Author Archives: Ian Weinfass

It’s been 25 years since construction adjudications were introduced. But has it become too costly to bring a dispute – and does everyone involved trust the process?  In the early 1990s, the UK construction market was not in good shape. After Black Wednesday dealt a hammer blow to the economy,…

The government hailed a raft of smaller transport schemes as it announced the much-rumoured cancellation of parts of HS2, but those plans have done little to cushion the blow “I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project. And in its place, we will reinvest every single penny – £36bn…

The government has declined to confirm whether existing contracts on the HS2 Euston build will still be valid under new plans for the station. Meanwhile, the UK’s largest contractor, Balfour Beatty, which has not yet won work on that part of the megaproject, was represented at a meeting to discuss…

The vast majority of adults in the UK would not consider a career in construction, a survey has found. The poll, carried out for Deconstruction – a campaign aimed at improving perceptions of the construction industry – by YouGov found that 69 per cent of UK adults would not contemplate…

The Insolvency Service has dropped court action against Carillion’s former chair and interim chief executive at the 11th hour.  The defunct contractor’s chair, Philip Green, and Keith Cochrane, who was interim chief executive between July 2017 until the firm’s collapse in January 2018, were among five former non-executive directors who…

A coalition of unions has called for the removal of asbestos from all public buildings within the next 40 years. Unions representing more than four million workers wrote to political party leaders to ask them to include in their general election manifestos a policy to take asbestos out of non-domestic…

Multiplex topped the contracts league table for the first time in more than two-and-a-half years in September, thanks to two London wins, according to data compiled by construction intelligence provider Glenigan. The Australian multinational landed the £450m main contract for the super-prime St John’s Wood Square project, which involves demolition…

Bouygues UK has posted a £42m pre-tax loss after almost doubling its building-safety provisions. The contractor’s accounts for the year to 31 December 2022 showed it slumped from an £835,000 pre-tax profit in 2021. Its turnover also slid, to £382m from £484m in the year before. The French-owned company, which…

Tilbury Douglas made a £94m pre-tax loss last year due to legacy costs associated with its separation from Interserve Group. The company also saw its turnover fall from £463.5m to £405.2m in the year ending 31 December 2022, with directors saying a fall in workload “reflected difficulties experienced in winning…

Kier is being sued over its work on an allegedly defective £36m police station – 15 years after it was completed. Administrators for a private finance initiative (PFI) company are looking for £3.5m from the contractor for the costs of the alleged problems, which relate to areas including the station’s…