Legal

An MP has suggested that issues around the Didcot Power Station collapse have been “kicked into the long grass” as the investigation into the incident drags on. On 23 February 2016, the boiler house at the decommissioned Oxfordshire facility collapsed, with Michael Collings, 53, found dead shortly afterwards. The bodies…

Marks & Spencer has launched legal action against the government’s decision to block its controversial redevelopment in Oxford Street, central London. Operations director Sacha Berendji said that housing secretary Michael Gove had “wrongly interpreted and applied planning policy” in rejecting the retailer’s plans to demolish and rebuild its flagship store…

A judge has ruled that a £4m legal battle between Berkeley Homes and John Sisk & Son should be heard in more detail, after Berkeley failed in an attempt to bring the case under a fast-track procedure. The case centres on who is responsible for design flaws on three bridges…

Clients will be required to appoint a main contractor on high-risk tower blocks before a building-control approval application is made, the government has confirmed. The government announced its intention to press ahead with the move in a response to a year-long consultation on changes to building regulations aimed at improving…

Buildings will be split into three categories, each with separate rules on when building work is deemed to have started, under an amendment to regulations. Last week, the government laid a raft of amendments to Building Regulations following a year-long consultation after the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022.…

Construction company directors who abused bounce-back loans during the pandemic have been issued with 227 years-worth of bans in the past three months, an analysis by Construction News has found. The Insolvency Service issued the disqualifications to 26 directors of building firms that either overstated their turnover to obtain a…

A construction firm has agreed an out-of-court settlement with a Scottish Government agency over a funicular railway that had to be closed 17 years after construction due to safety concerns. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) announced this week that it will receive £11m relating to two separate claims. The first…

Henry Construction Projects was served with nine notices from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in its last weeks of trading, Construction News can reveal. The collapsed contractor was targeted for repeated inspections by the HSE because of its poor safety performance, with inspectors issuing the nine notices between 16-26…

Two contractors fined a combined £22m for taking part in the demolition sector’s cover-bidding scandal have lodged appeals, claiming the competition watchdog made errors over defining the relevant market. In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined Keltbray, Squibb Group and eight other firms it found had colluded on…

The trade body for the demolition industry has condemned the knocking down of the 18th century Crooked House pub in Staffordshire. The building in Himley, described as “Britain’s wonkiest pub”, was pulled down with an excavator on 7 August, two days after fire which the police are treating as suspected…