News · page 5

By the time it is news, the hiring has already started.

Market moves, contract awards and hiring signals across UK construction, and what each one means for your career.

Saturday 5 September

News

Graham's Manchester tower clears its last gate. Site hiring starts now

Graham has Building Safety Regulator sign-off to start main construction on a £286m, 2,302-bed student scheme in Manchester. For anyone in high-rise residential or PBSA, this is where the next four years of site jobs are landing.

What it means This is a concrete, four-year hiring signal in one place: site management, structural and groundworks supervisors, and commercial staff with high-rise residential experience should have Manchester on their radar now, as the main build…

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Friday 4 September

Highways

Balfour Beatty's £120m Leeds ring road deal locks in seven years of work

Leeds City Council has made Balfour Beatty sole contractor on a seven-year, £120m renewal of the city's inner ring road, covering 135 structures including bridges and tunnels. It's the kind of long-run commitment that's rare in local authority highways work.

What it means This is a genuine multi-year pipeline rather than a one-off scheme, which changes the calculation for anyone weighing up a move.

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News

Costain's H1 results show a £7bn pipeline shifting from design to site

Costain's half-year results put its forward work position at a record £7bn, with major projects now moving out of design and into construction. For engineers currently sat in the design phase of infrastructure programmes, that shift is where the hiring happens next.

What it means If you've spent the past couple of years in a design, feasibility or early-contractor-involvement role on a water, highways or nuclear framework, this is the point where those programmes start pulling people onto site.

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Housing

Top housebuilders' completion forecasts are down 16,000 homes. Who's cutting

Bloomberg Intelligence analysis shows England's top six housebuilders now expected to complete around 16,000 fewer homes across 2026 and 2027 than forecast at the end of 2024, with Vistry and Berkeley hit hardest while Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey hold up better. Which employer you choose now matters more than usual.

What it means If you're weighing a move between housebuilders, ask about live site starts and forward land pipeline rather than relying on headline turnover or brand reputation, because that's where the Vistry-versus-Persimmon gap actually shows up for…

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Thursday 3 September

News

Gilbert-Ash's £40m RIBA HQ job is a marker for listed-building retrofit skills

Gilbert-Ash has secured the £40m main contract to restore RIBA's Grade II* headquarters at 66 Portland Place, a pilot for the UK's new Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. For anyone with listed-building and net-zero retrofit experience, this is the kind of project that gets you noticed.

What it means If you are a quantity surveyor, project manager or services engineer with listed-building experience, this is the kind of project worth watching and, if you get the chance, worth being on.

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Healthcare

Tilbury Douglas hands over Arrowe Park's new A&E after a four-phase live build

Tilbury Douglas has handed over a new urgent and emergency care facility at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, built in four phases without closing the existing A&E. It's a reminder that healthcare estates keep spending even when other sectors slow.

What it means If you are a project manager, site manager or M&E engineer with experience delivering inside live, occupied clinical environments, this is exactly the kind of reference project that gets you shortlisted for the next hospital scheme…

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RailFollow-up

HS2 brings in a Transpennine veteran as its reset nears completion

HS2 has appointed Neil Holm, formerly of the Transpennine Route Upgrade and BAE Systems, as chief programme officer, a sign that the project's long reset is entering its final stretch. The delivery phase that follows will need people who can run large programmes and manage supplier risk.

What it means If your background is in major programme delivery, particularly on rail or other complex infrastructure where a leadership reset has forced suppliers to take on more risk, HS2's continuing rebuild is worth tracking closely.

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Wednesday 2 September

Tuesday 1 September

Data centres

£100bn UK data centre pipeline is quietly reshaping construction jobs

A Barbour ABI analysis finds more than £100bn of UK data centre construction working its way toward contractors. Here is where the M&E-heavy demand is landing, and what it means for anyone weighing a move into the sector.

What it means Data centres are M&E-heavy builds, and the scarcest skills on them are not the ones a traditional commercial or residential contractor carries as standard.

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News

Construction leads a first hiring uptick in two years, REC data shows

KPMG and REC's UK Report on Jobs for August shows temporary vacancies rising for the first time in two years, with construction trades and engineering leading the gains. What the data means if you are weighing a move now.

What it means If you are a site manager, quantity surveyor or engineer thinking about a move, expect more contract and interim roles to appear before permanent vacancies open up in volume.

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Insolvency

Devonshire Homes collapse leaves subcontractors £35m short

The West Country housebuilder's administration papers show £35m owed to unsecured creditors, with subcontractors expected to receive nothing. Here's what the collapse signals for regional housebuilding and the QSs working in it.

What it means If you are commercial or QS staff at a regional housebuilder or its supply chain, this is a moment to look hard at your employer's cash position and payment terms, not just the order book.

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Housing

Orbit's £1.6bn repairs deal opens 15 years of regional housing work

Orbit has launched a combined £1.6bn procurement programme for planned repairs, retrofit and compliance work across five English regions. Here is what the framework means for QSs, PMs and retrofit specialists over the next decade.

What it means Whoever wins these regional lots will need to build delivery teams well before the April 2028 start date, which means recruitment activity through 2027 in each of the five regions.

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Sunday 30 August

News

Morgan Sindall creates new Home Counties unit, reshuffles London team

Morgan Sindall Construction has split its Home Counties business in two and handed out four senior director appointments across London and the South East. For anyone working that patch, it is a live example of where the next wave of regional leadership roles will open.

What it means If you are a commercial manager, senior QS or project director working in or around London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Kent or Sussex, this reshuffle is worth watching closely.

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Nuclear

Sizewell C's three-year deal with Rullion signals 1,500 apprenticeships

Sizewell C has appointed recruitment firm Rullion to run its early careers programme as the nuclear project builds toward roughly 1,500 apprenticeships during construction. It is one of the clearest hiring signals in the sector right now, for entrants and for the experienced staff who will supervise them.

What it means If you are early in your career, or advising someone who is, a structured, well funded apprenticeship and graduate scheme attached to a project with a multi decade build programme is about as close to a guaranteed runway as construction…

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News

Kishorn Port's £30m quay contract opens a Scottish offshore wind route

Kishorn Port in Wester Ross is preparing to procure a £30m contract for a new deep water quay, the next phase of an expansion aimed at offshore wind and decommissioning work. For contractors and site teams with marine or civils experience, it is an early marker of a tender worth watching.

What it means This is a shortlist process, not yet a contract award, but it is worth flagging now for anyone with marine or heavy civils experience: piling engineers, marine civils project managers, and QSs who have worked on quay, jetty or dock schemes.

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Saturday 29 August

Housing

Hill's £1.5bn Lewisham deal is a decade of guaranteed housing work

Lewisham Council has named Hill Group its long-term development partner on a scheme worth up to £1.5bn over ten years. For anyone working in London affordable housing, that is a rare thing right now: visibility.

What it means If you are a QS, project manager, or site manager with affordable housing or regeneration experience, this is the kind of appointment worth tracking directly rather than waiting for it to show up as an open vacancy.

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Data centres

Private equity buys into Phoenix ME: data centre M&E is where the money's going

H.I.G. Capital has completed its acquisition of Phoenix ME, a UK mechanical and electrical engineering specialist serving data centres and life sciences. When a $75bn investment firm buys an M&E contractor, it is worth asking why, and what it means for anyone in that trade.

What it means If you are an M&E engineer, project manager or commercial lead with data centre or life sciences experience, or even adjacent experience in cleanroom, pharma or highly serviced commercial buildings, this is one of several signs that…

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Friday 28 August

Highways

National Highways' £8bn maintenance reset opens roles to 2037

National Highways has launched the tender for its next roads maintenance framework, worth up to £8bn and running to 2037. It reshapes who holds the work and opens a long run of highways roles across England.

What it means Between now and 26 October, bid teams at every current area contractor will be under pressure: commercial managers, estimators and highways engineers building the case for each of the seven lots.

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Insolvency

Mansell's collapse warns MMC steel frame subbies to check their books

An Oldham light gauge steel frame specialist has filed to appoint administrators just six months after opening a bigger factory. It's a reminder that scaling up doesn't shield a subcontractor from a slow market.

What it means If you're a commercial manager or QS at one of Mansell's main contractor clients, check your exposure to its packages now rather than waiting for a formal administration notice, and have a second-source steel frame supplier lined up.

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