Author Archives: Zak Garner-Purkis

Graham has landed a £124m contract with Highways England for improvement works on a junction of the M25. The design-and-build arrangement will see the Northern Irish firm build a new two-lane loop road with hard shoulder at junction 28, located between Brentwood and Romford in Essex. The contract also involves…

One question the UK construction industry has been asking in 2021 is, where has the migrant workforce gone and will it ever return? Zak Garner-Purkis sheds light on a murky situation

In recent weeks, a persistent rumour has been circulating about migrant workers in construction. The specifics differ, but the central…

Mace has revealed it wants to increase revenue by £1.3bn in the next five years. In its new ‘2026 Business Strategy’, released today, the contractor said it wants to raise revenue to £3bn by 2026. At its most recent accounts, published in December, Mace said it was expecting revenue for…

More than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the gulf nation was selected to host the World Cup, according to analysis by the Guardian. The newspaper said the figure was based on compiled government data from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which showed there were 5,927 deaths…

A Scottish property business has been fined £4,000 after an employee was left needing surgery following a fall through a roof light. Two employees at Alex Brewster and Sons were removing roofing panels from a derelict shed in Midlothian, Edinburgh, when one stepped on a roof light. It gave way…

Homes England has told potential strategic partners they must commit to increasing the use of modern methods of construction (MMC) if they want to strike deals. The body has broadened the type of organisations it will form strategic partnerships with, enabling developers and for-profit providers to apply. Local authorities and…

Have measures to improve payment practices changed? Construction News partnered with Oracle Construction and Engineering to survey readers on the current state of getting paid

Payment practices aren’t getting better. This is the overriding message from 215 respondents to a survey carried out by Construction News and Oracle Construction and Engineering…

Mace’s long-serving chief operating officer will leave his post and take up a non-executive director role. Mark Castle, who has been part of the Mace board since 2013, having joined the firm more than a decade ago, will be replaced by the managing director of its international technology business, Andrew…

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) refused to investigate a subcontractor’s allegations of health and safety breaches on multiple sites because they did not come from a current employee or include photographic evidence. A Construction News source has shared emails following up on an online form submission where first-hand evidence…

A man has died after being found injured on a Clarion Housing construction site in Hampshire. Hampshire police said it was “called at 9.46am yesterday (February 15) after a 30-year-old man was found injured on a construction site in Wiltshire Crescent, Basingstoke.” “He was taken to hospital, where he was…