Network Rail is planning the biggest transformation of Cardiff Central station since it was first built in the 1850s.

Options are being explored for a major redevelopment of the station during its next five-year funding period, which starts in 2019. The plans are likely to see an extension to the Grade II listed building.

Signalling technology in the Cardiff area is already being upgraded and work has also started to electrify the line from Swansea to London.

But with passenger numbers forecast to grow 69% over the next decade and 145% by 2043, the station is not ready for the rising demand.

The remit for the initial design work, by Powell Dobson Architects, has been to integrate the historic elements of the station into a new building with a bigger concourse and improved connectivity to platforms. There will also be more shops, cafes and sandwich bars.

Network Rail says its wants the station to be not just a place people travel through on their way to somewhere else but “a destination in its own right serving the local community emerging around it”.

The site redevelopment proposals also envisage a new multi-storey car park, commercial developments on the existing south side and Saunders Road car parks and an enhanced transport interchange and public realm.

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Morgan Sindall’s housing development arm, Lovell, has opened a new office in Hampshire as part of a southern expansion drive.

Headed by newly-appointed area manager Bob Birch, who joins the company from residential developer Mansell, Lovell’s new office is on the Solent Business Park in Whiteley, Fareham.

The southern area team expects to build in the region of 150 homes in the next 12 months, with numbers set to increase over the next five years as it consolidates its market presence in Hampshire, Dorset, West Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire and Wiltshire. Lovell currently has 25 office- and site-based workers operating out of the Fareham office and more than 150 subcontractor staff working on its local sites.

Schemes for Lovell in the region include a £30m regeneration programme for Southampton City Council at three city estates where the company is building 221 homes.

“As the housing market continues to recover, we are in an excellent position to build on that success and help deliver the quality new homes which are so badly needed across the South of England,” said Mr Birch, who has also previously worked for Barratt and St George.

He added: “Alongside building new open market and affordable homes, we see major opportunities in the development of new housing for armed forces personnel and in the field of extra care housing where we have considerable expertise. There will also be opportunities to work with our sister company Morgan Sindall Investments on its large-scale joint venture regeneration partnership projects in Bournemouth and Slough.”

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has introduced a new system for employers to complete their levy returns.

The new levy calculation process, designed to make life easier for companies, was approved by the CITB board yesterday.

Following an 18-month consultation with industry and  research with employers, the new process has been designed  by a levy working party (LWP) – a group of industry representatives tasked with looking at how to simplify the levy process.

The new scheme:

• maintains PAYE levy at 0.5%
• brings to an end the raising of levy on payments to labour-only subcontractors
• introduces a levy on payments made to net (taxed) CIS subcontractors, using figures already provided by employers to HMRC
• increases the size of the small business levy reduction from £100,000 to £300,000
• removes the labour-only payments received offset mechanism, which CITB says affects fewer than 10% of all employers.

The CITB says that all registered employers will receive a letter from next week, explaining the changes and the possible impact on their business.

CITB head of levy and grant Douglas Matthew said: “The changes have come in response to feedback from employers. They told us that the current process is complicated, time-consuming and can lead to extra administration costs.

“More than 22,000 employers currently pay the levy so it is important that we have the right system in place. Using figures provided by employers on their 2014 levy returns, we believe that under the new arrangements 84% of employers are likely to pay the same or less levy. Where companies face an increase in their payments, we will work closely with them to help them through the transition.

“To give all employers time to prepare for the new arrangements, the changes will not be implemented until 2017.”

For full details on the levy changes, see the CITB website.

After 10 days of the scheme being opened, 175 people had contacted The Construction Workers Compensation Scheme for an application enquiry form.

A third of those had returned their forms as of Tuesday this week.

That represents approximately 5% uptake of the compensation offer in the early days of the scheme as there are 3,213 names on the Consulting Association database eligible for the offer.

Whether the remain 95% are holding out for the prospect of a bigger settlement from the courts, are not aware of the scheme and their entitlement under it, or are simply slow off the mark remains to be seen.

The take-up figure was revealed by the scheme’s legal advisor Richard Slaven, a partner at Pinsent Masons, to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee yesterday.

As previously reported, The Construction Workers Compensation Scheme opened on 4^th July.

Full details of the terms of the compensation scheme – from the application process to levels of compensation – can be found at www.tcwcs.co.uk. Any construction worker, or the family of a deceased construction worker, who believes they may have been affected by TCA records can download an initial enquiry form which is also available from the TCWCS free-phone helpline on 0800 980 8337.

Senior directors of Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Vinci yesterday repented for their sins in front of a committee of MPs and sought forgiveness.

They didn't get much.

As part of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee’s long-running investigation into the construction industry blacklisting scandal, the three bosses once again admitted the culpability of their companies and acknowledged that their supporting of the Consulting Association had been wrong.

Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK chief executive Nick Pollard, Laing O’Rourke group finance and commercial director Callum Tuckett and Vinci Construction UK managing director Andrew Ridley-Barker gave evidence to the committee. They admitted their companies used the blacklisting service up until the Consulting Association was raided and shut down by the Information Commissioner's Office in 2009. "We should never have done it," said Mr Ridley-Barker.

They were accompanied by legal advisor Richard Slaven, a partner at Pinsent Masons, and crisis management consultant Richard Jukes of Grayling, both of whom are retained by The Construction Workers Compensation Scheme, set up by the guilty contractors to pay off the workers whose lives they may have ruined.

The construction bosses and their advisers were given a rough ride by MPs who gave every indication of being on the side of the victims on this one. Committee chair Ian Davidson dismissed their compensation scheme as “damage limitation” rather than a real demonstration of repentance.

Mr Davidson rejected the claims of the contractors that they were being proactive in putting things right. He said they were merely reactive. He said that all the evidence  contractors would have continued blacklisting had they not been caught and only set up the compensation scheme once they had been hauled over the coals and told to do so by his committee.

Richard Jukes and Grayling were accused by MPs of 'misrepresenting the compensation scheme' in publicity information they had put out to the media, claiming union support that they did not, and do not, have. It is, in fact, a unilateral scheme.

Breedon Aggregates, supplier of raw materials to the construction industry, saw its revenues grow 25% in the six months to 30 June 2014.

Half-year revenues reached £125.5m, up from £100.2m for the same period last year.

Underlying operating profit was up 57% to £10.4m (2013 H1: £6.6m). Pre-tax profit more than doubled to £9.1m (2013 H1: £4.4m).

Executive chairman Peter Tom said the improvement was partly driven by better weather –   the start of 2013 was severely affected by poor weather – and partly due to improvement in the economy. The Mineral Products Association has reported national volume increases of 15-18% for aggregates and asphalt and 5% for concrete in the first quarter of 2014.

Breedon’s numbers were also boosted by acquisitions

The results include a full six months' benefit from the acquisitions of the former Marshalls quarries in England and the former Aggregate Industries (AI) operations in Scotland, which were completed on 30 April 2013. The results also include a month's contribution from Huntsman's Quarries, acquired on 1 June 2014 for £15m.

Mr Tom said: “Market conditions in England generally remain stronger than in Scotland, although the Scottish business had a strong first quarter on the back of increased spending by Transport Scotland.  We continue to focus on our core customers and markets, where we successfully differentiate our products by offering better quality and service.  The improved market conditions have enabled us to increase prices, recovering input costs, and make up some of the ground lost during the recession.

“We have finally come to the end of the long-running investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) into the acquisition of the AI business in northern Scotland.  This drawn-out process started at the end of April 2013 and, as previously reported, the CMA's findings mean that we are obliged to sell one concrete plant and one asphalt plant in the Aberdeen area and enter into a price-control agreement on asphalt in the Inverness area.  We have six months to comply with the findings.  Pleasingly we are now able to fully integrate the business, which has been operating as a commercially independent entity for the past year, and we expect to deliver synergy benefits in the second half of this year.

“We continue to invest in our core business and in the first half we acquired a new sand and gravel quarry at West Deeping in Lincolnshire and opened a new concrete plant at Cannock near Stafford.  We also acquired, from AI, the concrete plant in our Clearwell quarry (purchased from Marshalls last year).  In addition, we invested in a significant amount of capital equipment in the first half, including new processing plant at Craigenlow quarry in Scotland and a major investment to increase capacity at our large Norton Bottoms quarry near Newark.  We continue to see good opportunities for further organic investment in the business at attractive returns.”

Former chief executives of Kier and Costain have both joined the board of construction consultant Sweett as non-executive directors.

John Dodds was 40 years at Kier Group, with the last seven as chief executive until his retirement in 2010. He is currently non-executive chairman of Severfield and a non-exec director of Newbury Racecourse and Lagan Group Construction Holdings.

Alan Lovell was chief executive at Costain during a turbulent time in the mid 1990s, having stepped up form finance director to succeed Peter Costain. An accountant by profession, he has also had spells propping up Conder and Jarvis. These days he is chairman of Tamar Energy, and a non-exec director at Progressive Energy and TidalStream.

Both men join the board of Sweett next week, with Mr Dodds as chairman, replacing Michael Henderson.

Sweett Group CEO Dean Webster said: "I am very pleased that John has agreed to join Sweett Group as chairman. He is an industry heavyweight with broad experience and is highly respected by both the construction sector and the investment community.  I very much look forward to working with him and benefitting from his experience. I welcome Alan too, whose expertise will add another dimension to what is a very strong board.”

The Considerate Constructors Scheme has appointed Mike Petter as its new chairman, with Angus Kennedy and Albert Ree joining the board.

Mike Petter, former managing director of consultancy firm Five Dimensional Management, became a director of the scheme in July 2012 and vice chairman last year.

He takes over from David Watson, who has been chairman since 2012, who helped the scheme introduce a number of new initiatives, including the Code and Checklist in 2013 and helped develop Supplier Registration.  David Watson will remain on the board for another year. 

Angus Kennedy, who has been monitoring for the scheme since 2011, is a chartered builder. He was construction director on the £150m Maxim Business Park in Lanarkshire in 2007.

Albert Ree has worked for Balfour Beatty for more than 30 years and has been a director of Balfour Beatty Construction Northern. He now heads sustainability for Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK.

John Sayers steps down from the board but assumes the new position of scheme ambassador, representing CCS at industry events.

Chief Executive Edward Hardy said: “David has made an enormous contribution to the ongoing success and growth of the Scheme and we’re happy to see him remain on the Board for another year. I’d like to welcome Mike who brings his industry expertise to the position and I know the Board is looking forward to working with him to continue the successful development of the Scheme and its valuable work.”

Skills shortages and increasing delivery times for certain materials have become substantial constraints on construction activity, surveyors are warning.

The latest construction market survey form the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that 51% of surveyors say skills shortages are curtailing activity and 58% cited materials shortages as an impediment to growth. A year ago these figures were just 7% and 5% respectively.

Some 54% of firms have had difficulties recruiting quantity surveyors and 59% have struggled to find bricklayers. This compares to 19% and 7% who were noticing shortages in these roles last year.

Surveyors have also noticed changes in the behaviour of contractors. Marc Menear from the Bristol office of Faithful+Gould said: “Contractors appear to be coming more selective over which projects they tender for.”

Jonathan Park of Harrogate-based Appleyard & Trew commented: “Contractors are at capacity on enquiries and struggling to submit tenders with periods set.”

Anthony Millward of Allan Reynolds Partnership in Wolverhampton said: “Shortage of bricks and bricklayers are a problem. As contractors are getting busier we are finding their management resources can't cope. This is impacting on preplanning and seriously affecting progress on site.”

The Q2 2014 RICS construction market survey shows a continuing improvement in activity across all areas of the UK, with the private sector leading the way. The headline national workloads net balance, which captures the change relative to the previous quarter, softened only marginally from Q1’s record high of 43 to stand at 41 for Q2.

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The private housing, commercial and industrial sectors are driving this growth in workloads with the individual balances for each of these sectors also moderating only slightly from the series high values recorded in Q1.

The private housing sector has been the main driver of the recent growth in the official construction output data and the continued strength of the RICS private housing workloads series, which recorded a value of 41 in Q2, shows that momentum in this sector remains strong.

The net balance of private commercial workloads came in at 51 in Q2, from Q1’s series high value of 55, and as with the private housing sector, workloads grew robustly across all areas of the UK that we monitor. In the industrial sector, the workloads net balance recorded a value of 38 in Q2, down slightly from Q1’s reading of 40.

Workloads grew strongly across all broad regional blocks with the Midlands region in particular seeing workloads rise at a record pace. Scotland and Northern Ireland have generally experienced more moderate growth in activity than the other areas of the UK over the last year but workloads have, nonetheless, been consistently rising, RICS said.

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The demolition of an eight-storey office block next to Hounslow bus garage in west London appeared to go out of control yesterday afternoon when a huge section came crashing down, leaving the remaining structure unsafe.

Reports suggest that it cause quite a stir across the vicinity.

The building, in Hounslow High Street, is being demolished to make way for a housing development.

According to Demolition News, Lincolnshire-based contractor GBM Demolition suspended work pending arrival of an inspector from the Health & Safety Executive to investigate the unplanned collapse.

It appears to have been only through good fortune that all debris remained within the perimeter of the site and no one was hurt.

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The future of ambitious proposals for a new airport in the Thames estuary is set to be determined in the autumn.

That is when the Airport Commission will decide whether to keep this option in the mix or throw it out.

The government established the Airports Commission in September 2012 to advise on the need for and location of future runway capacity. Its interim report in December 2013 set out three options – two at Heathrow and one at Gatwick – and called for further consideration of the Thames Estuary option.

Since then, promoters of shortlisted options have provided more detailed proposals to the commission. This autumn, the commission expects to decide whether or not to shortlist an estuary option, and will then undertake formal consultation on the shortlisted options.

The final report will be published in summer 2015, by which time it will be up to a new government to make any decision.

ISG has promoted Paul Sharp to head its specialist technical fit-out operation in its UK Engineering business.

The move is part of the company’s plan to strengthen its delivery capability in technically complex fit-out projects within the healthcare and research & development sectors.

ISG has recently worked on specialist fit-out projects at Guy's Hospital in London for Cell Therapy Catapult and also a new research facility at the Natural History Museum. Paul Sharp is currently working on a new stem cell laboratory for King’s College London.

In his new role, Mr Sharp will lead ISG’s bid for opportunities in the forthcoming Medcity in London, which will collaborate with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to form a world-leading bioscience cluster, where there is significant planned investment in R&D facilities and laboratories. He will also drive the roll out of ISG’s specialist fit-out business nationwide.

Mr Sharp said: “My new role represents a strategic decision by the company to capitalise on many of the world-class technical fit-out projects that ISG has delivered, creating a formal structure to take that expertise to the marketplace as a defined service offer. The success of the bioscience cluster in attracting ground breaking academic research and commercial scientific companies from across the world provides considerable opportunity for the business, with its strong credentials delivering highly complex and mission critical projects.”

Social housing organisations could save £285m a year in building repair and maintenance costs by improving their purchasing, a new study suggests.

The analysis of a range of social housing providers, undertaken by MindMetre Research, highlights that by re-engineering R&M materials purchase and management procedures, social housing organisations could stand to save £1.7bn in social housing R&M costs by the end of the decade.

The research was commissioned by builders’ merchant Travis Perkins.

The study, Material Advantage, looked at 95 housing associations and local authorities that have already addressed inefficiencies in this area, and found that partnering with an organisation to reduce their materials supply chain can enable housing authorities to improve efficiency and productivity with:

• Shorter supply chains
• Accurate stock levels, elimination of wasted time and better ‘first time fix’ rates
• Reduction or elimination of storage requirements
• Product standardisation, ensuring high quality materials at lower costs
• Improved management information on workforce productivity.

Ian Church, managing director of Travis Perkins Group Managed Services, said: “With social housing providers under continued pressure to do more with less, the smallest inefficiency can cause much larger issues for authorities.  Identifying the purchasing and management of R&M materials as a starting point, however, means housing associations can begin to address the issue.

“Partnering with an organisation that improves and shortens the supply chain presents a viable way for organisations to better meet budgets and reduce inefficiency. Bringing purchasing costs closer to the original supplier not only reduces costs, it also brings the benefit of product standardisation, which leads to high product quality and lower long-term costs. What’s more, the improved IT capabilities brought by partnerships like this enable better scheduling, reducing downtime and limiting gaps in between tenancies.”

Engineering firm Jacobs has been brought on board to project manage the construction of the Brighton i360 observation tower.

The 165m-high tower will carry passengers – up to 200 at a time – in a giant pod from bottom to top. It will be the tallest visitor observation attraction in the UK outside of London.

Effectively a vertical cable car, the pod will be elevated to a height of more than 137m, providing 360 degree views.

The i360 is described as a ‘vertical pier’ and is being erected on the sea front at the site of Brighton’s old West Pier. It will incorporate the restoration of some of the original pier, including the Victorian tollbooths. Parts of the cast iron supporting structure will be reused in the new visitor centre and an exhibition will enable visitors to learn about the pier's history. The cast iron structure offshore, known as the sea island, will not be affected – but the wreckage of the derelict pier on the beach will be removed.

The Brighton i360 is designed, engineered, manufactured and promoted by the team responsible for the London Eye. The originators and designers of Brighton i360 are husband and wife team, David Marks and Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects. They conceived and designed the London Eye.

It will be operated by I-Xperience, headed by former London Eye commercial director Eleanor Harris.

Dr John Roberts designed the Brighton i360. He was the London Eye's principal engineer and is also director of operations for the UK Buildings business of Jacobs UK.

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Under the terms of its contract, announced yesterday, Jacobs is providing engineering design, project management, construction design management (CDM) coordination, and inspection body services.

The steelwork will be erected by Hollandia, who built the London Eye's steel structure. Hollandia is the Netherlands’ largest steelwork supplier.

The civil engineering contractor will be Mackley, a long-established local firm based in Shoreham-by-Sea.

The French company Poma will manufacture the i360 pod and ride computer. Poma built the London Eye capsules and ride computer, and is Europe's largest cable car and ski lift manufacturer.

Jacobs Group vice president Bob Duff said the project was “expected to result in a truly unique and inspiring tourism experience in Brighton”.

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The government has announced plans to sell Constructionline, its online construction supplier database.

It said that private ownership would allow Constructionline “to grow and achieve its full potential, including offering new additional services”.

Constructionline was set up by government in 1998 to meet demand for a cost-effective and easy to use service for suppliers in the construction industry. Through its database of more than 22,000 suppliers, Constructionline links buyers with suitable contractors, ensuring supplier data such as health & safety, technical ability and financial information is kept up to date. Suppliers also benefit from access to more than 8,000 buyers.

It is owned by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and managed on its behalf by Capita.

Constructionline collects supplier firms’ data on an annual basis and independently validates it. Supplier firms pay an annual fee for the pre-qualification service it provides. The level of the fee depends on the size of the firm’s turnover. These fees represent the main revenue stream for Constructionline.

A BIS spokesperson said: “Constructionline offers valuable services to the construction industry, particularly small and medium sized businesses. It has grown significantly under government ownership, and now is the time to enable it to expand further to meet the needs of a changing industry.

“Gaining access to private capital will enable Constructionline to become even more competitive and branch out into new markets.

“Bids will be welcomed from buyers who plan to grow the services provided by Constructionline.”

A trade sale is anticipated and a contract notice for the sale of Constructionline will be published in the Official Journal of the EU.

A worrying picture of young British construction professionals has been painted by a new survey.

It strongly suggests that they care more about money than career prospects or feeling happy in their work. And more than half reckon they are underpaid.

These are the findings of a survey of more than 2,000 construction and engineering professionals under the age of 30 by recruitment website CareerStructure.com.

It found that 58% were not satisfied with their salary and 36% expect to leave their current employer within the next six months.

Some 54% said they were not satisfied with the benefits they received. They wanted a performance-related bonus and reckoned they should be paid overtime like manual workers.

On a more positive note, the majority were satisfied with their current promotion prospects, confident they were about to zoom up the career ladder, and more than half of them (56%) rated their employer as good or excellent – despite the money issue.

Rob Searle, commercial director at CareerStructure.com, said: “Young workers are the future of the industry so more must be done to convince them why construction and engineering are attractive professions.  The industry is facing an ongoing skills shortage, which means it’s now more important than ever to retain the best young talent.”

The top ten most important factors for young people in their career are:

1. Salary
2. Career prospects / Challenging Work
3. Job security
4. Recognition of work done
5. Training
6. Degree of responsibility
7. Relationship with colleagues
8. Holiday entitlement
9. Physical working environment
10. Fringe benefits

The government is claiming to have made 15% efficiency savings in its infrastructure bill, cutting £3.4bn of expenditure.

By working with Infrastructure UK and the Infrastructure Client Group, which is led by HS2 construction chief Simon Kirby, best practice in procurement has been promoted across government departments, it is claimed.

The £3bn figure is contained in the third annual report of the Infrastructure Cost Review programme – Infrastructure Cost Review: Measuring and Improving Delivery  (Click or tap to download full report).

The biggest savings have been found in the energy sector, as the table below shows.

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However, some of the energy cost reduction has come from nascent renewables technologies maturing and becoming cheaper, like solar panels and wind turbines.

Savings attributed solely to the cost review programme are £2.5b, or 13%.

On the railways, Network Rail’s cost reduction benchmarks demonstrate that it has achieved a 13.1% saving on £4.7bn works programme, equivalent to £615m annual saving.

The roads sector has made 9% savings on annual local authority highways turnover of £2.8bn equating to £257m. The Highways Agency has found £221m of savings on its £1.3bn capital works programme, a saving of 17%

The initial Infrastructure Cost Review in 2010 set out a series of actions to change the behaviour of government clients and industry that would support a 15% reduction in the costs of infrastructure delivery. This, it is said, has now been achieved but more can be done.

The report says that there is an opportunity to deliver more than £50bn of further efficiency savings over the next decade.

Alongside today’s report, the Treasury has published a Project Initiation Routemap Handbook. This provides a framework to address common problems in infrastructure projects.

Commercial secretary to the Treasury, Lord Deighton, said: “Successive governments have failed to invest sufficiently in the UK’s infrastructure. By dealing with our debts and having a long term vision as set out in the national infrastructure plan, we can deliver the world class infrastructure the UK needs to compete. Delivering infrastructure investment more efficiently is vital to ensure that taxpayers and consumers get more for less.

“The Infrastructure Cost Review programme has helped to establish a refreshed relationship and more open dialogue between government and industry. This has been a success for the third year running. However, we cannot be complacent. As the economy recovers, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that we have the necessary skills, capacity and innovation to embed cost and efficient delivery.”

A roofing contractor has been given a suspended prison sentence after his work on a chimney stack left an elderly couple exposed to deadly fumes.

John Stanley had been hired to sort out a water leak between a double chimney stack and roof tiles by householders at a property on Black Swan Lane, Luton in August 2011. However, his team’s repair work blocked the chimney above a gas fire, leading to poisonous fumes leaking into the loft.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted and Mr Stanley was up before Luton magistrates yesterday. The court heard that employees of Mr Stanley, 47 and from Luton, had dismantled the old double chimney to just below roof tile level and made some repairs to roof timbers and felt. They then built a single chimney stack back up.

But they failed to check that the flue for the gas fire in the property’s back living room was still working. It later emerged that it was this chimney that was blocked when the stack was rebuilt instead of the chimney of the disused and boarded-up fireplace in the property’s front living room.

The householders only found out about this 15 months later when they had to call a local gas man to examine the gas fire, which they were having trouble lighting.

A subsequent investigation by HSE found that the gas fire had been used for more than a year with all the fumes going into the loft, over their bedroom, instead of through the flue and chimney – leaving them at serious risk over an extended period of time. A simple smoke test would have highlighted the issue straight away after completion of the work.

John Stanley, of Hitchin Road, Luton, trading as King Roofing & Durable Plastics, pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. He was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £500 compensation to the couple he put at risk.

HSE inspector Robert Meardon said after the hearing: “John Stanley’s sub-standard work created an on-going breach and a prolonged risk to the safety of a vulnerable and elderly couple. It cost them a huge amount of unnecessary anxiety and a considerable amount of money to rectify – on top of their savings they had used to pay Mr Stanley for the work.

“When a chimney is the flue for a gas fire, it is a vital part of the gas installation and should only be done by a competent gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register.

“Mr Stanley advertised himself as a specialist roofing contractor, but he was never on the Gas Safe register and not qualified to carry out gas work. He should have never undertaken this job knowing that a gas fire was linked to the chimney.

“This incident could have resulted in fatalities as gas fire fumes can contain poisonous carbon monoxide, which can kill. It is vital that building contractors are aware of the risks they create and comply with the laws in place to control the risks.”

Morgan Sindall Professional Services (MSPS) is looking to strengthen its capabilities in engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm).

It has recruited Fluor operations manager Peter Chenery to be project control and programme director for EPCm work.

At Fluor he headed up multi-million pound, global projects from concept, through to design, procurement and construction.

Mr Chenery said that his immediate priorities were to boost the project controls focus of MSPS. “Working within a multidisciplinary, design and engineering consultancy I will be able to use the full breadth of my skills and experience to centralise project management, ensuring further efficiency in planning, scheduling and budget control,” he said.

MSPS managing director Richard Webster said: “This new role, coupled with Peter’s extensive experience, particularly with leading pharmaceutical and life-science clients, will provide our clients with clear, reliable and efficient project delivery programmes.”

Morgan Sindall has specialist engineering and process design skills in biotechnology, R&D and manufacturing.  MSPS has offices in Manchester, London, Glasgow, Stratford-upon-Avon and Switzerland.

Andy Sneyd of Crown House Technologies has been elected president of the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) for 2014/15.

Mr Sneyd is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building. As head of design at Crown House Technologies, a subsidiary of Laing O’Rourke, he manages the design and engineering aspects of mechanical, electrical and plumbing projects worth £300m annually and controls a design budget of more than £20m.

The B&ES said that he brought to the presidency “a profound understanding of a range of professional cultures, along with an ability to build and maintain complex stakeholder relationships”.

Jim Marner of Shepherd Engineering Services has become president elect and Malcolm Thomson of Enigma Environmental Services is vice president. Bruce Bisset of Galloway Group will serve as immediate past president for the next 12 months.

The Treasury has approved construction of a new £353m hospital in Smethwick, to be funded by both the public and private sector through the new PF2 private finance route.

The announcement coincided with a visit today by chancellor George Osborne to Rowley Regis Hospital – part of Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.

Mr Osborne has approved £100m of state funding upfront for the project and sanctioned the trust to seek a PF2 partner to take it forward.

The new Midland Metropolitan Hospital will bring together acute services on to one site, promoting better patient safety and a patient experience while ensuring the best value for money for the taxpayer.

The 670-bed hospital in Grove Lane, Smethwick, is being built over 16 acres on a former heavy industrial site. It will have approximately 80,000 square metres of floor space and will replace Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich and City Hospital in Winson Green.

The trust expects to select a private sector partner next year, which will in turn select its main contractor for the building works.

Construction of is expected to start in 2016 and be completed by 2019.

Developer Lateral Property Group has submitted plans for a £135m retail development and stadium complex with Wakefield Council.

The 10,000 capacity stadium will be home to Castleford Tigers Rugby League Club. The shops will pay for it.

Lateral Property is looking to develop a site at Glasshoughton, next to Junction 32 of the M62.

GMI Construction is already lined up as contractor for the project. The aim is to start construction in summer 2015, subject to planning permission.

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Plans for a new Tottenham Hotspur Football Club stadium have moved forward after the government approved the site acquisition deal.

Ministers have agreed with a compulsory purchase order (CPO) made by the London Borough of Haringey, which will enable the project to go ahead.

Building a new 56,000-seater stadium next door to its current White Hart Lane home is part of a wider regeneration plan for the area – the £400m Northumberland Development Project.

More than 95% of the three hectare site has already been acquired by agreement and work has already begun on the first of three phases of the redevelopment plan. The order was requested to allow the final two phases to proceed and follows a public inquiry.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles said: “This scheme is supported by the locally determined development plan for the area and has received strong local support.

“The redevelopment proposals have had far reaching support from local MPs, the London Mayor’s champion for Tottenham and the chairman of the Independent Tottenham Taskforce.

“They all consider the project important for bringing much needed private investment into one of the most disadvantaged areas of London.”

Construction industry output fell by 1.1% in May 2014 but remains around 3.5% higher than in May 2013, according to latest official estimates.

Having increased by 1.2% in April, output dropped back again the following month, latest data from the Office for National Statistics reveal. Both new work and repair & maintenance fell by 1.1% in May 2014.

Compared with May 2013, output in the construction industry increased by 3.5%. Year-on-year all new work and repair & maintenance both increased by 3.7% and 3.1% respectively.

The main driver of this recent growth is housing construction which has increased by 19.4%.

There were notable year-on-year falls in infrastructure, public other new work and private commercial.

Housing new work provided the largest contribution to the increase in all new work compared with May 2013, with both public and private housing seeing substantial increases of 29.3% and 16.8% respectively. This resulted in all new housing increasing by 19.4%. Private industrial new work also increased compared with 2013.

While output has fluctuated from month to month, the industry has now seen year-on-year growth for 12 consecutive months

Month-on-month, the fall in construction output in May was driven mainly by private commercial work which fell by 3.6%, and repair & maintenance which fell by 1.1%. New housing output, which includes both public and private housing, increased for the third consecutive month, experiencing growth of 1.1% driven entirely by the public housing component.

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Commenting on the data, Turner & Townsend UK managing director Steve McGuckin said: "The surprise reversal of April's growth comes as a timely reality check for the construction industry. Order books and levels of confidence are both strong, but despite the great progress made in the past year, no-one should take the momentum for granted.

"Month-on-month figures are notoriously volatile and should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt; but the sustained fall in infrastructure output – down more than 8% in a year – cannot be explained away so easily.

 "The booming residential sector has been the engine of the wider construction industry's growth, and with demand still strong it has plenty of road left to run. Even if house prices are close to peaking in the southeast, sales are robust and housebuilders are unlikely to suffer much in the short-term. Many construction firms have over two years' worth of orders on their books, and more than enough momentum to keep building.

"In fact a plateauing of house prices could be a good thing – it should reduce the inflationary pressure of off-plan speculative purchases and allow the industry to rebalance to build a wider range of properties.

 "But while sectors other than residential are showing some encouraging signs, the construction industry as a whole is still worryingly reliant on housebuilding. That leaves it exposed to the impact of inevitable interest rate rises. The construction industry is responding well to Britain's urgent need for more homes, but its growth must become more broadly based if it is to ride out any bumps on the road ahead."

JCB has done a deal to build a supermarket on its old Heavy Products factory in Uttoxeter.

JCB has agreed in principle to sell two acres of its 22-acre site to the retailer. Subject to final planning consent, Waitrose will build a 2,800m² store and is aiming to open before the end of next year. Construction of housing elsewhere on the site could begin this year.

JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “The proposed Waitrose store is a major step forward in the redevelopment of the former JCB Heavy Products site. It will act as a catalyst for the implementation of the wider development which will include a park and high quality housing.

“It is and always has been my intention that this development leaves a legacy to Uttoxeter given my family’s long association with the town and this site in particular. While recent economic circumstances mean it has taken longer to advance than I would have liked, I’m delighted that the scheme is now moving forward in a way that will eventually contribute to the wider renaissance of Uttoxeter.”

The new store would be built on stilts with car parking underneath. There would also be surface level car parking at the rear along with a service area.

Production at the old Heavy Products site finished in 2008 and the factory relocated to a new £40m site next to the A50 in Uttoxeter. 

Lord Bamford instigated a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) design contest to ensure the redevelopment is of “the highest possible standard”. London-based McDowell & Benedetti was selected as the winner and drew up plans for the 22-acre site which include housing, retail and commercial. There will be 257 new houses built on the site and it is hoped that construction work on some of the properties will begin later this year.

Lord Bamford’s family started out in business as blacksmiths in Uttoxeter in the 1820s.  The Pinfold Street site has been linked to manufacturing from as early as 1871 when the Bamfords opened for business as an agricultural machinery maker

Injured service personnel will in future be able to get care at a new £300m defence rehabilitation centre to be built near Loughborough.

Rehabilitation services currently delivered at Headley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey, are being moved to a new purpose-built location at Stanford Hall, near Loughborough.

Construction at Stanford Hall will start next year.

The centre will be part funded by donors led by the Duke of Westminster, who bought the Stanford Hall in 2011.

The new facility will be four times the size of Headley Court and will improve and advance the treatments already available to injured members of the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence said.

It is planned that the new Defence & National Rehabilitation Centre will open at the end of 2017.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond said: “Today’s announcement will establish a long-term, state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility for our injured personnel, building on the great work of Headley Court, to ensure our armed forces continue to receive the very best care.”

The Surgeon General, Air Marshal Paul Evans, added: “Thanks to the Duke of Westminster’s initiative and his generosity, and that of other benefactors, a new state-of-the-art medical rehabilitation centre will provide our injured troops with a remarkable place to recover and begin rebuilding their lives.

“The new centre will build on the legacy of the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court and the significant support it has received from many forces charities, including Help for Heroes, the Royal British Legion and SSAFA.

“It will also provide the bedrock of the capability development for musculoskeletal injuries for the next 20 or so years.”

GB Group has recruited Steve Mullins from Laing O’Rourke to head up the central & south division of its construction arm, GB Building Solutions.

At Laing O’Rourke Mr Mullins he had responsibility for delivery of the shell, core and envelope of Heathrow Airport’s new £1bn Terminal 2, which opened to passengers last month.

At GB Building Solutions he will take charge of the offices in Sunbury and Rugby.

GB operations director Peter Smyth said: “Steve joins us at an exciting time for GB as we accelerate plans to grow our presence in the central and southern regions. He is a passionate supporter of continuous improvement and innovation, and brings with him a detailed knowledge of off-site manufacture, health and safety and client facing delivery.

“Steve is a strong addition to our senior leadership team and will offer a commercially creative approach to new initiatives and problem solving.”

Mr Mullins is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building and a chartered environmentalist.

A steel bending company is claiming that it has a new development to save significant construction costs and time in the erection of offshore wind turbines.

Barnshaws Metal Bending says that it has developed new methods for cold bending rectangular hollow sections (RHS) for base platform support rings that are used as an integral part of the structure of turbines.

Barnshaws can now curve 400*200*16 RHS and 450*250*16 RHS to 2500 inside radius with very little distortion, it says. Up until now, the manufacture of these critical components has only been possible via more expensive and time consuming heat induction bending methods.

For more extreme configurations, where cold bending is still not a technically feasible option, Barnshaws says it can use induction bending to meet the required component specification. To demonstrate this capability, the company has recently created 500*300*16 RHS to 2800 centre line radius, again with minimum distortion.

Legal action to get compensation for blacklisted construction workers opened in the High Court yesterday with a green light for the case to proceed to the next stage.

The judge hearing the case agreed that the companies involved in blacklisting have a case to answer. He ruled that the hundreds of separate cases made by victims of blacklisting will be heard together, under a group litigation order (GLO).

In a further victory for the unions bringing the case, it was agreed that the names and addresses of blacklisted workers will not be made publicly available and will be kept in a sealed enveloped controlled by the judge. Therefore the blacklisting companies will not be given access to the names and addresses of their victims.

The next court date has been provisionally set for October and there will be a further hearing in December.

The cases will be managed on behalf of the victims by a steering committee, comprising of the solicitors acting for the unions Ucatt, Unite and the GMB and the Blacklist Support Group who have all brought forward cases. Solicitors OH Parsons are acting for Ucatt. Leigh Day is acting for the GMB.  The Blacklist Support Group has retained Guney Clark & Ryan.

Collectively they are seeking compensation for 571 construction workers who were blacklisted by the contractors behind the Consulting Association, whose illegal operation was shut down after a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009.

Ucatt hailed the first day’s hearing as the first step on the path to justice for blacklisted workers. General secretary Steve Murphy said: “Today was a green light in the battle for blacklisting justice. Over five years after the scandal was first revealed blacklisted victims are beginning to see justice in action. The companies involved in ruining workers lives are going to be forced to answer for their actions.”

Mr Murphy added: “It was absolutely essential that companies involved in blacklisting aren’t given the details of their victims and we welcome the decision that this information will not be made publicly available.”

The eight companies being sued are: Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Keir, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci. They have set up their own compensation scheme, The Construction Workers Compensation Scheme (TCWCS) to compensate the victims they blacklisted. They had applied to regain possession of the illegally run database so that they had contact details of the people they now want to compensate.

The unions argue that the sums and terms on offer under TCWCS are unsatisfactory.

Unite’s executive director for legal services Howard Beckett said: “We would urge all blacklisted workers to ignore attempts by the eight blacklisting companies to buy them off through the inadequate compensation scheme launched last week.

“The only way to secure justice and proper compensation for the damage wrought by blacklisting is by joining the group action organised by Unite legal services. It a fight that no individual could possibly take without union legal aid.”

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a company for failing to install adequate guarding on an electric gate that trapped a young child at a primary school in Stourbridge.

Dudley Magistrates’ Court yesterday (10th July) heard that on 25 September 2012 an eight-year-old boy was injured when his head became trapped between the edge of the closing gate and the gate post. The child suffered significant bruising to the right side of his head and ear.

His father was there and just managed to hold the gate enough to release his son’s head.

An HSE investigation found that the entrance gate at Pedmore Primary School had been automated by Access Control Solutions (UK) Ltd but the company had failed to fit suitable guarding.

The company had identified the need for the guarding but not fitted it because the gate, which had been manufactured by a different company, was not the exact style expected and the guarding would not fit.

Access Control Solutions (UK) Ltd, of Boston Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 18 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and was fined £3,300 with £773 costs.

After the hearing HSE inspector Sarah Palfreyman said: “This was an extremely traumatic event for the boy and his father. Fortunately, the youngster was back at school a couple of days later and he has not suffered any long term effects. However, it could have been a different story had he been trapped by a different part of his head, or had it happened to a younger child.

“The incident was entirely preventable. Access Control Solutions identified the need for the guard in their own job specification but when the gate arrived, it was not the type expected the guard did not fit. At this point they should have either come up with an alternative or postponed the job until the problem was rectified, especially as they were fully aware that the entrance would be used by a particularly vulnerable group – young children.

“People getting trapped is a well-known risk in the industry and HSE has produced safety notes on the subject due to a number of fatalities involving children in recent years. I would encourage all suppliers and installers of electric gates to read it.”

Campaigners for research into asbestos-related diseases are seeking support from the construction industry for their petition to get a House of Commons debate.

The online petition on the government website calls for “dedicated long-term funding for research into the causes, treatment, and potential cure of those diseases related to exposure from asbestos”.

A petition of 100,000 signatures is needed to raise the issue of this illness within the House of Commons for debate.

The petition can be viewed and signed at https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59014

The full wording is:

The United Kingdom has the dubious honour of being number 1 in the world for the level of deaths occurring annually from asbestos related diseases. Around 2500 people will die this year alone in the UK from mesothelioma.

Unlike many other cancer diseases, mesothelioma and the other asbestos diseases, have received negligible amounts of public money for research purposes.

This petition calls on the government to: Provide dedicated long-term funding for research into the causes, treatment, and potential cure of those diseases related to exposure from asbestos.

House-builder Barratt Developments will unveil 100% profit growth when it reports its next annual results.

In a trading update today Barratt said that its pre-tax profits for the year to 30th June 2014 were at the top end of analysts' estimates at around £390m. This is roughly double the £192m profit it made the previous year. Full details will be revealed when the company reports its numbers in September.

The doubling in profits comes on the back of a 13% rise in average sale price and 9% rise in unit completions.

Chief executive Mark Clare said: "The market remains positive with strong demand for new homes across the country. The land we have acquired in the last five years together with our disciplined operating model is delivering a very strong business performance.  Our focused approach to land buying will enable us to maintain a land supply of around 4.5 years and support a significant increase in profitability and return on capital employed."

Barratt’s rude health mirrors the success being enjoyed across the sector on the back of what is effectively a subsidy from taxpayers in the form of the government’s Help to Buy programmes. Earlier this week Taylor Wimpey said that nearly half of its new private home sales benefited from Help to Buy equity loans. And Bovis Homes said that it was at record levels of productivity, building 50% more homes this year than last year.