Legal

An Essex developer that showed a “total disregard” for its workers’ safety has been hit by a £63,000 fine, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced. Nine enforcement notices were served against Nofax Enterprises Ltd, including five prohibition notices, after the regulator said it found “multiple failures” at a…

Squibb Group’s liquidators say they have had “significant difficulty” finding millions of pounds worth of plant and other assets the firm said it owned before it went under. The contractor was wound up in the High Court in December 2023 following an aborted attempt to save the firm. In their…

McLaren Construction has won a case over a £7.9m debt owed to it by a former chairman of Southend United Football Club and his development company. The contractor served statutory demands on Ron Martin and his company Martin Dawn plc to pay the money, which related to a loan agreement…

A fire safety court case brought against Galliford Try could establish how far construction firms’ sister and parent companies can be held liable for defect costs. Taylor Wimpey is suing Galliford Try Infrastructure over alleged fire safety issues at a development built by Morrison Construction, which Galliford Try acquired in…

A court has fined a scaffolding specialist for safety failings on a site where a worker sustained injuries that led to his death. A.I.M Access Solutions was ordered to pay a £30,800 penalty and £5,040.75 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety laws, the Health and Safety…

Two directors of a Liverpool building firm are among 12 people, including the city’s former mayor, who will appear in court after being charged in relation to the award of contracts by the city council. In a statement, Merseyside Police said that all of the charges had been brought following…

A judge has ordered failed contractor Hadden Construction to pay axed staff 90 days’ income after it breached employment laws. Scottish employment tribunal judge Ian McFatridge ruled that the Perthshire firm had failed to comply with its employee-consultation obligations under trade union and labour relations law. Hadden Construction announced on…

A High Court ruling has denied a housebuilder access to details of a contractor’s sister companies’ assets before liability is decided in an £85m building defects case. A judge last week ruled that three Ardmore companies do not have to surrender financial information and other documents to BDW Trading, Barratt…

A consultant has been sent to jail after funding a gambling habit with £700,000 defrauded from four construction firms before they went bust. Wesley Grainger-Smith, 66, of Gainsborough Road, Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison by a judge at Lincoln Crown Court, the Insolvency…

The government faces significant hurdles to using the Procurement Act to ban Grenfell-linked firms from public sector contracts, according to legal experts. Last week, the government said that seven firms would be investigated for a complete debarment from public contracts using “new powers” under the Procurement Act, which itself came…