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City Building has narrowed its losses significantly, despite falling turnover. Newly published accounts for the Glasgow-based firm show an operating loss of £67,000 in the 12 months to 31 March 2024 – an improvement on the £14.5m decline the year before. The contractor is incorporated as a limited liability partnership because it is a joint venture between Glasgow City Council and social housing company Wheatley Housing Group. The overall profit available for division among its members rose to £7.6m, up from a £16m loss in its 2023 financial year. The company said profitability was achieved through a reduction in administrative expenses, including changing actuarial assumptions used in valuing its defined benefit pension scheme. However, turnover dropped from £162m to £154m. Under its limited liability partnership arrangements, some £1.3m was paid to Glasgow City Council and Wheatley during the year but was accounted for as a reduction in turnover rather than a distribution. City Building carries out repairs and maintenance operations, building and manufacturing. Its directors said inflation and cost pressures made trading challenging during the year, but that demand remained strong for its construction and building services. They added that skill shortages were mitigated by hiring 55 apprentices during the financial year. City Building opened its own training college in 2023. The directors said decarbonisation work would be at the heart of its future plans, including facilitating the switch to lower-carbon heating systems. “Our vision is one of nurturing future skilled workers, with these new apprentices already benefiting from additional support and training in renewable technologies via their own in-house college,” they added. The company employs 228 apprentices out of a workforce of just under 1,700. Its directors noted that they would “benefit from the construction of their new world-class college [which was] supporting the wider construction sector and creating further employment opportunities to develop the next generation of tradespeople now and in the future”. City Building’s cash in hand and at bank increased from £7m to £9.6m. Read More

More than 200 former Stewart Milne Group workers have been awarded compensation after being made redundant without consultation. The former employees were granted a payout worth a combined £1m, according to Thompsons Solicitors. The Aberdeen-headquartered housebuilder and developer went under in January last year after attempts to sell the business failed. Chair and founder Stewart Milne, a former chair of Aberdeen Football Club, said at the time that he was devastated by the “totally unexpected outcome” of the sale process and the impact it would have on staff. Thompsons Solicitors employment lawyer Paul Kissen, who represented the former employees, told Construction News: “There’s a duty on employers […] In this case, they should have started consultation at least 45 days before they started making redundancies. That didn’t happen and everyone was dismissed pretty much immediately.” He said workers had told him they were relieved about the payouts – worth eight weeks’ pay capped at £700. Totals are reduced for anyone who claimed benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance in the two months after the firm folded. The Unite union held meetings in Aberdeen and Dundee to give former workers information about the claim, Kissen said. Legally, claims need to be lodged within three months of a redundancy. The protective award relates to former employees of the Stewart Milne businesses in Scotland only and does not apply to its English arm, Stewart Milne Homes North West England (Developments) Ltd. The case is the latest in a long line of similar actions regarding defunct contractors in recent years, including one in January 2021 against industry giant Carillion, which went under in January 2018. Cash payouts in such cases are issued by the taxpayer-funded Redundancy Payments Service rather than taken from the assets of the failed company. Founded in 1975, Stewart Milne Group collapsed after repeated attempts to sell the business, ahead of chair and founder Stewart Milne’s planned retirement. In its most recent accounts for the year ending 31 October 2022, the group employed a monthly average of 486 staff. At the time of their appointment, administrators from Teneo said 217 of the group’s 329 employees had been made redundant. The £170m-turnover company owed Bank of Scotland £107.9m when it went under, with administrators not expecting the bank to be paid the full sum owed. Unsecured creditors have claimed £36.4m but are not expected to receive anything. Teneo has been approached for comment on the protective award. Read More

McLaughlin & Harvey has been appointed to build a dedicated elective surgical facility at Guy’s Hospital in central London. The Guy’s Elective Surgical Centre will be located in a new eight-storey building on the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust estate. The facility will focus on non-emergency procedures and house six operating theatres. Designed by architectural practice Ryder, the project will allow orthopaedic surgery to move out of Guy’s existing main theatres, freeing up capacity across the wider trust estate. Work is due to begin in summer 2026 and complete by the end of 2028, with the centre expected to open in 2029. The trust has not disclosed the value or procurement route for the scheme. Paul Griffen, managing director of McLaughlin & Harvey, said the company’s track record in delivering healthcare projects made it well placed to support the trust. Read More

The government has brought in senior civil servant with a background in prisons to run Homes England, as the agency pushes forward with plans to deliver 1.5 million homes during the current Parliament. Amy Rees will take up the post on 8 September, reporting to the Homes England board and accountable to the deputy prime minister, housing minister, and Parliament. She replaces interim chief executive Eamonn Boylan, who took up the post in January 2025 following the departure of Peter Denton. Denton joined Homes England in August 2021 after serving as chief executive officer of housing association Hyde Group. Rees was previously interim permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and led His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Her spell in charge at HMPPS  saw the collapse of contractor ISG, which cost the department £300m on its New Prisons Programme. In January 2025, Rees told MPs that HMPPS faced greater risk from ISG’s collapse on maintenance contracts than on new-build work. She warned that prison cells would close if remediation was not completed by the 2027 deadline. Rees was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath earlier this year for services to justice. Homes England said her appointment would help drive regional delivery, strengthen local partnerships and accelerate its cultural and operational reform programme. The agency’s transformation plans include the introduction of a regionalised operating model and the launch of the National Housing Bank, which is intended to unlock £53bn of private investment in housing delivery. Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner said Rees would help deliver the “biggest expansion in social and affordable housing in a generation”. Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook added that her track record of delivering complex public sector reform made her an ideal choice for the role. Rees will be responsible for overseeing the agency’s stewardship of public funds and aligning its delivery with government priorities. Read More

Overbury set for major law firm fit-out win Contractor tipped for 2 Aldermanbury Square win 51 minutes ago China told to lift veil on ‘greyed-out’ London super embassy plans Ministers give China two weeks to justify redactions in blueprints for £255m Royal Mint Court scheme 7 hours ago Mace wins £1.1bn British Library extension Work to start on site next year after construction manager contract awarded 1 day ago Spencer shunts Volker on £29m Waterbeach rail station job VolkerFitzpatrick misses out despite early contractor involvement 1 day ago Sisk set for £52m civils works on Wirral garden village £52m infrastructure works to pave way for 1,600-home Hind Street regeneration 7 hours ago McLaughlin & Harvey scrubs in for £100m Guy’s surgical hub Eight-storey London elective surgery hub secures government approval 7 hours ago Five bag £1.5bn Notting Hill Genesis home repairs framework Axis, Cardo, Gilmartin, Wates and Ian Williams on long-term roster 9 hours ago Homes near new pylons to get money off electricity bills Discounts for people faced with new infrastructure near their homes 7 hours ago Regulatory gridlock ‘knocks confidence’ in construction RICS urges action as firms struggle with safety Gateway inconsistencies and regional planning delays 1 day ago McLaren tops contract league with Ebury Estate rebuild July order haul among top 50 firms rises 14% 1 day ago Cheetham Hill Construction sold to staff Howard Chamberlain to step-back from MD role after nearly 60 years 2 days ago Buyers see sharpest fall in activity for five years Grim July for construction as all sectors slump 2 days ago Breheny bags Kent road upgrade contract Work to start later this month on Maidstone site 1 day ago Caddick breaks ground on £28m Bilston logistics park job 166,500 sq ft logistics hub to be built at Foundry Business Park 1 day ago Mears grows profit as maintenance work ramps up 100% contract retention and rising margins deliver strong first-half performance 1 day ago Cardiff to get 50-storey skyscraper in bold new tower plan Developer ups height to 50 storeys for BTR landmark near Principality Stadium 2 days ago Bid race starts for Manchester £1.6bn light rail infrastructure work Up to ten bidders wanted to compete for Metrolink work 2 days ago Competitive brick market sees Ibstock struggle to increase prices Revenue rises but profits dip at materials giant 2 days ago Collins starts major London city fringe office retrofit 30 Finsbury Square refurb scheme will transform office block 2 days ago Civils boss banned over classic car sales Director sold assets cheaply to sister company before folding 3 days ago Ex-Kier director joins Stepnell to grow specialist units Mike Smedley steps in as strategic director to lead growth push 2 days ago Clegg wins £80m Leeds office scheme Eight-storey office project to rise on former Wellington Plaza site 3 days ago Avant Homes takes £107m fire safety hit as losses mount Builder led by Jeff Fairburn lifts provision by £39m for legacy cladding repairs 3 days ago Profit recovery continues at Laing O’Rourke CEO Cathal O’Rourke vows to “push the boundaries of what’s possible, in service of humanity” 4 days ago Torsion clears Gateway 2 for Leeds student scheme Firm to share lessons from the Gateway 2 process on Kirkstall Road 10-storey job 3 days ago Bouygues chosen to build new children’s hospital Construction to start within next 18 months on Cambridge site 3 days ago Firms readied for £145m Welsh bridge race Bidding to start this month for River Dee bridge replacement job 4 days ago Cladding training boost to accelerate remediation work Free courses for installers and supervisors to help accelerate post-Grenfell work 3 days ago JRL replaces Ardmore on £150m City landmark revamp Malaysian developer IJM calls in part-owned contractor for 25 Finsbury Circus job 4 days ago Green light for Bristol Brabazon over-station office block YTL to start eight-storey HQ building above new train station ticket office 4 days ago Read More

Wirral Council and ION Developments have signed a Master Development Agreement setting the framework for the 10–15 year regeneration, which forms a centrepiece of the borough’s brownfield-first strategy. Vast former gas works site at Hind Street will be transformed A funding package – made up of £29.8m from Homes England and £22.4m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – will be used to deliver major remediation and new infrastructure works needed to unlock the site. Sisk has already completed early surveys, design and vegetation clearance and will now move on to a two-year main works programme to prepare the land for the first 633 homes. Plans include demolishing the two flyovers to the Birkenhead tunnel as well as diverting a sewer underneath the site. The scheme’s first phase will focus on the southern part of the site, before shifting to the northern section. Once complete, Hind Street Urban Village will deliver 1,600 new homes alongside green space and community facilities, directly linked to Birkenhead town centre. The Liverpool-based developer ION has a strong track record in delivering large-scale regeneration and mixed-use schemes, including Liverpool’s Paddington Village and Pall Mall office district. Read More

The move is designed to speed-up construction work on new energy infrastructure with twice as much new transmission network investment needed by 2030 as has been built in the past decade. Under the plans those living near new pylons across Great Britain are set to receive up to £2,500 off their bills over 10 years. Minister for Energy Consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh said: “As we build the infrastructure we need to deliver homegrown, affordable energy, communities must be given a stake. “That is why we are teaming up with communities hosting new pylons to ensure they receive direct, tangible benefits. “We are on the side of those who want Britain to get back to what it does best: building for the future, driving innovation and putting communities first.” Dhara Vyas, Chief Executive Officer of Energy UK, said: “Much of the country’s energy infrastructure was built several decades ago and designed for a system very different from the one we have today – or the one we need in the future. Expanding and upgrading the delivery of energy to homes and businesses is long overdue and urgently needed. “Some areas and some customers will of course be particularly and physically affected by these efforts and the energy industry will continue to work with these communities to ensure that they can reap the benefits of these investments. “The introduction of a new approach to community benefits is welcome and marks a significant step in turning the proposals in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill into reality, helping to address the cost-of-living crisis and ensuring local communities that host clean power infrastructure feel an immediate and tangible benefit.” Read More

The 8-storey building will focus solely on elective procedures and will include six new operating theatres, 17 recovery rooms, a discharge lounge, and upgraded staff facilities. Enabling works are underway at the Great Maze Pond site, with full construction due to start in June 2026. Completion is expected by the end of 2028, with the centre set to open in Spring 2029. Designed by Ryder Architects, the purpose-built facility has been developed with input from staff and patients to improve flow, efficiency and overall experience. The project is part of a wider plan to consolidate complex orthopaedic work across south east London into a single, modernised hub as demand continues to rise. Read More

The deputy prime minister and housing secretary is demanding planning consultants for the Chinese embassy explain why detailed drawings for basement areas of the Royal Mint Court redevelopment plans have whole sections “greyed out”. She has given Beijing until 20 August to respond as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government considers whether to grant planning for the called-in mega scheme. The £255m scheme is set to be Europe’s largest embassy at 600,000 sq ft and is now being scrutinised by ministers after Tower Hamlets rejected the embassy plan over safety and security concerns in 2022. The proposed super embassy would include offices, a large basement area, housing for 200 staff, and a new tunnel to connect embassy buildings It would sit just east of the City of London, opposite the Tower, near sensitive fibre optic links used by banks and major institutions. Embassy House plan for basement in John Smirke Building The project, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, would repurpose the listed Johnson Smirke and Seaman’s Registry buildings, demolish others to make way for new residences, and add offices, a basement, housing for 200 staff, and a tunnel between key embassy buildings. Two buildings — the Cultural Exchange Building and Embassy House — have had internal layouts redacted, while other blocks are partly blanked out. The Home Office has already called for a “hard perimeter” to block unregulated public access, a change that could trigger a new application. Construction management advice is being provided by BCEGI UK, with Arcadis as project manager, Turner & Townsend as cost consultant, Arup on structures and civils, Cundall on building services, and Thornton Tomasetti on facades. A final decision is due next month, but Rayner’s intervention leaves open the prospect that security concerns — not just planning policy — could derail what would be Europe’s largest embassy. Read More

Images courtesy of Simone Buccarelli at Webuild Spa Rendering of the planned Strait of Messina Bridge, whose 3,300-m main span would set a world record as it links Sicily and Calabria. Italy approved the €13.5-billion ($15.7-billion) project on Aug. 6; Webuild aims to start major construction in 2026 and open the crossing by 2032. Plans to build what would be the world’s longest suspension bridge—with a 3,300-meter-long main span—are moving forward. Italy’s Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development on Aug. 6 approved the definitive design and full public financing for the Strait of Messina Bridge, a $15.7- billion project that would link Sicily and Calabria.  Transport Vice Premier Matteo Salvini said the vote “puts the project irreversibly on track,” a phrase he first used during a technical briefing in February 2023, according to the news site StrettoWeb. RELATED Italy Revives Plan for World’s Longest Suspension Bridge The CIPESS resolution, to be published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale in the coming weeks, earmarks annual appropriations through 2034 and reactivates a lump-sum, design–build contract now valued at $12.3 billion held by the Eurolink consortium led by Milan-based contractor Webuild S.p.A. Preliminary tasks—geotechnical borings, archaeological surveys and rights of way acquisitions —may begin once Italy’s Court of Auditors completes its statutory review, a step that typically takes “a few weeks,” Salvini told reporters. Design and Scope The suspension-bridge engineering is being led by Danish consultant COWI A/S, retained from earlier design phases and known for its work on Denmark’s Great Belt and Turkey’s 1915 Çanakkale spans. Project documents filed with concessionaire Stretto di Messina describe a 3,666-meter crossing whose 3,300-m main suspended span would eclipse Turkey’s 2,023-m 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and Japan’s 1,991-meter Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. Four 1.26-m-dia cables, each made up of 44,323 high-strength steel wires, will support a 60-m-wide steel deck designed to carry six highway lanes, two rail tracks and service walkways, giving the structure a capacity of 6,000 vehicles an hour and 200 trains a day. Italian media outlet Sky TG24 reports that wind-tunnel testing at Milan Polytechnic and other laboratories found the deck aerodynamically stable in gusts up to 292 km/h, while seismic design parameters exceed Italian code minimums for the Calabrian fault zone. The navigational clearance for shipping is 72 m over a 600-m channel. Roughly 40% of the overall budget covers the bridge itself; the balance funds more than 40 km of road and rail approaches, three underground stations in Messina and a logistics hub on the Calabrian shore. Webuild targets early 2026 for construction, with a projected opening in 2032. Before superstructure work can begin, the project must satisfy 62 conditions attached to the environmental-impact decree issued by Italy’s VIA/VAS commission in November 2024. Those prescriptions range from expanded habitat restoration to fatigue testing of the main cables. On Aug. 4 a coalition of Greenpeace, Italy’s Legambiente environmental association, Lipu bird-protection charity and World Wildlife Fund filed a new complaint with the European Union, alleging several requirements remain unmet, Legambiente said in a statement. Anti-corruption officials are also finalizing an updated “protocollo di legalità” to guard against mafia infiltration—a prerequisite for Court of Auditors clearance, according to the national anti-corruption agency ANAC. CIPESS has directed the Transport Ministry to issue quarterly cost-tracking reports once construction starts. Webuild forecasts an average on-site workforce of 4,300, peaking at 7,000, and estimates the project will support more than 100,000 jobs across the Italian supply chain. Supporters argue the bridge will plug Sicily into Europe’s high-speed-rail network, creating a continuous Berlin-to-Palermo corridor within the European Union Trans-European Transport Network. Critics say earthquake risk, sensitive marine habitats and potential cost overruns still pose significant challenges. Images courtesy of Simone Buccarelli at Webuild Spa Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR). Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage. Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business email: gottliebb@enr.com | office: (248) 786-1591 Read More