Buildings

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…

ISG is set to build a £300m Buckinghamshire prison approved by housing secretary Michael Gove, Construction News can reveal. Gove rubber-stamped plans for a new 1,468-capacity Category C prison at HMP Grendon on Tuesday (30 January), following a recommendation from a planning inspector. Buckinghamshire Council had refused the plans, but…

Graham is set to build a 661-bed student accommodation block in Nottingham. The contractor has secured a £70m design-and-build deal from developer Bricks Group for the redevelopment of the Bendigo Building in the East Midlands city. The project will see Graham construct a V-shaped block containing a range of apartments…

Kier is to build a £60m mental health hospital in the South East. The contractor was appointed by the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to deliver the 54-bed acute inpatient and outpatient facility in Bexhill. The 5,200 square metre facility will provide services for adults, replacing those currently provided at…

Offsite specialist MTX is to deliver a £49m health facility in Surrey. The Cheshire-based firm has been awarded the contract for the diagnostic and imaging centre at Frimley Park Hospital. The three-storey building will hold 74 inpatient beds ranging from single rooms to four-bed bays. Linked to the main hospital…

Kier and McLaughlin & Harvey have been appointed to Scape’s latest £3bn Utilities Works and Services Framework for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. McLaughlin & Harvey has also been appointed to lead the £1bn Scottish version of the framework, alongside RJ McLeod. The frameworks are designed to provide clients with…

Environment secretary Steve Barclay has outlined specific zones in which water companies will be tied to stricter standards in a bid to boost housebuilding. The minister published a list of 16 catchment areas that will be subject to the tighter nutrient-removal rules by April 2030. The move is the latest…

A revised planning application has been submitted for a 74-storey tower in the City of London, which would be the joint-tallest building in Western Europe. The City of London approved plans for a 289 metre building at 1 Undershaft, near the Gherkin and the Cheesegrater, in 2019. Under the consented…

Contractors can start building tower blocks with some gaps in design details under the new building safety regime, the regulator in charge has said. In a webinar explaining how the new rules for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) will work under the regime starting in April, Neil Hope-Collins, the operational policy lead…

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is looking to get up to £100m of support from Whitehall to expand a vaccine manufacturing facility in Merseyside, it has been reported. According to the Financial Times, the company is preparing a formal application for the cash to help expand its operations at its nasal flu…