Supply Chain

Firms looking to win significant government contracts will have to show they pay invoices within 30 days, it has been announced. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said this week that in order to help small businesses, Whitehall procurement rules will be strengthened to speed up large companies’ payments to their supply chains.…

Rebecca Hartshorn is the national framework director at John Sisk & Son The UK could easily find itself in a period of tumultuous politics in the near future, but it’s vitally important that public sector projects are able to continue as normally as possible. The potential for a change of…

Competent fire-safety professionals could become overloaded with work due to delays in upskilling the profession, leading to safety risks, according to a senior industry professional. Nick Pickles, systems and assurance leader for passive fire protection at Laing O’Rourke, delivered the stark warning during a panel session at last week’s London…

Contractors are being sought for a £100m scaffolding framework to be used across the public sector. Purchasing body Procurement Assist has published an official notice of the forthcoming five-year deal. Appointed firms will deliver scaffolding work for clients ranging from NHS trusts to social housing providers, and including charities and…

Derek Horrocks is chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group (NHDG) To calm fears that undoubtedly arose following the recent rollback of several government green initiatives, including the disbanding of the energy-efficiency taskforce, the government has pledged a further £80m to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF). By its own…

Pre-tax profit at Roger Bullivant has more than doubled on the back of the group’s robust performance in the residential market. The foundation engineering specialist posted a profit of £7.5m for the year ending 31 December 2022, up from £3.2m the previous year. Turnover rose by 18 per cent, from…

Andy Beard is global head of cost and commercial management at Mace Without a deep and diverse supply chain, the construction industry and its ecosystem falls apart. The supply chain’s centrality to success makes the recent collapses of industry stalwarts so worrying. Stories about contractors failing to pay and adopting…

The combined revenue figure from our seven specialisms is promising. But the mood darkens when you look at profits and margins The latest annual Construction News Specialists Index depicts a strong overall revenue performance from the top 10 contractors in seven sectors: concrete, demolition, envelope, ground engineering, mechanical and electrical…

By Keith Cooper All bar two of the leading steel specialists saw their revenues surge in their latest annual accounts, amid a continuing recovery from Covid-19 and material-cost inflation. However, pre-tax profit margins for this year’s top 10 were static at 4.1 per cent. Big turnover boosts were recorded by…

By Keith Cooper This year’s index shows that inflationary pressures squeezed scaffolding firms’ revenues, profits and margins. The median pre-tax margin for the top 10 scaffolding specialists has fallen to 5 per cent against 6.7 per cent for the firms listed in the 2022 index. However, the top 10 firms…