Legal

Lawyers for Heathrow Airport have begun their arguments in the Supreme Court as they attempt to rescue plans to build a third runway. In February this year, the Court of Appeal ruled the plans, approved by government, to build a third runway were unlawful. It agreed that, in 2018, then…

Temporary laws to help prevent companies entering insolvency have been extended into next year to help keep businesses afloat during the pandemic. As part of the measures announced by Rishi Sunak yesterday, aspects of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act, which were due to end on 30 September, will now…

Workers should wear face coverings when in their canteens, if they are not sitting to eat and drink, according to the latest UK Government guidance. Measures unveiled by Downing Street and devolved administrations this week have prompted a re-write of the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) site operating procedures, which are…

Accountants for insolvent contractor John Doyle Construction (JDC) have lost a claim against Erith Contractors for money owed from an Olympic Park project in 2012, before the contractor collapsed. JDC had been working on the landscaping works for the Olympic Park North site in a joint tender with Erith for…

Clients need to have realistic expectations about profit and delivery following the impact of the crisis on their projects, McLaren’s group director of strategic partnerships has said. Kim Bromley-Derry told an online conference that communication with developers about the impact on projects is one of the key things his firm…

Balfour Beatty has appointed Tracey Wood as its new legal chief. Wood takes on the role of group general counsel and company secretary. She joins Balfour Beatty after 14 years at Costain, where she was responsible for legal, company secretariat, HR and internal audit and risk. Wood will report directly…

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched enforcement cases against four of the UK’s largest housebuilders, as part of its investigation into the impact of leasehold policies on consumers. The four housebuilders named by the CMA are Barratt Developments, Countryside Properties, Persimmon Homes and Taylor Wimpey. Commenting via Twitter,…

Costain has lost a battle with the Welsh Government over its contract to build the £321.1m A465 Heads of the Valleys road. The final arbitrator’s decision was revealed by Costain in a market update this morning. The dispute was over who was responsible for design information on the project and…

Three Isle of Wight firms have been fined after the death of a worker killed after a wall collapsed during a demolition job. Ryde Demolition employee David Shayler, a father of two children, was removing roof timbers from a former family-outreach centre by hand. A gable wall partially collapsed, causing…

Bouygues UK is suing an electrical wholesaler over a fire at a major project, arguing that the incident delayed completion by nearly two months. The contractor completed the £126m Cambridge Assessment building in 2018, providing a new headquarters for the university’s exam board manager. Construction News visited the project in…