Matthew Davies | Construction News

Apprenticeships: A view from the inside

Matthew Davies — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 10:45:10 +0000

There were 24,590 new construction apprentices taken on in 2024/25, the first annual rise in three years, according to a report from professional tool supplier Protrade. At the same time, it was a record year for women beginning apprenticeships in the sector, with a 9…

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Morgan Sindall fit-out forecast boosts profit expectations

Matthew Davies — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:22:26 +0000

Analysts are upgrading their profit predictions for Morgan Sindall after the firm issued an unscheduled trading update due to its fit-out division outperforming expectations. Under Article 17 of the Market Abuse Regulations, companies must disclose information directly concerning themselves to the stock market as soon…

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Bringing Orkney’s wind power to the mainland

Matthew Davies — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 12:00:03 +0000

The construction of a new substation in Orkney will help bring 220 megawatts of renewable energy from across the North Sea to the British mainland

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Cancelled contracts and job delays behind half of construction profit warnings

Matthew Davies — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 13:04:06 +0000

A third of the UK’s listed construction companies issued profit warnings last year, with project delays and cancellations among the main reasons, according to a new report. EY-Parthenon’s latest Profit Warnings study shows the 36 firms in the FTSE Construction and Materials sector issued 18…

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Construction activity remains flat, but infrastructure does the heavy lifting, says RICS report

Matthew Davies — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:01:04 +0000

Construction activity in the final quarter of last year remained subdued, although infrastructure and public housing workloads saw some improvement, according to the latest Construction Monitor from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Overall workloads barely moved in Q4 of 2025, with the headline…

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RJ McLeod increases profit and turnover as firm settles under OCU umbrella

Matthew Davies — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:45:08 +0000

Scottish contracting and civil engineering firm RJ McLeod has reported improved turnover, pre-tax profit and margin, nearly 20 months after its acquisition by OCU Group. The Glasgow-based firm lengthened its accounting period from 30 October 2024 to 29 April 2025 to align with other OCU…

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Behind the veil: a year of building liability orders

Matthew Davies — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:29:20 +0000

A year after a court granted the first order extending defects liability to a parent company, what lessons have been learned by claimants, contractors and the legal profession?

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The times are a-changing

Matthew Davies — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:22:37 +0000

The line “All this must change” in American writer Henry Longfellow’s poem Kéramos is certainly apt for the future of regulation and oversight in construction. This year is a time of transition for the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). By the end of January 2027, it…

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Winvic’s calculated move

Matthew Davies — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:18:14 +0000

Danny Nelson, board member and managing director at Winvic, says data centres will form a fourth pillar of his firm’s strategy

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Construction output falls thanks to pre-Budget nerves

Matthew Davies — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:32:53 +0000

Total output in the UK construction sector fell 1.1 per cent in the three months to November last year, compared with the previous three-month period. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the decrease was the largest quarterly drop since March 2023, when it…

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