Housebuilder Barratt has agreed a deal to buy rival Redrow, allowing the combined business to make £90m in cost savings, it announced this morning. An announcement to the London Stock Exchange said that the £2.5bn deal, which would make the new firm the biggest housebuilder in the UK, would drive…
Big hitters in the construction industry are working on a major new collaboration aimed at promoting the UK construction industry to secondary school children. Specialist firm the School Outreach Company is working with senior sector figures on plans to raise £100,000 with the aim of creating a network of five…
The construction sector in England saw a 6 per cent year-on-year drop in apprenticeship starts last year, according to the latest government figures. Figures compiled by the Department for Education (DfE) state that 24,530 workers started construction, planning and the built environment apprenticeships in 2022/23. This represented a fall from…
Contractors can start building tower blocks with some gaps in design details under the new building safety regime, the regulator in charge has said. In a webinar explaining how the new rules for higher-risk buildings (HRBs) will work under the regime starting in April, Neil Hope-Collins, the operational policy lead…
The Roman god Janus gave his name to the month of January. The deity was usually depicted with two faces, one looking backwards and one forwards – symbolising the transition from the past to the future. Retrospection was an unfortunate but unavoidable theme in 2023. Many firms that went bust…
HMRC has criticised the behaviour of two insolvency practitioners who oversaw an aborted attempt to save Squibb Group in the run-up to its demise. Louise Baxter and Dominik Thiel-Czerwinke, from insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, had been nominated to implement a proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that would have created a…
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…
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,…
Christmas can be a particularly stressful time for specialist contractors. Anecdotal evidence suggests that main contractors’ payments start to dry up – whether by design or not – as the festive season approaches. In the latest episode of CN’s podcast First Site, covering the financial state of the specialist sector,…
The government has moved to reassure contractors over the effects of merging two research and development (R&D) tax-relief schemes – but leaders say that uncertainty remains. In the run-up to the Autumn Statement, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) raised fears that the proposals would see clients reap the benefits from…
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