Construction Management

Construction of the National Theatre building took place in the early 1970s. Image: Sir Robert McAlpine Contractor Sir Robert McAlpine has shared historic images of the National Theatre as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. The Grade II-listed modernist building, built between 1969 and 1976 on London’s South Bank, quickly became one of the UK’s most recognisable cultural landmarks. It was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and the project team included Arup and Flint & Neill.

Image: ©Global Construction Review, illustration by Denis Carrier A Yorkshire-based building company and its director have been fined after botched building work on a home extension compromised gas safety and put the lives of a homeowner and her two children at risk. Adam’s Building Construction had been hired by the homeowner to build an extension at the rear of her property in Bradford.

The £17m facility brings together global clinical expertise and modern technology to improve children’s healthcare for the NHS. Image: Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust HBC Construction, known as Henry Boot Construction before a management buyout in January this year, has finished work on The Spark in Sheffield, home of the National Centre for Child Health Technology. It was delivered with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and is set to become operational later this year.

The plan is to build a 70-unit, open-air outlet retail village. Image: Rioja Estates and Willmott Dixon Developments Developer Willmott Dixon Developments and outlet specialist Rioja Estates have submitted a planning application for a £150m mixed-use regeneration of Great Yarmouth’s North Quay. Called Quayside, it would deliver a mix of outlet retail, leisure, hospitality, hotel, residential and public realm next to the railway station.

The Plane Court scheme in Salford. Image: Pick Everard Fire safety remediation works at nine residential tower blocks in Salford have been completed. The scheme has delivered replacement cladding, insulation and fire compartmentation alongside new fire alarm systems and sprinklers. Aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on the buildings was identified in the nine blocks during the national testing programme undertaken in 2017.

Image: Sir Robert McAlpine. Despite funding and training schemes being in place to help the construction industry meet its workforce demands, supply challenges continue. An ageing workforce, lack of investment in talent and a retention gap are just a few of the factors resulting in the skills shortage – often described as a structural crisis.

Image: Olan Dah | Dreamstime.com Five people managing 210 subcontractors with pen and paper and a spreadsheet: this is the picture painted of the average contractor’s approach to financial control and subcontractor payments in a new report from Payapps. The report surveyed more than 160 construction professionals in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Half of them (50%) still use spreadsheets to manage subcontractor payments, while nearly as many (46%) depend on email.

Generally speaking, if you ask a tier 1 contractor about whether their latest project complies with safety regulations, they would likely point to a certificate. But if you ask whether the project is still in compliance today, three months after that certificate was issued, you would find them to be less certain.

The residential fires worried QBE given that the Future Homes Standard mandates onsite renewable energy generation from March 2028. Image: Astrid Gast | Dreamstime.com Research from global business insurer QBE reveals that solar panel fires are happening at more than twice the rate of installations. Fires were up 133% over four years to the end of 2025, while solar installations rose 52%.

The summer 2026 heatwave is just part of a developing trend. In summer 2022, the UK recorded 40°C heat for the first time, while 2025 became the hottest year on record. The UK’s climate is changing, and it’s becoming harder for building designers, constructors and operators to treat this as a distant future concern. For anyone working in the built environment, the question is how existing and new buildings are performing in these new conditions.