
Green light for £80m regeneration of Manchester industrial site
Manchester City Council has approved an £80m regeneration plan for a mixed-use community with 410 new homes at Coleshill Street The regeneration plans submitted by ENGIE and Landcare (East Manchester) Ltd, part of the NPL Group aim to transform a former industrial site into a low carbon, mixed-use community at Coleshill Street in Miles Platting. The proposals for Coleshill Street include 8,8055 sqm of open space and courtyards, combining sustainable design with digital infras

Construction’s most considerate contractors revealed
The country’s highest-performing construction sites have been announced at the Considerate Constructors Scheme’s 2020 National Site Awards The winners of the highest award category, the ‘2020 Most Considerate Site Award’ are: Selby AGI, Selby – Northern Gas Networks (project value up to £500k) Tower Hamlets Major Works LCP Phase 2, London – Mulalley (project value £500k <£1m) Breckon Hill Primary School Extension & Refurbishment, Middlesbrough – Walter Thompson (Contractors)

Watchdog finds apparent breaches in KPMG Carillion audit
Accounting regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, has given the strongest indication yet of apparent rule breaches in accountant KPMG’s audits of Carillion before its collapse. The FRC this morning said its had delivered its initial report to KPMG in connection with its extensive investigation into the accountant’s audits of Carillion books. These covered financial statements made by Carillion for the years ended 2014 to 2016 and extra audit work carried out during 2017

Balfour tops August contracts league with civils wins
Two major road project wins in August catapulted Balfour Beatty to the top of the monthly contracts league for the first time in several years. The big highways schemes also helped to lift the value of the wider industry’s civil engineering orders over the last three months 5% above the same summer pre-Covid period last year. The picture for building orders over the same period showed the industry at large still struggling to make up lost ground with orders 24% down on 2019.

Demand for site labour shows “V-shaped” recovery
Demand for labour in the UK construction industry has recovered to 79% of pre-lockdown capacity. Data from the industry’s biggest payer of subcontractors Hudson Contract shows 117,591 payments to freelance operatives in August, compared to a peak of 149,067 in February and a trough of 80,625 in April. Managing director Ian Anfield said the bounce-back points to a V-shaped recovery for the construction sector. He said: “There is no shortage of work for highly skilled tradespeo

Covid sends Travis Perkins to £127m half-year loss
Builders’ merchants Travis Perkins made a pre-tax loss of £126.6m in the first half of 2020 after it forked out more than £100m closing branches and cutting jobs Travis Perkins made the decision in June to shut down 165 branches and let go of 2,500 staff. The group made an encouraging start to 2020 with revenue growth of 2.4% in the 11 weeks to 18 March. However, as the impact of the pandemic spread to the UK and the lockdown period was implemented, overall revenue in the hal

Big housebuilders investigated for misleading homebuyers
Barratt Developments, Countryside Properties, Persimmon Homes and Taylor Wimpey are facing enforcement action for potentially breaking consumer protection law The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching enforcement action against the four housing developers it believes may have broken consumer protection law in relation to leasehold homes. The move comes after the CMA uncovered troubling evidence of potentially unfair terms concerning ground rents in leasehold co

Barratt restores build rates as sales surge
Britain’s biggest house builder Barratt has got its production rates back on track and is now targeting 15,000 home completions for the year ahead. Chief Executive David Thomas said the firm has enjoyed a surged in demand for homes since the lockdown ended and had ramped up production rates. He said Barratt had also re-entered the land market looking to pick up bargains. Thomas said: “We are pleased that since the start of the new financial year we have seen our production in

Construction left out of Brexit trade advisory groups
The construction sector has been left out of a roster of new Trade Advisory Groups (TAGs), which were launched yesterday to offer guidance to the government during its final Brexit negotiations. The end of the current transition period is expected in the new year. A total of 11 TAGs were announced by international trade secretary Liz Truss (pictured), including agriculture and food, automotive, aerospace and marine, manufacturing and consumer goods, investment, life sciences,