Consultants

Atkins profit rises 17 per cent

Atkins_office_building

Profit at Atkins has grown by 17 per cent, its latest accounts show. The consultant posted pre-tax profit of £58.3m, up by £8.6m on the previous year’s figure of £49.7m. Its annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 also show that revenue reached £1.01bn, a…

Mott MacDonald leadership changes as Haigh exits

JamesHarris-CathyTravers-300x200.png

Mott MacDonald has announced a shakeup of its senior leadership team amid the departure of its long-serving executive chair, Mike Haigh. Haigh, who has worked for the global engineering, management and development consultancy for 42 years, will be replaced by James Harris. Meanwhile, Cathy Travers becomes group managing director, stepping…

Consultants appointed for £200m Belfast university deal

Queens-University-Belfast-300x200.jpg

Three major construction consultancies have been named on a £200m deal to build innovation centres for Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Arcadis, Turner & Townsend and Faithful+Gould will provide project management, design and construction services as part of the contract win. Arcadis has been appointed to work on the…

Mace appoints regional directors as it targets work around the UK

Sarah-Morton-lucy-namihas-mace-300x200.jpg

Mace has appointed new regional directors for south-west England and the north. The construction firm has named Sarah Morton as director for the north and Lucy Namihas as director for the south-west region. Morton joined Mace’s consultancy business last year and led the managed frameworks team, working closely with national…

Faithful & Gould provide cladding advice – despite legal dispute

Chalcots Estate Camden_credit Julian Osley_Geograph

Faithful & Gould is actively providing advice on remediating unsafe cladding on 187 buildings, despite being sued for approving the use of combustible materials on a London estate. The Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has allocated £600m for the removal of dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding…

Residential jobs behind booming work in cities

Manchester-Circle-Square_-Bruntwood_660-300x200.jpg

Construction activity in major regional cities grew in 2021 thanks to a boom in residential work. The Deloitte regional crane survey found that 72 construction projects were started in 2021 – up from 53 the year before – in Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. The survey counts residential schemes larger…

Rise of automation could ‘widen skills gap’

CN-Summit-21_lara-potter-300x200.jpg

The rise of automation in the construction industry could lead to a widening skills gap, a leading consultant has warned. Arcadis UK director of workforce for the future Lara Potter said the built environment needs a new culture of upskilling to deal with the anticipated changes that automation could bring…

Irish Sea link: £335bn bridge and £209bn tunnel ‘impossible to justify’

Boris-Johnson_parliament_2020_2-300x200.jpg

The cost of building prime minister Boris Johnson’s mooted transport link between Northern Ireland and Scotland is “impossible to justify” an official review has found. An investigation by professors Douglas Oakervee and Gordon Masterton, with support from consultants Jacobs and COWI, commissioned by the government, has concluded that building either…

How to maximise what you get from construction frameworks

9395_Construction-activity-site-cranes-projects-e1567160582677-300x200.jpg

Frameworks are a key part of the construction industry – one in which clients and supply partners are equally keen to get more out of the relationship, and to better manage opportunities and risks. Join our Construction News and Opportuni webinar on 14 December at 11am to hear perspectives from…

Systra hires former Aspin CEO as ops director

Graeme Castle

Systra has appointed former Aspin Group chief executive Graeme Castle as its new operations director for the UK and Ireland. The French multi-national transport engineering firm announced the appointment today, and said Castle will take charge of major rail projects including the TransPennine Route Upgrade, East Coast Power Supply upgrade…