Construction news

• Partnerships powers Higgins into £1.1bn workload

  18-12-2025 10:40 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Modular firm Thurston bought out of administration

  23-12-2025 15:20 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• New Year tender race for Bristol BTR scheme

  23-12-2025 09:18 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Safety warning issued over transfer slabs

  22-12-2025 18:35 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Heathrow to start T4 revamp next year in £1.3bn spend plan

  19-12-2025 09:05 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Go-ahead for 260 homes at former Chorlton shopping centre

  19-12-2025 08:42 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Top Ten best read stories of 2025

  19-12-2025 08:16 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Crown Estate lodges plan for 4,000-home East Hemel new town

  19-12-2025 08:11 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Scottish Water names preferred firms for £9bn upgrade

  18-12-2025 17:00 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• HG Construction hits 8th Gateway 2 win as approvals accelerate

  18-12-2025 16:19 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Colas sells Allied Infrastructure to DJ Civils

  18-12-2025 16:13 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Graham lands £59m Loughborough student halls job

  18-12-2025 11:32 via constructionenquirer.com
  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
  
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• Leeds iconic Tetley brewery building revamp approved

  18-12-2025 09:23 via constructionenquirer.com
  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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• Thirty arrests after immigration raid on Swindon site

  18-12-2025 09:08 via constructionenquirer.com
  Thirty construction workers have been arrested for immigration-related offences following a raid on a major warehouse site.
  Immigration officers carried out the raid at Panattoni Park, the former home to Honda in Swindon, alongside Wiltshire Police.
  Supt Mike Vass, Swindon hub commander, told the BBC: “This was a significant operation with our colleagues in Immigration targeting illegal working and safeguarding vulnerable individuals who may be being exploited.”He added: “
  
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• 33 firms win £300m SEC fire safety framework

  18-12-2025 08:59 via constructionenquirer.com
  South East Consortium has unveiled a heavyweight line-up of 33 separate firms on its new £300m Fire Safety Works Framework, covering fire doors, passive fire protection and active systems across London and the South East.
  The four-year deal – split into five lots – mixes specialist manufacturers with major housing maintenance contractors as demand for compliant fire safety upgrades continues to surge across the sector.
  Competition was fiercest on the contractor-led fire door lo
  
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• Panattoni buys Northampton site for £75m logistics scheme

  18-12-2025 08:51 via constructionenquirer.com
  Developer Panattoni has acquired a 15-acre logistics site at Brackmills Industrial Estate, Northampton with plans for a £75m speculative scheme.
  A planning application is due to be submitted early next year with construction scheduled to start in 2028 on a single warehouse unit of 340,000 sq ft.
  Gregg Titley, Head of Development, East and West Midlands at Panattoni, said: “Panattoni Brackmills represents a rare opportunity to bring forward a prime, high-quality logistics facility in
  
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• City of London planning applications hit 10-year high

  18-12-2025 08:33 via constructionenquirer.com
  The City of London Corporation has clocked its busiest year for planning applications in a decade as developers race to deliver more premium office space in the Square Mile.
  Fresh data from the Corporation shows 2025 delivered the highest volume of applications in ten years. Major schemes over 100,000 sq m were up 36% on 2024 suggesting growing investor confidence in tall, sustainable office buildings.
  More than half a million square metres of new office floorspace was approved in 2025, the stro
  
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• Government advances single construction regulator plan

  17-12-2025 14:50 via constructionenquirer.com
  The Government has pressed ahead with consultation on its plan to set up a single construction regulator as ministers push to merge building, product and competency oversight into one watchdog.
  The move aims to sweep away the current fragmented safety system. But the plan has already sparked industry concern after two years of procurement disruption triggered by the Building Safety Regulator’s gateway regime.
  The House of Lords inquiry into the Building Safety Regulator warned that the pre
  
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• Earls Court £10bn rebuild gets full green light

  17-12-2025 14:10 via constructionenquirer.com
  Enabling works for the first phase of London’s £10bn Earls Court regeneration will start next year after both local boroughs signed off the hybrid planning application for  the vast site.
  The 44-acre scheme, led by the Earls Court Development Company on behalf of Delancey, APG and Places for London, landed full backing from Kensington & Chelsea this week following unanimous approval in Hammersmith & Fulham late last month.
  Plan for new Earl’s Court district on cent
  
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• Civil engineers sound the alarm bell

  17-12-2025 11:48 via constructionenquirer.com
  Civil engineering contractors have reported the first drop in workloads since the pandemic and are urging the government to act.
  The latest quarterly Workload Trends Survey for 2025 Q3 released by Trade body CECA found that workloads moved to -1% on balance – the first negative reading since 2020 bringing an end to an  extended period of growth.
  Activity remained resilient in renewable and non-renewable electricity, nuclear-related work, and water and  sewerage.But the largest ne
  
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• Springfield strikes deal to build homes for power workers

  17-12-2025 08:57 via constructionenquirer.com
  Scottish house builder Springfield Properties has inked its first major housing agreement with SSEN Transmission to deliver nearly 300 homes for workers building Scotland’s next generation of energy infrastructure.
  The AIM-listed house builder will roll out 293 homes across six sites in Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire, with SSEN Transmission set to lease the units for an initial four-year period to house crews delivering a vast grid-upgrade programme.
  Under the initial agreement, Springf
  
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• Hunt starts for Square Mile £4bn heat network developer

  17-12-2025 08:38 via constructionenquirer.com
  The City of London Corporation has kicked off a £4.3bn tender race to find a development partner to design, build and run a flagship low-carbon heat network across the Square Mile.
  New modelling shows the system could ultimately supply heat to around 1,200 buildings and rely heavily on the River Thames for strategic heat supply.
  The 42-year concession will see a single private partner create and run a Special Purpose Vehicle to take the network through design and development to constructio
  
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• Planning reboot could spare SMEs from Building Safety Levy hit

  17-12-2025 08:20 via constructionenquirer.com
  Small builders look set to benefit from a major shake-up of planning rules, with ministers proposing possible exemptions from the Building Safety Levy and a new fast-track regime to get homes built quicker.
  The Government has published a fresh set of proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework aimed at speeding up decisions to make smaller housing sites more viable for local developers.
  A central move is the creation of a new “medium site” category for schemes of 10 to
  
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• Cala names industry veteran Tom Nicholson as new CEO

  16-12-2025 16:52 via constructionenquirer.com
  Cala has turned to industry heavyweight Tom Nicholson to take the top job as the house builder prepares for a tougher 2026 market.Nicholson steps in as chief executive bringing more than three decades’ experience with some of big house builders, including senior executive posts at Crest Nicholson and Linden Homes, as well a senior sales roles at Berkeley Homes and Ideal Homes earlier in his career.
  He spent the past year as a non-executive on the Cala board and succeeds Kevin Whitaker who
  
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• Yorkshire brickmaker saved in last-minute rescue deal

  16-12-2025 14:32 via constructionenquirer.com
  Yorkshire’s York Handmade Brick has been snapped up by private equity firm 4D Capital Partners in a rescue deal that saves 20 jobs and secures the future of the specialist brickmakers.
  The Alne-based firm, which supplied the Shard, Oxford’s Said Business School and Cambridge’s Magdalene College Library projects, had been on the brink of administration before 4D stepped in.
  The acquisition sees York Handmade folded into 4D’s fast-growing building products group alongside H
  
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• Steel fixer crushed by blockwork wall collapse

  16-12-2025 14:27 via constructionenquirer.com
  A construction company has been fined £100,000 after a steel-fixer was seriously injured when a newly built blockwork wall collapsed at a site in Poole.
  Matrod Frampton Limited pleaded guilty at Bristol Magistrates’ Court after the incident left 69-year-old Patrick Grant with life-changing injuries.
  The court heard how the breeze block wall had been back-filled too early, before the mortar had properly set. The wall collapsed while Grant was working nearby, crushing him against the c
  
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• Conlon Chairman to retire after 38 years

  16-12-2025 12:05 via constructionenquirer.com
  Conlon Construction has announced that Chairman Michael Conlon will retire after a 38-year plus career at the Preston-based firm founded by his father and four uncles in 1961.
  Current Managing Director Guy Parker will step into the additional role of Chairman from January 1 2026.
  Michael Conlon returned to the family firm in 1987 after four years with a smaller company. Starting out as an assistant site manager, he progressed through a series of senior roles and was appointed Chairman in 2013.He
  
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• HS2 first as giant bridge slid across live motorway

  16-12-2025 08:53 via constructionenquirer.com
  HS2 engineers claimed a UK-first over the weekend when they successfully slid a 4,600-tonne viaduct across the M6 without closing the motorway.
  The 17 hour-long operation was the culmination of an epic three-stage process to assemble and install the 315-metre East deck of the M6 South viaduct, which will carry high-speed trains heading to Birmingham and further north.
  While the previous slide had required a weekend closure of the main carriageway, the team – led by HS2’s main work co
  
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• Gilbert Ash breaks ground on £120m Wilde aparthotel

  16-12-2025 08:43 via constructionenquirer.com
  Gilbert Ash has kicked off construction on a £120m Wilde aparthotel in London for Dublin-based Staycity Group and developer The Property Trust Group.
  The 11-storey scheme at 19 Great Eastern Road in Shoreditch will become Staycity’s largest Wilde-branded property in London and its fifth in Zone 1.WT Partnership is project manager with completion slated for May 2027.
  The aparthotel will deliver 275 studio and one-bed units with self-catering layouts and a full suite of amenities inclu
  
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• Developer showed “total disregard” for site safety

  16-12-2025 08:30 via constructionenquirer.com
  A Cheshire property developer has been fined £45,000 after the Health and Safety Executive found multiple failures at a construction site in Manchester.
  Numerous health and safety failings were found during a site inspection at a home build project being undertaken by Stockport Development Limited on Kingsley Road, Manchester, in November 2023.
  The HSE inspection found missing edge protection on first floor landings, missing and damaged security fencing, a lack of fire alarms and exti
  
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