News

A joint venture involving Morgan Sindall’s development arm is in line to regenerate Wolverhampton city centre. City of Wolverhampton Council is set to enter into a development agreement with ECF, formerly known as the English Cities Fund, for the £50m programme. ECF comprises Homes England, Legal & General and the…

Faithdean has won the £130m job to alter and extend retailer Fenwick’s former flagship London store, with a radical plan to jack up entire floor slabs to create higher ceilings. The scheme, approved by Westminster City Council in April, will see four new stepped floors with terraces added to the…

The winners of the Construction News Awards 2024 have been announced at a dazzling ceremony in central London. On Thursday evening (11 July), comedian Russell Kane conducted proceedings in the glitzy ballroom of the JW Marriott Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair – where more than 1,200 clients, contractors and suppliers…

The Supreme Court has ruled that most collateral warranties are not construction contracts and therefore are not subject to adjudication.  On Monday (8 July) the five Supreme Court judges unanimously found that Abbey Healthcare, the tenant of a 65-bedroom care home in north London, could not enforce an adjudication against…

Clement weather helped the construction industry to grow in May, reversing a three-month decline. Construction output jumped by 1.9 per cent, outpacing growth of 0.4 per cent across the whole UK economy, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Output still slowed overall by 0.7 per cent in the…

Ofwat has cut water companies’ plans to upgrade critical infrastructure by £16bn amid public scrutiny over firms’ performance. Last October, water companies proposed £96bn of infrastructure works to Ofwat for the 2025 to 2030 investment period. Some companies resubmitted their business plans in March, increasing the costs to £100bn. Planned…

Galliford Try has said its turnover is set to exceed £1.64bn in its latest financial year. In a trading update for the 12 months to 30 June 2024, published this morning (11 July), the contractor said its turnover would be above the upper end of current analyst forecasts. These are…

The director of a building contractor has been fined after he hit an employee while reversing a lorry. Peter O’Hare, who is both a director and worker at County Down-based Peter O’Hare Ltd, caused an employee to suffer “serious crush injuries” in the incident, which took place in November 2022,…

Crest Nicholson looks set to merge with Bellway in a £720m takeover deal, after its management backed the latest proposal.  The merger between Crest and Bellway, which have turnovers of £780m and £1.25bn respectively, would create further consolidation in the housebuilding sector - with two other giants, Redrow and Barratt,…

Barratt Developments has put aside £192m to remediate dangerous buildings. In a trading update published this morning (10 July), the housebuilder said the “legacy property” sum includes £61.9m relating to increased contingency for fixing fire safety and external wall systems, from the first quarter of the year to June 2024.…