E4D&G consortium seals £100m schools PPP
Posted: 30 April 2007The Education for Dumfries and Galloway (E4D&G) consortium [Amey and Cyril Sweett] has been announced as preferred bidder for the revamped £100m Smarter Schools Project PPP.
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4ps releases competitive dialogue guidance
Posted: 25 April 20074ps, the project delivery specialist for local government procurement, has published a user-friendly guide to help councils understand the EU's competitive dialogue process.
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Velopark designer shortlist announced
Posted: 25 April 2007The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has announced its designer shortlist for the Velopark at the Olympic site.
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Galliford seals contracts worth £110m
Posted: 25 April 2007Galliford Try has secured three new contracts and one scheme under its Environment Agency (EA) framework worth £110m in total.
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Newspaper round-up: 25 April 2007
Posted: 25 April 2007 Spanish property crash Fears of a property crash in Spain is reported in the Daily Telegraph after shares in construction companies went into freefall. Hanson suffers in first half due to weak dollar The Financial Times reports that Hanson expects its first half performance to be hampered by a weak US dollar. One in five
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Norwest Holst faces HA grilling over engineering delays
Posted: 24 April 2007Norwest Holst is facing a grilling from the Highways Agency (HA) this week over why its planned engineering works two weeks ago on the M20 in Kent overran by over eight hours, causing a 16km queue of traffic.
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Hyder acquires RPA
Posted: 24 April 2007Hyder Consulting (UK) has acquired RPA Quantity Surveyors Limited (RPA) for an initial sum of £2.8m.
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BAM wins £120m school deal
Posted: 23 April 2007Dutch group BAM, which owns HBG, has clinched a £120m deal to deliver Dunbartonshire Council’s privately-financed schools scheme, seeing off contenders Transform Schools (Balfour Beatty) and the West Dunbartonshire Schools Partnership (Amey/Carillion).
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Civils groups announce wishlist for Scottish elections
Posted: 23 April 2007Ringfencing local transport funds, more consultation with the industry on strategic transport decisions and longer regulatory periods in the water sector form a major plank with civils firms for the pending Scottish elections.
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Newspaper round-up: 20 April 2007
Posted: 20 April 2007 Sustainability The Guardian reports on a National Audit Office report which claims that the government’s target for a carbon neutral Whitehall by 2012, and to cut emissions by 30% by 2020, will be impossible to achieve unless changes are made to the refurbishing of government offices.
Renewals The Guardian also reports that renewable firms are laying off staff because the government has shut its grant scheme that helps households adopt green technologies.
Persimmon Persimmon is preparing to gatecrash the proposed £5.5bn merger of George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow, according to the Times today.
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Cooper expresses concern over housbuilder mergers
Posted: 19 April 2007The Minister for Housing and Planning Yvette Cooper expressed concern at the number of mergers between house builders yesterday, as she spoke at the Housing Forum’s National Conference.
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It's a steady ship for Morgan Sindall
Posted: 19 April 2007Morgan Sindall has said it has made an encouraging start to the year and that trading is in line with expectations.
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Newspaper round-up: 19 April 2007
Posted: 19 April 2007 The Tube PPP
The Times , Guardian and Independent newspapers concentrate on the announcement from Atkins that its Tube PPP contract, as part of the Metronet consortium, will be loss-making this year. The Guardian claims that shareholders in Metronet could abandon the 30-year contract.
Overseas workers
The Independent reports that lower-skilled workers from outside the EU will not be allowed to migrate to Britain from the start of next year under new immigrat
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Two-thirds of men don't know how to use their tools
Posted: 18 April 2007Two-thirds of men (63%) do not know how to use the tools in their tool box when it comes to DIY - just under half (49%) feel bullied into carrying out home repairs by their partners.
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New Housing Forum chairman announced
Posted: 18 April 2007Jeffrey Adams is to replace Steve Lidgate as chairman of the Housing Forum.
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Kier seals £12m M&E contract
Posted: 18 April 2007Kier Building Services Engineers, part of Kier Group, has won a £12m M&E contract for mortgage lender GMAC RFC.
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Newspaper round-up: 18 April 2007
Posted: 18 April 2007 Both the Daily Mail and the Times report on Bellway’s announcement that the strength of the property market has resulted in record half-year profit for the company. Pre-tax profit for the six months rose 15% to £100.8m.
The Guardian reports on Lord Woolf’s claims that building more prisons will not solve Britain’s jail crisis. He added that building more prisons would prove a hugely expensive short-term answer.
Tesco is planning to open 559 new outlets over the next 12 months, the Guardian reports today. The announcement comes as the supermarket giant announced a record profit of £2.7bn - a rise of 20%.
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Nearly a quarter of construction bosses risk fines while driving
Posted: 17 April 2007Nearly a quarter of construction bosses admit to eating and drinking while driving and using a mobile phone without a hands free kit, according to research from Bibby Financial Services.
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Davis Langdon scoops regeneration deals worth £400m
Posted: 17 April 2007Davis Langdon has been appointed cost manager on two major regeneration schemes in the North West worth a total of almost £400m for Amec Developments.
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Newspaper round-up: 16 April 2007
Posted: 16 April 2007 The £10bn Crossrail project, the creation of which has been debated for 17 years, is finally to get the go-ahead, according to the Sunday Telegraph .Whitehall sources indicated that it was expected to get approval within the next few months "barring a disaster". Construction could start in 2008. British businesses think it is harder to start a new business venture now than it was 10 years ago, according to a British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) survey, it was revealed in The Guardian today. The BCC, whose annual conference began this week, said 49% of respondents thought it was much harder than in 1997, with 20% saying it was a little harder. The Sunday Times has claimed that a small Hampshire brick firm, Michelmersh Bricks, is launching a counter-bid for Britain’s third-biggest brick maker, Baggeridge Brick. Baggeridge has already agreed to be taken over by Austria’s Wienerb
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