HS2 offers “very poor value for money” after the cancellation of its northern leg, according to the Public Accounts Committee. In a report published on 6 February, the committee said that non-departmental public body HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport (DfT) do not know the costs of the scheme…
Author Archives: Charlotte Banks
Should construction contracts include mental health support?
The industry’s high suicide rate is prompting calls for mental health to be written into construction deals While working as a quantity surveyor, Marc Preston once witnessed a fire that caused millions of pounds of damage. Yet it was not the sight of the dramatic blaze that stuck with him…
Lendlease gets green light for controversial £700m Southbank scheme
Housing secretary Michael Gove has approved a controversial mixed-use tower in central London, set to be delivered by Lendlease. The 72 Upper Ground building, nicknamed ‘the Slab’, will stand 100 metres tall on a 2.5 acre site on the South Bank. Lendlease will replace the existing 24-storey London Studios, where…
Resi specialist nets first league-table win
United Living beat the January blues by topping the monthly league table for the first time, winning £184.3m of work. Two contract wins took the housing specialist to first place. The largest was a £160m contract to refurbish Huguenot House, a 1960s-built housing block near Leicester Square in central London.…
Housing minister urged to act on construction-product report
The leader of a Commons inquiry has called on the housing minister to respond to an independent review into the testing of construction products. Labour MP Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee’s fire-safety inquiry, has written to housing minister Lee Rowley asking the government…
CIOB calls on government to mandate accessible homes
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has called on the government to progress higher accessibility standards in new-build homes. In its written evidence for a Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) select committee inquiry into housing for people with disabilities, the body said the government “must prioritise” a…
Office and industrial shed downturn set to hit steel demand
Fewer office and industrial warehouse projects in the next two years will dampen demand for structural steel, according to the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA). A survey of 750 built environmental professionals, commissioned by the BCSA and released last Friday, predicts structural steelwork consumption in the UK to fall from…
Tilbury Douglas hires senior exec from Arcadis
Tilbury Douglas has appointed Andrew Bull as managing director for infrastructure. Bull joins the firm from Arcadis, where he spent nearly six years as a senior partner. He replaces Paul Thain, who is retiring. Bull was Arcadis’ UK water sector lead and served as a board member on the Welsh…
Funding for CLC recruitment schemes ‘proving a challenge’
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) is in discussions about the future of its two recruitment platforms after their funding expires in April. Recent CLC minutes noted that funding for the Construction Talent Retention Scheme and Talentview was “proving a challenge” and that the group had “no mechanism for funding”. The…
Blenheim House reports first-ever loss
Subcontractor failures have pushed Blenheim House Construction into its first loss after 26 years of trading. The Surrey-based contractor made a pre-tax loss of £169,000 in the year ending 30 April 2023, down from a profit of £1.1m for the previous period. Company director Michael Curtis said the firm’s profitability…