Four register for £67m Brunel campus scheme

Four firms are hoping to put to bed a £67m deal to design and build student accommodation in north-west London.

Galliford Try, Vinci subsidiary Norwest Holst, Bowmer & Kirkland and Laing O’Rourke have just picked up the tender paperwork for the scheme at Brunel University’s Uxbridge campus.

The centrepiece of the project, known as phase six, is to provide 1,400 units of accommodation with shared kitchens. The flats will also feature a number of en-suite student rooms.

Around 40 studio flats with twin beds will be also be constructed and the job additionally comprises demolishing existing student flats on site, with the aim of later redevelopment.

The flats will be delivered in phases by the winning contractor and work on site is expected to start later this year.

An insider said: “Laing is probably the favourite to clinch the contract, because it has already won other student accommodation schemes for Brunel.”

Last year, Laing held off Morrison to bag a £24m deal to build 600 student flats on the Uxbridge site.

And in 2004, the contractor once again turned up trumps on a scheme to provide almost 700 rooms, again on the same campus.

Norwest Holst, which is pricing the phase six deal, was one of Laing’s rivals for that scheme, along with Portsmouth-based Warings.

Galliford Try has also appeared previously on Brunel’s bid list at Uxbridge, leaving Bowmer & Kirkland as the only newcomer among the phase six runners.

A couple of years ago, Galliford ran off with a £4.5m scheme to build an indoor athletics track.