Wates

Wates topped the October contracts league thanks to a big job for the University of Oxford, while the total value of contract wins dropped by £780m. The contractor was confirmed on the £202m Life and Mind Building (pictured), according to construction intelligence provider Glenigan. The research and teaching facility, housing…

Wates Residential has appointed Baerbel Schuett as development director for London and the South. The move is part of an expansion plan by the contractor’s housebuilding arm to expand its presence across the capital, it said in a statement. Last week, Wates group chief executive David Allen revealed in an…

Balfour Beatty has pledged to set diversity targets for its candidates in every job role as part of a Black Lives Matter charter it has signed up to. The contractor has joined organisations including Microsoft, National Grid, the London Stock Exchange and others as a signatory to a diversity charter.…

A major project to build a new innovation centre at the University of Oxford has secured £200m in backing from investment firm Legal & General. The Life and Mind Building is due to open in 2024 and will house the departments of zoology, plant sciences and experimental psychology. It marks…

Wates has been appointed to deliver two phases of a Cardiff development in partnership with the council. The firm’s residential arm will build more than 1,000 new homes as part of phases two and three of the Cardiff Living programme. At least 40 per cent of the homes will be…

Advocates of sustainable construction must ensure the terms they use are understood by those they’re speaking to. Several panellists at Construction News’s Decarbonising Construction online conference warned that the use of jargon can be unhelpful when dealing with supply chains and the wider public, but stressed the need to try…

Wates has been named development partner for Harrow Council’s £600m regeneration programme. The north-west London local authority approved the company as its partner for plans that include a new high street at Wealdstone. It also includes 1,500 new homes, a new civic centre, shops, offices and a school. Harrow Council…

Wates Group has appointed a new managing director for its Smartspace fit-out and refurbishment business. The internal promotion will see Scott Camp (pictured) move up from commercial director on 1 September. The appointment follows a restructuring within the family owned group in July that shifted Smartspace into the Wates Property Services…

Sir Robert McAlpine and Multiplex are the latest contractors to rule out claiming through the Jobs Retention Bonus scheme. Under the programme, firms are entitled to £1,000 for each employee brought back from furlough who remain in the firm’s employment until the end of January. The industry as a whole…

Camden Council is seeking feedback from the market on its plans to retender the recladding and fire safety works at the Chalcots Estate. As previously reported on Construction News, the local authority decided not to go with Wates for the job despite the contractor having worked on the estate on…