McLaren Construction Midlands and North has been appointed by its property arm as main contractor on a £160m student accommodation project in Manchester. The two divisions are working together for the second time in the city, having previously collaborated on St Gabriel’s Court. The L&G-funded Upper Brook Street development, near…
The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has raised concerns about potential structural weaknesses in buildings constructed with reinforced concrete transfer slabs. The regulator issued guidance on 19 December after identifying a possible failure mechanism known as “punching shear” in such slabs. This occurs when concentrated loads cause a column to punch…
Bovis Construction (Europe) has been awarded a £176.6m design-and-build contract to redevelop the Duke of Gloucester Barracks in Gloucestershire. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the award on 18 December via a call-off from an existing framework. The contract runs until 15 March 2030. Duke of Gloucester Barracks hosts the…
Heathrow Airport has announced plans to invest £1.3bn in 2026 to upgrade Terminal 4 and construct a new baggage-handling system (BHS) for Terminal 2, following what it described as record growth in 2025. The airport said the planned works will support its wider strategy to become an “extraordinary airport, fit…
Associated British Ports (ABP) is planning to line up an early contractor involvement and works partner for its planned £500m Solent Gateway 2 project in Marchwood, near Southampton. The UK’s largest ports group plans to use a competitive flexible procedure to appoint a single contractor to assist with design development,…
The Scottish Government has extended its flagship civil engineering framework by up to four years, despite no work being awarded through it since its launch. The Civil Engineering Framework (Scotland), which was originally valued at £600m, has been extended for two years, with the option to renew for another 24…
Graham has secured a £59m contract to deliver new student housing at Loughborough University’s East Midlands campus. The scheme, approved by Charnwood Borough Council, will create 552 en-suite, self-catered bedrooms across five accommodation blocks, rising up to six storeys. The development will be built in the Central Park area of…
An industry association has warned of “increasing fragility” in the delivery of major infrastructure programmes, after the UK civil engineering sector recorded its first fall in workloads since the Covid pandemic. Overall workloads declined by 1 per cent on balance in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 compared to the…
McLaren Property has appointed McLaren Construction Midlands and North as main contractor for its £160m Upper Brook Street student accommodation development in Manchester. The project is the second major scheme in the city where the two arms of the McLaren group have collaborated, following their work on St Gabriel’s Court.…
Plumbing and heating apprenticeship numbers in Scotland are set to fall sharply, as new research reveals one in three employers plan to stop recruiting, prompting fears of a widening skills gap across construction and building services. The warning, issued in a new report from the Scotland and Northern Ireland Plumbing…
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