Author Archives: Lem Bingley

Hinkley Point C is often billed as Europe’s largest building site. The mammoth undertaking to build a pair of nuclear reactors involves an enormous number of key steps along a narrow critical path, with safety and quality paramount throughout. German specialist Kaefer is one of the many tier two contractors…

FTSE 250-listed developer St Modwen recorded a pre-tax loss of £120.8m in its most recent financial year. The company attributed the bulk of its year-end losses to the COVID crisis, echoing sentiments from its half-year statement released last July. It cited 10 weeks of lost productivity in spring 2020 followed…

The co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and a senior union official have backed a new call on the industry to reduce its reliance on self-employed tradespeople. CLC co-chair Andy Mitchell and Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail, also president of the Trades Union Congress, wrote in a foreword…

Modular specialist Jan Snel, owned by Japan's Daiwa House, has officially launched a UK arm. Based in Swansea, the firm plans to focus on residential projects, but will also look for opportunities in the healthcare, education and commercial markets, it said in a statement. The operation is being led by…

The government has launched a consultation on a proposed national design code for buildings in England. The publication of the draft code is the latest step in Whitehall’s far-reaching shake-up of England’s planning system, which is expected to see all local authorities required to divide up their jurisdiction into defined…

Highways England has said it will create 22,000 jobs during construction of its proposed Lower Thames Crossing scheme. The £6.8bn new tunnel from Essex to Kent will contain 23km of new road. It was originally due to be completed in 2027 or 2028 but, in October last year, Highways England…

A new code of conduct for manufacturers and suppliers of building materials has been put forward by the Construction Products Association (CPA), in a bid to address market failings brought to light by the Grenfell tragedy. The draft Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI) has been drawn up by the…

Three quarters of an initial £200m government funding pot to help private-sector residential building owners fix unsafe cladding has been allocated, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). At the end of December 2020, £151m had been granted to fund various stages of remediation work, with…

Policy changes to “radically improve” the energy performance of new homes will be fully introduced by 2025, the government has said. Its Future Homes Standard will be launched in stages through updates to the energy and ventilation sections of Building Regulations, with the first stage of enforcement beginning in June…

A rollout of digital classification of construction materials across the UK is being led by the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF). A group of companies, including Travis Perkins, has committed to fast-tracking adoption of ETIM (European Technical Information Model), a standardised means of describing product specifications, designed to clarify requirements along…