Government

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has blamed a review on radon regulations for the delay in its multimillion-pound remediation of HMP Dartmoor. The prison has been closed since August 2024 after high levels of radon gas were detected. Despite the closure, the MoJ still signed a new lease up until…

Police have arrested 30 people in a raid on a construction site to tackle illegal workers. Officers from Wiltshire Police said they joined Home Office enforcement officials in the raid on Tuesday (16 December) at the Panattoni Park development site in east Swindon. The raid saw 25 people detained pending…

Landmark legislation around building safety will be reviewed in 2027 - five years after it was introduced, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced yesterday. The landmark Building Safety Act (BSA) was introduced in 2022 in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 when 72 people…

A new long-term strategy for the construction professions has been revealed at the same  time as the government published a new prospectus for the single construction regulator. The government promised to reveal the strategy along with reforms to building regulations and construction products to boost building safety, quality and productivity.…

The Lower Thames Crossing will be fully sold to private investors and is not set to be completed until 2034, the government has revealed. It has also appointed Department for Transport (DfT) civil servant Kate Cohen as the individual with personal responsibility for the road tunnel project, removing the position…

Seven subcontractors have temporarily laid off staff at Sellafield nuclear plant blaming the effect of ongoing industrial action. Workers from subcontractors Altrad, Enigma, Kaefer, Stobbarts and Design Grid began a new five-day round of strike action on Monday (15 December) over an ongoing pay dispute. The Engineering Construction Industry Association…

Construction industry heavyweights have thrown their weight behind proposals to exempt medium-sized home schemes from the Building Safety Levy (BSL). Housing secretary Steve Reed (pictured) on Tuesday (16 December) announced a raft of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including an exemption from the levy for sites of…

Fresh guidance from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and Construction Leadership Council (CLC) on submitting staged applications for higher risk buildings (HRBs) at gateway two is due to be published this week. A letter sent to members of the BSR’s committee this week, jointly signed by interim chief executive Charlie…

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) says that industry needs to provide more evidence to stand any chance of getting the government to look again at inheritance tax (IHT) rules due to come into force in April. The sector has been unsettled by the planned changes to Business Property Relief (BPR),…

Construction was the worst performing segment of the economy in October, new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown. Output in the sector fell by 0.6 per cent in the month, helping to defy economists’ expectations and bring national gross domestic product (GDP) down by 0.1 per…