Balfour Beatty workers will carry out three 36-hour strikes on consecutive weekends next month in a dispute over pay. The RMT rail union announced the action following a ballot of Balfour staff working for the Central Rail Systems Alliance (CSRA), a joint venture between the firm, Network Rail, Atkins and…
Kemi Badenoch has been appointed as secretary of state at a new business department that is expected to take responsibility for construction. As part of a cabinet reshuffle today, prime minister Rishi Sunak has split the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy into three new departments. Badenoch, who was…
The government has announced £1bn to create “sustainable” hospital capacity in the English NHS, including 5,000 emergency care bed spaces. The funding is included in a two-year delivery plan to help solve overcrowding and delays in emergency care services in time for next winter. In its plan, the NHS said…
Colin Marrs is the editor of Construction News Useful as they are, graphs can be deceptive. While providing a vital insight into long- and short-term trends, it can be tempting to read them as a guide to the future. For much of 2022, most data was going in the wrong…
Offsite construction specialist Merit has announced a 4,000-square-metre expansion of its North East manufacturing plant. The planned expansion would increase the size of its factory in Cramlington, Northumberland, from its existing 25,000-square-metre floorspace. The firm said that the move will allow it to test the stacking of modules on top…
The Scaffolding Association has appealed to business secretary Grant Shapps not to scrap the Work at Height Regulations (WAHR), which are set to expire at the end of the year. The government’s post-Brexit Revocation and Reform Bill is currently making its way through Parliament, containing proposals to automatically scrap more…
Plant and machinery will now be included in the new regulatory regime for high-risk buildings ushered in by the Building Safety Act, the government has announced. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities yesterday released its response to a consultation on regulations covering the definition of a building under…
Mace has won a £120m job to refit a 1980s City of London office block – previously occupied by the Daily Telegraph and Goldman Sachs – for the era of flexible working. The client, Regis Fleet Street, a holding company owned by members of Qatar’s royal family, gained planning permission…
Louise Hardy has joined the board of builders merchant Travis Perkins, adding this to a string of non-executive directorships in the industry. These include Crest Nicholson Holdings, Severfield and Balfour Beatty. Hardy is also chair of Oriel, the joint initiative between Moorfields Eye Hospital, UCL and Moorfields Eye Charity for…
Infrastructure investment business RDCP Infrastructure has bought a Bristol-based M&E firm for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will see RDCP take a 90% stake in Avon Combined Electrical Services (ACES), which boasts leading contractors including Morgan Sindall, Kier, BAM, ISG and Sir Robert McAlpine as recent clients. ACES managing director…
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