Author Archives: Colin Marrs

Data on the social background of UK companies’ employees is hard to come by. If it was available, construction would surely score highly. There are few industries where so much money is made by people who did not go to university. In a society where social mobility is on the…

Faithdean has won the £130m job to alter and extend retailer Fenwick’s former flagship London store, with a radical plan to jack up entire floor slabs to create higher ceilings. The scheme, approved by Westminster City Council in April, will see four new stepped floors with terraces added to the…

Construction News last week published a story that incorrectly reported that mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist Cityside Electrical posted a loss in its most recent accounts. In fact, the firm made a pre-tax profit of £6.00m during the year – which covers the period to September 2023, compared with £7.57m…

Laing O’Rourke has announced that group chief executive Ray O’Rourke is to step down and hand over to his son. The tier one contractor announced today that the man who has run the firm since founding it in 1977 had given notice to the board of his intention to depart.…

Mace chief executive Mark Reynolds has said government intervention is needed to get rid of retentions as there is not enough support for the measure in industry.  Speaking on Construction News’s First Site podcast, the co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) acknowledged that his efforts to remove standard retentions…

Apprentice requirements imposed by local authorities on contractors are backfiring – leaving some trainees out of work and firms out of pocket Amid the cacophony of politicking before last month’s local elections, you may have heard candidates promising to create “local jobs for local people”. Politicians are acutely aware of…

Peabody has provisionally selected five contractors, including Wates and Kier, for £1bn worth of maintenance and repair contracts, as part of an overhaul aimed at reversing its underperformance in London. The housing association launched a tender last year in an effort to improve its maintenance services following repeated failures in…

Lendlease Group is confident of selling its UK operation by the end of next year, it said today after announcing it was withdrawing from construction markets outside of Australia. In explaining why it was pulling out of its overseas markets, the firm described them as a “drag” on shareholder returns.…

A senior Mace executive is looking to swap construction for legislation by standing as a Labour candidate in the forthcoming general election. Mike Reader, global lead for winning work in Mace’s consulting arm, is hoping to get elected in the key battleground of Northampton South. Reader has worked at Mace…

Civils contractors have welcomed reports that a future Labour administration would merge the government’s two main infrastructure delivery bodies. In an interview with the Financial Times, Darren Jones, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said his party plans to bring the functions of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and the…