Long reads

With three large employee-owned companies entering administration in the past year, CN asks if the model has inherent weaknesses Buckingham Group, Readie Construction and Michael J Lonsdale are among the biggest contractors to have gone under in the past 12 months. Factors identified by directors of these firms include inflation,…

Asbestos was banned 25 years ago, yet thousands are still dying as a result of its presence. CN examines the long legacy of the former go-to building material and whether enough is being done about the dangers it poses today Roofer Liam Bradley and his co-workers had just finished removing…

The construction industry lacks robust data on falls from height – an issue causing trauma beyond the physical. CN talks to a charity that is looking to fill the gap Last year construction workers were more likely to die falling from work at height than doing any other activity. And…

Construction News looks at the technological innovations that are helping make work at height safer How the world has changed. In October 1932, the above photograph, entitled Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, was published in a New York newspaper. It depicted eleven ironworkers sitting on a steel beam some 260 metres…

A lower-risk, two-stage tendering approach has become dominant in the past decade. Will it continue? There was a time when single-stage contracting was the only game in town. “When I started my career 40 years ago, contractors didn’t really get involved with design, they were just presented with a finished…

Council-funded projects face an uncertain future as a once-steady source of work for contractors comes under financial strain. Keith Cooper reports Local authority-led projects to develop, remodel and maintain estates of town halls, leisure centres – and everything in between – feed a steady stream of work for contractors. Councils…

With less than two months to go, the new system for registering the competence of building-control inspectors appears to be in chaos. Construction News investigates How easy is it to make the move from an unregulated profession to a regulated one? When it comes to building inspectors, we’re about to…

Despite short-term uncertainty and the HS2 cutback, there is no shortage of infrastructure work in the pipeline In September, as speculation around HS2 mounted, the leaders of 21 businesses wrote to prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt, urging them to commit to the second phase of the megaproject,…

Client collaboration and stronger pipelines of work are key to solving an intractable workforce recruitment problem that continues to plague the industry, finds Mark Smulian On the panel Sylvia Cashman, senior manager, Mace Group Richie Hales, director, Turner & Townsend Ruth Hutchison, communications for major projects, Sellafield Ltd Elliott Murphy,…

Which individuals are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the year ahead? Michael Gove Having served under four successive prime ministers and survived numerous media scandals, the Teflon-like housing secretary is sure to play a major role in yet another pre-election year. Among the planning policies…