Construction news

• Fire hits £31m student accommodation site

  09-02-2025 10:51 via constructionenquirer.com
  
  Six fire engines were needed to battle a blaze which broke out on Saturday at a £31m student accommodation scheme under construction in Lancaster.
  Local roads were shut for several hours during the incident at the Sailworks scheme where Bridgestone Construction is building two blocks of five and seven storeys.
  The contractor said: “Earlier today, a fire broke out on our construction site in Lancaster. No one was injured or in any danger at any time.“This incident underscor
  
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• B+K inks £274m Newcastle student campus rebuild

  29-01-2026 08:54 via constructionenquirer.com
  Bowmer + Kirkland has landed the £274m main contract to deliver Newcastle’s major Castle Leazes student accommodation redevelopment for Unite Students and Newcastle University.
  Gateway 2 approval has now been secured from the Building Safety Regulator, clearing the way for the replacement of the ageing 1960s complex with 2,009 new student rooms across a series of two to nine-storey blocks.
  It ranks as B+K’s second major student project to achieve Gateway 2 this month following
  
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• Henry Boot profit warning after construction sale

  29-01-2026 08:50 via constructionenquirer.com
  Henry Boot issued a profit warning to the City this morning with 2026 profit before tax set to be “significantly below current market expectations” of £33.6m.
  The firm is now a land, property development and home building businesses after selling its contracting arm in a management buyout last September.
  The trading update said results for the year to December 31 2025 – due out in March – are expected to reach market forecasts of £29.7m of pre-tax profits.But
  
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• Crest Nicholson cuts 50 jobs in pivot to mid-market homes

  29-01-2026 08:49 via constructionenquirer.com
  Crest Nicholson has cut around 50 jobs, shut divisions and overhauled its land strategy in a shift out of volume house building into mid-market homes in response to a stubbornly weak sales environment.
  The house builder said 2025 marked a year of “transition and transformation” as it repositioned the business away from volume-led delivery and towards higher-quality, mid-premium homes under its Project Elevate turnaround plan.
  Chief executive Martyn Clark said Crest was now targeting
  
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• New contractor for delayed £14m Oxford footbridge job

  29-01-2026 08:12 via constructionenquirer.com
  Oxford City Council has moved the long-delayed Oxpens River Bridge scheme forward after selecting Jacksons Civil Engineering Group as preferred contractor on the £14m project.
  Work is now expected to start on site this spring, with the bridge due to be craned into position in September and completion targeted for February 2027.
  The scheme is a key element of the council’s wider West End regeneration plans aimed at boosting sustainable transport and cutting car use.The project secured
  
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• Bristol car park set for 12-storey student scheme

  29-01-2026 08:11 via constructionenquirer.com
  London-based investor Downing has lodged plans to redevelop a Bristol multi-storey car park with a 12 storey purpose-built student accommodation scheme in the Broadmead district.
  The Nelson Street scheme will deliver 331 bedrooms across studios, cluster flats and accessible rooms, alongside active ground-floor uses and new public realm.
  Sitting between Lewins Mead, St James Barton and the Old City, the site is within a five-minute walk of Bristol Bus Station.
  The car-free scheme is pitched as a
  
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• Police recover UK’s largest haul of stolen tools

  28-01-2026 15:32 via constructionenquirer.com
  The Metropolitan Police has recovered what is believed to be the largest stash of stolen tools ever discovered in the UK after officers uncovered a £2m haul in east London.
  A construction firm reported that high‑value equipment had been stolen from a site in Tilbury, Essex.
  Using a tracking device fitted to the equipment, Met officers were able to trace the stolen goods to a property in Ilford last week.Local officers gained entry and discovered the equipment, as well as a vast quant
  
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• Robertson seals landmark £47m Royal High School revival job

  28-01-2026 14:29 via constructionenquirer.com
  Robertson has secured the £47m main contract to transform Edinburgh’s former Royal High School into Scotland’s National Centre for Music.
  The Category A listed building has remained unused for more than 50 years, despite a number of proposals for its future use.
  The planned creation of the National Centre for Music marks the first time these ambitions will be realised with the signing of this contract representing a significant milestone in the building’s history, formall
  
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• Watch HS2 start final tunnel drive to Euston

  28-01-2026 09:05 via constructionenquirer.com
  HS2 started its drive into the heart of London yesterday as the first of two giant machines began work on the Euston Tunnel.
  The TBM was manufactured by Herrenknecht AG in Germany and shipped over to the UK in 2024 before being carefully lifted into and reassembled in the giant underground station box at Old Oak Common.
  Engineers from HS2’s London tunnels contactor, Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture (SCS JV), have been working to prepare the machines for their tunnelling mission over t
  
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• Safety regulator to pull plug on toughest Gateway 2 legacy cases

  28-01-2026 09:03 via constructionenquirer.com
  The Building Safety Regulator is preparing to reject its most problematic legacy Gateway 2 cases as it formally exits the Health and Safety Executive to become a standalone body.
  The regulator has confirmed it is now reviewing the final 29 long-running legacy schemes on a case-by-case basis and will reject applications that cannot be resolved within the next one to two months.
  Assessors say information gaps on some projects remain too wide to close, meaning developers will be forced to start aga
  
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• Materials suppliers warn of bleak 2026 without housing stimulus

  28-01-2026 09:00 via constructionenquirer.com
  Construction materials suppliers have issued a stark warning that 2026 risks becoming another lost year for the industry unless urgent action is taken to revive housing demand.
  The Construction Leadership Council’s Material Supply Chain Group says market conditions remain bleak, with no meaningful recovery visible across housing, residential repair and maintenance or major commercial work.
  The group is calling for a targeted housing stimulus to restore confidence, unlock stalled demand and
  
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• Birmingham switches firms on £3bn council housing upkeep

  28-01-2026 08:49 via constructionenquirer.com
  Birmingham City Council has rung the changes among contractors maintaining its housing stock, lining up a new trio to take over long-term repairs and upkeep across the city.
  From July 2026, Equans, Wates and Mears will run day-to-day repairs, planned maintenance and improvement works on around 60,000 council homes.
  The new 10-year framework arrangement split across four city regions could be worth up to £3bn, with the option to extend for a further five years.10-year Birmingham housing mai
  
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• Boulevard Construction set for London resi scheme

  28-01-2026 08:35 via constructionenquirer.com
  Boulevard Construction has been chosen by developer London Green Ltd to build a 90-flat residential scheme in Waltham Forest.
  Boulevard was set up in October 2023 and its website uses some former Henry Construction jobs to highlight its experience.
  Henry Construction Projects went into administration in June 2023 owing suppliers more than £43m.
  One of the founding directors of Boulevard was Sean Dundon who resigned from his role last month.Dundon is married to former Henry boss Mark Henry&
  
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• Robertson to finish hospital job hit by Merit collapse

  27-01-2026 12:50 via constructionenquirer.com
  Robertson Construction North East has been appointed to complete the new £35m Berwick community hospital where work stopped last November when original contractor Merit collapsed into administration.
  Robertson will now complete survey work to enable the development of a construction programme and take over management of the new hospital site in the middle of February.
  Damon Kent, managing director of Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management, said: “The last few months have been d
  
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• RLB selects Sypro to transform contract management

  27-01-2026 12:12 via constructionenquirer.com
  Contract management software specialist Sypro has announced a three-year partnership with global construction, property and management consultancy, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB).
  The agreement will see Sypro’s contract management software – a project oversight and collaboration hub – play an integral role in driving forward RLB’s digital transformation initiative, which aims to modernise project delivery through centralised data, greater visibility across contracts and smar
  
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• Holborn Circus refurb to start this year

  27-01-2026 08:34 via constructionenquirer.com
  Developer Tishman Speyer is set to appoint a contractor shortly for the major refurbishment of its landmark Holborn Circus property in Farringdon.
  Construction is set to start in the second half of this year at the former headquarters of Sainsbury’s.
  Refurbishment will transform the building into a highly sustainable, contemporary office destination. Plans include the creation of new internal atriums, a reimagined ground floor and basement plus the addition of a new roof terrace.Tishman Sp
  
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• Tower crane drivers start strike action today

  27-01-2026 08:30 via constructionenquirer.com
  Work will be disrupted on some the country’s biggest construction sites today as strike action by tower crane drivers starts.
  Drivers at leading crane rental company Wolffkran, represented by Unite, will hold the first in a series of 24-hour strikes today then every fortnight after that.
  Around 90 drivers are union members among the crane rental giant’s 123 operators.The drivers are unhappy at the lack of pay rises over the last three years.
  But Wolffkran claimed it has made a &ldquo
  
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• Costain wins £123m M5 gigafactory junction job

  27-01-2026 08:14 via constructionenquirer.com
  Costain has secured the job to design and build a new junction on the M5 in Somerset to serve the UK’s biggest electric vehicle battery plant.
  Sir Robert McAlpine is building the £4bn gigafactory for Agratas at the Gravity site between Puriton and Woolavington, near Bridgwater.
  The five-year new junction project, dubbed ’22A’, was agreed for a £123m price and will alleviate pressure on the motorway.Constraints on the junction’s placement arise from the nearby
  
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• Muse lined up for 1,600 homes in Gateshead Baltic Quarter

  27-01-2026 08:13 via constructionenquirer.com
  Gateshead’s long-trailed Baltic Quarter regeneration has edged closer to reality after the council struck a pre-development deal with Muse and ECF to drive forward a 1,600-home mixed-use scheme.
  ECF – the joint venture between Homes England, Legal & General and Muse – will now work with Gateshead Council to shape funding, phasing and delivery of the long-term scheme. The Baltic Quarter sits at the heart of the council’s regeneration strategy launched last autumn.
  Earl
  
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• Arup Binnies JV picked to plan £600m southern water pipeline

  27-01-2026 07:25 via constructionenquirer.com
  An Arup Binnies JV has been drafted in to plan an 80km strategic water pipeline at the heart of Southern Water’s Thames to Southern Transfer scheme.
  As technical partner the JV will take the project through its design and planning phase as well as supporting procurement of a main contractor.
  The Thames to Southern Transfer (T2ST) will move up to 120 million litres of water a day from the planned White Horse Reservoir in Oxfordshire into Hampshire, easing pressure on over-abstracted rivers
  
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• Bolton turns to MEPC for £200m town centre reset

  26-01-2026 18:15 via constructionenquirer.com
  Bolton has appointed developer MEPC to reboot plans for the £200m redevelopment of the Crompton Place shopping centre after years of delays.
  The developer, now owned by global investment manager Federated Hermes, beat Urban Splash to take control of the stalled scheme, which will see the 280,000 sq ft centre demolished and replaced with a residential-led mixed-use development.
  The overhaul is aimed at resetting the historic heart of Bolton town centre, with new homes, reworked public space
  
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• Barratt Redrow to start 900-home London high rise scheme

  26-01-2026 09:07 via constructionenquirer.com
  Barratt Redrow is lining up a start on the first phase of its 900-home Bollo Lane regeneration in West London after clinching a forward funding deal with build to rent specialist Grainger.
  The agreement paves the way for construction of an opening tranche of 195 rental flats, marking Grainger’s first BTR partnership with a major housebuilder.
  The first phase has secured detailed planning consent and Gateway 2 approval from the Building Safety Regulator, clearing the way for work to begin w
  
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• Tender prices set to rise by up to 5%

  26-01-2026 09:01 via constructionenquirer.com
  Construction tender prices are set to rise by up to 5% as capacity constraints threaten delivery of schemes.
  New data from professional services company Turner & Townsend in its Winter 2025 UK Market Intelligence report (UKMI) forecasts a rate of tender price inflation (TPI) of 3.5% per year across real estate and 5% for infrastructure through 2026 and 2027.
  The report warns that sustained cost escalation is putting pressure on the viability of new projects at a time of economic uncertainty.
  
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• Costain to exceed 4.5% margin target after strong year

  26-01-2026 08:48 via constructionenquirer.com
  Costain has capped another solid year of trading with margins beating its 4.5% run-rate target.
  In an end of year trading statement this morning, Costain said it also ended the year with a stronger than expected £190m cash pile and confidence in a step-change in performance ahead built on major contract wins.
  Work wins since include a utilities delivery partner role at Sellafield worth up to £1bn over 15 years, a five-year extension to its project controls contract with EDF valued at
  
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• Sizewell awards site safety gear contract

  26-01-2026 08:34 via constructionenquirer.com
  Sizewell C has appointed Suffolk Safety Solutions as its primary supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE) across the giant nuclear construction site.
  Over the next three years, Suffolk Safety Solutions will supply Sizewell C’s growing workforce with essential safety wear, including hard hats, high-visibility clothing, and protective eyewear.
  The company is a partnership between PPE and workwear specialist Mathias & Sons Ltd and Suffolk-based portable accommodation provider Porta
  
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• Demolition starts for £250m Glasgow Charing Cross scheme

  26-01-2026 08:18 via constructionenquirer.com
  Demolition has kicked off at Glasgow’s Charing Cross Gateway, marking the first visible step towards a £250m transformation of a key city centre site.
  Reigart Contracts has moved onto the Elmbank Gardens plot after being appointed by CXG Glasgow to clear two 1960s-era buildings, paving the way for phase one of the 730,000sq ft complex spanning Elmbank Gardens and Tay House on Bath Street.The opening phase will deliver 750-bed student accommodation on land at the corner of Bath Street
  
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• Van Elle plugs into power grid boom as revenue jumps 16%

  26-01-2026 08:17 via constructionenquirer.com
  Van Elle is banking on the UK’s power grid upgrade boom to pull margins back up after a mixed first financial half that delivered strong top-line growth but thinner returns.
  The ground engineering specialist lifted revenue 16% to over £73m in the six months to 31 October 2025, powered by a jump in General Piling and another strong showing from Specialist Piling & Rail.
  But underlying operating profit dipped to £2.0m from £2.2m with operating margin squeezed to 2.8% fr
  
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• ‘James Bond’ builder fined for threats to HSE inspectors

  23-01-2026 14:25 via constructionenquirer.com
  A builder who threatened safety inspectors and told them his name was James Bond has been fined.
  David Robert Lane, 59, was the site manager of an extensive cottage refurbishment in Staffordshire when unsafe work caught the attention of two inspectors from the HSE.
  The pair had been carrying out routine inspections in the Rugeley area on 11 February 2025 when they saw two people on the site accessing a roof from the bucket of an excavator.There were around ten workers on the site and when the in
  
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• ‘James Bond’ builder fined after threats to HSE inspectors

  23-01-2026 14:25 via constructionenquirer.com
  A builder who threatened safety inspectors and told them his name was James Bond has been fined.
  David Robert Lane, 59, was the site manager of an extensive cottage refurbishment in Staffordshire when unsafe work caught the attention of two inspectors from the HSE.
  The pair had been carrying out routine inspections in the Rugeley area on 11 February 2025 when they saw two people on the site accessing a roof from the bucket of an excavator.There were around ten workers on the site and when the in
  
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• Another immigration raid on huge warehouse site

  23-01-2026 08:57 via constructionenquirer.com
  Immigration authorities staged another raid at the Panattoni Park warehouse construction site in Swindon this week.
  Last month Immigration Enforcement officers and Wiltshire Police swooped on the logistics site where Winvic is one of the main contractors.
  During the December raid 30 workers were arrested.In the latest operation yesterday around 200 workers were spoken to, all of whom were working legally.
  Chief Inspector Carly Nesbitt said: “This is a great result for everyone involved in
  
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