Graham has been appointed to all three of the delivery focused collaborative partner lots on Pagabo's £4.3bn Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Enabling Works framework, Construction Enquirer and New Civil Engineer reported this week, making it the only firm to secure a collaborative partner role across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Costain takes the sustainability focused collaborative partner lot and M Group the quality focused one, with the framework due to formally start this month.

The appointments complete the top tier of a framework that Pagabo and procurement body YPO first opened to suppliers in September, when 109 firms were confirmed across 13 lots covering highways, rail, water, energy, defence, demolition and enabling works. The framework runs for four years, from October 2026 to September 2030, and is open to public sector bodies across the UK. Twenty contractors in total have secured core positions in its top value band, for works of £30m and above.

Why it matters

Collaborative partner status is the senior tier of a framework like this: it typically means first refusal on the largest and most complex jobs let through it, and an expectation of more intensive early involvement in scoping and design. Graham's clean sweep across all three delivery lots and all four nations gives it a wide geographic base from which to bid, while Costain and M Group's sector specific roles point to where Pagabo expects the toughest delivery challenges, namely meeting carbon and quality standards on live infrastructure.

For the public bodies using the framework, from highways authorities to water companies and defence estates, it removes years of individual procurement exercises and should speed up how quickly jobs reach site. For the construction market, a four year, multi billion pound pipeline with a confirmed top tier of contractors gives a reasonably clear picture of where civils workload is heading through to 2030.

What it means for careers and hiring

This is good news specifically for people with civils experience across highways, rail enabling works, water and defence estates, since those are the sectors the framework spans. Graham's position across all three delivery lots and all four UK nations means its site and commercial teams are likely to need to flex across regions, which could open relocation or multi site opportunities for project managers, site managers and planners willing to move with the work.

Costain and M Group's sustainability and quality lots point to specific skills gaps worth filling now: carbon reporting and whole life carbon assessment for the former, and quality assurance and compliance roles for the latter, both still in short supply relative to demand across UK civils. Commercial managers and quantity surveyors with NEC4 experience, particularly on framework call off arrangements, should also find this a useful reference point when a Pagabo administered job appears on a bid list, since the top tier contractors are now known and the regional lot winners give a sense of who else will be competing for the mid sized work.