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Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her Budget speech to announce more than £1bn for cladding remediation, alongside further billions to support housebuilding. Government investment in removing unsafe cladding, including new funds for social housing remediation, will exceed £1bn in 2025/2026, budget documents show. Construction News understands the investment will be spread…

A £2.3bn boost to prison building was included in the government’s Budget announcement today (30 October). The Treasury’s budget document said the investment in “prison expansion” covers the current fiscal year plus 2025/26. This will ensure thousands of new prison places will become available by 2026, with the under-construction HMP…

The New Hospital Programme will switch its focus to facilities containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), the government has announced. The Budget committed to continuing the major hospital programme but no longer aims to deliver 40 hospitals by 2030. Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the House of Commons that health secretary…

The government has announced billions in new funding for green energy projects next year, but experts have raised concerns over grid connections. In early October, the government announced a £21.7bn investment over 25 years in carbon capture projects based in Teesside and Merseyside. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget today (30 October)…

HS2 will run to Euston Station, the Labour government confirmed today, but it remained tight-lipped on any plans to pay for the London high-speed rail terminus with public money. In her first budget since becoming chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves confirmed on Wednesday (30 October) that HS2 will run…

The government has announced a 1.2 percentage point rise in employers’ national insurance (NI) contributions, but has taken measures to protect small businesses from the rise. In today’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves said that the employers’ NI rate will increase to 15 per cent from April next year. In addition,…

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the construction sector intensified before today's Budget, with multiple deals announced. These include CN 100 firms, a Nordic cladding group and an AIM-listed housebuilding specialist. One expert told Construction News that he believed "100 per cent" that the  flurry of M&A activity reflects concerns…

A materials shortage could stymie government plans for housing and infrastructure growth without quick action, according to the Construction Leadership Council (CLC). A statement from John Newcomb and Peter Caplehorn, co-chairs of the CLC’s Material Supply Chain Group, said that product availability was currently “good”, despite higher demand for bricks…

Graham has signed on the dotted line to build an academy in Kent for more than 2,200 children. The contractor will build the new Alkerden Academy for £80m on a site measuring 11.1 hectares in Ebbsfleet Garden City. As both a primary and secondary school, it will have capacity for…

The wife of Morgan Sindall chief executive John Morgan has sold almost £450,000 of shares in the company. Rosalind Morgan disposed of 11,543 ordinary shares at £38.90 apiece on 24 October as a “person closely associated with John Morgan”, the tier one contractor stated today in a regulatory announcement to…