Supply Chain

The firm that produced the combustible cladding panels which helped spread the Grenfell Tower fire will not attend an event for survivors and bereaved, according to a report. Later this month, Grenfell Testimony Week is set to feature speakers testifying about their experiences of the tragedy and is part of…

Diarmaid Connolly is project director at construction consultancy Linesight The rise in AI technology and applications like ChatGPT is creating a boom in the digital infrastructure market, but the growing demand for data centres brings with it a heightened strain on supply chains.  Recent volatility in energy and material prices…

The chief executive of the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has resigned after less than half a year in post. The appointment of Stu McInroy, former head of the Road Safety Markings Association and National Pawnbrokers Association, was announced last January and he started the job in June 2023. However, this…

Peers have accused the government of acting too slowly on cash retentions, as a minister shut down suggestions that there should be a statutory ban on the practice. Export minister Lord Offord of Garvel argued against suggestions from peers to increase government intervention in eliminating cash retentions. Retention payments – typically…

A plant-hire company has successfully challenged HM Revenue and Customs over value-added tax on red diesel, a decision its trade association has said could have far-reaching consequences for the industry. Glasgow-based GAP Group appealed HMRC’s decision to tax the red diesel in its plant machinery from March 2017 to March…

L&G is suing a contractor, architect and structural engineer over alleged defects at an Aberdeen city centre office block. The seven storey Union Plaza building, currently let to several companies including Deloitte, was built by Stewart Milne Group and completed in 2008. It was owned by a Stewart Milne Group…

Paul Reeve is director of corporate social responsibility at the Electrical Contractors' Association Designers and other professionals across the built environment are steadily improving the measurement of embodied carbon in their construction specifications. But now, engineering-services contractors tendering for public sector and commercial work are also being asked about the…

HMRC has criticised the behaviour of two insolvency practitioners who oversaw an aborted attempt to save Squibb Group in the run-up to its demise. Louise Baxter and Dominik Thiel-Czerwinke, from insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, had been nominated to implement a proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that would have created a…

Demolition firm Squibb Group was wound up in the High Court this morning, bringing to an end 75 years of trading. The axe fell during a hearing in the Insolvency and Companies Court that had originally been due to hear an application for administration submitted by the firm’s directors. However,…

More than four in five specialists say that late payments from main contractors have impacted their mental health, according to Construction News’ payment survey. The figure is revealed today in the the results of a major survey by CN of construction subcontractors’ experiences of retentions and payment practices. The survey,…