Author name: Natasha Solomon

The construction industry needs more than 250,000 extra workers to cope with output growth over the next five years, the sector’s training board has said. Around 50,000 extra workers will be needed each year from 2024 to 2028 to meet demand, according to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). This is up from the 45,000 […]

Tilbury Douglas returned to profitability in 2023 amid a 25 per cent jump in turnover, according to the group’s latest set of audited accounts. Revenue from the contractor’s building, infrastructure and engineering projects reached £507.2m compared with £405.2m the previous year. It also won £533m of new contracts in 2023, and its order book totalled

MPs have warned that the government lacks the skills to estimate project costs, leaving it “too reliant” on supply chain partners to price its biggest infrastructure schemes. Government departments are agreeing funding packages before proposals are sufficiently developed, a cross-party inquiry into the government’s major infrastructure projects concluded. It cited HS2 as a “prime example

Staff at a building services equipment manufacturing firm in Hertfordshire have voted to strike. Workers employed by Crane Building Services & Utilities will now meet with representatives from the GMB trade union to coordinate strike days. The union is seeking a 10 per cent pay rise, while Crane has offered its workers a 5 per

Judges have thrown out an objection that the Sizewell C nuclear power plant should not be built because of its impact on the surrounding area’s water supply, clearing the final barrier to the project’s overall planning permission. The Supreme Court decided yesterday (13 May) that it would not hear campaign group Together Against Sizewell C’s

The rate of arrests for illegal working in the construction industry more than doubled in 2023 amid a government crackdown on immigration, Construction News can reveal. Meanwhile, migrant charities warned that the rising number of immigration raids risks endangering potentially exploited workers on construction sites. The Home Office arrested 214 individuals last year for illegally

The Design and Build element of the JCT 2024 suite of contracts was unveiled in April – but do lawyers think it represents meaningful change? It’s been eight years since the construction industry saw the launch of the previous suite of Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) documents.At that point, events such as the Covid pandemic, spiralling

Civils contractor Renew Holdings says it has made substantial provisions to deal with “contractual claims” against a firm it disposed of 10 years ago. Renew sold off affordable housing specialist Allenbuild to Places for People in 2014, but, as part of its agreement with Places for People, it retained a liability for historical “contractual disputes”

A roofing firm in Manchester has been fined £20,000 after an employee fractured his back falling through a roof during a repair job, the health and safety watchdog has said. The Hightech Roofing N/W Limited worker fell about 4.8 metres through a roof light during the incident in Blackburn on 3 August 2022. The employee

Graeme Fox is technical director of the Building Engineering Services Association  According to data from government agency Public Health Wales, poor air quality is responsible for up to 1,400 excess deaths per 100,000 each year. Compare that with smoking, which annually accounts for 180 deaths per 100,000 of the global population. Yet air quality receives