News

HMRC is chasing £16.5m from demolition firm Squibb Group after its fraud unit found the firm’s directors had made improper payments over 12 years, including the use of funds for personal expenses. Yesterday, the High Court granted a winding-up order against the firm, bringing in the official receiver to handle…

A man in his 40s has died from his injuries after falling from height while working at Laing O’Rourke’s Oxford North innovation district. Police and ambulance services were called to the site yesterday (4 December) at 10.15am, but the man died at the scene. Work on the site has stopped…

Lincolnshire County Council has doubled the length of its highways maintenance deal with Balfour Beatty. The agreement means the UK’s biggest contractor by turnover will look after roads in the area until 2032. Balfour was awarded a £217m deal back in 2019, which began in April 2020 for an initial…

More than one-third of the firms that went into administration in November employed two or fewer staff November saw a monthly total of 33 business failures – one fewer than November 2022. Despite this relative stability, however, the year-to-date total of 345 administrations marks a 49 per cent increase on…

A construction worker has been taken to hospital following an incident on a huge project to build a factory for making windfarm foundations in the North East. K2 Construction Management said a full investigation would take place into the episode at the £450m Teesside scheme. The firm is acting as…

Demolition firm Squibb Group was wound up in the High Court this morning, bringing to an end 75 years of trading. The axe fell during a hearing in the Insolvency and Companies Court that had originally been due to hear an application for administration submitted by the firm’s directors. However,…

A contractor has been fined £600,000 following a fatal fall on a building site in the North West. Dennis Vincent, 36, died after plummeting to the ground while lowering access equipment from the roof of an office block in Warrington in February 2021. His employer, Wakefield-based PTSG Electrical Services, was…

Former government construction adviser Paul Morrell has hit out at ministers' muted response to a building-safety report published in April. Testing for a Safer Future, written by Morrell and legal expert Anneliese Day, questioned whether regulators would be able to enforce higher standards and said certification bodies had failed to…

More than four in five specialists say that late payments from main contractors have impacted their mental health, according to Construction News’ payment survey. The figure is revealed today in the the results of a major survey by CN of construction subcontractors’ experiences of retentions and payment practices. The survey,…

Bachy Soletanche Holdings (Europe) has added more than £100m to its turnover in a year. The Lancashire-headquartered ground engineering specialist posted income of £221.6m for the 12 months ending 31 December 2022 – up 91 per cent from the year before. Pre-tax profit was up 87 per cent over the…