Rand opens Midlands office
Posted: 15 August 2007 Rand is opening its first regional office, near Chesterfield, as part of its push into the Midlands. It is seeking new customers for its contracting operations,...
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Sustainable construction: reality or myth?
Posted: 15 August 2007The Chartered Institute of Building's survey on sustainability reveals an industry keen to deliver a greener built environment, but demanding leadership from the top. Justin Stanton analyses the results.
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Newspaper round-up: 9 August
Posted: 09 August 2007 The Guardian and Daily Mail report on a £2.5bn Highways Agency plan to widen part of the M1 to ten lanes. The 50-mile stretch runs between Leicester and Chesterfield and would see an extra lane added in each direction.
The Daily Telegraph reports on a study by construction consultant EC Harris, which estimates the cost of building in the UK could rise by £4bn as a result of labour being sucked into the Olympic Games project. It said a supply shortage would artificially fuel inflation in the construction sector.
The Guardian reports that changes to immigration rules have left 49,000 highly skilled migrants who have settled in Britain facing the possibility of deportation. MPs have called for the changes, which make it more difficult to settle permanently in Britain, to be scrapped.
The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times report on suggestions by the Commons education committee that the £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme may not be a g
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Construction deaths: Hain announces summit date
Posted: 08 August 2007 Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has announced the date of the safety forum on construction fatalities as 17 September. The forum was arranged following a 28% rise in construction deaths last year from 60 to 77 according to figures from the Health and Safety Executive. Hain said: "The jump in construction site fatalities is as disturbing as it is unacceptable and we must get to the bottom of why this is happening. "I have now obtained the agreement of all the major construction employers' organisations, the Health and Safety Commission and the main trade unions to meet in a forum. "I am asking them all to work together with me to identify the reason for the rise in deaths and to hammer out together an urgent action plan to reverse it."
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Laing O'Rourke posts 26% jump in turnover
Posted: 08 August 2007Laing O’Rourke’s turnover jumped by more than a quarter to £3bn last year, according to its latest financial results.
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Letters: 8 August 2007
Posted: 08 August 2007 The Lighthouse Club would like to thank... On behalf of The Lighthouse Club, East Midlands Branch, can I thank everybody who attended this year's SED...
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CITB stumps up £500,000 for scaffolding training
Posted: 07 August 2007Demand for scaffolding training is now beginning to outstrip supply with CITB-ConstructionSkills allocating an emergency £500,000 to establish two new temporary training facilities.
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Pressure grows on sparks to scrap check-off
Posted: 07 August 2007Pressure is mounting for the electrical contracting industry to scrap its check-off arrangements following the formation of Unite.
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Two London sites identified to meet 2012 construction training needs
Posted: 07 August 2007Two sites in east London have been identified as potential locations for new training centres to provide urgently needed skills to meet the demands associated with the 2012 Olympics, Thames Gateway and other local developments.
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Race abuse victim wins £33k payout
Posted: 25 July 2007 A woman who suffered eight years of racial abuse at an electronics company in Essex has been awarded more than £33,000 in compensation by an employment tribunal. Pauline...
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Brown hints at supercasino U-turn
Posted: 11 July 2007 Prime minister Gordon Brown has hinted the government may reverse its decision to build supercasinos across the UK.
Brown said he will look at a report into the social ills arising from gambling and consider whether casinos are the best driver for regenerating communities.
During Prime Minister’s questions he said: “We can look at whether regeneration to tackle social ills is a better way forward than supercasinos.”
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Rouse warns bad weather will increase kit shortages
Posted: 11 July 2007 The run of bad weather is set to exacerbate plant shortages, according to Kevin Rouse, managing director of contractor K Rouse. "When the ground dries out,...
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Sir Robert wins £25m school in Gloucestershire
Posted: 13 June 2007 Sir Robert McAlpine is now confirmed as preferred bidder for a £25m school redevelopment deal in Gloucestershire, after being tipped to chalk up victory by CJ two months ago. The firm has clinched the first stage of the two-stage Rednock School in Dursley ahead of Pierse and HBG. Work on site on the Building Schools for the Future deal is due to start later in the summer, with the new facility set to open in September 2009. The new two and three-storey school will span around 11,000m2, incorporate a playing field and a raft of environmentally sustainable features.
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UCATT: Brown must use 2012 Olympics to boost training
Posted: 06 June 2007Construction trade union UCATT has called on incoming prime minister Gordon Brown to use the 2012 Olympics as a flagship project for British workers.
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Workers facing tax hike on mileage allowance
Posted: 06 June 2007Proposed AMAPs changes could see personal taxation increase by as much as £1,000.
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Critical path delay analysis
Posted: 30 May 2007How to work out the impact, both in cost and time, of an individual event on a project as a whole.
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Risk transfer: a hard lesson to learn
Posted: 30 May 2007 If recent headlines are to be believed, as many as one-in-five PFI projects are proving unprofitable. These statistics, which have been gleaned from a KPMG and Business Services Association survey, may come as no surprise to the construction industry, which has rightly or wrongly earned a reputation as adversarial, litigious and downright difficult. In industry terms, if a bad bargain is made, then someone, somewhere, will inevitably suffer the consequences. The question is, who? PFI has had its fair share of controversy over recent years, not least surrounding the use of private money for the provision of public services. With 900 PFI projects, collectively worth £40bn already signed and sealed, the sums and legacy at stake are significant and there is a fine line to tread between protecting the public purse and protecting business's bottom line. True, PFI projects are entered into in a spirit of partnership and as a sustained arrangement. They are not about qui
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Treasury appoints new head of PFU
Posted: 23 May 2007 Gordon McKechnie, a senior partner at Deloitte and Touche, is to replace Richard Abadie as head of the Treasury's private finance unit (PFU). The long-awaited appointment will see McKechnie take up his post at the beginning of June. Abadie was due to quit the Treasury post in December last year, but extended his secondment on a part-time basis, as the Treasury struggled to find a replacement. Industry sources claim the delay in finding a new head for the PFU is due to uncertainty about its future role, following a major Treasury review of government procurement last year and the government's decision to put PFI/PPP schemes back on its books. A leading PFI consultant said of McKechnie's appointment: "I am not sure this is enough to qualm the nerves of the PFI industry." A Treasury spokesman insisted this week that the government was fully committed to its PFI/PPP programme. He added: "Gordon will head up the Treasury's PFI unit, providing advice on PFI p
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Birse Civils appointed on Scarborough development
Posted: 21 May 2007Birse Civils has been appointed by Scarborough Borough Council and Caddick Developments to help deliver a new mixed-use development in the region.
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Sec Group updates non-retention client list
Posted: 09 May 2007The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group has expanded its list of clients not using retentions on their projects.
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