Buildings

Delays to a leisure centre development in London have been blamed on rules around election-time funding. Kingston Council said that “strict rules around the use of council resources” in the weeks running up to an election meant it was unable to push forward with plans to replace the old Kingfisher…

Welsh firm Andrew Scott has been appointed to finish one of collapsed contractor Buckingham Group’s remaining schemes. Andrew Scott will finish a multistorey car park and commercial site in the centre of Swansea, after the project stalled following Buckingham’s descent into administration. Buckingham had been delivering the Copr Bay scheme,…

Kier has landed a job to build an accommodation block and workshop at HMP Bullingdon, Construction News can reveal. The contractor scooped the design-and-build contract to construct a seventh houseblock at the category B prison, which will increase its capacity by 247 to more than 1,300. The four-storey block will…

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…

A London council has announced it will finish building a leisure centre after the original contractor collapsed last year. Work stopped on the Platinum Jubilee Leisure Centre (CGI pictured) in West Drayton, west London, when the £665m-turnover Buckingham Group entered administration. Hillingdon Council said it would now “directly manage the…

Contractors are being sought for a £155m road-dualling project in Scotland. Transport Scotland has formally advertised the job to work on the A9 between Tay Crossing and Ballinluig. The 8.2km section of road in central Scotland is being upgraded to a dual carriageway as part of a wider programme to…

MPs have called for a radical rethink of how facilities to tackle the risk of highly infectious diseases are delivered, after the cost of new labs soared by more than 500 per cent in under a decade. In a report released on Monday (27 May), parliament’s Public Accounts Committee says…

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…

A leading construction body has urged the next government to provide financial incentives to encourage companies to invest in modern methods of construction. The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) made its views known in its manifesto for the forthcoming general election. Major contractors have already called for a clear focus…

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…