News

The new government has announced it is dropping ‘levelling up’ from the name of the housing department.  Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner told staff at the department of the name change on Monday (8 July) as she pledged: “No more gimmicks.”   The Department for Levelling Up,…

Avant Homes (Scotland) Ltd has been fined £333,000 after a man was crushed by falling concrete blocks on a site in South Lanarkshire.  Conor Joseph Morgan was an HGV driver delivering materials to Shott Farm in High Blantyre, a site overseen by Avant Homes (Scotland) Ltd, when the incident happened…

New Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves has outlined a raft of planning reforms to “get Britain building again”. Reeves used her first speech in her new post to announce a reversal of many Conservative policies including consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) , restoring mandatory housing targets and…

The building inspection industry has missed the deadline for ensuring enough qualified building inspectors are available to meet the high demand for work. The Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR’s) deadline for inspectors to prove their competency was already delayed for three months back in March, following concerns by the Local Authority…

Labour has appointed its former housing and planning minister as a junior minister in the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The news comes after Angela Rayner was confirmed on Friday (5 June) as housing secretary, where she will oversee Labour’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million homes over…

Construction News last week published a story that incorrectly reported that mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist Cityside Electrical posted a loss in its most recent accounts. In fact, the firm made a pre-tax profit of £6.00m during the year – which covers the period to September 2023, compared with £7.57m…

Henry Construction Projects is likely to end up in voluntary liquidation but it is unclear how much money unsecured creditors may receive, a new report has said. In a 4 July progress report, joint administrators David Hudson and Geoffrey Rowley from FRP Advisory said they expected the collapsed contractor to…

Lendlease Construction Europe has been awarded three contracts for British Army facilities under a broader £5.1bn Ministry of Defence (MoD) framework. The contractor said today (5 July) that the deals, worth a combined £450m, were procured under the Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) Army Programme by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).…

Leeds-based Torsion Group’s construction arm is to deliver a £53m residential build-to-rent (BTR) project in Sheffield. In a joint venture with Housing Growth Partnership (HGP), Torsion Group is providing equity to the 234-bed Hollis Croft Sheffield scheme. Torsion Group chief executive Dan Spencer said his firm was working with HGP…

ISG’s parent company Cathexis is set to sell the sixth-biggest UK contractor after eight years, amid worries about the London-based firm's finances. ISG chair and Cathexis chief operating officer Matt Roche told stakeholders that the buyer, whose identity he did not disclose, would make a significant investment in the business.…