Contractor news
Contractors hold crisis talks over BESNA dispute
Meeting follows Balfour Beatty’s U-turn in industrial relations dispute
Call for Bank of England help for housebuilding
CPA says quantitative easing cash could be put into new homes
Profit falls 12% at Morgan Sindall
Increasing competition sees contractor income down despite rising revenue
MoD launches £4.4bn estates management procurement
Defence Infrastructure Organisation asks for expressions of interest from contractors
SMEs squeezed out by main contractors
Smaller construction firms have said they are struggling to compete with main contractors
Top 150 league table
Top 150 Contractors and Housebuilders 2011
Looking at recent trading updates you’d be forgiven for thinking that the industry was on the road to recovery. But there’s a few big hurdles to jump over yet, and this will take some time. Martin Hewes’ annual league tables of the UK’s top contractors and housebuilders show exactly how far we have to go and who’s getting ahead
Features
High Speed 2: Jobs on the line
HS2 has got off to a speedy start by appointing its first-phase consultants in just three weeks. But the real wow-factor of this mega-project is that it could employ thousands of construction workers over more than two decades. Building assesses the opportunities ahead
Predictions for 2012: The year of the groundhog
So what does 2012 have in store? Well, there’s the Olympics, of course, and some potentially interesting developments in nuclear power and infrastructure. But mostly it will be a year of battening down the hatches. There will be recklessly low bids for work, some firms will go under, others will seek refuge in emerging Asian markets. Hang on, this all sounds very familiar …
Interviews
Mott Macdonald's Keith Howells: 'It's a bit like star wars'
How should the UK’s largest independent consultant respond to the ‘evil Empire’ of consolidated corporations taking over the market? Mott MacDonald chairman Keith Howells tells Building about the company’s plans to strike back. Tom Campbell photography
Ingrid Skinner: First we take West Hampstead
Ingrid Skinner has big plans to turn Taylor Wimpey’s fledgling London division into a £100m-turnover business - and all without leaving Zone 2. She talks to Building. Photography by Anthony Lycett
LOCOG's James Bulley: The fall guy
As LOCOG’s head of venues and infrastructure, James Bulley has just six months to install 200,000 temporary seats, put up 76 miles of fencing, finish the hockey stadium, weed the rowing lake … and take the rap if anything goes wrong. So why is he so calm? Building finds out. Portrait David Woolfall
Charles McBeath on Ramboll growth: Why stop now?
For Charles McBeath, head of Ramboll UK, the secret to growth is acquisition and last year he doubled the size of his company by acquiring engineering firm Gifford, boosting turnover from £35m to £58m. But that, he tells Building, was just for starters
