Supply Chain

A judge has overturned an adjudicator’s decision that a subcontractor was owed £1m due to an invalid pay less notice. In October 2024, adjudicator Neil Boothroyd found Placefirst Construction should pay CAR Construction (NE) £867,031 plus VAT – a total of £1m – following a dispute at a large residential…

Former employees of a contractor that went into administration last spring have received compensation because they were not consulted before they lost their jobs. The 20 former employees of ARJ Construction all received 90 days’ pay after the Employment Tribunal found the contractor did not consult them or any union…

Two key scaffolding bodies have asked ministers to add scaffolders to the UK’s shortage occupation list for immigration. The National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) and Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) have warned the government that its ambitions for housing, infrastructure and energy are at risk due to skills…

Subcontractors and suppliers are set to miss out on £10.8m following the collapse of a major contractor. More than 70 former employees who submitted claims totalling £2m are also expected to be out of pocket, according to Blenheim House’s administrators. Documents released by administrators at Evelyn Partners on 20 January…

Joanna Rees is a partner at law firm Blake Morgan The collapse of ISG in September created waves across the UK’s construction industry. It served as a painful reminder of the knock-on effects that insolvency can have throughout the supply chain, and the challenges it creates in both the private…

A Northern Irish fit-out firm involved in high-profile jobs, including London’s Claridge’s hotel, has been bought out of administration. Pure Fitout, based in Newtownabbey, had been under “severe financial strain” and was forced to appoint administrators earlier this month. The company blamed a set of “substantial unpaid invoices” for its…

An appeal court judge has thrown out an “opportunistic” and “cynical” challenge by a payroll firm over its eligibility for Construction Industry Training Board grant payments. Hudson Contract Services (now known as Knot Builders) had challenged a February 2024 High Court ruling that found it was not eligible for the…

Subcontractor Seventynine Lighting, which went down in October, owed more than £2m, administrators have confirmed. Insolvency professionals at Forvis Mazars said the £11m-turnover firm, based in Gloucestershire, owed £2.1m to creditors when it collapsed last year following ISG’s fall into administration. Its statement-of-affairs form posted at Companies House on 13…

A legal battle in which Balfour Beatty was claiming damages from truck manufacturers operating a cartel has drawn to a close, Construction News understands. The UK’s biggest contractor launched legal action against 14 firms – including Fiat Chrysler, Volvo, Renault and Daimler (see full list below) – in 2020, alleging they…

The facilities management (FM) arms of tier one contractors Galliford Try, Kier, Morgan Sindall, Vinci and Wates are among 27 firms with places on a new Pagabo framework. The Total Facilities Management Framework will run until January 2029 with a total estimated value of £814m, Pagabo announced yesterday (15 January).…