What happened

Clancy, the UK's largest privately owned utilities infrastructure contractor, reported record results for 2025/26 this week: revenue up to 498 million pounds from 429.6 million pounds the year before, pre-tax profit up to 31.7 million pounds from 28 million pounds, and a forward order book of 2.8 billion pounds, its seventh consecutive period of growth, Construction News and the Construction Index reported. The company more than doubled its spending on plant and equipment to 13.4 million pounds over the year and opened a new Clancy Training Academy in Strood, Kent, to train new entrants and upskill its existing workforce.

Clancy works across the water, gas, power and telecoms networks, laying and maintaining the underground and above-ground infrastructure that utility companies rely on, largely through directly employed labour rather than a subcontracted supply chain.

Why it matters

Clancy's growth sits apart from the rest of the sector. The wider UK construction PMI has now spent twenty straight months below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, with housebuilding the weakest part of it. Utilities infrastructure is running to a different cycle: water companies are ramping up spending under the current AMP8 investment period through to 2030, and grid and telecoms upgrades are adding further demand. Clancy's order book is a direct read on how much of that work is now converting into contracts rather than sitting in pipeline documents.

The decision to invest in a dedicated training academy rather than just banking the profit is also notable. Direct employment models like Clancy's carry more fixed cost than subcontracting, which makes sustained investment in training a genuine signal of confidence in future workload, not just a line for the annual results.

What it means for your career

If your patch touches water, gas or power networks, this is one of the clearer hiring signals around at the moment. Clancy's growth points to sustained demand for site managers, commercial and quantity surveying staff, and engineers who can work within a directly employed delivery model, which tends to offer steadier career progression than the subcontract-heavy end of the market.

The new academy in Strood is also worth watching if you are early career or considering a move into utilities from general building or civils. Direct employers investing in structured training routes are a good sign for anyone who wants a clearer path from apprentice or graduate through to commercial or operational management, at a time when many general contractors have pulled back on exactly that kind of investment.