Author Archives: Ian Weinfass

A member of the public has died after apparently falling from a building site crane during the night. West Yorkshire Police said they were called to the site in Central Road in Leeds city centre just before 8am on Wednesday (7 February) after a body was found. A spokesperson said:…

Unite has said it is “alarming” that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not keep track of the number of investigations it carries out involving cranes. In December, Construction News reported on calls for the re-establishment of the national crane register in the wake of a number of site…

The High Court has refused an application by a director to remain in post after admitting his role in an illegal demolition cartel. Nicholas Brown, former managing director of Brown and Mason Group, agreed an undertaking in May last year with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to not serve…

Labour has almost halved its green investment plan for the next parliament. The opposition party, which has a large lead in opinion polls with a general election due to be held within the next 11 months, previously made a flagship commitment to a £28bn annual “green prosperity plan”. The plan…

A council is retendering a £57m ultra-low-carbon school job won by Willmott Dixon last year. West Sussex County Council has opened bidding for a single-stage design-and-build contract for the Bedelands Academy (pictured), a new 900-pupil secondary school for those living in a new Homes England-led development called Burgess Hill Brookleigh.…

A National Housing Federation-backed alliance of housing associations and councils is looking for dozens of traditional-build main contractors to join a new modern methods of construction (MMC) framework. Building Better, which was set up to increase the use of MMC in social housing, is looking for SME builders to lead…

Profit and revenue have both dropped at Higgins Group amid a big increase in remediation costs and a redundancy programme. Newly released accounts for the Essex-headquartered contractor, covering the year to 31 July 2023, show that revenue fell to £171.9m from £215.9m in the previous year, which it blamed partly…

Homes England may be in line to recover £4.3m from the collapsed Ilke Homes administrators have now said, leaving it with a loss of £64.5m. Private equity-backed offsite specialist Ilke went into administration in June, with a loss of more than 1,000 jobs. An initial report from administrators at AlixPartners…

Lendlease is being pursued by a PFI company it formerly co-owned over alleged defects on five Lancashire schools. The schools – built from 2007 by Lendlease, then called Bovis Lend Lease, under the Building Schools for the Future programme – are the subject of two legal cases being pursued by…

Parliament’s strategic estates team has alerted contractors to a £1.2bn maintenance framework due to open for tenders next month. The Parliamentary Construction Partnership Framework, set to run into the 2030s, will see companies work to stop the Grade I-listed Houses of Parliament from deteriorating. A prior information notice, released on…