Author Archives: Kerry Lorimer

Morgan Sindall Construction has landed a £60m contract to upgrade six hospitals in Essex. The contractor was appointed by Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust to carry out the work under the ProCure23 framework. The improvement programme will see a new community diagnostic centre built in Pitsea, part of…

Pre-tax profit at Masterson Holdings slumped last year amid reduced demand, material price increases and geopolitical conflicts. The Hertfordshire-based construction group and parent company of concrete-frame specialist Getjar said that while its financials remained strong, its order book was down, and it was projecting lower turnover and profit for the…

Former Morgan Sindall executive Robert Ogg has been appointed as managing director of Akela Construction. The Glasgow-based construction services group also announced the promotion of Will Payne to managing director of Akela Group’s ground engineering division. Ogg (pictured) served as managing director of Scottish infrastructure works at Morgan Sindall from…

The £312m revamp of two Midlands hospitals by Vinci and Sir Robert McAlpine has been given the go-ahead. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust confirmed that the full business case for its transformation programme had been approved, allowing construction to begin. Integrated Health Projects (IHP), a joint venture of Vinci…

The incoming government must beef up its Construction Playbook guidance to prevent its provisions from being “routinely ignored”, a leading trade body has said. The call was part of a Blueprint for Better Construction set out by the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) ahead of the general election on 4…

Materials suppliers are struggling to protect themselves against bad debts as the insurance market shows signs of losing nerve in the wake of high-profile contractor failures. A survey of members of the British Merchants Federation (BMF) has revealed that almost a third (31.2 per cent) had been unable to access…

Work on the £1.7bn Stonehenge Tunnel has been put on hold after campaigners were granted permission to challenge the ruling that the project should go ahead. National Highways, which had hoped to begin preparatory work on the site this month, said it was “hugely disappointed” by the court’s decision to…

Plans have been submitted that will see Bow Goods Yard in Stratford become “the belly of London”, with the creation of a major new rail hub capable of transporting up to 3.5 million tonnes of construction material to sites across the capital. The Network Rail scheme will see the yard…

The Labour Party will create a taskforce to choose sites for a generation of new towns to be announced within a year if it is elected, according to the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner. Rayner told delegates at the UKREiiF property conference in Leeds that independent experts will be appointed…

Liverpool City Council has put contractors on alert for £850m in planned highways work. The authority has launched a pre-market engagement exercise to glean feedback on its proposed framework. The framework is expected to be in place from late January 2025 and run for up to four years. A maximum…