News

Recriminations over the collapsed deal to sell ISG have broken out between the contractor and the firm that had been negotiating to buy it. The disagreement over the reasons for the failed sale came after Construction News last night broke the news that six ISG companies had applied to enter…

A Wakefield-based contractor has been fined £150,000 after an elderly client fell through an unguarded hole at his house.  According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Cooper and Westgate was converting Kenneth Armitage’s bathroom into a wet room when it left an unguarded hole in the floor after removing…

Specialists in health projects and fire safety testing have announced new roles in the construction industry. Firms revealed they had made strategic appointments to enable them to bid for new business in new areas. Life science project developments to build scientific research facilities are increasing and this was cited among…

Six UK subsidiaries of the country's sixth largest contractor ISG - including ISG Construction - have applied to enter administration. Following months of speculation, which reached a crescendo online in recent days, the subsidiaries of the £2.2bn contractor filed court applications this afternoon. Parent company ISG Ltd has so far…

Morgan Sindall has been appointed to build a £60m secondary school in Cardiff.  The UK’s second-largest contractor has already carried out enabling works at the Willows High School site on Lewis Road in Splott, to the east of Cardiff’s city centre.  But the company has now been locked in for…

The government has announced a fresh “crackdown” on late payment, with measures including broader reporting rules, a Fair Payment Code and consultation on “tough new laws”.  While large companies are already obliged to report on their pay performance, the government has said new legislation “introduced in the comings weeks” will…

Blenheim House directors believed a reputation-damaging legal claim from one of its clients prevented it from winning new work in the run-up to its collapse, administrators have revealed. The firm went under in July this year. It had already racked up losses of around £11.7m on three problem jobs when…

An NHS trust has paused a £50m energy centre build after it deemed the prices contractors offered too high. In 2022, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust offered contractors the chance to bid for a new energy centre that would provide heat and power to its hospitals. A notice published…

Homes England has published a pipeline of major works worth over £200m. The pipeline, which is the first published under the new Labour government, and the first since February, details all projects planned for the next 18 months. It covers £210.2m worth of work, some starting as soon as November…

ISG paid £300,000 to subcontractor Alucraft Systems in a last-ditch attempt to save it from administration, Construction News can reveal.  But the glazing and facades specialist collapsed in March nonetheless.  The £300,000 payment in March this year was meant to shore up Alucraft as it struggled under the weight of…