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ONLINE ONLY The Chartered Institute of Building has published its first major contract form in 140 years .The  new Complex Projects Contract  which puts time management at its heart can be used ...

ONLINE ONLY Firms North of the border will be urged next week to up their commitment to training as Scottish Apprenticeship Week (21-25 May) gets underway. ConstructionSkills will host and support a ...

ONLINE ONLY More news on plans to keep the government's flagship green deal on track emerged this week. Building reported that DECC is considering prolonging current home insulation programmes to smooth the ...

ONLINE ONLY Grant Shapps £30m plans to back self build, came a step closer this week with the release of parcels of land for 80 new homes. The pieces of land are ...

ONLINE ONLY Work from the £2 billion Priority Schools Building Programme could be shared by just half a dozen firms under plans being considered by the government reports Construction News. The programme ...

ONLINE ONLY New offers from Shepherd Construction and public sector-owned Scape have joined the expanding market for standardised school building systems. But an £8m deal signed by Leeds City Council shows that ...

ONLINE ONLY The industry has welcomed the announcement of the Energy Bill in the Queen's Speech, but is awaiting details on how it will deliver electricity market reform – an issue that ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors waiting for news on the Department for Education's £2bn Priority Schools Building Programme received conflicting reports in the press this week. Construction News quotes Mike Green, capital programme director ...

ONLINE ONLY The distinctive wedge-shaped Water Polo Arena, one of the final London 2012 venues on the Olympic Park, has been completed in just 13 months. The 5000-capacity venue was built by ...

ONLINE ONLY Northern-Ireland based McLaughlin and Harvey has won the UK's Most Considerate Site 2012 for their work in refurbishing the Sainsbury's store at Ballymena in County Antrim. The firm, which also ...

ONLINE ONLY The RICS claimed that reducing the cost of construction could be helped if suppliers and clients adopted its New Rules of Measurement – in one been dubbed its most significant ...

ONLINE ONLY Chris Hopkins, Managing Director of Ploughcroft, one of the UK’s leading renewable specialists, has been selected to join the Green Construction Board, as a  representatives of the SME sector.  The ...

ONLINE ONLY Details from an unpublished report on 25 schools built under the Building Schools for the Future programme have been published by Building magazine even though Michael Gove's Department for Education ...

ONLINE ONLY In the week the UK economy officially plunged back into recession, the Government has attempted to sweeten the blow by updating its construction pipeline, which now includes over 600 projects ...

ONLINE ONLY Another Edinburgh City Council official has been sacked amid a continuing investigation into an alleged £30m housing repairs scam. The senior staff member was caught asking a private maintenance contractor ...

ONLINE ONLY Crossrail is compiling the UK’s largest ever supply chain map to demonstrate it is creating opportunities for SMEs, reports Construction News. The client organisation for the £14.8bn project has publicly ...

ONLINE ONLY The Housing Forum’s latest report “Rationalising regulation for growth and innovation”, published last week, was written in part to respond to the Government’s Red Tape Challenge. The Housing Forum took ...

ONLINE ONLY Giving the Trading Standards Authority and Citizen's Advice more teeth and greater resources has to be good news for construction, says Liz Male, chair of TrustMark. Take a peek outside ...

ONLINE ONLY The long-awaited National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has been well-received for its emphasis on local decision-making and urban redevelopment. But what about a cohesive, long-term vision? Asks professor Mark Gaterell, ...

ONLINE ONLY A new industry-wide forum has been set up to improve the employment of women, minorities and the disabled within the construction industry. The new Construction Industry Leadership Forum for Fairness, ...

ONLINE ONLY The Government's much-heralded plans to develop detailed standardised school designs in favour of publishing basic design guidance are being dropped, reports Building. In a significant policy shift, it is understood ...

ONLINE ONLY Another name and medium sized construction firm looks like being lost from the sector after Killby & Gayford went into administration this week. The “majority” of historic contractor Killby & ...

ONLINE ONLY Willmott Dixon’s repairs and maintenance company Willmott Dixon Partnerships has created an innovative joint venture company with affordable housing provider Acis Group to deliver a repairs service to 5,500 homes ...

ONLINE ONLY A Hertfordshire contractor has been fined after a woman was injured by a falling air-conditioning unit as she waited for a bus next to a refurbishment site, reports Construction enquirer. ...

ONLINE ONLY Balfour Beatty continues its tough response to the downturn as it continues to reshape the company and close down operations. Construction Enquirer reports that Britain's largest contractor has drawn up ...

ONLINE ONLY Corporate deals were very much in evidence this week, as Bouygues Construction subsidiary Bouygues Bâtiment International snapped up West-Midlands based Thomas Vale and Arcadis, the new owner of EC Harris ...

ONLINE ONLY Architect Aedas will not face corporate manslaughter charges over the death of a man near its Bridgewater Place tower in Leeds, Building Design has reported. Edward Slaney was crushed by ...

ONLINE ONLY There were no real surprises in the monthly figures from the Office for National Statistics. Construction output fell by nearly 5 per cent in the year to February 2012.The volume ...

ONLINE ONLY Paul Chitty MCIOB has swapped Chichester, Sussex for a two year VSO placement in Zambia, helping a local college to develop skills in house-building as part of VSO’s “Sustainable Livelihoods” ...

ONLINE ONLY Amid tough times for the UK construction industry, employers should be encouraging their workforce to claim back what is owed to them by HMRC, writes Jan Post, Managing Director of ...

ONLINE ONLY More new homes could be built using innovative construction methods after a mortgage lenders agreed to sign up to a new assurance scheme. Using offsite manufactured systems and other innovative ...

ONLINE ONLY Three contractors are among a list of 22 prospective Green Deal providers that signed an agreement with the Department of Energy and Climate Change this week. The 22 will now ...

ONLINE ONLY Dominic Thasarathar, Senior Industry Programme Manager for Construction at Autodesk, looks ahead to an era where everyone is operating on a level BIM playing field – but the companies that ...

ONLINE ONLY There's a whole host of reasons to get more women in the board rooms of construction companies argues Judy Lowe, deputy chair of  Construction Skills – so what are we ...

ONLINE ONLY A new ruling in the Supreme Court last week means that Employers Liability Cover must be valid against claims brought for mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos while at work. ...

ONLINE ONLY New regulations which set out more stringent procedures for dealing with low-risk asbestos products come into force on April 6th, reports Building. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 changes the ...

ONLINE ONLY A drive to attract more postgraduates and oversees students is set to result in a building boom amongst universities, reports Construction News. Nearly 8 out of 10 universities will undertake ...

ONLINE ONLY Nuclear contractors are seeking urgent assurances from Government on the future of the UK’s nuclear new build programme, after RWE npower and E.On announced the sale of the £15 billion ...

ONLINE ONLY A group of anti-capitalist demonstrators has set up camp at an Olympic construction site and is disrupting building work, reports Construction Enquirer. The Occupy London group, which includes protestors who ...

ONLINE ONLY Industry heads have given their broad backing to the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which came into force this week in an effort to boost growth and simplify the ...

ONLINE ONLY In a bleak sign of the sector’s plight, Britain’s biggest contractor Balfour Beatty is planning to cut jobs as it restructures its construction division. The firm refused to say how ...

ONLINE ONLY Last month Georgina Whiting, Challenge Team Coordinator at the Coins Foundation offered training tips for those contemplating the Three Peaks Challenge. With a few weeks to go before the event ...

ONLINE ONLY Figures released today by NHBC have shown that the gap between private and public sector registrations in the UK continues to expand, with social housing figures contracting year-on-year. NHBC registration ...

ONLINE ONLY Last week, as a result of the government's Red Tape Challenge, environment secretary Caroline Spelman announced the removal of Site Waste Management Plans, arguing that they are one of 53 ...

ONLINE ONLY Mukesh Kashyap MCIOB, senior lecturer in construction management at Nottingham Trent University, and chairman for the Construction Industry Council (CIC) East Midlands laments the downgrading of Vocational Qualifications: The decision ...

ONLINE ONLY How can architects, designers and the building industry find out about new, sustainable construction materials? That’s the question that Jakki Dehn, a reader at London’s Kingston University, tried to address ...

ONLINE ONLY The Government’s National Planning Policy Framework is expected to press on with its controversial “presumption in favour of sustainable development,” when it is published tomorrow (Tuesday). The policy comes into ...

ONLINE ONLY The  government emerged red-faced last week after the Supreme Court ruled that it could not appeal to overturn an earlier decision that its proposed cuts to the solar feed-in-tariff were ...

ONLINE ONLY Key budget points from the Association of Consulting Engineers: Following the announcement in autumn that pension funds will be approached to fund a further £20 billion of infrastructure investment, the ...

ONLINE ONLY The National Federation of Builders (NFB) has welcomed some of the positive measures for business in the chancellor’s Budget Statement, but expressed serious concerns about the missed opportunities for using ...

ONLINE ONLY Small-to-medium contractors should find new public-sector work opportunities easier to source following the launch today of Government initiatives aimed at supporting SMEs. Chief of the measures announced by Minister for ...

ONLINE ONLY For a new perspective on the art of construction, Londoners can visit an exhibition of paintings documenting the construction of Glasgow's new Riverside Museum of Transport. Scottish artist Patricia Cain's ...

ONLINE ONLY The government announced this week that companies will be given £5,600 each time they get an ex-offender into work and keep them on for over two years. Charity, the  Construction ...

ONLINE ONLY CAET XXI, a temporary consortium formed by the Portuguese construction companies Soares da Costa, RRC (Ramalho Rosa Cobetar) and the Spanish FCC, is presently building a viaduct over the Corgo ...

ONLINE ONLY The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has  confirmed that six major energy firms - EDF, Scottish Power, Southern Energy, Npower, E.ON and British Gas - would not be ...

ONLINE ONLY Deaths and injuries among UK-based migrant construction workers could be reduced if pictures were used in safety training – according to new research. The project, commissioned by the Institution of ...

ONLINE ONLY A pipeline workload of 32 million sq. ft. of commercial floor space and 33,000 new homes, together with 2,000 acres of development land, point to healthy future for London construction ...

ONLINE ONLY Training heads say downgrading of qualifications may undermine raft of new technical colleges reports Building. Balfour Beatty and Wates, two of nine construction firms sponsoring five new University Technical Colleges ...

ONLINE ONLY The former chief executive of failed contractor Rok is set to launch a new repair and maintenance vehicle in the private residential sector reported Construction News. Rok, which had a ...

ONLINE ONLY London Architects, Canaway Fleming has designs housing for 1,510 workers building the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, reports Building Design. The design forms parts of plans for ...

ONLINE ONLY As construction teams start gearing up for the Coins 3 Peaks Challenge Georgina Whiting, Challenge Team Coordinator for the Coins Foundation offers a few tips on training for one of ...

ONLINE ONLY A new handbook, conference and training are on the horizon for design managers, explains John Eynon, chair of the CIOB's  design management working group. Over the last twelve months we’ve ...

ONLINE ONLY Clients have voiced concern over the sudden and unexplained resignation of Davis Langdon global chief executive Jeremy Horner. Horner took the position during the firm’s merger with Aecom in October ...

ONLINE ONLY The controversial Building Engineering Services National Agreement, which triggered more than six months of angry protests from electricians, has officially been dropped, reports Construction News. In a move that could ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans to make London streets safer for cyclists took a step forward this week as the Crossrail project said would ban all heavy goods vehicles not fitted with basic safety ...

ONLINE ONLY A finance director at London quantity surveyor Leslie Clark Construction Consultants has been jailed for four years for stealing £1.8m from the firm to pay off his gambling debts, reports ...

ONLINE ONLY Government proposals to ensure that all new developments meet stringent drainage requirements, could add up to £2500 to the cost of a new house, the Home Builders Federation is warning. ...

ONLINE ONLY Too many urban myths have grown up around the use of SuDs, argues Alex Stephenson, Operations Director Hydro International and Chair of the British Water SuDS Focus Group. In the ...

ONLINE ONLY Britain’s largest trade union, Unite, has welcomed the withdrawal of controversial contracts by Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES), which it claims  would have resulted in the termination of long-held agreements ...

ONLINE ONLY Local authorities are set to invest billions in greening their housing stock under the flagship green deal programme, reports Building. Birmingham City Council is currently shortlisting firms for £1.4bn of ...

ONLINE ONLY Modern artist Damien Hirst – famous for his pickled sheep – is proposing to build up to 500 eco-homes on Devon, reports Construction Enquirer. He is planning to submit a ...

ONLINE ONLY GGR’s Unic mini crane and specialist operators will be working from the rooftop of the Shard for the next few months, lifting glass panels from a storage unit on the ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans for the CIOB to extend the number of qualifications unveiled by Alan Crane and Chris Blythe haven’t impressed Mukesh Kashyap. Here the senior lecturer in construction management at Nottingham ...

ONLINE ONLY Every pound of public money spent on construction will deliver up to 20 per cent more by 2015 because of its smarter approach to building public projects, Minister for the ...

ONLINE ONLY Three prison projects and a court scheme are to trial the use of new build BIM in in the Ministry of Justice as part of the government’s exercise to reduce ...

ONLINE ONLY Nearly three quarters of construction firms do not employ an apprentice and do not plan to do so in the next 18 months says Construction News. This is the main ...

ONLINE ONLY We have a mass of jobless young people in this country and there is a desperate need to help them get a foot on the ladder of work. As National ...

ONLINE ONLY A group of young apprentices who work for Story Homes are celebrating this month, having completed an award-winning four-bedroom house on their own, in just one year and on budget. ...

ONLINE ONLY Willmott Dixon is to open a new national training and development facility in Birmingham as part of the company’s ambition to invest in skills within the region. The contractor currently ...

ONLINE ONLY The launch of the government’s flagship £2bn school building programme has been hit by major delays after the scheme was swamped with bids for funding from schools, reported Building.It is ...

ONLINE ONLY Chris Huhne the secretary of state for energy and climate change has resigned after the director of Public Prosecutions said he would be prosecuted for perverting the cause of justice ...

ONLINE ONLY Laing has combined its two most senior roles in the UK  resulting in the former North and Scotland director Callum Tuckett put in charge of the UK mainland. Mark Richardson, ...

ONLINE ONLY A claim brought by Ocado against Carillion highlights some straightforward but essential points that can have a dramatic effect on the financial scale of claims arising from defective work says ...

ONLINE ONLY Warwickshire County Council has become the first local authority to buy an off-the-shelf school from main contractor Willmott Dixon. The £2.2m school will be built to a design from the ...

ONLINE ONLY Shepherd Construction has lost the first round of a £10m High Court case against its own lawyer Pinsent Masons, which the contractor accused of “negligence” last year in the drafting ...

ONLINE ONLY Government plans to drop BREEAM assessments for school construction projects have sparked a wave of criticism from industry experts, including the CIOB’s Alan Crane. The Department for Education is proposing ...

ONLINE ONLY Bleak economic prospects have hit employment with a further 45,000 jobs likely to go this year, according to a CITB-ConstructionSkills report. The training body’s five year forecast found that 2012 ...

ONLINE ONLY One of the UK's most influential architects and master planners has called on the Government to invest more in West rather than east London, and consider an incremental approach to ...

ONLINE ONLY What do the Rugby Football League, MI5 and Barclays have in common? They have made it into a list of top employers to work for if you're gay. When will ...

ONLINE ONLY The first British construction delegation to post-Gaddafi Libya set out for Libya this week, Building reported. British Expertise lead the expedition which is thought to include 10 of the organisation’s ...

ONLINE ONLY Two of the government's largest estates are undergoing radical shake ups, which is delaying the awarding of contracts. The Ministry of Defence’s move to bring on board a private sector partner ...

ONLINE ONLY More pressure was being put on the government this week to change proposals in its beleaguered Green Deal as the consultation period came to an end. A group of leading ...

ONLINE ONLY John Meadows, managing director at Schott Solar, calls on the solar PV sector to meet the challenges created by the tariff reduction head on and embrace the proposed link between ...

ONLINE ONLY Let’s provide regulations that help the consumer says Shelagh Grant, chief executive of the Housing Forum. The much anticipated housing and construction theme of the Government’s Red Tape Challenge is ...

ONLINE ONLY The Green Deal, the government’s flagship green policy to transform the energy efficiency of 14m homes appears doomed to fail, with the revelation of its own figures showing the number ...

ONLINE ONLY Up to £600m worth of work expected to be let by the MOD this year will not go ahead. The government department has put it £5bn construction and facilities management ...

ONLINE ONLY Scottish civil engineering group WJ Harte has become the latest casualty of the recession, going into administration with the loss of 500 jobs. All 722 staff at the South Lanarkshire ...

ONLINE ONLY Crisis continues to engulf the solar industry as major landlords say that a reprieve in the cut of the feed in tarriff won't convince them to restart PV schemes, reported ...

ONLINE ONLY Social housing specialists Apollo and Keepmoat are set to merge by the end of this month after the Office of Fair Trading gave its approval, reports Construction News. The contractors ...

ONLINE ONLY Midlands contractor Thomas Vale has formed a joint venture with an architectural firm to capitalise on their success building the UK’s first ever Passivhaus standard accredited primary school, reports Construction ...

ONLINE ONLY As Christmas approaches, with its seasonal good will, we know that some figures from the year remain a bête noir, and therefore deserve some special yuletide attention. We ask figures ...

ONLINE ONLY How to build a spectacular timber structure in Spain, which are the best buildings in film, and Chris Blythe on very, very poor shower design. Here's a few of the ...

ONLINE ONLY It's been a rocky twelve months, but the world's made it through earthquakes, political struggles and economic meltdown. Here Jan-Carlos Kucharek looks at the events, UK buildings and construction stories that made the headlines of the year.

ONLINE ONLY New CIOB President Alan Crane pledged to bring a buzz back into construction as he prepares to take over from James Wates, deputy chairman of the Wates Group. Speaking about ...

ONLINE ONLY Peter Caplehorn, technical director of Scott Brownrigg explains the implications of the Lofstedt review on health and safety. Two weeks ago ministers Chris Grayling MP and Mark Prisk introduced the ...

ONLINE ONLY Forming an alliance with another firm can be fraught with problems. Riz Aziz, director of built environment consultant Dina Proj-X shares a few pointers for success One of the many ...

ONLINE ONLY Over three quarters of landlords with the lion's share of grant allocations for the the Homes and Communities Agency's Affordable Homes programme are planning on pushing development forwards in order ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractor Carillion has confirmed this week that it plans to axe 1,500 positions in direct response to the government's proposal to half the feed-in tariff rate.  The move comes after ...

ONLINE ONLY Chairman of the CSCS, Trevor Walker resigned this week, to be replaced by former  Labour MP Michael Clapham, after a four month leadership stand-off. Building magazine reported that Walker stepped ...

ONLINE ONLY There has been much talk about the big operators moving into the smaller contractors’ market place whilst the competition for construction works remains intense. That’s nonsense says Shaylor’s framework director Martin ...

ONLINE ONLY Five years ago this month, against a backdrop of world-leading employment rates and fourteen years of uninterrupted growth in the UK, Lord Sandy Leitch produced his comprehensive skills review. The ...

ONLINE ONLY The extra cash for construction in the Autumn Statement shows the government is listening to the sector’s needs, says Simon Matthews director of consultant HLG Associates. As one expects in ...

ONLINE ONLY The Chancellor’s Autumn statement has received a warm welcome from industry leaders  and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Building reported. 500 projects were backed or brought forward as part ...

ONLINE ONLY Carillion has put its entire energy services division of 4,500 staff on notice of redundancy following the government’s decision to cut solar power subsidies, Building reported. The staff were told ...

ONLINE ONLY Olympic Delivery Authority chairman and former Network Rail boss John Armitt is joining Berkeley Group as deputy chairman, Construction News reported. Armitt will first become a senior independent director before ...

ONLINE ONLY We'd like your help in improving the CM website for 2012. Social media, CPD delivery, iPad publishing and better content are all issues on which we need your feedback. Spend ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction Manager's contributing editor Stephen Cousins (pictured right) was doubly honoured for his writing last night at the prestigious IBP awards for writing in the built environment. Cousins won 'Sustainable ...

ONLINE ONLY Shelagh Grant, chief executive of the cross industry body, the Housing Forum on the government’s new housing strategy. Early morning, 21 November and housing is the top story on the ...

ONLINE ONLY Green Deal Consultation: UK Green Building Council’s, Policy and Campaigns Consultant, Richard Griffiths analyses what’s in the long-awaited paper... The long-awaited Green Deal consultation was finally released on Wednesday, with ...

ONLINE ONLY Brian Berry, FMB Director of External Affairs laments the lack of opportunity for small firms The long awaited Green Deal consultation paper has finally arrived but small and medium sized ...

ONLINE ONLY An extra £200m funding for the Green Deal has been announced following the launch of the consultation on the scheme, Building reported. Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said ...

ONLINE ONLY Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement on Tuesday will have at its heart government plans to unlock £50 billion of private sector investment in construction and infrastructure, Construction News reported. This ...

ONLINE ONLY Lend Lease, the Australian property group, has won the prestigious £35m contract to redevelop the National Theatre. Lend Lease beat rival Mace to take on the construction management role, Construction ...

ONLINE ONLY A new £1M engineering prize to celebrate outstanding advances and innovations in engineering globally, was launched by Prime Minister David Cameron and the Opposition leaders in London yesterday. The biennial ...

ONLINE ONLY Atkins operating profits fell by 20% in the six months to the end of September to £24.6M, compared with £30.9M over the same period last year. This was on a ...

ONLINE ONLY The latest government figures on housebuilding, released as a separate survey by the Federation of Master Builders, combined with higher reservation rates for new Barratt homes sent out mixed messages ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is set to invest millions in the construction industry to encourage the take-up of Building Information Modelling, reported Building magazine this week. Speaking at Autodesk's BIM conference in ...

ONLINE ONLY The dramatic cut to the feed-in tariff has been condemned by the industry, local government and environmental organisations who fear the destruction of UK solar power industry. 100 leaders of ...

ONLINE ONLY New research from the construction industry reveals that £1 billion spent on construction would create 32,000 jobs locally, Construction News reported. The regional analysis, commissioned by the UK Contractors Group, ...

ONLINE ONLY The Office of National Statistics has revised construction output upwards but fears of recession still loom, Building reported. The latest set of construction figures show that ouput fell 0.2% between ...

ONLINE ONLY Michael Dawson, looks at the pros and cons of the different dispute resolution processes  Changes to the  Construction Act came into effect on 1 October 2011, enabling changes to the ...

ONLINE ONLY Individuals, not companies are facing charges for Manslaughter in new cases being brought forward by the Crown Prosecution Service. The latest sees George Collier, a director at Welsh firm Parcol ...

ONLINE ONLY Lend Lease’s £700m Preston city centre Tithebarn regeneration scheme has been scrapped after anchor store John Lewis pulled out, Construction News reported. The council said the scheme, designed by architect ...

ONLINE ONLY A Willmott Dixon Primary Care Centre is the first healthcare building to achieve BREEAM Outstanding, Construction Enquirer reported. BRE Global confirmed the Houghton-le-Spring centre, built in partnership with Sunderland Primary ...

ONLINE ONLY The contest over the leadership of Ucatt descended into farce after watchdog the Certification Office warned the union is running the risk of invalidating another election, Building reported. The watchdog ...

ONLINE ONLY A newly opened £38M wind turbine factory in Chepstow, South Wales, has started sending out deliveries of its first 150 tonne turbines this week, in what Carwyn Jones, First Minister ...

ONLINE ONLY Fewer than 100,000 new homes have been registered built in the first three quarters of the year, falling well below the government's target of building 200,000 this year. According to ...

ONLINE ONLY Sustainability organisation the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth looking to raise funds by cashing-in on the Christmas season with its 'Green Gift Shop'. It also hopes that it increases ...

ONLINE ONLY Harsh cuts to subsidised tariffs for solar power could destroy the sector, Building reported. Providers have warned that the government-subsidised Feed In Tariff for solar power must not go below ...

ONLINE ONLY The new Green Construction Board will export green innovation to the rest of the world, Construction News reported. Dan Labbad, chief executive of Lend Lease and co-chair of the board, ...

ONLINE ONLY Electrical contractor Hulse has gone under after 26 years with the loss of 160 jobs, Construction News reported. The £25m turnover firm, which was founded by chairman Steve Hulse in ...

ONLINE ONLY A leading Environmental Health and CDM consultancy has claimed that proposals to charge contractors for visits made by Health and Safety officials – if they find the site breaches safety ...

ONLINE ONLY Harrie Noy, chief executive of Dutch consultant Arcadis, dismissed claims that the takeover of EC Harris, the UK’s largest QS, is part of the ‘McDonaldisation’ of the industry, Construction News ...

ONLINE ONLY Hundreds of jobs have been lost as the rate of firms going into insolvency has risen for the first time since 2009. 118 jobs were axed as Derby steelwork contractor ...

ONLINE ONLY Retail giant IKEA’s property arm has unveiled plans for a large mixed use scheme by the Olympic Park, including 1,200 new homes, Construction News reported. Plans for Strand East, a ...

ONLINE ONLY The collapse of the deal to hand over the 2012 Olympic stadium to West Ham has led to accusations that the stadium will be a white elephant, Building reported. The ...

ONLINE ONLY High Speed Rail 2, the company behind the proposed London-Birmingham high-speed rail link, is looking for consultants with a contract notice worth up to £350 million, Construction News reported. Architects, ...

ONLINE ONLY The competition for the National Grid’s next generation of electricity pylons has been won by a Danish T-shaped design, Construction Enquirer reported. The Department of Energy and Climate Change, National Grid ...

ONLINE ONLY The Conservative Party Conference has delivered some promising news for the UK’s construction industry. However, these opportunities must be seized upon to ensure that the sector has the right skills ...

ONLINE ONLY Roger Frost, Project Director at Balfour Beatty, was announced as the CIOB's Construction Manager of the Year 2011, for his stirling work on the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham- the ...

ONLINE ONLY BAM Construction’s workforce scaffolders erected and struck over 280,000 feet of galvanised tube, 12,000 scaffold boards and 90,000 assorted fittings to make up this birdcage scaffolding shown in the picture.

ONLINE ONLY The former leader of construction union Ucatt plans to stand for re-election after being stripped of office following a voting scandal. Alan Ritchie was forced to stand down as general secretary of ...

ONLINE ONLY Laing O’Rourke, the UK’s largest contractor, is to make the use of building information modelling mandatory on all its new projects, Building reported. Laing said its use was “key” to ...

ONLINE ONLY The Highways Agency and Transport for London have started the search for firms to work on frameworks worth billions of pounds. Transport for London has published a tender notice for ...

ONLINE ONLY Housing associations face eleventh-hour renegotiations over millions of pounds of photovoltaic panel ‘rent-a-roof’ deals, Inside Housing reported. Under the terms of the deals PV providers offer landlords free PV in ...

ONLINE ONLY Whilst the industry waits for an announcement from the government regarding a new model for private finance initiatives (PFI), Martin Chambers, Framework director at Shaylor, suggests  that the government  should ...

ONLINE ONLY The manufacture of steel reinforcement rods is endangering the safety of construction projects in China, reported worldarchitecturenews.com. The website says that a 'stretching' factory in Zhengzhou, where steel reinforcement rods ...

ONLINE ONLY The director general of the CBI has called for a construction stimulus package to prevent the economy falling back into recession, Construction Enquirer reported. Until now the CBI has cautiously ...

ONLINE ONLY Marks and Spencer and three of its contractors have been fined a total of £1.15m for putting shoppers and construction workers at risk of asbestos exposure, Construction Enquirer reported. Marks ...

ONLINE ONLY A new ‘Green Building Guidance’ task group aims to combat ‘greenwash’, reduce confusion and help make sustainability profitable. The task group, launched by the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), plans ...

ONLINE ONLY Representatives from the Libya's transitional government will be in London next week persuading construction companies to return to the country to help rebuild it. Guma El Gamaty – the UK ...

ONLINE ONLY Firms rush to sign up construction contracts before the new construction laws take effect, explains Steven Hayward, solicitor at IBB Solicitors. The pending amendments to the Construction Act 1996 (“the Act”) ...

ONLINE ONLY A new standardised schools model by Laing O’Rourke and Atkins will cut costs by up to 30% less per pupil to build, Building reported. The model uses standardised building components ...

ONLINE ONLY The government will launch a major initiative to boost housing supply with a forthcoming announcement on the release of public land, communities minister Andrew Stunell has said. Building reported that ...

ONLINE ONLY The Government has been contacted by 22 acute hospital trusts who claim they are struggling to stay afloat because of the weight of their PFI deals, the Daily Telegraph reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY Galliford Try, the house building and contracting group, has awarded its 4000 staff their first pay rise in three years, said the head of construction Ken Gillespie. Speaking to CM, ...

ONLINE ONLY Freda Line, Extending Working Lives Engagement Manager, Capita Consulting explains the new regulations covering older workers that need to place in for October 1st Do you know what you now ...

ONLINE ONLY Howard Shiplee, Olympic Delivery Authority head of construction, will leave the quango to join Laing O’Rourke at the end of the month. Shiplee, 64, told Building that he would be ...

ONLINE ONLY Housebuilders have responded with fury to accusations that they are building “shameful shoebox homes”. A new report from the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA), based on 80 sites across ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has been accused of reneging on its energy efficiency commitments, backtracking on plans to roll out Display Energy Certificates for commercial buildings, Building reported. Chancellor George Osborne is ...

ONLINE ONLY This year’s Construction Manager of the Year Awards have attracted a record number of submissions with project entries totalling £4.5 billion. There are eleven categories in the awards. The bulk ...

ONLINE ONLY A new CBI survey of 447 businesses, conducted in partnership with KPMG, paints a damning picture of UK infrastructure. The survey shows that 58% rate the UK’s infrastructure as worse ...

ONLINE ONLY An alternative agreement drawn up by eight contractors that walked out of the Joint Industry Board wage agreement has been branded as a bid to “de-unionise” the industry, Building reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY Britain’s largest contractor, Balfour Beatty this week acquired Opl Group, the award winning design, fit-out and refurbishment company for £8m. Opl Group, which was founded in 1994 by Neil Laughton ...

ONLINE ONLY The JCT’s chairman, Professor Peter Hibberd explains the changes The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) will launch the next edition of its contracts at a reception at the House of Commons ...

ONLINE ONLY Non-domestic public buildings will be included in Birmingham City Council’s Green Deal scheme, Construction News reported. The Green Deal, which plans to spend £1.2 billion on retrofitting buildings in Birmingham, ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans to quickly boost affordable house building to help stimulate the economy are under consideration by the Government and the Greater London Authority. The Greater London Authority is considering plans ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors should be forced to disclose their profits on PFI schemes, an influential parliamentary committee has said. But industry leaders warned the plans could push up costs and deter companies ...

ONLINE ONLY London's iconic 158m BT Tower will be showcasing its famous panoramic revolving views of London to over twice as many visitors this year with the announcement that they will be ...

ONLINE ONLY New house building statistics revealed today show little improvement in the number of new homes in the pipeline. Figures pointed to an increase in registrations during the last quarter, but ...

ONLINE ONLY Nearly one in seven deaths on construction sites is related to smaller firms, but we haven't got the right ideas to deal with it says Atiyah Malik Although the fatal ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans for suppliers to provide “incentive payments” to contractors to ensure a place on the supply chain have sparked fury, Building reported. Evidence has emerged that Mace planned to introduce ...

ONLINE ONLY Eight contractors, including Balfour Beatty, are planning to ditch a 40-year old wage agreement between electrical contractors and workers. Union leaders have declined to rule out balloting for strike action ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is expected to reveal plans for a “son of PFI” policy in the autumn, Building reported. The plans, which will provide a blueprint for funding major projects with ...

ONLINE ONLY With the Government squeezing public sector costs and some recession-hit companies buying work with suicidal bids, the consequences could be dire argues Martin Chambers, framework director at Shaylor Group. The ...

ONLINE ONLY Recession is driving up the number of court claims, according to reports in Construction News. The latest annual report from the London Technology and Construction Court showed that the volume ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has announced 13 new “enterprise zones” in England in a bid to boost economic growth. The prime minister said the enterprise zones would lead to the creation of ...

ONLINE ONLY The construction sector cannot simply refuse to take on new apprentices due to the economic situation if future skills shortages are to be avoided, warned the Cross-Industry Construction Apprenticeship Task ...

ONLINE ONLY Telford-based building and civil engineering contractors McPhillips (Wellington) have built the world’s “greenest” dog rescue centre in a cutting edge £5.25 million eco-friendly re-development for the Dogs Trust Shrewsbury. It ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors round the country have been offering councils and companies help to repair property damaged or destroyed in this week’s rioting. Building reports that Mansell and Mears have been praised ...

ONLINE ONLY The number of administrations in the construction sector fell 16% from 101 to 85 in the second quarter of the year, curbing the rising trend of the previous three quarters, ...

ONLINE ONLY Capita Symonds and Ineco have formed a joint venture to bid for contracts on the government’s proposed High Speed 2 (HS2) project. The move follows the recent announcement by Philip Hammond, the ...

ONLINE ONLY Efforts to persuade South London home-owners to take part in a heavily-subsidised “Green Deal” that claimed to cut utility bills have been floundering, reports Building. Sutton Borough Council’s initiative, run ...

ONLINE ONLY CITB-ConstructionSkills has announced changes to the Training Grant Scheme for 2011-12 which widen the scope for claiming grants but will impose a more structured approach to employer training, explains Tony Wilson, ...

ONLINE ONLY Yesterday saw the opening of the restored and refurbished National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh after a two and a half year makeover. The work has restored the listed Victorian ...

ONLINE ONLY French utility EDF was this week granted planning permission for preparatory works for the planned new power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, the first power station to be built ...

ONLINE ONLY The Wellcome Trust has refused to comment on speculation that its plans to take over the Olympic Park after next year's Games are under threat from a Qatari-backed consortium.  The ...

ONLINE ONLY In the week that Zaha Hadid's £268M Aquatics Centre opened, marking a year to go to the opening of the Olympic Games, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Armitt ...

ONLINE ONLY Nuclear energy and flood defences could be financed by the Green Investment Bank in the future a senior civil servant setting up by the bank said this week. Dr Amal-lee ...

ONLINE ONLY Paymaster General and and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude declared that hospitals should look more like sheds if the country was to deal with ever-changing developments in clinical care and ...

ONLINE ONLY The construction sector needs to do more to avoid being viewed as 'macho, dirty and stuck in the old ways of doing things', according to a report funded by the ...

ONLINE ONLY Education Secretary Michael Gove threw the Education sector a lifebuoy last Tuesday by setting aside £2BN to procure construction works for schools following the governments cancellation of the £55BN Building ...

ONLINE ONLY The results are more startling that anticipated and should provide a wake-up call to the sector. The industry could be employing 50% fewer 20 year olds in the next 5-10 ...

ONLINE ONLY Over £110BN of investment is to be secured over the next 40 years to build new nuclear plants as well as renewable offshore wind power, it was announced by energy ...

ONLINE ONLY The Homes and Communities Agency has allocated £1.8BN of funding to 150 Housing Associations, Local Authorities and house builders through its Affordable Homes Programme, in order to help deliver 80,000 ...

ONLINE ONLY Crossrail has announced that the £250M contract for its new Paddington station, has been awarded to Costain/ Skanska, the first contract of its £1.5BN cross-capital station building programme, adding that ...

ONLINE ONLY Willmott Dixon Group’s repair and maintenance specialist Willmott Dixon Partnerships has won a five year contract worth £45m with Notting Hill Housing Trust for its 15,000 social rented customers.  The ...

ONLINE ONLY From the mundane to the magnificent, the idyllic to the iconic, buildings have played their part since film making began. Buildings, whatever their shape, size or purpose are the unsung ...

ONLINE ONLY With the Bribery Act coming into force on 01 July, Construction Manager asks Partners Guy Bastable and Richard Sallybanks of Criminal Defence lawyers BCL Burton Copeland about the main points of the incoming ...

ONLINE ONLY The Health and Safety Executive has reported a rise in the number of deaths on construction sites, according to Building and Construction News. Construction News reported that HSE's latest figures ...

ONLINE ONLY UK businesses should recruit more unemployed Britons rather then relying on labour from abroad, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith stated today at a keynote speech at the Foundation ...

ONLINE ONLY Crossrail announced that it will be putting back the tenders on three major station projects to ease pressure on teams bidding for the projects, Building reported today.The company running the ...

ONLINE ONLY There are just a few days left to vote for the winner of the CIOB’s Art of Building digital photography competition, which closes on July 18. CIOB members and members ...

ONLINE ONLY Measures to protect consumers against shoddy installation of renewable kit, like domestic PV panels and biomass installations, were outlined in DECC's Microgeneration Strategy, announced this week, which included the Microgeneration ...

ONLINE ONLY England’s top 50 housing associations have bid to deliver up to 80 per cent of the 150,000 affordable homes pledged by the government, Inside Housing reported. According to Inside Housing’s ...

ONLINE ONLY Many small and medium sized construction companies have not prepared for the Bribery Act which comes into force on July 1, Building reported. A survey by law firm Russell Jones ...

ONLINE ONLY Government plans to roll out Building Information Modelling (BIM) across the industry for public contracts could cost £4m, Building reported. The BIM Industry Working Group report for the Cabinet Office ...

ONLINE ONLY The government’s plan for a low carbon construction sector has been welcomed by industry despite holding back from several major recommendations, Building reported. The plan is a response to recommendations ...

ONLINE ONLY The editorial excellence of Construction Manager was recognised this week when it picked up a prestigious award.  Construction Manager was last night named Subscription Magazine of the Year 2011, by International ...

ONLINE ONLY A private firm specialising in vetting tradesmen has teamed up with a firm of Chartered Surveyors to create a ‘Consumer Protection Guarantee’, in an effort to rival national trades quality ...

ONLINE ONLY Homeowners could be forced to green their homes when they carry out unrelated building work, Construction News reported. The plans are likely to form part of the government’s response to ...

ONLINE ONLY One of Scotland’s oldest civil engineering firms, Mckean, has gone under while housing maintenance specialist Kinetics Group is to be placed in liquidation, Construction Enquirer reported. Scottish civil engineering contractor ...

ONLINE ONLY The project manager of the Shard, Bernard Ainsworth, is to advise EDF on the construction of its nuclear power stations, Building reported. EDF confirmed that Ainsworth, who has already cut ...

ONLINE ONLY Today sees the press opening of the Glasgow Riverside Museum, the first UK cultural building to be designed by Stirling Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid and one of the most ...

ONLINE ONLY The Construction Union UCATT has had its appeal against Union watchdog the Certification Office rejected yesterday by the Employment Appeals Tribunal president, Justice Underhill. This means that current General Secretary ...

ONLINE ONLY Claire Walker of Leeds Metropolitan University and project leader for the thinkBIM network, responds to the Government’s new construction strategy The move towards the mandatory use of BIM in public ...

ONLINE ONLY Cost benchmarking and a move towards fully integrated project teams are among the objectives at the heart of the government’s construction strategy, Construction News reported. The move will allow public ...

ONLINE ONLY Two contractors have been placed in administration while a third has been saved by private equity. Sheffield contractor C R Gibbs has gone into administration with the loss of 49 ...

ONLINE ONLY Four contractors have been killed in a fire in an oil refinery in West Wales, Construction Enquirer reported. The blast occurred in a 730 cubic metre storage tank where maintenance ...

ONLINE ONLY A case of ‘rough justice’ which was upheld by the Court of Appeal could act as a warning as to how disputes over modest sums will be handled by the ...

ONLINE ONLY The Green Investment Bank is to offer finance to the Green Deal, Building reported. The £3bn Bank is expected to initially invest in offshore wind, waste and industrial energy efficiency ...

ONLINE ONLY Clauses are being written into tenders in a bid to stamp out suicide bidding, Construction Enquirer reported. Suicide-bidding was blamed for last year’s collapse of contractors Connaught and Rok. But ...

ONLINE ONLY More than double the number of homes currently built are needed each year according to a new study, Building reported. Up to 234,000 new homes are needed per year in ...

ONLINE ONLY   The construction industry has demonstrated its resilience in the first three months of 2011, according to the Bibby Financial Services Business Factors Index, by overcoming the knock-on effect of ...

ONLINE ONLY Holding a core collection of over 40 works by arguably one of the UK's greatest 20th century artists, tomorrow sees the grand opening of 2007 Stirling Prize winner David Chipperfield's Hepworth ...

ONLINE ONLY A team from Costain climbed the three highest peaks in the UK in 20 hours and 1 minute to finish first in this year's COINS 3 Peaks Challenge.  The event ...

ONLINE ONLY The proliferation of collaboration and social tools designed to increase productivity is actually costing UK businesses 57.8 billion pounds per year in lost productivity, according to a survey of more ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has appointed Ruth Thomspon as interim head of Partnerships for Schools after confirming the departure of Tim Byles.Thompson is a former director general of higher education at the ...

ONLINE ONLY Building Information Modelling will be made mandatory on virtually all government projects within five years, Paul Morrell, the government’s chief construction adviser, has said. BIM requires firms to conform to ...

ONLINE ONLY Lendlease has appointed Michael Dyke to head up the part of its business formerly known as Bovis, Building reported. Dyke, who is the National Grid’s director of UK construction, will ...

ONLINE ONLY ConstructionSkills is to be the sole issuing authority for English apprenticeship frameworks in construction, Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced. The appointment will see the Construction Industry Training Board take ...

ONLINE ONLY Tax officials are to target false self-employment as part of a crackdown on recruitment agencies in the construction sector, Construction Enquirer reported. HM Revenue & Customs had already announced that ...

ONLINE ONLY Bullish trading statements from contractors and a boom in London office construction is a creating a positive outlook for construction despite a challenging economic climate. Galliford Try, Costain and Morgan ...

ONLINE ONLY The Green Deal may not be the green revolution the Government hopes it will be according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). A survey of its members and found ...

ONLINE ONLY Britain’s offices appear to be more Republican than Royalist as a survey reveals 98% of offices will not be hanging out the bunting to celebrate the Royal Wedding. A report by office ...

ONLINE ONLY CITB-ConstructionSkills levy payers will receive an extra 12 per cent supplementary payment on grant claims for the next three years in what will be seen by many as a bid to boost ...

ONLINE ONLY Japan has asked UK firms to help meet a shortfall on a 72,000-unit emergency housing scheme for survivors who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The government will buy ...

ONLINE ONLY A conman who helped steal more than £2m from the Olympic Development Authority after posing as a Skanska employee has been gaoled for three and half years. Ansmana Kamara, 31, from Sierra ...

ONLINE ONLY Attempts to introduce Building Information Modelling in public sector projects suffered a fresh blow after it emerged the government will not respond to a report on its effectiveness until June. An independent ...

ONLINE ONLY A lawyer representing a firm who successfully appealed against paying the construction training levy is predicting that the outcome will encourage other companies to fight against paying the annual charge. ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction companies are paying their bills over 23 days later than the agreed payments terms – up two days on the previous quarter – according to global information services company ...

ONLINE ONLY The number of deaths on construction sites has risen as a result of corner-cutting during the recession, Building reported. The news comes as the Health and Safety Executive faces budget ...

ONLINE ONLY The construction workforce has shrunk to its lowest level in 12 months, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics. Building reported that the total number of construction sector ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans for standardised design in school building have been condemned by the shadow schools minister, RIBA and Design Council Cabe, Building Design reported. Labour’s Kevin Brennan voiced fears that schools ...

ONLINE ONLY A leading construction equipment manufacturer has been prosecuted by a trading standards authority after a random sample of its hard hats failed prescribed safety tests. The hard hats were purchased ...

ONLINE ONLY The long-awaited James Review into school building is calling for new national contracts for school building projects, Building reported. Construction News reported that more budget control for councils is also ...

ONLINE ONLY Housing associations in London are to cut the number of new homes they build despite government targets to increase housing, Building reported. The news came just days after the government ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction firms could face charges of hundreds of pounds an hour for inspection when safety failures are found, Building reported. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is to consult on ...

ONLINE ONLY The fall out from the Fukushima nuclear power station disaster may be political as well as radioactive, if recent events here in the UK are anything to go by. Speaking ...

ONLINE ONLY The cost of commercial building improvements under the Green Deal will outweigh the savings made, according to a new study, Building reported. Under the government’s Green Deal initiative, loans for ...

ONLINE ONLY Procurement savings on infrastructure programmes in schools, rail and road building are being planned following the 20 per cent cuts proposed by the government’s Plan for Growth. School procurement could ...

ONLINE ONLY The directors of high tech office specialist Adams Kara Taylor have agreed a £3.75m management buy out from White Young Green, Building reported. The cash raised by the sale will ...

ONLINE ONLY This biography and interview with Sir Frank Lampl was first published in 2009, as a chapter in a book celebrating twenty eminent members of the CIOB, from its inception in ...

ONLINE ONLY John Spanswick FCIOB, who retired as chairman of Lend Lease last month, kept in regular touch with Sir Frank Lampl up until his last illness. Lampl retired from Bovis in ...

ONLINE ONLY The shake-up in the planning system announced in the budget has been welcomed by house-builders, the website Construction Enquirer reported. Chancellor George Osborne unveiled a raft of far-reaching changes which ...

ONLINE ONLY The government aims to cut the cost of public procurement by 20 % by using the the standardisation of building design to drive down costs, Building reported. In its ‘Plan ...

ONLINE ONLY Local groups and developers have reacted angrily to the government’s planned reductions of feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic solar energy, Construction News reported. The planned cuts to incentives announced by climate ...

ONLINE ONLY The UK Contractors Group is examining two new innovative routes for construction apprenticeships, aimed at making it easier for contractors to provide training opportunities as well as updating apprenticeships for ...

ONLINE ONLY Fears about the future of the UK’s £50bn new-build nuclear programme are growing as government and industry take in the implications of the ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima power station, ...

ONLINE ONLY Around a quarter of the 103 construction firms facing Office of Fair Trading fines for cover pricing are likely to see their penalties slashed after six initial appeals saw penalties ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has announced details of its £860 m Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, Construction News reported. The scheme will offer financial incentives to companies and private individuals for installing technologies ...

ONLINE ONLY Until three weeks ago, the CIOB's Libya “ambassador” Brian Greenhalgh FCIOB FRICS was working as a commercial manager for Aeroports de Paris Ingenieurs (ADPI), the project manager and designer for ...

ONLINE ONLY CITB-ConstructionSkills has pledged to review the courses it funds and get better at meeting the industry's needs, following the news that the government threat of abolition or restructuring has been lifted. ...

ONLINE ONLY Clients are seeking “nasty” on-demand bonds from contractors as a defensive response to the economic downturn, Construction News reported. On-demand bonds require winning bidders to place a sum of money ...

ONLINE ONLY The government’s Carbon Plan, published this week, has been welcomed across  the  construction industry. The Carbon Plan, published two weeks before this year’s March 23rd budget, sets out a timetable ...

ONLINE ONLY Skanska and Arup’s new green venture aims to generate turnover of £200m, Building reported. The contractor  has formed partnerships to work with Arup and GE to provide a “one stop ...

ONLINE ONLY All companies in the construction sector are being urged to set and publish targets for the number of women in their boardrooms in their annual reports. The call, from CITB-ConstructionSkills ...

ONLINE ONLY You may or may not be aware that last week, Lord Mervyn Davies published Women on boards. The report looked at every sector of the economy, but it’s certainly true that ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction minister Mark Prisk has stopped short of confirming that chief construction adviser Paul Morrell will stay in his position in the long term, Construction News and Building reported. Amidst ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is aiming to improve sustainability in procurement by taking lessons from the 2012 Olympics, Construction News reported. BRE chief executive Peter Bonfield, who is also a construction products ...

ONLINE ONLY The Treasury could offer homeowners stamp duty incentives in the Budget to encourage them to retrofit their homes under the Green Deal, Building reported. The measure would be a victory ...

ONLINE ONLY The city of Christchurch is still in shock after Tuesday's devastating earthquake and resulting loss of life – on Friday, reports suggested 113 confirmed fatalities with around 200 missing. While ...

ONLINE ONLY Over a hundred UK construction professionals were among the estimated 3500 Britons attempting to flee from the chaos and violence that erupted in Libya this week, writes Stephen Cousins. But ...

ONLINE ONLY Architects need to become more commercial and competitive if they are to survive, Building Design reported. A new report from RIBA think tank Building Futures claims the profession needs to ...

ONLINE ONLY Morgan Sindall has laid off 600 ex-Connaught staff transferred to its social housing division, Building reported. About 2,500 staff were transferred from collapsed social housing firm Connaught to Lovell, Morgan ...

ONLINE ONLY Despite a fragile market, a number of contractors posted profits last year point to a “progressive recovery”, Building reported. Both Kier and Galliford Try reported increased profits despite a challenging ...

ONLINE ONLY “Green Deal” training schemes, qualifications and accreditation will be well co-ordinated despite the high number of training organisations involved, CITB-ConstructionSkills has told Construction Manager. The sector skills council was responding ...

ONLINE ONLY Government plans to end the “procurement oligarchy” of major contractors consistently winning framework deals have provoked strong reactions in the industry, Construction News reported. SMEs welcomed the plans, outlined by ...

ONLINE ONLY Henry Sell, a regional vice president for Hill International in Australia, is writing a blog to interest UK construction professionals in the idea of relocating to Australia. Follow his posts ...

ONLINE ONLY Tesco has put large-scale plans to fit solar panels on its properties on hold following the government’s review of feed-in tariffs, Building reported. The news comes as leading figures in ...

ONLINE ONLY Ground testing firm Cotswold Geotechnical has been fined £385,000 after becoming the first ever company to be found guilty of corporate manslaughter, Construction News reported. Geologist Alexander Wright, 27, was investigating ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction giant Carillion has acquired green energy firm Eaga in a deal worth more than £300m, Construction News reported. The £306.5m cash deal makes Carillion the largest player in the ...

ONLINE ONLY Twelve people have been sacked by contractor Laing O’Rourke for forwarding an inappropriate email, Building reported. A further twelve employees were given a final warning as a result of the ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is reviewing public procurement to focus on value for money in place of Big Society and sustainability initiatives, Construction News reported. £10 billion of wider policy initiatives which ...

ONLINE ONLY What, if anything, might the Big Society mean for the construction industry?  To the public as a whole (according to opinion polls) it seems to mean either a fig-leaf to ...

ONLINE ONLY Chrissi McCarthy MCIOB runs Constructing Equality, a training provider and consultancy specialising in equality and diversity in the construction sector. She blogs at www.constructingequality.blogspot.com Having received some more funding to ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors are being caught between sharply rising materials prices and falling workloads, the website Construction Enquirer reported. It quoted the RICS Construction Market survey, which showed that material costs increased ...

ONLINE ONLY A private members bill that could force firms across all sectors to take on more apprentices is winning support across the political spectrum, Construction News reported. The Apprenticeships and Skills ...

ONLINE ONLY A  partnership between contractor Willmott Dixon and Scape, the building procurement one-stop-shop run by a consortium of local councils, is claiming to offer a 20-30% per cent cost saving on ...

ONLINE ONLY Fears of a prolonged recession in construction grew after both government and private sector analysts published a series of disappointing economic reports. The Office of National Statistics showed that construction ...

ONLINE ONLY New secondary schools built in the post-BSF era could be based on just six standardised design templates, and have their space standards squeezed by 15% compared to the current Building ...

ONLINE ONLY The construction industry is in danger of missing out on domestic retrofit work as utilities companies take on more work in the sector, Construction News reported. Firms such as British ...

ONLINE ONLY Martin Tidd MCIOB, chief executive of City-based Chartered Building Company Primus, and a former director of Multiplex, blogs for CM on the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to a dramatic deal ...

ONLINE ONLY Following confirmation that central government departments will expect their contractors down to Tier 3 to be paid within 30 days, campaigners for fair payment in construction are turning to their ...

ONLINE ONLY The RICS made nearly £140,000 last year from its members in disciplinary hearing fines and legal costs relating to offences that were often unrelated to professional competence, reported Building. The ...

ONLINE ONLY Social housing contractor Mears is suing Leeds council for damages after the social housing contractor failed to make the shortlist for a repairs and maintenance tender put out last year, ...

ONLINE ONLY Four major housing associations are establishing in-house construction divisions to build out their developments, sidestepping contractors and targeting higher quality and cost savings, Construction News reported. London social housing giant ...

ONLINE ONLY By Henry Sell, regional vice president, Hill International As you already know, we have a little over a week left before the holiday season comes to an end. Australia Day ...

ONLINE ONLY Primus, the company set up by the former directors of Multiplex, has acquired the remainder of Rok’s London and South-east construction business, Construction News reported. The London-based contractor, a CIOB ...

ONLINE ONLY The British Medical Association is calling on NHS Trusts and healthcare clients to prioritise design in building projects to assist patients recovery, Building Design reported. According to a new report, ...

ONLINE ONLY North London football club Tottenham Hotspur would demolish the Olympic stadium if it wins the competitive bid to take it over after the 2012 games, Building and Building Design reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY Housing minister Grant Shapps has signalled that he wants to lift the barriers that stand in the way of prospective self-builders, in a move that could stimulate a growth market ...

ONLINE ONLY The government's decision to mandate the PAS 91 pre-qualification form on all central government construction projects from January 1st 2011 has been welcomed – but also prompted calls for a wider ...

ONLINE ONLY Transport, energy and water infrastructure projects are among the sectors tipped for growth in 2011, Building reported. The energy sector is earmarked for growth with Infrastructure UK predicting that £100bn ...

ONLINE ONLY The former chief executive of collapsed contractor Rok, Garvis Snook, is among thousands of employees still owed unpaid wages, Building reported. A total of £6.2m is owed in pay and ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has drawn up a list of projects designed to demonstrate that 15% can be slashed from the cost of civil engineering schemes over the next five years, Building ...

ONLINE ONLY The Green Deal programme set out in the government’s new Energy Bill will lead to the introduction of a new government-backed “quality mark” for multi-skilled individuals and rigorous assessment to ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has apparently dropped its plans to give local communities the right to appeal all planning permissions, Building reported. As expected, the government's delayed Localism and Decentralisation Bill proposes ...

ONLINE ONLY The government has published a long-awaited consultation on the review of how the energy market is regulated and priced, in a move which it is hoped will give energy companies ...

ONLINE ONLY The London Assembly has warned that an urgent investigation of fire regulations on timber-framed construction sites is needed, Construction News reported. A report from the assembly’s planning and housing committee ...

ONLINE ONLY December: why we need to re-think construction yet again Paul Morrell, the government's chief construction adviser, is calling for the restructuring of the industry around partnership working. Sounds familiar? Much ...

ONLINE ONLY Building information modelling is understood to be at the centre of the schools capital review team’s thinking on how schemes can be built at substantially lower outturn costs, according to ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractor Willmott Dixon is set to take on development risk in a scheme to build up to 1,500 homes for rent in a joint venture with Birmingham council, Building reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY More than one in eight - thirteen per cent - of UK construction firms are pricing jobs for no profit according to a KPMG survey, Building reported. KPMG’s global construction ...

ONLINE ONLY Of the 65 recommendations in the final Low Carbon Construction IGT report, a large number involved either action and legislation from government departments, or the establishment of joint industry-government forums ...

ONLINE ONLY Bovis Lend Lease is to put 150 staff currently working on the 2012 athletes’ village at risk of redundancy, Building reported. Staff on the Olympic athletes’ village scheme, which is ...

ONLINE ONLY Two architecture practices received a total of £1.1m in fees by acting as Client Design Advisers on Birmingham council’s Building Schools for the Future scheme, a Freedom of Information request ...

ONLINE ONLY The government's chief construction adviser Paul Morrell is calling for the construction industry to restructure and collaborate to cut project costs by 10- 30 per cent, according to Building magazine. ...

ONLINE ONLY Paul Morrell, the government's chief construction adviser, gave the eighth annual JCT Povey lecture to an invited audience on 18th November. This is an edited and shortened version of his ...

ONLINE ONLY Chinese con artists posing has British architects have cloned websites and submitted fraudulent bids to Chinese clients in an effort to win work, reports Building. Architect Broadway Malyan had its ...

ONLINE ONLY Housing minister Grant Shapps has dropped plans to introduce new basic design and sustainability standards for publicly-funded housing that could have added £8,000 to the cost of building homes. Shapps ...

ONLINE ONLY Shepherd Construction has said it will replace its directly employed workforce of 120 tradespeople with subcontractors, reports the Construction Enquirer website. In a move that reflects the high cost of ...

ONLINE ONLY Scotland’s capital spending budget is to be slashed by 36 percent under a draft budget announced by finance secretary John Swinney, reports the Construction Enquirer website. The country is facing ...

ONLINE ONLY Offsite manufacturers are making bold steps to infiltrate the UK housebuilding sector as the industry struggles to make efficiencies in the wake of government spending cuts, reports Construction News on ...

ONLINE ONLY CB&I has become the first contractor to face legal action in the wake of last year’s construction trade union blacklist scandal, reports Building. Ashford employment tribunal ordered CB&I to pay ...

ONLINE ONLY Are we serious about climate change or not? Or is the government simply keen to pay lip service?  I ask these things in the wake of a new survey of ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors are tussling over the remains of failed contractor Rok, after the social housing repair and maintenance and newbuild contractor unexpectedly went into administration this week, reports Building. Building reports ...

ONLINE ONLY Wage rates among freelance trades people have dropped to the extent that some are paid less than equivalent company employees, according to new research from freelance contract and payroll provider ...

ONLINE ONLY Major development schemes in The City London were given the go-ahead this week, indicating a thaw in commercial sector activity, according to reports in Building and Construction News. Meanwhile, there ...

ONLINE ONLY Low carbon housing is failing to deliver the efficiency savings promised at the design stage, forcing the industry to rethink how it delivers zero carbon homes by 2016, according to ...

ONLINE ONLY Facilities management contractors are  forcing subcontractors to offer “cash-back” deals worth to 8% of the value of contracts, reports Building. Industry heavyweights Carillion and Norland are thought to be among ...

ONLINE ONLY CIOB President James Wates has been asked to leave the Public Sector Construction Clients, a government procurement group run by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The move is ...

ONLINE ONLY UK civil engineering projects cost almost two-thirds more than the European average, demanding a complete rethink of how they are procured, regulated and delivered, said the interim report of a ...

ONLINE ONLY The Prince of Wales’ architectural charity is drawing up plans to carry out design reviews after the closure of government quango Cabe, reports Building Design, the weekly paper for architects. ...

ONLINE ONLY A spate of company takeovers and job losses could be the consequence of the reduced workload following from public spending cuts announced last week, reports Construction News. Public sector work ...

ONLINE ONLY Capital budgets across governmental departments were left in ruins following Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Projects and programmes were scrapped, re-scoped or re-phased and funding models were rethought as the reality ...

ONLINE ONLY Major retailers, large businesses and major public sector organisations such as local authorities were unexpectedly hit a £3.5bn carbon tax in the CSR. The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, ...

ONLINE ONLY The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment became an unexpected casualty of the CSR, after it was announced that drastic funding cuts at its sponsor department, the  Department of ...

ONLINE ONLY Taylor Wimpey and others are facing a £2.6m court battle against their insurers for the catastrophic fire that destroyed a residential block in west London in June 2008, Building magazine ...

ONLINE ONLY A government report into health and safety and the compensation culture has recommended more clarity on laws to be followed by the construction industry, Construction News reports. Lord Young was ...

ONLINE ONLY The fate of several familiar quasi-governmental construction organisations still hangs in the balance, despite last week's government cull of 192 quangos. CITB-ConstructionSkills, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors Carillion and Willmott Dixon are showing increases in workloads and profit as architects Fosters and Make post record losses, according to reports in the construction press this week. In ...

ONLINE ONLY The government’s chief construction adviser has indicated that building information modelling will become obligatory on publicly-procured projects, according to reports in Building and Building Design, the weekly for architects. Both ...

ONLINE ONLY The future of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is on a knife edge as the government prepares to announce which quangos it will axe, reports Building magazine. ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction is a deeply practical business, but there’s also time for reflection, and perhaps even room for the odd moment of poetry. To mark National Poetry Day on October 7, ...

ONLINE ONLY Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude met with 34 companies including Interserve, Balfour Beatty and Carillion earlier this week in a move to renegotiate contracts they hold with central ...

ONLINE ONLY Industry training body CITB-Construction Skills will meet government ministers next week in a bid to clarify its future after reports that it was to be privatised, according to Construction News. ...

ONLINE ONLY A flagship academy school, designed by Foster & Partners, has been branded a “nightmare” by the principal who runs it, reported Building Design, the weekly for architects. The £31 m ...

ONLINE ONLY Davis Langdon is moving into general management consultancy, senior partner Rob Smith has told Building magazine. The move is the firm’s first change of direction since it was bought last ...

ONLINE ONLY Research by Building magazine shows most councils will re-tender contracts that had been awarded to failed social housing contractor Connaught. Morgan Sindall's attempt to pick up more than half of ...

ONLINE ONLY A taskforce established by the coalition government to draw up plans for a new schools building programme is set to tell ministers they can build every school they want to ...

ONLINE ONLY David Bucknall, chairman of Rider Levett Bucknall, is to chair the QS professional group of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He was elected by secret electronic ballot last ...

ONLINE ONLY Payments to directors at the top 100 contracting firms have increased by £5.5 million in their most recent financial year, while many groups have seen turnover and profits fallen. Research ...

ONLINE ONLY Collapsed social housing firm Connaught had a £42m black hole in its accounts, according to a report in this week’s Building magazine. Administrator KPMG found that £42.m of its £94.3m ...

ONLINE ONLY Morgan Sindall’s affordable homes division Lovell has struck a £28m deal to buy the majority of Connaught’s ongoing social housing contracts, according to the Construction Enquirer website. The sale, finalised ...

ONLINE ONLY Burning biomass fuel may be responsible for higher carbon emissions than previously estimated and lead to less energy efficient buildings, according to a study from a sustainable building association and ...

ONLINE ONLY The Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into the UK aggregates sector after complaints of elevated prices and domination by a small number of major players, reports Construction ...

ONLINE ONLY Several of the 25 contractors appealing against a combined £79m fine by the OFT for collusion on pricing have said they expect to get back “millions”, Building reported. The upbeat ...

ONLINE ONLY Councils have walked away from pledges to build 100,000 social homes since being told by central Government to scrap building targets, Construction News reported. A study carried out for the ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors have called for changes in the way the Health and Safety Executive  operates, Construction News reported. The call comes as Lord Young prepares to announce the results of his ...

ONLINE ONLY Fire safety experts called for an investigation after government data revealed the first conclusive proof that timber-frame buildings suffer more damage than other kinds of structure in a fire, Building ...

ONLINE ONLY Laing O’Rourke has shut its dedicated Middle East arm and cut its global workforce by almost half to 18,222 people, Building reported. Employee numbers at Laing O’Rourke fell from 35,753 ...

ONLINE ONLY An MP is investigating the nationwide performance of troubled social housing firm Connaught, Construction News reported. Simon Wright, MP for Norwich South, contacted fellow members of parliament, as well as ...

ONLINE ONLY Shares in troubled social housing maintenance and construction firm Rok jumped ten per cent after the company appeared to draw a line under problem contracts in its plumbing, heating and ...

ONLINE ONLY London Mayor Boris Johnson has published controversial new space standards for the capital’s new homes, Building reported. The standards, contained in the London Housing Design Guide, stipulate 73 specific requirements, ...

ONLINE ONLY Only 58 students have completed the new advanced construction and built environment diploma course, reported the Construction Enquirer website. Figures published this week by the Joint Council for Qualifications show ...

ONLINE ONLY A number of large QSs have sought assurances from Aecom that its £204m acquisition of Davis Langdon will not damage their relationship with it, or mean they lose future work, ...

ONLINE ONLY Councils must be offered greater incentives if significant progress is to be made in stimulating the housebuilding market, Construction News reported.  Housing minister Grant Shapps this week said the government ...

ONLINE ONLY The threat of legal action from contractors ensured that the government approved scores of "sample" secondary school projects and academies, Construction News reported. In a series of tough negotiations, a ...

ONLINE ONLY Bournemouth council has named Morgan Sindall as its preferred development partner to steer the £500m regeneration of the seaside resort’s town centre, in one of the first examples of a ...

ONLINE ONLY A wide-ranging coalition of 29 planning, property and construction groups has written to the communities secretary Eric Pickles criticising the government’s drive to a “localist” planning system and requesting an ...

ONLINE ONLY Davis Langdon, the UK cost and project consultant, has been bought by acquisitive American giant Aecom in a deal worth £200m.  Davis Langdon, which turns over around £270m per year ...

ONLINE ONLY The MoD’s Defence Estates could offer opportunities for firms hit by public sector cuts, Construction News reported. Steve Rice, the Next Generation Estate Contracts programme manager told Construction News that ...

ONLINE ONLY The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is preparing plans to sell off the site next to Stratford International station to return money to the Treasury after the 2012 Games, Building reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY Civil servants covered up potential reductions of £705m in domestic and commercial energy bills linked to the planned extension of Part L in order to help former housing minister John ...

ONLINE ONLY Transport for London has put all new projects on hold and all existing projects under review, Building reported. All new projects are on hold until “at least” the finalisation of ...

ONLINE ONLY Villages in England will be able to build new homes without getting planning consent from their local authority under new Government plans, Construction News reported. The Right to Build initiative ...

ONLINE ONLY The strongest figures for construction output since 2008 hide a more pessimistic outlook, Building warned. In constant prices, output in the three months to May was as strong as in ...

ONLINE ONLY Industry fears of a double-dip recession grew this week as commercial development re-entered decline and analysts warned firms that they faced more job cuts, insolvencies and the possibility of a ...

ONLINE ONLY Consultants and architects are racing to re-organise their Building Schools for the Future teams so they can bid for the government’s “free schools” initiative, Building reported. Several firms have formed ...

ONLINE ONLY Sir John Egan, author of the seminal ‘Rethinking Construction’ report, has attacked the way contractors treated the scrapped Building Schools for the Future scheme. Egan, who is a member of ...

ONLINE ONLY The CIOB were invited by the AIF (Access Industry Forum) to deliver a keynote speech at this year’s three-day Safety & Health Expo.   On behalf of the CIOB, Brian ...

ONLINE ONLY The review into future school building work will not be completed until the end of the year, Building reported. Senior industry figures told Building this could mean it will be ...

ONLINE ONLY The Government this week abandoned the £55 bn Building Schools for the Future programme, cancelling over 700 school schemes, Construction News reported. About £7.5bn of capital investment already pledged will ...

ONLINE ONLY Funding for the first four of Gordon Brown's eco-towns was quietly slashed by 50% last week while plans for a further six developments have also been dropped, Building Design reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY A £17m revamp of a secondary school in Islington, currently being built by Balfour Beatty under Building Schools for the Future, has prompted teachers to walk out on strike. Buildig ...

ONLINE ONLY Four out of the top ten earners on a list of high-salaried quango employees are leading the construction of the London 2012 Olympics, Construction Enquirer reported. Figures published by the Cabinet ...

ONLINE ONLY Tony Douglas, the former chief operating officer of Laing O’Rourke who was recently appointed chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports Company, has urged UK firms to seek a role on ...

ONLINE ONLY The CIOB will be holding an international conference in Shanghai next week, concluding with the Institute's first-ever overseas AGM. Members can find out more about the conference, plus linked forums ...

ONLINE ONLY New construction minister Mark Prisk pledged to simplify procurement and strip away unnecessary hurdles such as over-prescriptive prequalification, Building reported. Addressing the industry formally for the first time at a ...

ONLINE ONLY Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plans to relax planning rules to make it easier to turn derelict hospitals, shops and pubs into “free schools” received a cautious welcome from the architectural ...

ONLINE ONLY Capital expenditure was spared fresh cuts but the industry was left waiting for hard information after spending decisions on housing and school building budgets were deferred under the Budget, Building ...

ONLINE ONLY Costain is providing its new managers with hands-on experience of working in the building trades, according to news website Construction Enquirer. The firm is concerned that many engineers and supervisors ...

ONLINE ONLY An intensive programme of work has started to finalise a definition of zero carbon homes as quickly as possible, Building reported. The pressure us on to rush out a definition ...

ONLINE ONLY The Government has pulled the plug on £2bn of schemes, including the £450m Hartlepool hospital and the £27m Stonehenge visitor centre by Denton Corker Marshall, Building reported. Chief Secretary to ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors believe cover pricing is as rife as it was two years ago despite the £130m of fines imposed by the Office of Fair Trading last September, Building reported. According ...

ONLINE ONLY Housing minister Grant Schapps has claimed that housebuilding will increase under the coalition government despite anxiety in the industry that schemes are already being put on hold. Construction News reported ...

ONLINE ONLY Bovis Lend Lease has pulled out of a possible nuclear deal with EDF energy at the eleventh hour after parent company Lend Lease objected to ‘unethical’ work. Building reported that ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is likely to announce a formal halt to the £55bn school building programme within weeks, Building reported. Building claims that officials are preparing a formal announcement, amid growing ...

ONLINE ONLY The 310m tall Shard of Glass tower in London is undergoing essential repairs, putting Mace's deadline for completion under pressure. Building reported steelwork contractor Severfield-Rowen is carrying out remedial work ...

ONLINE ONLY Laing O’Rourke is to close its Middle East division following deep cuts to the firm’s global workforce that have almost halved staff levels over the past year. Building reported that ...

ONLINE ONLY A £610 million funding gap means The Homes and Communities Agency has to review its Kickstart scheme and may be unable to fund residential schemes for a year, Building reported. ...

ONLINE ONLY Chancellor George Osborne cut swathes out of the construction industry as the coalition government set out how it would achieve £6.25bn of savings this financial year. In the days following ...

ONLINE ONLY The government is considering making up to £4-5bn of cuts to the £16.9bn Crossrail scheme, Building reported. An internal Crossrail team, under instruction from ministers to save money,  understood to ...

ONLINE ONLY The coalition government has published its programme for the next five years, paving the way for a  new nuclear power station programme and pledging a Green Deal to give homeowners ...

ONLINE ONLY Details of the construction bosses who collaborated with the use of blacklists in the industry could be about to be made public, the Construction Enquirer website reported. The decision follows ...

ONLINE ONLY Building Schools for the Future projects approved for funding as far back as July 2009 could be in doubt as the new coalition government “reprioritises” all BSF pipeline projects, according ...

ONLINE ONLY The collapse of the 30-year Tube Lines PPP deal with Transport for London has been blamed on an “onerous” and “expensive” contract, Building reported. The comments follow a decision last ...

ONLINE ONLY Billions of pounds worth of schools projects and a major healthcare framework are to be halted by the incoming Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, Building reported. It is understood that the new ...

ONLINE ONLY The RICS and eight of the largest QS firms in the country are to hold crisis talks next month, Building reported. The meeting will discuss the profession’s grievances against the ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction professionals now have a new way to find out about the best construction vacancies. The Chartered Institute of Building’s brand-new jobs site, www.ciobjobs.com, is now live and over the ...

ONLINE ONLY City analysts have warned that the uncertainty of a hung Parliament will delay recovery in the construction industry, Building reported. Howard Seymour, a construction analyst at Numis Securities, said the ...

ONLINE ONLY The turbulent relationship between the RICS and its QS members has reached crisis point, Building reported. It has seen a draft letter to the RICS governing council from the institution’s ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors working for  Sainsbury’s will be encouraged to take on unemployed people under a new training programme launched by the supermarket giant, Building and Construction News reported.   Sainsbury’s has lined ...

ONLINE ONLY This month sees the launch of the CIOB’s brand-new job site, CIOBJobs.com. From 04 May the site will advertise UK and international vacancies in construction management and related disciplines, targeting high-quality ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors fear that the general election could delay much-needed PFI-funded work by slowing down contract awards over the next year, Construction News reported. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives ...

ONLINE ONLY In an open letter to readers of Building, Conservative party leader David Cameron set out his party's pre-election pledges on employers' National Insurance, red tape and regulation, procurement, transparency and ...

ONLINE ONLY Hesitant signs of recovery and a slightly improved forecast for the commercial sector were announced by the Construction Products Association, Construction News reported. In its spring forecast the CPA reduced ...

ONLINE ONLY Volcanic ash has affected the construction industry, with the Construction Products Association being asked by government to carry out an assessment of the damage caused, Construction News reported. Some product ...

ONLINE ONLY Liberal Democrat plans to slash building programmes have alarmed the construction industry, according to reports in both Construction News and Building. The construction industry voiced its concerns after the surge ...

ONLINE ONLY Supermarket giant Tesco is planning a £1.6 bn store development programme, Building reported. The programme, which is an expansion of 40 per cent on last year's development output, will see ...

ONLINE ONLY Sean Tompkins, the incoming new chief executive of the RICS, has vowed to heal the rift between the institution and its discontented QS members, Building reported. Tompkins, whose appointment was ...

ONLINE ONLY More than £4bn of large developments in London have come back online in recent months,  according to research by Building. The news coincides with this week's topping out of the ...

ONLINE ONLY A government adviser has warned construction firms that new legislation could “take them to the cleaners” if they fail to take action against corruption, Building reported. The powers were conferred ...

ONLINE ONLY English councils have put more than 7,000 homes out to tender in the past weeks in advance of “purdah” rules that will stop quangos spending until after the general election, ...

ONLINE ONLY Up to a million child labourers, some as young as six, work in India’s stone quarries, according to an investigation by Building. Just one per cent of the sandstone quarried ...

ONLINE ONLY Construction activity has expanded for the first time in more than two years, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. A survey by the CIPS reveals the first ...

ONLINE ONLY A Commons committee has warned that the budget for the Olympic Park is “worryingly tight”, Building reported. The Public Accounts Committee said that the schedule was on track but that ...

ONLINE ONLY Safety campaigners have responded with “shock” after the government failed to meet the recommendations of the Donaghy report and introduce gangmaster licensing and a dedicated construction minister. Rita Donaghy, former ...

ONLINE ONLY Housebuilders that have benefited from government Kickstart funds have been condemned by MPs for paying bosses “unthinkable bonuses”, reports Building. In the same week, the magazine also revealed that the ...

ONLINE ONLY The Tories are planning to funnel £3 bn a year of funding to build new social housing directly to elected mayors if they win the election, Building reported. The Homes ...

ONLINE ONLY Chancellor Alistair Darling pledged to slash the regulatory costs of housebuilding and to deliver development land in a “new deal” for housebuilders, Building reported. However, there was no news on ...

ONLINE ONLY Laing O’Rourke finance director Iain Ferguson quit last week and commercial head Anna Stewart has stepped into his shoes, Building reported. Construction News also highlighted that it is the second ...

ONLINE ONLY The Local Education Partnership procurement model at the heart of Building Schools for the Future is at risk of being watered down or abandoned, construction industry leaders have warned. Balfour ...

ONLINE ONLY Leeds City Council will now not take reprisals against contractors named in the Office of Fair Trading probe after lawyers advised that the evidence is too weak for action. Legal ...

ONLINE ONLY Law firm Eversheds has called on well-financed contractors to complete projects before getting paid, Construction News reported. By waiting for payment until a project is completely built contractors can help ...

ONLINE ONLY Tesco has started to outsource work on UK projects to Indian architects and quantity surveyors based in India. Building reported that the retailer flew the workers to Britain last year, ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors Kier Group and Rok are first off the blocks to enter the £28bn market for retrofitting the UK’s existing housing stock of 26 million homes, Construction News reported. Kier, ...

ONLINE ONLY A Conservative government would allow “low risk” construction companies to arrange their own independent safety audits, providing immunity from Health and Safety Executive inspections. “If a Conservative government is elected, ...

ONLINE ONLY The BBC’s head of property launched an attack on the construction industry in response to a stinging National Audit Office report on three of the broadcaster’s projects. Building reported that ...

ONLINE ONLY Balfour Beatty, the UK’s biggest contractor, announced healthy results for 2009, with turnover breaking the £10 billion barrier for the first time. Building reported an 8 per cent rise in ...

ONLINE ONLY Plans to green Britain’s 26m existing homes have been unveiled by the Department for Energy and Climate Change under the government’s Warm Homes, Greener Homes strategy. Building reported that the ...

ONLINE ONLY British engineering contractor MW Kellogg is to come clean to the Serious Fraud Office about corruption offences the firm itself engaged in, Building reported. The London-based construction and process engineering ...

ONLINE ONLY The Conservatives' planning green paper, which introduces a presumption in favour of sustainable development but devolves more decision-making power to local authorities and communities, was this week met with concern ...

ONLINE ONLY Lacklustre year-end results across the construction sector were reported this week. Pre-tax profit at construction giant Morgan Sindall slumped 28 per cent while turnover slipped 13% to £2.2bn.  Kier was ...

ONLINE ONLY The developer and bank behind the failed £1.5 bn Silvertown Quays mixed use project are likely to sue the London Development Agency for £60 m. Building reported that the developer, ...

ONLINE ONLY CIOB president-elect James Wates, who is replacing Sir Michael Latham as chair of CITB ConstructionSkills this April, takes the helm of the organisation amid testing times, Building reports. With the ...

ONLINE ONLY Contractors need to take a central role in retrofitting 26 million homes to meet carbon reduction targets, chief construction advisor Paul Morrell told Construction News. Morrell placed carbon reduction at ...

ONLINE ONLY New strategic plans for schools estates could give contractors greater visibility about forthcoming work, Construction News reported. Partnerships for Schools (PfS) intends to work with local authorities to create overarching ...

ONLINE ONLY Davis Langdon, the UK’s second largest QS which employs 5 000 people, is in takeover talks with two American firms. Building reported that talks with Aecom, the £3.8bn turnover multidisciplinary ...

ONLINE ONLY Directors of the defunct Construction Confederation may be held personally liable for the £20.8m  black hole in the body’s pension fund after it emerged that the behaviour of individual officers ...

ONLINE ONLY Skanska, the Swedish contractor operating in the UK for the past decade, has been named as preferred bidder for the £1 billion Essex Building Schools for the Future contract. Construction ...

ONLINE ONLY Internal documents from the Health and Safety Executive and reported in Construction News reveal a sharp rise in construction fatalities. John Spanswick, chair of the  Strategic Forum's health and safety ...

ONLINE ONLY Firms bidding for the £695 million upgrade to Victoria Station in London may be asked to work without pay for a year, in effect subsidising the project for cash-strapped client ...

ONLINE ONLY Zero-carbon eco-schools are to be rolled out across England under plans published by the Zero Carbon Task Force, according to a report in Building. The initial pilot will see 36 ...

ONLINE ONLY Local authorities are making moves to exclude contractors implicated in the Office of Fair Trading inquiry into bid rigging from tendering opportunities, says a report in Building. It revealed that ...

ONLINE ONLY Industry figures lined up to pay tribute to Alan Cherry, founding director of Countryside Properties, who has died aged 76 six months after being diagnosed with cancer. Cherry, who was ...