Supply Chain

The cost of steel rose so steeply this year that even some of the biggest project managers in the country were beginning to feel the heat. Prices, which had been largely stable at around £350 per tonne, were suddenly hitting levels of between £500 and £700, and even more. The…

Housing association Thirteen Group has appointed three contractors to a £150m construction framework. The organisation, which owns and manages 35,000 homes in the North East and Yorkshire, named the trio to deliver its Enhanced Capital Delivery Programme. Equans Regeneration, Esh Construction and Re:Gen Group will deliver construction and management services…

A construction company has been wound up after acting in a “reprehensible manner” that left suppliers £60,000 out of pocket. Ilford-based Nobleread Ltd, which operated two businesses called NB Construction and NB Wholesale, ordered various construction goods on credit, including building materials such as paving, insulation, roof lights and decking.…

Transport secretary Mark Harper will be hoping it is third time lucky, as he takes on the massive task of keeping High Speed 2 on track. As David Cameron’s former chief whip, Harper campaigned in vain for the UK to remain in the EU. Under Boris Johnson’s leadership, the backbencher…

HS2’s decision to use a government electricity framework has cut the price it pays for energy by approximately 10 per cent. The multimillion-pound high-speed rail project opted to use a government framework to buy in the electricity it needs to power machinery used on phase one of the build, which…

The strategic housing authority for Northern Ireland has “mutually agreed” to release 10 contractors from maintenance contracts to save them from potentially falling into administration. In a statement, the Housing Executive confirmed it had reached an agreement with the contractors to free them from the contracts due to the impact…

A leading industry advocate has called for a national retrofit body to be established after “pitiful” figures showed the UK has less than 2 per cent of the skilled workers it needs for a residential energy-efficiency drive. A report published by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) this week revealed that…

McLaren Construction has won a £73m job to build the first phase of a logistics centre in Yorkshire. The contractor will work on the warehouse project as part of a wider project called Konect 62 – a large logistics and industrial scheme that is notable in that it will be…

High interest rates are affecting the viability of construction schemes around the UK, with one council pausing a Morgan Sindall project and another reconsidering its £1bn infrastructure programme. A mixture of recent political turmoil and soaring prices has forced the Bank of England to hike interest rates steeply, with the…

Two component suppliers at the centre of a competition probe have offered to sell certain UK interests to calm fears of rising concrete prices. Swiss firm Sika agreed in November last year to buy Germany’s MBCC for £4.5bn. The pair represent the UK’s two largest suppliers of chemical admixtures, which…