Category: Contractions

The £120m green refit of Goldman Sachs’ former European HQ on Fleet Street is getting underway for a mid-2024 finish.

Mace Interiors will remodel the 11-storey Peterborough Court building to create nearly 300,000 sq ft of Grade A workspace and ground floor retail.

The design strategy for the refurbishment of the iconic building has been driven by focusing on retention of fabric and structural elements, maximising lettable area and improving the energy efficiency of building operations to create a market leading offer for tenants.

It will feature transformed Fleet Street and Shoe Lane building entrances, a long gallery entrance with new glazing, and redesigned interiors aligned to the highest sustainability standards, health and wellness and dual-feed, 100% ‘All-Electric’ technology.

The focus on wellbeing will see the creation of outdoor spaces for office staff. (Picture courtesy of property agent JLL)

Stewart Ward, managing director of Mace Interiors, said the building would

Jakub Fischer, a self-employed labourer, was hired as a subcontractor by North West Facilities Limited to work on a house refurbishment project for Thorndyke Developments Limited on Mansell Road, Liverpool.

The 41-year-old, who was originally from the Czech Republic, was tasked with demolishing a rear yard wall dividing the property from the neighbouring house on 5 June 2019.

That day, other workers on the job left the site at 3.30pm but when a neighbour returned home from work at around 5.40pm they saw Fischer trapped between an outer kitchen wall and a collapsed section of the yard wall. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services.

An HSE investigation found the demolition work was not planned nor accounted for in the construction phase plan. No risk assessment or method statement was provided and Fischer was not trained to carry out safe demolition.

There was also a lack of

The 62-year-old registered-blind resident of Hanover Court, a sheltered housing development in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, suffered injuries to his left leg in the fall on February 19, 2020.

The manhole at the sheltered housing development had been left open by A & R Services while a blockage was being cleared.

An HSE investigation found that A & R Services failed to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk posed by the open manhole.

The company had failed to put in place barriers, signage or other protective measures to prevent anyone from accessing the pathway leading to the open manhole.

In addition, other than leaning the manhole cover against a door, no signage, barriers, guarding or other protective measures were put in place to prevent pedestrians from falling into the manhole while using the door.

A & R Services, of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined

This latest appointment builds on the Group’s newly-formed Responsible Business team and underlines its commitment to sustainably delivering infrastructure which is vital to the UK.

Baker, who has joined from contractor Careys where she was also sustainability lead, will be responsible for delivering Kier Construction’s targets.

These include achieving net zero carbon across business operations by 2039, eliminating avoidable waste by 2035, the delivery of 30p in every £ of impactful social value.

Before joining Careys two years ago, she worked at Sir Robert McAlpine for 12 years rising to the role of director for Safety, Sustainability, Health, Environment and Quality.

Louisa Finlay, managing director of Clients and Markets at Kier Construction, said: “Sustainably delivering infrastructure which is vital to the UK is at the heart of our purpose. We are committed to supporting the transformation of this industry, through net zero carbon solutions and leaving lasting legacies

The Competition and Markets Authority said it was concerned that the deal will reduce much-needed additional competition for rail signalling supply just as major contracts are coming up for tender.

On HS2, the firms make up two of the four shortlisted bidders for the £540m job to design and buildsignalling systems that will control trains travelling at speeds of up to 360km/h and up to 25 years of technical support.

It added that the loss of competition across both mainline and urban signalling markets could increase costs for Network Rail and TfL and have an adverse knock-on effect on taxpayers and passengers.

Colin Raftery, Senior Mergers Director at the CMA, said: “Network Rail currently spends close to £1bn annually on mainline rail signalling – and this is expected to increase in future, as equipment needs to be replaced and the UK transitions to digital signalling.

“The cost of signalling, and

The latest bellwether S&PGlobal/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index shows expectations for business activity growth during the year ahead dropped to the lowest level since May 2020.

That previous low was back in the days of the start of the pandemic and those times aside the degree of positive sentiment was the joint-weakest since December 2008.

The activity Index recorded 50.4 in November down from 53.2 in October but still above the crucial 50 no-change threshold.

Commercial work was the only sector to record a rise as house building stalled and civil engineering drooped.

Tim Moore, Economics Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which compiles the survey said: “Stalling house building activity contributed to the weakest UK construction sector performance for three months in November.

“Survey respondents noted that new residential building projects had been curtailed in response to rising interest rates, cancelled sales and worries about the economic

The 348 new homes project is being developed by Transport for London’s commercial arm along with housing association A2Dominion are developing the near 350-homes project around the Picadilly Line tube station.

The homes, delivered across four buildings, will be a mixture of one, two and three and four-bedroom properties, providing options for all types of households.

They will be a mixture of shared ownership, which offers an affordable route into homeownership, and London Affordable Rent, the level of which is set by the Mayor of London and is substantially below open market rents, helping to provide low-cost rented homes to support low-income households.

Plans also involve a new public square, improved pedestrian routes

There will also be 950 sqm of retail space, which will help support the wider local economy.

Steven Waite, Director of Technical and Commercial at A2Dominion said: “Our relationship with Transport for London is bringing a fresh