People Moves

The new system for registering building-control inspectors comes into force in April. Earlier this month, CN revealed worries that there will not be enough qualified staff to deal with applications. Today, CN talks to two apprentices and an experienced inspector about how they’re preparing for the change.   Ezra McKenzie,…

Avoiding conflict with the supply chain over cladding remediation, decarbonisation and implementing lean management sit at the top of the priority list for Wates’ chief executive In 1994, Eoghan O’Lionaird was posted to work in the US by the firm he had joined four years earlier as a graduate trainee.…

The further education (FE) sector has a role to play in addressing the retrofit skills shortage. But as MidKent College curriculum director Jane Le Poidevin (pictured) says: “The retrofit landscape is so challenging. I think the sector’s a long way from meeting some of its targets, especially in terms of…

Skanska’s new chief executive talks to CN about continuity, being a female chief executive and using AI to work smarter, not harder If you switch on the television in the middle of the night, flick to an obscure channel and find yourself watching a repeat of an old programme, you…

Paul Gandy, chief executive of Tilbury Douglas, exclusively tells Colin Marrs that his firm is back on track after the turbulence surrounding its time as part of Interserve Group Paul Gandy relishes a challenge. Three years ago he became managing director at Interserve Construction, the contracting arm of Interserve Group,…

Offsite specialist Merit is concentrating on delivering high-tech buildings and medical facilities, as MD Tony Wells explains to Adam Branson

Sometimes doing the right thing pays off in ways that could not have been predicted. Such is the case with Merit, the North East-based offsite manufacturing and construction firm. In early…

Bill Hocking explains the firm's strategy, post-pandemic, to Lem Bingley, and gives an insight into the type of business the company is striving to be

We meet Galliford Try chief executive Bill Hocking in early April, in a freshly refurbished office that sits a short walk away from London’s Liverpool Street…

“This is just the start,” says Peter Baker, chief inspector of buildings at the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), on the Building Safety Act’s recent Royal Assent. “The act is very complex and very comprehensive,” he explains. “But it is primarily an enabling piece of legislation […] It will have…

Construction’s relatively slow uptake of digital technology has been a chicken and egg problem, says Tooey Courtemanche, founder and chief executive of contech specialist Procore. Lem Bingley listens

The construction industry has long been pegged as one of the slowest adopters of digital technology. In a 2016 report on digitisation across…

Construction has been crying out for change for years, Seddon managing director Jonathan Seddon tells Construction News, as he tucks into his customary pilchard sandwich. Between bites and light jokes from his sister – the firm's director of business services, Nicola Hodkinson – he says, rather proudly, that he has…