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Anyone who’s ever had a rodent infestation at home will understand the headache it causes – but if you thought that was bad enough, imagine facing an invasion from rats at your construction site. It’s a nightmare situation all too familiar to the Belgian officials responsible for opening new road tunnels in Brussels. Earlier this year, they claimed progress had been halted after rats ate construction plans. Whilst this does sound like a very extreme and public use of the classic ‘sorry, the dog ate my homework’ excuse, it also accurately points out one of the biggest issues that arises from pest control problems on a building site – namely, delays. As rats and mice struggle to find shelter and food, they’ll happily gnaw their way through …

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Builders’ merchant Travis Perkins is closing more than 30 branches due to an “uncertain” market outlook. The building supplies giant said the closures would result in an exceptional charge of £50m as it issued a profit warning to the city in a trading update. John Carter, Chief Executive, said: “Our Plumbing & Heating results were disappointing and whilst market conditions have worsened, we are not satisfied with our performance and will commence reviewing these operations. “It is still too early to predict customer demand in 2017 with certainty and we will continue to monitor our lead indicators closely. “Given this uncertainty we will be closing over 30 branches and making further efficiency driven changes in the supply chain, resulting in an exceptional charge of £40-50 million this year. “We…

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Plans to build a 52-storey skyscraper at the former Granada studios site in Manchester city centre have been approved. The tallest building in Allied London’s redevelopment at St John’s will rise to 168.4m – just half a metre shorter than Beetham Tower in Deansgate. Nadler Hotel plans to operate from the 18 lower storeys with private rented flats above. The 3.2-acre site around the Old Granada Studios complex sits in the northern part of the wider 13-acre St John’s £1.3bn regeneration scheme, which includes several more high rise buildings. Other buildings for the Globe & Simpson site granted development approval include a neighbouring eight-storey aparthotel, an 18-storey residential building and a four-storey residential building. St. John’s Place is due for completion at the end of 2018. Once completed, the wider St…

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Firefighters battled  a huge blaze through the night on Sunday after the timber frame of high rise flats under construction in Manchester caught fire. Crews were called to the site in Gorton. At the height of the incident five fire engines were in attendance and local houses had to be evacuated due to the heat. Incident Commander Ben Levy said: “At around five past eight this evening we received a large number of call, in excess of forty. “The fire involves a large timber frame building and upon arrival our crews found the top two floors well alight. A night vision shot showing the extent of the blaze “Given the fact it’s timber framed and open to the elements the fire spread quite quickly”. Fire crews managed…

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Clients could face a tax of 0.5% of construction costs if they choose contractors who don’t invest in research and development or skills training. That is one of the ideas in a radical review of the construction industry currently being pored over by Government ministers who commissioned it. The Farmer Review of the UK Construction Labour Model warns the industry faces “inexorable decline” unless major changes are made. It highlights construction’s “dysfunctional training model”, lack of innovation and collaboration and “non-existent research and development culture.” Author and consultant Mark Farmer said the needs of construction firms and the clients who hire them are out of step. He said: “If you buy a new car, you expect it to have been built in a factory to …

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The Government needs to fire-up a massive school building programme to deliver more than 2,000 schools in England by 2020 to meet booming pupil numbers. Over 24,000 extra classrooms required in the next four years The depth of the country’s school places crisis has been thrown into the spotlight in new research for public sector procurement specialist Scape Group. Local authorities now predict the number of primary and secondary school pupils will swell by an extra 729,000 by 2020. To meet this demand the Government needs a radical rethink of it school building programme. This would include setting new targets to build 1,744 primary schools and 378 secondary schools in the next four years. This equates to two new schools every day to meet the shortfall. More than 500 of these would be needed in London alone to head off…

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Stirling-based Robertson Group is predicting main contractors will have to rebalance margins as project bank accounts become commonplace on public sector work in Scotland. Chairman Bill Robertson predicted a fundamental business model shift as he unveiled another year of strong profit growth to March 2016. He predicted further upward pressure for healthier main contractor margins would result from greater involvement of private sector funders in the industry. Robertson said: “Due to the changing source of funders in our market the group board believes that healthier margins in our sector will be a requirement of participation by funders to major projects and businesses. “Our group companies therefore will continually focus on a growing return on capital and improving risk profile in our projects in preference to growth in volume. “Indeed, in construction, if the intended …

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The Government is pledging £5bn of public money to accelerate building of tens of thousands of homes. Under the latest plan to galvanise the house building industry, ministers will set aside £2bn of new public borrowing to fund an Accelerated Construction Scheme to make public land with planning permission available to builders. A further £3bn home building fund using previously-announced cash will provide loans to stimulate new building projects where finances are tight. Builders will be encouraged through these funding pots to use more modern building techniques in the hope of delivering homes twice as quickly. Also new rules will be introduced to make it easier for developers to demolish offices and replace them with residential housing on a like-for-like basis. Local planning authorities will be able …

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The Scottish Government is introducing project bank accounts on public work projects to protect subcontractors from insolvency and payment abuse. Subcontractors on the Royal Hospital for sick children called for project bank accounts after the collapse of Dunne Group last month From 31 October, project bank accounts will be a tender requirement on building projects over £4m and civil engineering projects valued over £10m. The Scottish Government has been co-ordinating trials for a couple of years and contractors received the first project bank account payment from NHS Lanarkshire on two work packages worth £1.4m at Monklands Hospital several years ago. The payment was made under the NHS Frameworks Scotland 2 agreement with Graham Construction. Other schemes where the payments were trialled include Transport Scotland’s Inveramsay Bridge project…

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Crossrail workers have slammed site welfare conditions after having to walk two miles to use a toilet. One worker said: “It’s an absolute joke down there – how can you run a major project like this making people walk for two miles to use the loo? “We haven’t had a mobile toilet in the tunnel down here for weeks now. “We have to walk all the way to Tottenham Court Road which is two miles away.” Workers are also unhappy about a lack of canteens and a site access system described as “chaotic”. Another source said: “There’s only one turnstile to get on site in some places so the queues are chaotic. “You have to leave early to try and beat the rush and lose out…

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