Government

The government’s new towns programme presents a major opportunity to tackle chronic skills shortages in the construction and planning sectors, a Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) boss told Parliamentarians yesterday (1 July). Appearing before the House of Lords Built Environment Committee, Ian Woodcroft, head of policy and government relations at…

The government spent more than £100m on steel made outside the UK for the High Speed 2 (HS2) megaproject in the year to April 2024, data has revealed. Figures published by the Department for Business and Trade last week showed that 63 purchases of steel were made to build the…

Chelmsford City Council has suspended building inspections and put a freeze on new building control applications because of a lack of qualified staff. In an announcement on its website, the Essex council said it had paused all building inspections “over the coming weeks”. In a statement, the council told Construction…

A leading building control figures has branded the appointment of two fire brigade chiefs to run the construction safety watchdog as “bizarre” and “incredibly concerning”. Geoff Wilkinson, managing director of compliance consultancy Wilkinson and a chartered surveyor, said the move suggested the government was taking a very narrow view of…

Two fire brigade professionals have been appointed to the two main roles at the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), with responsibilities stripped from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Charlie Pugsley comes in as chief executive at the BSR from his current role as assistant commissioner of fire safety at the…

Morgan Sindall has replaced ISG on a job to build a new leisure centre in Bishop Auckland. It is the second time this month the firm has picked up an ex-ISG contract. The leisure centre build had faced delays after ISG went into administration last September leaving 2,200 workers redundant. Plans…

Contractors that don’t pay their supply chain on time could be banned from bidding on major contracts across the public sector. The Cabinet Office announced plans to amend the Procurement Act 2023 to “strengthen the UK’s economic resilience and support British businesses” on Thursday (26 June). Reforms already introduced via…

Peers have urged parliamentary authorities to speed up the process of starting the refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster amid safety concerns and fears of a “Notre Dame-type inferno”. In a debate on the restoration, which heard delays in commencing work were costing £700m a year, peers criticised the authorities…

Kingspan is to face an antitrust probe over its proposed acquisition of steel cladding provider Coverworld. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had decided to investigate the transaction and was inviting comments on its potential impact on competition. The invitation to comment was the first part of its…

The head of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is considering bringing its multidisicplinary teams (MDTs) of tall-building safety specialists in-house in an attempt to speed up decisions. The move follows growing criticism over backlogs, and this week an investigation by cost consultancy Cast revealed just 10.8 per cent of new…