to what was going on.”
    The firm has been in business since 1884 operating acro
  • Green light for first tower on £1bn Liverpool scheme

    Planning approval has been granted for the first phase of the £1bn King Edward development adjacent to Liverpool’s Pier Head.
    Demolition works starting this spring will be followed by construction of a 28-storey residential tower on the regeneration site’s first plot.
    A demolition contractor will be appointed imminently while the Enquirer understands talks are now set to start with a shortlist of contractors for the first tower.Hugh Frost of developer Beetham Davos said: &ldquo
  • TCC lands historic conversion

    Birmingham-based The Construction Consultants (TCC) has been appointed as project managers, quantity surveyors and employers agents to oversee the £5m restoration of a local historic building for developer ETME Group.
    The Grade II-listed Derwent Works pressings and stampings building in Constitution Hill in the Jewellery Quarter had fallen into disrepair but will now be transformed into apartments and retail units.
    The factory was built in the late 19th century by Taylor & Challen, a c
  • Bauer Technologies lands Metro piling deal

    Bauer Technologies has been appointed to deliver specialist piling works as part of Phase 2 of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension – a major infrastructure scheme forming a key element of Transport for West Midland’s (TfWM) investment in the West Midlands Metro network.
    Subcontracted by MPB Structures, Bauer Technologies will undertake foundation piling works for a series of new structures along the route, supporting the delivery of this strategically important transport

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