MHS Homes has been fined £528,000 after an employee repairing a fence post inadvertently struck an underground cable, suffering burns to his face. The employee and a colleague had been tasked by the company to repair three fence posts in a tenant’s garden on 10 January 2023.  They had already repaired two of the posts and started on a third when one of the workers struck an underground electrical cable as he tried to break through some concrete using a breaker. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that MHS Homes often excavated the ground. However, it did ..read more

Ian Brant steps up to a key role on the Construction Industry Council, knowing that a year of political change lies ahead. He speaks to Will Mann. Ian Brant was appointed Construction Industry Council (CIC) deputy chair in March, knowing that a new government will be in power by the time he becomes chair in June 2025. This means a busy year ahead for the CIOB trustee, fellow and new CIC deputy chair, who also runs his own consultancy, Brant Construction Quantum Experts, specialising in dispute avoidance and resolution. “The CIC’s mantra is bringing built environment professionals and th ..read more

Caroline Gumble recalls a presentation by Saul Humphrey FCIOB where he spoke to students about the importance of sustainability in decision-making. A few weeks ago I spent time with CIOB members and other partners from the construction community in Essex. I had a packed itinerary, including construction sites, academic institutions and an offsite manufacturer. A common theme emerged during these meetings: sustainability. We covered the breadth of disciplines, talking about achieving EPC A for new houses, reducing carbon emissions on construction sites and how to deliver retrofit trai ..read more

British Land and AustralianSuper have appointed Wates to redevelop the former site of a post-industrial South London superclub into a mixed-use development. The Printworks was a nightclub in Rotherhithe described as “London’s most ambitious and visually impressive new venue for electronic music”. Designed by Hawkins Brown, Wates will retain the original structural frame to build a modern development around it. Initial work includes demolition, site clearance and investigation works under a pre-construction services agreement. Subject to planning permission, 50% of the new building will ..read more

Keepmoat is working with Birmingham City University to measure how residents of a Future Homes Standard-ready development in Nottinghamshire use energy and sustainable technologies. The study aims to understand the impact of these technologies and how people will live in their homes in the future. Gedling Green is a net-zero-ready development with 33 houses built to the Future Homes Standard – the building regulations that will come into force in 2025 requiring new homes to produce 75-80% lower CO2 than those built to current standards. All homes at Gedling Green have air source heat pu ..read more

Construction project management consultancy CPC announced this week that it has transferred ownership to its employees. The move was executed through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) – a government initiative that promotes employee ownership by allowing business owners to sell their shares to an employee-owned trust free from capital gains tax. Over the past 12-18 months, shareholders of CPC have considered the options available regarding the future ownership of the business and how best to prepare for its next stage of growth. The transfer of business structure to an EOT means that CP ..read more

Esh Construction is to start £350,000 of repair and restoration works on the 300-year-old Stamford Bridge in mid-May. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council appointed the northern contractor to repair the single-lane, 18th-century bridge on the A166 near York after years of vehicle collisions damaged its parapets. Old and damaged stone will be replaced to bring the bridge back into good condition. Additional bollards will be installed to add extra protection. Michael Sherrard, construction manager at Esh Construction, said: “As Stamford Bridge is a single-lane bridge, we’ll need to add sc ..read more

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has won a legal challenge in the High Court relating to home search warrants as part of a cartel investigation. Last October, the CMA applied for warrants to search business and domestic premises as part of its investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct regarding the supply of chemical admixtures for use in the construction industry. The CMA conducted raids to gather evidence as part of its investigation. While the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) granted warrants authorising the CMA to search three business premises in England and S ..read more

British Land has appointed McLaren Construction to build a new-generation multi-storey logistics hub in Bermondsey, South East London. The project centres around construction of a four-storey 13,000 sq m building on a 0.78ha former car pound site. The design of the stacking logistics space over multiple floors will allow the building to be subdivided, multi-tenanted and adaptable to future trends and climates, McLaren said. The hub has been designed to meet BREEAM Excellent certification. It includes low-carbon materials and 1,470 sq m of rooftop photovoltaics above a mix of green and b ..read more

The Scottish government has secured powers from Westminster to introduce a tax to fix unsafe cladding in the country. The proposed measures mirror the Building Safety Levy introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022 in England, which aims to raise an estimated £5bn from developers responsible for unsafe buildings to fix them. Funds raised through the levy would support the Scottish government’s cladding remediation programme. The Scottish Building Safety Levy would also tax developers to raise funds to help remediate building safety issues. It would apply to the construction of new ..read more