• Mace chairman honoured with CBE

    Mace chairman Mark Reynolds has been made CBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours.
    Reynolds, who has also been co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council since 2022, was honoured for services to business and the construction industry.
    He stepped down last year as Mace Group’s chief executive, a role he had held since 2013, maintaining the role of executive chairman which he has held since January 2022.Other industry awardsOBEDr Aderonke Savage chief executive officer and foun
  • £230m win double sets McLaughlin & Harvey up for rebound year

    McLaughlin & Harvey has fired the starting gun on 2026 with a brace of contract wins worth more than £230m, injecting fresh momentum into the Belfast-based contractor after a turnover dip last year.
    The firm is set to start full construction in the coming weeks on a £210m Machine Shop project for Sheffield Forgemasters after locking down a final build price late last year.
    Sheffield Forgemasters’ 13,000 tonne forging line and machine shop will create a new generation of eng
  • Multiplex signs £250m London Wall construction contract

    Multiplex has been officially awarded the main £250m construction contract for the redevelopment of 75 London Wall in the City of London.
    The deal was signed with Malaysian property group Gamuda Berhad and London-based real estate investor, Castleforge on Tuesday morning.
    Main construction will now start on the £1.2bn project following extensive enabling and demolition works led by the Erith Group.Redevelopment work is now expected to achieve practical completion in Q1 2028.
    Mul
  • Construction recruiter Fawkes & Reece expands

    Expanding construction recruiter Fawkes & Reece has acquired Cardiff based Time 4 Recruitment Solutions Ltd.
    The acquisition brings Fawkes & Reece’s national footprint to nine offices, located in Southampton, Brighton, London, Northampton, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bolton, Cardiff and Bristol.
    Time 4 Recruitment Solutions has been jointly owned and led by Grant Lillywhite and Mal Martin. Following the acquisition, Lillywhite will continue as Managing Director, leading the newly establ
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  • Land deal paves way for £100m Crewe industrial site

    Developer Hillwood has acquired 35 acres of prime industrial and logistics land in Crewe allowing main construction work to start on a £100m scheme.
    Three units will be built on a speculative basis at Hillwood Park Crewe totalling almost 800,000 sq ft.
    Muse has started infrastructure works on site, which includes main estate roads as well as delivering key services and utilities.Bob Tattrie, for Hillwood UK, said: “We are delighted to have concluded this significant transaction
  • New boss for Seddon housing partnerships arm

    Seddon has handed the reins of its Housing Partnerships arm to long-serving commercial lead Mark Walker as the family-owned contractor sharpens its focus on social housing delivery across the North and Midlands.
    Walker steps up to managing director after nearly seven years with the business, including the past three as commercial director, taking over from Peter Jackson, who is stepping down after almost two decades at Seddon.
    The move caps a three-year transition period in which Walker and Jack
  • Gratte tightens grip on costs to lift margins in tough year

    Building services contractor Gratte Brothers has strengthened margins and cash despite a sharp fall in turnover, after finally closing out a long-running legacy project that had constrained performance for several years.
    The M&E contracting arm of the family-owned group saw revenue slip to £200m in the year to March 2025, down from £227m, as major schemes were pushed back by project phasing and wider economic uncertainty.
    But tighter operational control helped operating profit cl
  • Bid race starts for Ebbsfleet £115m central enabling works

    Tendering is starting for in a £115m enabling works package for the key central phase of the planned Ebbsfleet Garden City in North Kent.
    The EC2 Phase 1a infrastructure tender covers major highways, utilities, structures and public realm works to open up the new commercial heart of the scheme around Ebbsfleet International station.
    The programme will clear the way for a new urban quarter with offices, flats, shops, restaurants and leisure uses anchored on the international rail hub.At ful
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  • Statom lands frame package for Haymarket Hotel

    Statom North has been awarded the concrete frame package by main contractor McAleer & Rushe for the new Haymarket Hotel development in the heart of Edinburgh.
    Work will see Statom North construct two reinforced concrete frame structures forming a key part of the ongoing regeneration of Edinburgh’s Haymarket district.
    Statom North will be responsible for delivering the full concrete frame scope, including cores, slabs, vertical elements, transfer structures, and associated works, coordi
  • Kier overhauls top team as infrastructure arm launched

    Kier Group has recast its senior leadership team and launched a new Infrastructure division  to sharpen its growth strategy
    The contractor has fused its Transportation and Natural Resources Nuclear & Networks businesses into a single Kier Infrastructure arm, creating a consolidated powerhouse spanning roads, rail, aviation, water, energy and environmental work.
    The shake-up is designed to put Kier in prime position to capture work flowing from the Government’s 10-Year Infrastructu
  • Reds10 eyes hospital builds as it targets £500m turnover

    Modular specialist Reds10 is eyeing the NHS hospital new build programme as a major growth engine as it pushes towards a £500m turnover target.
    The firm has designed a prototype modular in-patient hospital bedroom that it hopes will drive the industrialisation of Hospital 2.0 under the government’s New Hospital Programme.
    If signed off by the NHP, the bedroom could become the standardised in-patient room rolled out across the entire programme, giving the NHS a repeatable modular solu
  • Civils contractor Applebridge sees profits surge

    Civils and groundworks contractor Applebridge Construction has posted a healthy jump in turnover and profits.
    Latest results for the year to April 30 2025 show pre-tax profits increasing to £21.9m from £7.2m last time as turnover rose to £119.6m from £82.9m.
    Applebridge put its success down to a “continued focus on operational discipline, careful project selection and consistent delivery across its civil engineering, groundworks and multi-utilities activities.&rdquo
  • Watch Skanska giant rail bridge demolition

    Video footage has been released of Skanska’s successful demolition this weekend of a major West Coast Main Line railway bridge near Penrith in Cumbria.
    The demolition is part of a £60m renewal scheme which will see a 130-metre-long bridge being removed and a new one installed over the first two weekends of 2026.
    Network Rail and its principal contractor Skanska achieved the first phase removing Clifton Bridge in the early hours of this morning.It required a full motorway closure of t
  • Premier Forest rescues National Timber Systems from administration

    House building industry timber supplier Premier Forest Products has bought engineered timber rival National Timber Systems in a deal that secures the future of the business after the collapse of its former parent.
    Newport-based Premier Forest bought NTS from administrators following the collapse of National Timber Group England in late November.
    The deal safeguards 160 jobs across NTS, with Premier Forest aiming to grow the workforce to around 250 as it looks to expand capacity and product innov
  • Premier Forest rescues National Timber Systems

    House building industry timber supplier Premier Forest Products has bought engineered timber rival National Timber Systems in a deal that secures the future of the business after the collapse of its former parent.
    Newport-based Premier Forest bought NTS from administrators following the collapse of National Timber Group England in late November.
    The deal safeguards 160 jobs across NTS, with Premier Forest aiming to grow the workforce to around 250 as it looks to expand capacity and product innov
  • Kier agrees £85.6m price for major civil service hub job

    Kier is set to start main works this month on Darlington’s major new central Government civil service hub after settling on a £85.6m price for the job.
    The 110,000 sq ft Brunswick Street scheme for the Government Property Agency will run for around two years, with the hub expected to be ready for occupation in early 2028.
    Kier has already been active on the site since September, carrying out ground remediation to strip out legacy fuel tanks and concrete slabs. That enabling package i
  • HS2 head office managers sent out to sites

    HS2 has cut 300 corporate roles as it aims to become “less bureaucratic”.
    Half of those people have now been sent out to civil engineering sites as the organisation becomes more “outcome-focused”
    A project update confirmed the moves as part of an ongoing  fundamental reset of the scheme by Chief Executive  Mark Wild who has now been in the job 12 months.Wild is aiming to get control of costs with new specialist commercial roles which now scrutinise every contrac
  • Modular firm Thurston bought out of administration

    Modular Building Specialist Thurston Group has been bought after going into administration.
    The £47m turnover firm called in administrators from Leonard Curtis on December 22 after 55 years in business.
    Leonard Curtis has been working with the group since last month looking for a potential buyer after a challenging period for the business.The sale to manufacturing conglomerate GCH Corporation Ltd will protect 200 jobs.
    Cassie Hutchings, CEO of GCH Corporation, said: “Thurston is a re
  • New Year tender race for Bristol BTR scheme

    Developer PLATFORM_  has confirmed that Bristol City Council has approved resolution to grant planning permission for its major new Build to Rent (BTR) scheme.
    The development is on track to tender for a main contractor in Q2 next year, ahead of a Gateway 2 submission at the end of 2026.
    The scheme will deliver 352 homes across a former sawmill site with designs by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.At the heart of the development is a new riverside park that opens access to the River Frome to th
  • Safety warning issued over transfer slabs

    The Building Safety Regulator has issued a warning over a “potential structural safety issue affecting reinforced concrete buildings constructed with ‘transfer slabs’.”
    A transfer slab is a floor arrangement where a column sits on top of a slab, but does not have a supporting column directly beneath it. The slab acts to support the load from the column and spreads it to the supporting columns below.
    The design has been used for 25 years in the UK often in mixed use scheme
  • Heathrow to start T4 revamp next year in £1.3bn spend plan

    Heathrow will unleash a £1.3bn improvement drive in 2026 as the airport kicks off a long-awaited overhaul of Terminal 4 and pushes ahead with major upgrades across its estate.
    Construction on the T4 revamp will begin with a new multi storey car park and an upgraded check in hall. The work will run in phases to keep the terminal operating normally and is expected to complete in 2031.
    Heathrow will also start building a dedicated baggage system for Terminal 2 capable of handling 31000 bags a
  • Go-ahead for 260 homes at former Chorlton shopping centre

    Plans to tear down Chorlton’s former shopping centre and replace it with more than 260 homes have been waved through by Manchester City Council.
    Developer PJ Livesey, working with landowner Greater Manchester Pension Fund, will now progress a start on site in early 2026 with demolition of Graeme House and the wider precinct.
    The scheme has been reworked after heavy consultation during 2023 and a major backlash from residents, with more than 1,300 objections centred on building heights.The
  • Top Ten best read stories of 2025

    The Enquirer is putting out its last daily newsletter of the year today as the industry winds-down for its traditional Christmas break.
    The website will be updated with any major breaking stories during the holiday season with the full daily news service returning on January 5.
    It has been another eventful 12 months and a busy news year for construction as the Enquirer keeps the industry up to date with what is really going on.These were the best read stories during the year:Our most popular sto
  • Crown Estate lodges plan for 4,000-home East Hemel new town

    Crown Estate has lodged outline plans for a 4,000-home new district east of Hemel Hempstead after more than a year of intensive community engagement.
    The 975-acre East Hemel scheme will ceate two new neighbourhoods with a wide mix of homes, including significant affordable provision, supported by four schools, health and community facilities, local centres and play spaces.More than a third of the land will be green space, including a new 63-hectare country park and a south valley park linked by
  • Scottish Water names preferred firms for £9bn upgrade

    Scottish Water has named its preferred bidders for a £9bn capital investment drive stretching across the next two regulatory periods.
    In what will become one of the UK’s biggest long-term delivery alliances, the utility giant will form a new enterprise partnership to upgrade water and wastewater assets from 2027 to 2033, with an option to extend to 2039.The enterprise model will handle around a third of SR27 spend and is designed to integrate designers, contractors and Scottish Water
  • HG Construction hits 8th Gateway 2 win as approvals accelerate

    HG Construction has secured its eighth Gateway 2 approval of 2025 after regulators signed off a 24 storey student tower in London.
    The project for Alumno in Elephant and Castle signals that Building Safety Regulator decisions are now starting to move more quickly through the system.
    The Maccreanor Lavington designed scheme will deliver 244 student rooms on a tight brownfield plot beside the railway arches on Rockingham and Tiverton Street. HG is expected to break ground on the brick clad tower i
  • Colas sells Allied Infrastructure to DJ Civils

    Kent based contractor DJ Civils has acquired Allied Infrastructure from Colas.
    Allied Infrastructure specialises in work on UK airfields and local highways maintenance jobs and has been part of Colas since 2017.
    A Colas statement said: “Colas Ltd has reached agreement to sell Allied Infrastructure to DJ Civils Ltd, a civil engineering contractor based in Kent.“This is consistent with our strategy to focus our business on road construction and maintenance and bituminous binders manufa
  • Graham lands £59m Loughborough student halls job

    Contractor Graham has clinched a £59m deal to build a major student halls scheme at Loughborough University after the project cleared planning at Charnwood Borough Council.
    The contractor will deliver 552 bed spaces across five blocks rising up to six storeys in the campus’s Central Park zone, close to the Edward Herbert Building.The new Hall of Residence will plug rising demand for modern, en-suite, self-catered rooms and includes shared study lounges, social space, sub-warden accom
  • Partnerships powers Higgins into £1.1bn workload

    Higgins Group has delivered a major growth spurt on the back of a strong year for its Partnerships arm, pushing turnover up 51% to £315m and swelling its secured order book to more than £1.1bn.
    Partnerships again proved the engine of the London and Home Counties business, generating £303m revenue and a near-£9m pre-tax profit as the contractor steered through a tough housing market with a healthy mix of regeneration, remediation and new build work.
    The division spent much
  • Leeds iconic Tetley brewery building revamp approved

    Developer Vastint UK has secured planning to revamp the iconic Tetley building in Leeds.
    Work will now get underway next year on the full restoration of the 92-year-old brewery HQ as the historic centrepiece of the emerging Aire Park district.
    The two-year refurbishment project will create public market hall and around 13,000 sq ft of office space.Designs by Supervene and Enjoy Design retain the building’s distinctive art deco façade while reworking the internal layout.
    The basement

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