Author Archives: Charlotte Banks

The industry is divided over whether the fire safety guidance offers a realistic response to the building safety crisis

Which projects are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the year ahead? 

Profit and turnover have fallen among the UK’s biggest constructional steel contractors in the past year amid persistently high labour and energy costs. The top 10 firms in the UK reported a 42 per cent fall in pre-tax profit in their most recent accounts, collectively making £34.1m less. Revenues also…

Equans is leaving no panel unturned on the UK’s first deep structural remediation of a volumetric high-rise

How are contractors meeting the challenges of designing life sciences buildings that are fit for the future? In south London, a small modular building sits below the ribcage-like shell of what was until recently Europe’s largest electronic music venue, Printworks. Clad with Siberian larch battens, the building’s generous roof terraces…

The British Standards Institute (BSI) has recommended residential projects using modular construction designate an MMC adviser, in new guidance hailed as a “major step towards wider adoption” of volumetric housebuilding. Published on Tuesday (29 April), PAS 8700:2025, which was developed in collaboration with industry, aims to encourage the use of…

Construction on the redevelopment of Leeds United FC’s Elland Road Stadium could start within months, according to planning documents. The document reveals more details of how the club plans to redevelop its home stadium, adding around 20,000 seats and enabling it to host UEFA Champions League playoffs. The club has…

A major high-rise developer has urged the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to allow earlier construction stages to start while an application is under consideration, to combat delays. In an opinion piece for Construction News, Downing Group founder George Downing called upon the government to allow gateway applications to be assessed…

Creditors in a collapsed envelope firm’s supply chain will get back up to half a penny in the pound at most, administrators have said. Alucraft Systems was in the middle of installing cladding at Laing O’Rourke’s Everton Stadium (pictured) when it appointed administrators last March, making its 40 staff members…

The head of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has said he “wouldn’t be averse” to pre-application engagement to ease gateway two delays. Amid uncertainty over the BSR’s gateway two preconstruction hard stop, the Health and Safety Executive’s director of building safety Philip White told Construction News the regulator had been…